Building the Pocher 1/8 Lotus 72D, Emerson Fittipaldi 1972

[Smallworld]

40 minutes ago, Dinky said:

Its difficult to understand the manual without the real parts, should the screws not go from inside the box, so were the drivers legs are normally? 
Did you glue DC-37 into the disc?

Looking at the manual, I'm pleasantly surprised that the drive shafts are separate parts rather than just a single piece of plastic, as I actually expected

Yes I did. In retrospect I realise this wasn’t  necessary as they are keyed. Updated manual is a little clearer. This would have solved the catch 22 problem. As mentioned before I have drilled a hole in discs close to the hub to allow access to screws. Hardly shows…

[Dinky]

Correction for page 7 swap the ones in the circle. Wrong part numbers above the parts 

[KeithAnthony]

On 25/01/2023 at 19:26, Dinky said:

Correction for page 7

If I was building this part again, I would leave the fuel injectors to later in the build, as they make handling more difficult..

[Dinky]

Thats a challenge, you cannot use the screws anymore so they must be glued which might not be that easy because its not a great surface to glue.
How are you progressing?

I had seen pictures on facebook from above and I thought the wheel stance looked strange, now that I have the kit myself I see that the slicks are not flat but blown up slightly which I find odd for a race car.

Are your painted body parts also very greasy / oily? 

[cmatthewbacon]

1 hour ago, Dinky said:

Are your painted body parts also very greasy / oily? 

Oh… you mean in the _kit_ 😜

 

i wouldn’t say _very_. There’s some kind  of light grease on the big ones. I suspect to hold the plastic protective sheets on them in place but allow them to come off easily and not stick to the paint work. It polishes off easily with a micro fibre cloth…

best,

 

M.

[KeithAnthony]

Some progress. The seat belts instructions are not very helpful. There are three widths of seatbelt ribbon in kit, and either these are wrongly labeled in the instructions or the lengths provided are incorrect. I did what seemed to best match. Haven't a clue how the leg/crutch belts were suppose to work. Since this snap have swapped black bolts holding harness to silver.

 

[Malc2]

Thanks for posting the pic of progress.

The crotch belts are loops that the hip belts thread through before the hip belts are buckled to the centre release mechanism.

If you take the spare end of one the crotch belts (in the pic above) and pass it back through the same hole in the seat so it forms a loop and repeat for the other one, that will pretty much represent the real thing.

I suspect that the crotch belts should be black and the hip belts blue, but I wont tell any one if you don't......😉

 

Malc.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Malc2

[Smallworld]

I’ve completed front suspension/steering. Quite complex and getting things sequenced correctly is important!

I would like to post photos from ipad. Is this only possible via Flikr?

[Dinky]

6 hours ago, cmatthewbacon said:

Oh… you mean in the _kit_ 😜

LOL

[Dinky]

The front tires are narrower than the rim self, the tires are rock hard do they stretch when mounted?

[KeithAnthony]

3 hours ago, Malc2 said:

I suspect that the crotch belts should be black and the hip belts blue, but I wont tell any one if you don't....

You are probably correct, but it then comes back to lengths supplied - there would be insufficient black ribbon. I have e-mailed Pocher so be interesting what they say. I can easily change if they will send more stuff...

I have searched every book I have and internet and failed to come up with a clear photo of original - I am guessing all the harnesses in the restored cars are not original. Might try Classic Lotus who were involved in project.

[cmatthewbacon]

Well... I've finally started. Three parts assembled so far 😜 Fore-warned, I've looked very closely at how things fit together before committing to build, and that's one bullet dodged already.

 

Screw DC-14 to DCA-8, then both to DCA-18 with two screws, and last add DC-9 (which will otherwise block the access to the second screw joining 8 and 18).

 

This may take a while.

 

best,

M.

[ITRtypeR]

2 hours ago, Dinky said:

The front tires are narrower than the rim self, the tires are rock hard do they stretch when mounted?

Oy! Really? This is looking more and more less attractive as the stress-relieving build I was hoping for...

[Malc2]

2 hours ago, KeithAnthony said:

I have searched every book I have and internet and failed to come up with a clear photo of original - I am guessing all the harnesses in the restored cars are not original. Might try Classic Lotus who were involved in project.

Yes, period cockpit shots of the 72 are bona fide hens teeth.

You could also try e-mailing Willans, last time I did this they were very helpfull when I asked about in period seat belt specifications.

 

M.

[Dinky]

11 hours ago, cmatthewbacon said:

Screw DC-14 to DCA-8, then both to DCA-18 with two screws, and last add DC-9 (which will otherwise block the access to the second screw joining 8 and 18).

This may take a while.

First page of instructions,which is the bottom part of the engine. DCA-8 (left side) + DCA-18 (bottom) + DCA-6 (right side) dont understand why are different screws being used. A left and B right side, A are the ones used for metal and B are ones used for plastic usually.

Left pump DC-9 uses a G screw while the right one N1-3 has no screw in the instruction. Also the A screw in J-11 is much in my case.

Who ever makes these instructions should try to build a model wiht it themselves 🙂

 

 

[KeithAnthony]

10 hours ago, Malc2 said:

Yes, period cockpit shots of the 72 are bona fide hens teeth.

You could also try e-mailing Willans, last time I did this they were very helpfull when I asked about in period seat belt specifications.

 

M.

Thanks -good suggestion. I have had a helpful reply with supporting pics  from Pocher, but they leave leg belts as just straight webbing.

[Dinky]

Would you be so kind as to share the photos?

[Dinky]

@KeithAnthony Thanks for sharing, your picture did not load for me until now.  

It may be too late for you, I assume you don't take it apart anymore. but for those who have yet to start at the front.
You can precisely align the inside and outside of the brake discs, on the photo below DC-64 or DC-67 is rotated 180 degrees.

]

Other than that you are making great progress, its alsmost done 🙂

[Dinky]

15 hours ago, ITRtypeR said:

Oy! Really? This is looking more and more less attractive as the stress-relieving build I was hoping for...

 

The rear rim is just as wide as the tire.

 

But the front rim is wider as the tire itself. There are edges on the rim and on the inside of the tire but it doesn't make the tire wider when it's on the rim unless I measured it wrong. 

 

[KeithAnthony]

4 hours ago, Dinky said:

Would you be so kind as to share the photos?

 

[KeithAnthony]

3 hours ago, Dinky said:

Quote

Do you mean the vent holes? If you do , interesting, as I spent some time deliberating which looked best, as the 'holes' are rather large, and certainly not to scale, when aligned. I probably got it wrong!

 

I did align the rear discs, as they make smaller vents for some reason.

Edited January 30, 2023 by KeithAnthony

[Dinky]

I meant the vent holes indeed, thanks for the seatbelt pictures thats going to be helpful.

 

Part of a photo I saw passing by online, here you see that the front rims are wider than the tire which looks a bit weird.

 

@moxie2207 You mounted your rims and tires, how do they look for you? 

[brady]

6 hours ago, Dinky said:

Would you be so kind as to share the photos?

Not sure if this will help (from the Haynes book): http://scaleautoworks.com/images/Lotus72belts.jpg

[brady]

47 minutes ago, Dinky said:

Part of a photo I saw passing by online, here you see that the front rims are wider than the tire which looks a bit weird.

In period photos the front rims do look a bit wider than the tires, but not to the extent of the ones in the kit:

 

 

[cmatthewbacon]

So, some actual work in progress pictures from me, finally...

 

 

 

The back part of the pump (L above) is a very sloppy fit. My references show the centreline (tip of the cone) aligned along the upper pipe section above the red cap.

 

 

 

 

The other side was just difficult to get together, with some careful sequencing needed to access the screws. This side is actually impossible. This pump (R in the two pictures above) is screwed to the side wall (DCA-6) from the inside, and the side wall is screwed to the floor from the outside. When the pump is fixed, it covers the screw hole in the outside wall. When the side wall is attached. you can't access the head of the pump screw to turn it from the inside. I think the pump might be meant to glued to the sidewall, and have the whole thing held by the screw into the middle block and the one that fixes the curved pipe at the far end, but it's not very clear in the instructions.

 

Does anyone know if the fine-thread A screws and coarser-pitch B screws are aimed at one material or the other? Instinct suggests the one should screw into plastic pieces and the other into metal, but it doesn't seem to work like that in the call-outs.

 

One handy hint that I should have remembered sooner from when I built the Meng "snap-together" bike kit: if you have any small magnets about the bench (mine came from some paint racks which could be use them to stack together), if you pop one onto your screwdriver slightly above the tip, it will pick up and then lock the screws into place on the bit. Handy for precise targeting.

 

best,

M.