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Mercedes Benz SSKL, Matchbox 1:32 plus scratchbuilt and 3d printed bits!


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I know I really shouldn't be starting another build, but with a major relocation looming I don't want to be adding masking which may stay in place for over 3 months. Since my other builds have mostly reached the stage of masking, and having just picked this up on evil bay, I couldn't resist opening it up to see what was needed. This will NOT be a quick build, as it will take a backseat to all other builds I have in progress. However, I always enjoyed these Matchbox kits as a kid and I love the subjects (I also just got hold of the Auto Union!) so time to take a look....

 

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that was expected...... this wasn't...

 

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What?? Looks like the Chinese are reproducing these! Oh well, the result should be the same. First items on the agenda then are the chassis frames,

 

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Pretty basic, and in need of some TLC. The flash was cleaned off and mould lines removed, then it was time to start looking into what was needed to bring them up to scratch. First, the gap between the springs and chassis rails was corrected, as seen on the left.

 

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Then the connecting arm for the friction damper was removed, and the lightening holes were drilled out.

 

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That was the easy part. Now the wheels!

 This is what came in the box

 

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Not pretty. A bath in bleach helped, and at least shows that the moulding is not too bad, it's just that chrome that filled the gaps!

 

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The rear wheels are going to be a bigger problem, as the brake drum is moulded as part of the wheel. That will have to be removed, and of course all the spokes will need replacing. I'm now trying to figure out the best way of going about that. The plan at the moment is to drill through the rims from the outside to give me a starting point, then remove the spokes and file a groove into the hub to take the "wires", which will be either invisible thread or fishing line.

 

Any tips are more than welcome!

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

 

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Sorry, no clever tips from me on this matter, but I'll be watching with interest how you'll go about doing this. 

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I'm interested with how you go about this ian, I've a part built sskl that I'd started to modify in the matchbox gb a while back,  it  was going to be built as a part finished restoration until it went on the back burner but i intend to resurect it before the end of the year, this should prove inspiring, crack on. 

Glynn 

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On 5/7/2018 at 12:55 AM, JeroenS said:

Sorry, no clever tips from me on this matter, but I'll be watching with interest how you'll go about doing this. 

Thanks Jeroen!

 

On 5/10/2018 at 5:01 PM, Hewy said:

I'm interested with how you go about this ian, I've a part built sskl that I'd started to modify in the matchbox gb a while back,  it  was going to be built as a part finished restoration until it went on the back burner but i intend to resurect it before the end of the year, this should prove inspiring, crack on. 

Glynn 

Thanks Glynn, there has been a little more progress......

 

I've been giving the wheels a lot more thought. The biggest problem is that the inner rims are double spoked. I will try to cut a groove in the hub to enable the thread to sit inside it, then add the first set of spokes, which are at a tangent, and secure with CA. Once that is dry, I should be able to add the second set and wrap the thread around the first set before leading off to the rim, thereby giving me two spokes from one hole, one at a tangent and one not. We shall see if that works later....

 The first step for construction was obviously to build a jig to keep everything in the right place. Scrap sheet and rod provided the basics for the hub, and small offcuts of strip helped secure the rim. Which left me with this

 

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Having sorted that out, the next step was to figure out how to add hubs to the wheels. The kit parts go together nicely but there is nothing between the front and rear spokes. I needed to come up with something to keep them apart and enable me to build the wheels separate from the axles. I ended up using 1/8" (3.2mm) tube, drilled out a little more to fit the axles. Here's what I ended up with

 

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and they seem to fit OK

 

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That should enable me to build the wheels as a unit and then add them to the axles.

The next step was to remove the spokes, leaving just a small stub on the rims to use as a guide for drilling

 

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For the inside of the wheels this leaves a perfect guide, as the moulded spokes are a little too far in towards the centre. The drill bit was placed up against the stubs of the spokes and drilled from the inside of the rim.

 

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The outside rims will be a little more awkward, but I'll deal with that when I get that far!

 

It appears to fit the jig nicely....

 

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and that, I'm afraid, is as far as I will be getting for a while. I have to fly out to Abu Dhabi tomorrow for 2 weeks of training, before relocating for my new job. I will be in a hotel for 3 months before getting my own apartment and being able to continue with any modeling. 

Thanks for looking in, see you all in about 3 months!

 

Ian

Edited by limeypilot
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Aw, you're leaving just as this gets interesting 😉 .... Well, wel'll have something to look forward to. Good luck with your new job. 

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Well what a teaser, i was thinking of fixing photo etch spokes in my wheels that I'd seen on a slot car website, but i like your idea more, the only problem i can see is one of accuracy with the drill bit, i shall wait patiently for your return, all the best 

Glynn 

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  • 2 months later...

Hi again folks! Still in the hotel, but I brought this one with me with the hope that it might help pass some of the evenings. Unfortunately I forgot to bring a magnifier! I sorted that problem by ordering one online from Souq, the local Amazon. I then set about the wheels again. I brought what I thought I would need tool wise, which included a fine razor saw. That was rested on the jig as a guide and enabled me to carefully cut a slot around the wheel hub to accept the "wires". I then worked out what I thought would be the correct numbering sequence for threading the spokes, using the article on The Motor Museum in Miniature page here as a guide. The wheel was threaded, not without difficulty, and it will need to be done again.

 

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Here's what I learned from the afternoon's session:

 

1) I need a bigger backplate for the jig to make it easier to hold

2) I need to add a small spacer under the hub to stop the wires from slipping off and make it easier to locate them in the slot

3) I need to use longer sections of thread and tape them down as soon as they are fitted to maintain the tension. This should also help prevent the main problem I had, which was the rim constantly lifting as I was trying to thread a wire, causing the ones already fitted to slip out of the hub slot. If tensioning doesn't work I may add a piece of double sided tape under the rim to hold it down.

 

 The inner set of spokes on this rim will be added by wrapping them around the inner part of the hub ie on top of the the kit hub part and wrapped around the extension piece I have added, (thereby hopefully giving the different angle required) and fitting them into slots which I will cut into the mating edge of the rim. They will then be sandwiched between the inner and outer halves of the rim when they are glued together. PPP will be added on top of the inner face of the hub, which will both hide the wires where they wrap around, and also give the slight slope to this face which I need. That's the plan anyway.....

 

Since I don't have any plastic sheet with me I won't be able to do any more, except removing the spokes and drilling the rest of the rims until I get my accomodation sorted. out. The container is due to arrive around the 4th August so maybe mid month I might be able to get back into modeling proper!

 

Ian

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  • 1 month later...

I managed to dig this out again today and made some progress, at least on the technique and jig, if not on actual forward progress on the kit.

 

I mentioned in my previous post about changes that I needed to make to the jig. Those were completed today. A small spacer from .020" card was added under the hub to stop the wires slipping off underneath it, and the whole thing was then glued to a bigger piece of card to make it easier to hold. I also numbered the odd holes so I didn't have to count every time!

 

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I then rethreaded the rim with .006" fishing line. That didn't look right and I had trouble getting the last few lines into the groove in the hub.

 

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I took it apart again and ran the micro saw around the hub a few times to make the slot deeper, then I dug out some .005" line, ran it over a Sharpie so I could see it, and threaded the rim again. I was hoping that a deeper, cleaner, slot, and slightly thinner line, would be enough.....

 

44828201841_e6bb6430a5_h.jpg

 

I'm much happier with that!

 With the holes numbered it takes less than half an hour to add all the lines, so I think I've got the process sorted out now! I will have to remove the lines one more time as I forgot to cut small slots in the rim mating surface to add the second set of spokes, so I'll do that tomorrow then rethread it for the final time and secure the lines.

 

Ian

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by limeypilot
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nice work Ian.   I really should have gone this route on my DB5 but I was so new to modeling and didn't have enough confidence to try it.

When I eventually get around to doing my airfix James Bond then I think redoing the wire wheels will be a must

 

 

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On 9/22/2018 at 3:53 PM, hendie said:

nice work Ian.   I really should have gone this route on my DB5 but I was so new to modeling and didn't have enough confidence to try it.

When I eventually get around to doing my airfix James Bond then I think redoing the wire wheels will be a must

 

 

Thanks H! James without wires? Unthinkable!

 

2 hours ago, Hewy said:

I'm glad this is back on ian, that method for the wheels does look very promising, i look forward to more

Glynn 

I'm hoping the promise is a good one too....Wait no longer!

 

I decided not to take it apart, and made small nicks in the rim with a micro saw. Hopefully they're big enough! After that it was time to secure the first set of spokes, and while one side was drying I attacked the outer rim and got it ready. Here's the result of tonight's efforts.

 

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I'm very pleased with that! One more set of spokes on the inner rim, then the outer can be fitted and "spoked". That probably won't be complete for the next couple of weeks as I'm heading back to my Dad's on Weds for my step-mum's 90th. 

 

See you soon! (I know, more waiting! Sorry!)

 

Ian

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Damn Looks like I've got it wrong. I just compared this to a pic of the CMC model and I've paired the holes wrongly. I used the narrow spacing as 1 & 2, it should be the wide spacing which will give the wider "V" on the rim and the narrow "V" on the hub. Looks like another evening of drilling, but I might as well get it right!

 

Ian

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/24/2018 at 5:06 PM, Jo NZ said:

Welcome to the hand spoking club. Now you have to get it right 3 more times...

 

If only....

This car carried 2 spare wheels!

 

Ian

 

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  • 5 months later...

Well folks, it's been a while, and due to various hiccups in other builds I'm back here for a while!

 

The wheel was respoked as mentioned above, and yesterday I dug this one out again to take another look at it. I spent a couple of hours doing nothing but looking at it and trying to work out how to go about doing the centre row of spokes, or even if I really wanted to do them at all. I tried attaching the spokes to slots cut in the rims as had been my original intention but that just didn't work so I came to the conclusion that I would have to glue the two hub halves together and drill them. That was duly done. 

 

40374565403_2127f2cfcd_k.jpg

 

It's now obvious that I am going to have trouble filling that seam! All the rest of the wheels will therefore be glued together and have the seam filled before I drill and thread them. You live and learn....

 I will also use the two rear wheels, which have the brake drums moulded into the rims, as the spares. That way I should be able to hide the inside of the rim so it's not too obvious that they are different after I've removed the drums. I will make new drums to add to the replacement rear wheels.

 

After all that faffing about and not achieving much I decided I needed to stick some bits together, so I did!

 

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There were some nasty sink holes on the rear of the bodywork and fuel tank sides, I think you can just about make out the PPP repairs in that pic.

 

Finally for yesterday, I took a look at the front crossmember and discovered that it too was wrong!

 

I now had to make this

 

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look like this

 

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So out with the sanding sticks and scalpel. The bottom edge was sanded flat and reduced a little beyond what was needed, and what remained of the lip on the I bar was removed with the scalpel. I strip of .020" x .100" was glued to the bottom edge and that was it for yesterday.

 

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I still haven't worked out why there are cutouts in the upper part of the crossmember.....very odd!

 

Today I finished off the crossmember by sanding down the strip I'd added underneath and adding small offcuts of plastic rod to fill the cutouts on the tops.

 

40374572193_1dd16648a3_k.jpg

 

A little fettling to smooth in the joints there and we should be good to go! I was thinking about making the wheels movable, but I think I'll pass on that one.

 

I then started to look at the fit of the engine etc. It turns out that the engine mates to the floor pan, which, if you follow the instructions (I did!) is already mounted between the chassis rails.

 

This

 

32397782647_aad3a7b687_k.jpg

 

matches up with this

 

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Unfortunately, the chassis rails are L shaped, and too narrow at the top to fit the engine in between them once they are joined to the floor pan!

 

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Not a huge problem, but annoying! A little sanding on the edges of the rear engine mounts and it dropped between the frame rails nicely to mate up with the bottom half of the transmission.

 

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One word of warning - this is a Chinese repop and the plastic is horrible! It's far too soft and very difficult to sand without scratching it. I have found the best way to remove seams is to pare them with a scalpel blade. I was thinking of posing the bonnet open but it will stay closed as I don't think I'll be able to cleanly remove the moulded detail to replace it with wire etc.

 

Now I knew the engine fitted I could look to the main reason for doing all this - to dry fit the engine side panels that fit under the exhausts. They should be rounded on the top, and much thinner than the kit parts, but I didn't know whether they were the correct height without having the engine in place.

 

The exhausts should be almost horizontal....

 

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I guess that's a no then. More worrying is that it may mean the slots in the bonnet side are too long and will need work also, I'll save that for later.

One last thing for tonight, I decided to glue the firewall on to the front of the body work

 

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I'm pretty sure they should meet in the middle! Why does that not surprise me?

 

Oh well, it's all fun, right? 

 

That's the state of play as of tonight, so thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

 

Edited by limeypilot
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Looks like you're making a grand job of this'un, and I'm pretty sure that it will be excellent when finished. It does make me wonder though, if I'll ever have the 🏉 to start my own boxing of this kit, given the trouble that I've had sorting an Airfix Jag XKR GT3.

 

Re the wheel seam thing - you have PPP, so there's your answer. Thin it down a little, dribble it into the seam, then clean it up with a fine paint brush and water. That should do the trick.

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On 3/11/2019 at 4:51 PM, Alan R said:

That's what I love about this hobby. Encountering problems, lie 'ill fitting' joints and using your wits to solve them.

 

Cheers, Alan.

I have to admit that I prefer the older, basic, ill-fitting kits to the new no-modelling-required, stick 'em together and paint 'em ones!

 

On 3/13/2019 at 1:01 AM, The Spadgent said:

Lovely work on the wheels. You’ll fix that gap no problems. 😎

I’ll tag along if that’s ok. 🤩

 

Jont.

 

Thanks Jonny, tag along at your leisure!

 

On 3/13/2019 at 2:01 AM, Rob G said:

Looks like you're making a grand job of this'un, and I'm pretty sure that it will be excellent when finished. It does make me wonder though, if I'll ever have the 🏉 to start my own boxing of this kit, given the trouble that I've had sorting an Airfix Jag XKR GT3.

 

Re the wheel seam thing - you have PPP, so there's your answer. Thin it down a little, dribble it into the seam, then clean it up with a fine paint brush and water. That should do the trick.

Thanks for the reminder that PPP can be thinned!

 

Thanks for the interest folks!

Ok, onwards.......

 

I'm not going to go over the top with detailing on this, but I do want it to look "right". So, the moulded pedals had to be removed and will be replaced with something a little more realistic - brass rod and small sections of plastic card are the first choice.

This is where the slots will need to be cut for the pedals, and of course, I will need to mount the other end of the brass rod into the gearbox.

 

46682200634_c0462e9c5a_k.jpg

 

Upon closer inspection, it turns out that the mounting block on the rear of the engine is far too large, extending back so far that it would be impossible to mount the clutch and brake pedals into the side of the gearbox.

 

47352646082_3cb0f09977_k.jpg

 

I have marked the rough position of the mounting points for the pedals, and also how much of the engine mount needs to be removed.

More surgery.

 

A small saw made light work of the soft plastic, and the resulting hole was plugged with milliput.

 

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This looks a little better, now there's room!

 

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The next problem was self inflicted. Since I'd drilled out the chassis, it showed that the crossmember was mounted too far forwards and the ends showed through the holes! 

 

40440045283_d7dd95aa28_z.jpg

 

That was annoying and had to be put right. That of course, meant taking it apart, cutting back the recess in the chassis rails to allow me to move the crossmember back, and also removing the front of the 2 boxes moulded onto the floor pan! This shows just how much I had to cut off the (battery?) boxes to keep the floor pan in the same position.

 

47405518601_3278900c10_k.jpg

 

The front ends were reinstated with plastic card, the holes in the floor pan likewise. It took a while but the end result was more than worth the effort.

 

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A little filler and some lightening holes in the crossmember and that should be good to go. I'm much happier with that!

 

Oh, and the gap between the floor pan and firewall has also been dealt with.

 

47352648322_af704383db_k.jpg

 

I finally have another day off tomorrow, so may get a little more done then.

 

Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

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Evening all!

 I've been running around in circles on this one most of this week. Looking to get some paint on it, then finding something else needing doing first, then something else, and continually distracting myself with other tasks. So this weekend I started on finalising the bonnet. In particular, the panels that fit under the exhausts. As I mentioned previously, the kit exhausts angle upward instead of being horizontal, so the first thing I did (instead of checking) was sand down the kit side panels to allow the exhausts to sit level.

 

This is the kit part, which is also way too thick, so that too was dealt with....

 

32508199787_775e267d1f_z.jpg

 

40484078193_9c4f56b470_z.jpg

 

That left me with this

 

46726999204_1ca5c2b0b2_z.jpg

 

which looked pretty good so I tested the fit with the bonnet side panel.

 

40484078033_a88f713435_z.jpg

 

My first thought was that this too was wrong, but looking at pics at was obvious that the side panel is correct, and the exhausts should be at the level of the cutout as it is moulded. In other words, the exhausts are mounted too low on the engine (hence the upward angle, to get them in the right place!). In addition to that it appears that the engine itself is slightly too low, making the problem worse. Since I had already decided to leave the bonnet closed, the obvious correction was to remove the exhausts and reattach them higher up on the engine.

 

47397113422_494203f791_z.jpg

 

That left me with this, which is much more acceptable!
 

46726998294_d8d77b6c1a_z.jpg

 

New side panels were made up from .015" strip

 

46726997924_5663cda105_z.jpg

 

and they fit nicely (after slight thinning) into the bonnet panel

 

46726998214_49e25cc1ff_z.jpg

 

Needless to say, they've all been knocked off again since, so I'll fit them after the side panel has been fitted.

 

I then looked at the rest of the front end. I did take a pic of the shocks but it appears to have been eaten by my phone. They were pretty awful so I cleaned them up as well as I could and removed the actuating arm that connects to the linkage attached to the spring. It will make more sense when I make that assembly later.

 

The headlamp mounting bracket will also need work. This is what it should look like (you can also see the shock linkage mentioned above)

 

46534799515_c9df531790_z.jpg

 

This is what the kit gives us

 

47397112452_293936ec5b_z.jpg

 

and this is the front crossmember

 

32508199947_eb21415745_z.jpg

 

Not even close, so they will need work later and will be replaced with brass rod/plastic strip as necessary.

 

I then decided I really needed to put some colour on this (if you can call black a colour) so that was done!

 

47397111842_79a7bafb9b_z.jpg

 

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I decided on black first as it will be easier to mask that out than the white framework. Hopefully.......

 

Lastly today I started on the rear wheel rims. I need to remove them from the filled in hubs/brake drums. The rims will be used as the spare wheels where they won't be too noticeable, and I may or may not be able to use the centre as the brake drums. I expect not, and that I will have to make new drums.

 

46726999904_e2f47c185d_z.jpg

 

That took 40 minutes, so I'm not doing the other one tonight!

 

Not a bad couple of afternoons' work!

 

thanks for looking in,

 

Ian

 

 

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Having just re-spoked the six wheels for the 1/16th Lindberg Mercedes you have my full admiration for attempting it in 1/32nd.

Really looking forward to the rest of this build. I have a couple of these kits in the shed but I have nicked the wheels (de-chromed) to use on other vintage slot cars.

 

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On 3/24/2019 at 5:38 PM, hendie said:

nice update Ian.  You did a really nice job on the exhaust arrangement with the 3 inset panels.

Thanks Hendie, it would have been nice if they'd stayed put, but I guess that was never going to happen!

 

On 3/24/2019 at 11:48 PM, Frogeye said:

Having just re-spoked the six wheels for the 1/16th Lindberg Mercedes you have my full admiration for attempting it in 1/32nd.

Really looking forward to the rest of this build. I have a couple of these kits in the shed but I have nicked the wheels (de-chromed) to use on other vintage slot cars.

 

It's certainly not going to be a quick process, but I think the main "headache" part, ie figuring out how to go about it, is done. Just the monotonous part to go....

 

More progress has been made on the wheels. As mentioned above, I made a start on separating the rear rims from the filled hubs.  That was a long tedious job, but not difficult. It took about 40 minutes per wheel to drill and remove the centres. After that they needed to be thinned. I'm not sure what Matchbox were thinking when they designed the rear end as they did, because by moulding the drums into the wheel rims it meant that both were wrong, and the drums sat too far outboard!

After removing the centres, the next job was to sand off the remainder of the moulded "drum"  - one done and a comparison shot

 

46562863285_181208e60e_k.jpg

 

Once I had the rims the correct thickness I could start on the inside surfaces, smoothing them out and getting them to the correct size, then sanding a chamfer onto the outer edge so it doesn't look too thick. The rest of the rims have a step, but since these are only going to be seen from the inside edge (as on the second pic below) all that matters is that they look as though they have a step in them! More tedious (and awkward!) sanding.....

Here's what they looked like after the first one was done. First from the outside edge of the rim

 

46562862585_615c999640_k.jpg

 

and from the inside edge

 

46562861865_4e7d79b876_z.jpg

 

As a comparison to the rest of the kit inner rims

 

32536197857_9c027a9ac0_k.jpg

 

and finally, as they will be seen, next to the partly respoked wheel

 

46562862955_3e2a58ba88_k.jpg

 

I'm happy with that! They have both now been completed, so that's the major wheel reworking done and all the rest of the rims just need to have the moulded spokes removed.

 

Moving on from that, the next logical step was the drum brakes. As expected, the cut out centre pieces are useless, so that meant making new ones, and if I was going to do 2, I might as well do all 4! 

 

Annoyingly, my phone has eaten more photos. I measured up the inside of the rims and then by looking at photos, decided on just how much smaller i wanted to make the drums so they looked right. I looked at both how thick the drums were, and how much daylight showed through between the rim and the drum. 

I decided on 5 discs of 5thou (.13mm) card at 14mm dia and another 5 of 10thou (.25mm) card at 12.75mm dia. The 5th of the smaller diameter discs will be the brake backing plate and will be painted white. 

 A very relaxing morning was had this morning, cutting all those discs out with a compass cutter. A tip for those who have problems with them - cut backwards! If you try to rotate the cutter with the sharp edge of the blade forwards, it will "pull" out and your disc will be too large, and uneven. Rotate the cutter towards the back (non-cutting) side of the blade and it will score out perfectly to size.

 

 After I had cut all the larger discs, and 5 smaller ones, I fitted them together for a trial run to see how it looked. The centres were drilled out (another benefit of a compass cutter, there's a hole dead centre!) and the discs were slid over a piece of brass rod.

 

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46562860905_2155742f81_k.jpg

 

46562863645_7344c38b26_k.jpg

 

Happy with how that's turned out I went ahead and finished cutting out the rest of the discs, then spent seemingly ages more deburring them all and drilling the centres.

Finally all was done, and they were glued together, minus the backing plates. 

4 new brake drums!

 

33601559618_228e3d4192_k.jpg

 

I've set a paint pot on them while they dry, tomorrow I'll give them a final clean up. 

That will lead to the next step, figuring out how to fit them! It shouldn't be too difficult for the rear ones, I'll just remove the lip on the axle and drill them out to slip over it. The front ones will take a little more thought! My first idea is to clip off the existing discs leaving the axle and linkages in place. I'll then cut a small hole in the rear face with a scalpel to slip over the steering gear. That should, in theory, allow me to keep some strength to it all, and maintain the correct track. The brake mounting plate will have the slots cut out, and be slit so I can slip it over the linkages and glue it in place in a similar fashion to the real thing. That will (should) also hide any inaccuracies in the mounting process!

 

if anyone has tried this before and has any suggestions please feel free to shout!

 

After all that it's about time for a beer.


Thanks for looking in!

 

Ian

 

 

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