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1/12 Airfix Bentley ...or some of it


Jo NZ

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1 hour ago, Codger said:

Why was that Jo? Poor rings, babbitt bearings, poor cooling jackets? Core shift? :confused:

The bore size was increased over standard for 1932 (4.4l?), and there were already problems with thin walled blocks (shifting cores, I presume). One advantage Birkin had was that he could select the strongest blocks from the factory, but then with a blown engine and a marginal block you'll still end up with a blown engine....

 

I remember pressure testing 1970s Ford 1600 blocks for FFord engines. 2 out of 5 didn't make the grade even then.

Edited by Jo NZ
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Regarding the blue - as the case for the "auxiliary" speedo is the same blue, I assume that it was on the car before it got painted red - in 1931.

Hi Jo,

               Yes, you'd think so but as it's only a block of wood and the board that it's mounted on is black, who's to say. It may originally come from somewhere else on the car. It would be virtually impossible to read the gauge while driving but I like your idea of it being a mileage monitor. Makes a lot of sense.

Dave

           

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7 hours ago, Fastcat said:

Hi Jo,

               Yes, you'd think so but as it's only a block of wood and the board that it's mounted on is black, who's to say. It may originally come from somewhere else on the car. It would be virtually impossible to read the gauge while driving but I like your idea of it being a mileage monitor. Makes a lot of sense.

Dave

           

It seems to have appeared in it's current position in 1932. take a look at the picture - you can just see two horizontal straps with nuts at each end on the body ouside the cockpit. As I found when making the speedo/odo, these are the fixings for it. No sign of these pre 1932.

 

66ec062873da18d638591711dd107a24

 

 

Edited by Jo NZ
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Hi Jo,

             Well spotted. There aren't many good pre 1932 shots of the left side of the car without someone standing obligingly in the way!

A lot more was done to uprate the engine power for the '32 season and reliability of the blower versions was always a problem. Also, many of the races at Brooklands were over a fixed distance such as 500 miles so that some idea of distance covered would be useful.

 

Dave

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  • 2 months later...

A bit of progress...

I've made a complete new bonnet. The first one was copied from the car when it was  at Bonhams in 2012, and that bonnet was originally made for the two seat version in 1946. So it's wrong for 1932!  There are more vents in the older bonnet, and the bulges over the magnetos are different. For some reason making it was much more difficult than the first one...

IMG_3239

 

IMG_3232

 

The sanding dust is from making the base for the flyscreen

 

IMG_3228

 

IMG_3236

 

How do I make Basswood look like Oak?

 

I've also mucked around with the oil cooler, the pipe routing is different. In it's 1970 rebuild it seemed to acquire some brass plumbing fittings - I've reverted to hoses...

 

IMG_3221

 

 

 

 

Edited by Jo NZ
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Lovely job, as always Jo.

 

Coffee and tea make wonderful colouring/staining media.  You should be able to achieve nearly any shade of wood with varying applications and experimentation.

 

Failing that, good, old-fashioned wood-stain from the hardware shop would do the job just as well...:D

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  • 5 months later...

Island Bay really is the other side of town - about 30 km the other side from me!

 

More progress - I think I'm nearing the end of the beginning, or something....

These are all the bits that I've procrastinated over as I couldn't work out how to do them.

 

The connections for the rear dampers - easy really, I don't have details for it, but who wouldn't just extend the mounting on the spring?

 

IMG_3256

 

Next, the wind deflector next to the flyscreen. It's curved, so why not cut it from tube and then bend it to the body profile?

 

IMG_3266

 

IMG_3270

 

And the various cover panels and reinforcing for the fuel and oil fillers

 

IMG_3247

 

Edited by Jo NZ
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A major milestone. It's red at last!
This is using Tamiya lacquer (LP-7, pure red) and at 50/50 with thinners you need to get it on really wet or it dries rough. Very quick drying, and I have some (!) rough areas I'm going to need to sand out. Otherwise it's far too shiny for a 1932 hand painted racer, and I'm going to try semi-gloss varnish to get a better finish...

 

IMG_3274

 

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4 hours ago, Jo NZ said:

Otherwise it's far too shiny for a 1932 hand painted racer, and I'm going to try semi-gloss varnish to get a better finish...

 

I agree, it's not a show car...

Better finish? No, realistic finish too, and it will be not easy.

Good job Jo!

 

Dan.

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On 14/11/2019 at 21:13, PROPELLER said:

I agree, it's not a show car...

Better finish? No, realistic finish too, and it will be not easy.

Good job Jo!

 

Dan.

 

 Thanks Dan!

Our local club champs were last weekend, so it gave me the impetus to try and finish the build... I ran out of red paint so decided to assemble what I had and put it on display. As you can see from the photos, I still have some work to do with the paint. I have trialled semi-gloss lacquer on the bonnet and headrest fairing, and I think I'll spray the whole car with it - perhaps waxing afterwards to add a bit more gloss. At the moment it's sitting in the cabinet for a couple of weeks to allow the paint to harden fully, and then hopefully I'll finish it!

 

BB6

 

BB5

 

BB2

 

BB1

 

 

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