April Foolish Model Car Contest

In reply to Claff :

Man that engine is looking sharp!

I have decal paper here, I can try printing "Expedition" for you.

Javelin said:

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

OMG that paint is HAWT!!!

I know right? I may do the entire car in this instead of clear red over pearl. Or this covered in the clear red.

I *think* there's just enough room to squeak the intercooler pipe past the wastegate, depending on how I clock the turbo.

I think the wastegate dump will have to go through this hole I cut and then snake through the front somewhere.

As for wheels, I plucked this nice BBS from a Ford Probe model that I bought for another project. Not sure if I want to paint the centers or leave it alone.

Today's gripe is with the occasionally very vague instructions that do a lousy job of explaining in what order stuff should be installed.

I got away with it when doing the first bits of roll cage construction of the NASCAR truck. You couldn't install the firewall first because that would have blocked the channel that the side pieces mounted to, but if you mounted the side pieces first, there wouldn't be any room to sneak the firewall between afterwards. So all three fairly large, fairly important pieces had to be arranged by themselves, the glue smeared where all three parts attached to the chassis, then the combination of three parts - none of which were actually attached to each other - were all put into place and set before the glue got past the point where it was still workable. Frustrating, but I made it work.

Fast forward to tonight, where I'm dealing with small stuff in the engine bay. The instructions say this is where the lower radiator hose, coolant overflow tank, and steering box get installed. But it doesn't say in what order, and installing one means that much less room to try and get the rest in. I didn't realize this until I already had the lower hose (yay, a complete cooling system for once) and overflow tank in. This left me trying to fathom how to get a two-plus inch long piece threaded into an area where that is just impossible. The thing is, it would still be impossible unless it went in way earlier in the process, like before the radiator went in; maybe even before the engine went in. I've resigned myself to accept the fact that while my truck will keep its temperatures under control, it won't actually turn corners.

Aside from that, the chassis is somewhere around 80% done. The cage needs its interior bars and rear bracing tubes installed, and wheels put on. Of course I thought I'd have it all done a week ago.

So, with the chassis winding down, let's look at the body. I'd like to use as much of the NASCAR roof as possible since that'll fit the chassis and windshield best. I had hoped that the kit maker did me a favor in making the rear window area of the cab a separate part, making an easy place to base the SUV body off. But it's too long. If I used that rear edge of the roof/B-pillar, it'll force the rest of the SUV roof beyond the NASCAR body's tailgate.

I'm sure the windows will need to be trimmed to fit, but this looks like a scale foot, which is a lot.

The other thing to consider is the shape of the side windows. The Expedition's rear quarter windows have a lower bottom edge than the door windows. The slacker in me thinks that nobody will notice if I don't incorporate that design into the NASCAR SUV body, but I'd like to see if I could pull it off even if it means a lot more work measuring/testing/fitting/patching/filling/swearing/throwing/etc.

I'm running out of parts to stick to the chassis, which means I'm staring down the end of the relatively easy part of the build and needing to call on my creative side to start the custom work.

In reply to Claff :

Make it a 2 door Expedition ala the 2 door Explorers of the day.

Check this box off: the chassis is done. It needs a bunch of touch-up paint to clean up some ugly 'welds' and stuff, but I'm not going to mess with it any more.

It looks silly compared to NASCAR car chassis since there's not much going on behind the drivers seat, just a couple of long down tubes to the fuel cell.

With the easy stuff out of the way, we got to the point of no return:

I guess if the NASCAR SUV concept goes horribly sideways, I can always use the leftovers to build a WILD Expedition convertible police car

The big debate at this point is where to cut the NASCAR body. Originally, the plan was to keep as much of the truck roof as possible because I was afraid of how the Expedition body would mate up with the original where it came to fitting the windshield But since the NASCAR body's B-pillar doesn't really line up with the Expedition's B-pillar (something that really comes home when I include the windows), I'm thinking of cutting the NASCAR body right at the top of the A-pillars - making me very happy that I cut the Expedition roof in its entirety.

I'll sleep on the decision over where to cut and perhaps the Dremel will make another appearance tomorrow. Regardless, the Expedition roof is going to take a bunch of filling to make work, both over the top with all those ribs, and the pillars where they have door gaps and stuff like that. Having said that, I'm fairly confident that I can pull this thing off. Whether it looks decent at the end remains to be seen.

Page three? Let's get it going people. Laid down some more paint. Got some turbos too, to make the engine worthy of the tires out back.

It's been many, many years since I built a model car, but I do remember that while building them in my closed door room that I would always build them engine first and windows last. The engines always looked great, but by the time I got to the windows after hours of sniffing dope and paint fumes, I would always smear glue all over the windows. Hmmm, I wonder why.  I eventually started modifying the models by using Mom's kitchen stove to heat up her butter knives to cut up the models while she took her afternoon naps. I sure made a mess out of the stove burners. 

Good job guys.

I finally have the proper inspiration for this build!

Javelin said:

I finally have the proper inspiration for this build!

Huffing glue?

AClockworkGarage said:

Javelin said:

I finally have the proper inspiration for this build!

Huffing glue?

A cocktail of cold meds, so yeah basically! 

I wish I had the imagination many of you possess. Sitting this one out because I'm a hopeless box-stock builder.

In reply to Javelin :

I loved those old AMC Pacers. Put it onto an Eagle 4 wheel drive chassis. 

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

You missed the other instruction book sitting out 

In reply to Javelin :

lol, yes I did.

Javelin said:

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

You missed the other instruction book sitting out 

Brilliant!

It's like it was meant to be. Same track width, same chassis width, and even the interior panels line up on overlap. 

I really need to follow these threads more often...

Probably too late for this contest and far from perfect, but I am actually about to finish one I started two years ago. At least I am going to finish something. I have a house full of unfinished stuff.

Progress continues but my phone is in the other room and I don't feel like taking pictures right now. One problem is that the Barra came with like, one or two pulleys and no belt as part of the model. So I'm hacking up some belts/pulleys from another motor to vaguely resemble pictures I found online of a Barra with A/C delete. I also opened up the front wheelwells a bit and started painting the body.

In reply to Javelin :

I sent a message a while back about the AMX, but didn't hear anything. Lemme know if you still want it. My username with the google folk.

Blurry Picture dump. Sorry it's been delayed, Let me know if anyone wants parts and pieces.

Engine room

Glass and firewalls and interiors

Bumpers. Mostly big 50's and 60's cars I think? No idea

Suspensions, axles, miscellany