'63 Chrysler Turbine Car Update----Final Update!-6/23/07

[7000in5th]

Excellent tutorial, Bill. Thanks!!

By the way, be sure to lay in a big supply of Bare Metal foil, that thing has about 10 acres of shiny trim. I detailed a promo Turbine several years ago and was amazed at how much foil I used:

[MrObsessive]

how much for one o those kits?? looks old...

Sorry it took awhile to answer your question man.......:oops:

I originally bought this kit at our local Chrysler show (Carlisle, PA) for about 20 bucks I think about 5 years ago. I have another one but the body was a bit too warped for me to want to spend too much time trying to straighten it out. I believe the version I have was put out sometime in the late '70's.

You could check eBay..............I've seen them go for anywhere from $15-$20. Johan (or Seville?) in recent years put out an EZ kit................this builds up into a promo style model without all the opening stuff or engine.

They can be had for as little as $10 bucks on the 'Bay.

[MrObsessive]

Hmmm..........David I thought about BMF, as I did my last one like that years ago. I've got another trick up my sleeve though as I may use Alclad chrome to paint that lower area. :twisted:

IIRC, the actual car has a really chrome like finish on those rockers............I gotta plan this one out as Alcad should be the last thing I paint to avoid too much masking or handling.

[James Tester]

Bill, Thanks for taking us step-by-step on this build. I've often wondered how you do the hinging of doors and make them look so good. I found that for precise cutting of plastic nothing beats my photoetched saws from Crazy Modeler. That would have made the inner door panels cutting surgical.

James

[MrObsessive]

Well, it's back to work tonight for another work week..........so I figured I need to get the rest of the drivers side door done!

The other evening when I was test fitting the door skins............I noticed a woefully large gap at the trailing edge of the door! Well, that won't do, so I glued on some sheet plastic (.020 thickness) and let it sit overnight.

Later, I sanded the plastic away to suit the contours of the door------including the trim.

While I was at it I might as well attach the door jamb to the skin. I'll need to putty in the gap that's on the upper rear edge of the door jamb.

Now that's much better! You can see where the plastic has been added to the trailing edge, and it now doesn't have a gap so wide you can stuff a cat through it!

I like to use the 3x5 card method for checking gaps. If the card slips through the gap fairly easily without trouble, then it should be okay. One has to allow for paint thickness down the road so the shut lines can't be too tight.

Oh my! This is a trouble spot here! Since the doors turn towards the inside of the fenders, there needs to be a gap here also...........

I sanded the leading edge of the door to suit the contour of the trailing edge of the fender. Note that the gap is just a tiny bit wider than the trailing edge.

I also filed an angle to the lower door trim for clearance. While not prototypically correct for the 1:1, this may be needed due to the thickness of the plastic.

If I file the inside of the fender too thin, there'll be problems down the road as far as painting is concerned.

The 1:1 has a chrome strip on the tops of the doors and on top of the rear quarter window well.

While I'm thinking of it, might as well duplicate this with some .010x.020 plastic strip and my Ambroid Pro Weld.

With the door attached (not permanently) to the hinges, you can see how the door should turn in------and the leading edge of the door isn't scraping against the trailing edge of the fender when opening or closing.

Well that's it for a few days.......hope you guys like this step by step progress and I'm not boring you to tears! :shock:

Thanks for lookin'!

[MonoPed]

Very cool Bill - thanx for sharing this!!

[JAFFA]

you really is obsessive.....that must be MANY workinghours....

[sno_man80]

Bill, I started cutting the doors off of a car I messed up, (the car itself I messed up, not the removal of the doors, well, not yet anyways!!) I'll post pics this weekend on this forum with my progress. I am using an exacto knife to cut it out, I know threading works better, but to me it seems the knife is an easier place to get the feel of it. I'd also like to know how you built up the jams rocker panels and the hinges, I seen the steps for the rockers but there not quite as clear to the "build up". I'm assuming its an epoxy or resin build up. Thanks, your the king!!

[LVZ2881]

Bill, dont worry about boring us. For the types of modelers on this board, viewing your in progress work can never be boring....

[MrObsessive]

I'd also like to know how you built up the jams rocker panels and the hinges, I seen the steps for the rockers but there not quite as clear to the "build up". I'm assuming its an epoxy or resin build up. Thanks, your the king!!

Scott, the model I'm working on already had the doors cut out...............thus the already built in door jambs for the body. I scratchbuilt my own hinges due to Johan's less than reliable hinges that were "built in" on the body. I originally built one of these back in 1985, and the doors were a very sloppy fit........and the hinges eventually broke!

It would be really hard to explain with words how to build up door jambs for the body------I'd have to see what you're working on to give you any tips on what you could do to build up that area.

Since I've gotten my digicam three years ago, I haven't done any builds that show step by step how to build body door jambs................but if you check my Fotki page------ click to my '55 Ford Victoria buildup ----- you can see where I had to modify somewhat the door jambs that were built in for a more in scale appearance.

I'm seriously considering making my own trunk hinges since once again, they're plastic and I just don't trust plastic hinges. This may involve some soldering, so stay tuned! :wink:

Thanks for asking!

[sno_man80]

I'll post pics this weekend with the progress of what I've done, I'm using an body of a car I screwed up, I was able to cleanly get the doors off and so far got the interior off, the negative is the interior isn't scaled to the exterior, so I need to build it up somehow, I'm guessing plastic bondo will do the trick. I'll post this weekend along with my progress there after. Thanks

[Custom Hearse]

I don't think you could ever bore us.... And the cat is MUCH happier too(not getting stuffed through a door jam!)! I definitly enjoy the work you do, and I come away with new knowledge!

[MrObsessive]

I'm finally seeing daylight in the bodywork and corrections to the Turbine Car. It's funny how when I look at this kit here in the first decade as opposed to when I built this kit in the '80's as to how many flaws there are! I guess that's what gettin' older does to ya!

This past week I started work on the passenger side door. Like the driver's side door, it needed "lengthening" so that the shut lines aren't too wide.

I repeated the same technique for the door jambs and such like the other side, and then went to test fit everything to make sure the door swings freely.

So far so good! I'll need however to trim down the leading edge of the door so that when the fenders are on, there's no scraping of either edge.

One peculiarity that kept nagging at me is the shape of the lower cowl/A pillar in relation to the hood and door. It seemed too squared off and blocky to me. Also, the door and fender contours on the driver's side don't seem to match up as well as they could.

I first reshaped the door section with some Tamiya putty and let it sit overnight.......

Then I took some plastic strip and "shortened" the crease that's on the shoulder of the door.

I once again used Tamiya putty to blend in the contours, and let it set overnight.

This looks better! The contours match up better and at the same time I rounded off the lower part of both sides of the cowl/A pillars to more closely suit the 1:1.

Later down the road, I'm going to attach the fenders first, and then hang the doors afterwards.

The top edge of the door gap still seemed a bit too wide, so I glued another small piece of plastic here with Ambroid Pro Weld. Tomorrow I'll sand and shape this to the contour of the door.

Now it's on to the rockers.............they appear a little shallow to me, so for the time being I added some square rod and glued in place with the Ambroid.

The passenger side rocker is worse than the other side as I had to try and "square up" the trailing edge with another piece of plastic. Later I'll putty these in and smooth them out.

After I get finished with the rockers, I'll move on to the trunk area and its framing. I thought about making my own hinges out of brass for the trunk..........but as I was test fitting the framing they appear to be sturdy enough without snapping.

For those of you faint of heart.........this kit is a real A** kicker! It's not to be done swiftly, or it will surely fall apart as I learned 20 odd years ago. Thank goodness I have the patience and technique to deal with the idiosyncracies of this model or I would have shelved it already! :shock: :mrgreen:

Stay tuned for another adventure!

[charlie]

looking real good bill.I hope to see you again birmingham show.your stuff is really frist class BUILDS.do you need anymore of that clear plastic.that is perpect for side glass.

[MrObsessive]

Hi Charlie and Thanks!

I don't know when I'll be back to Birmingham..............perhaps next year as I'll have more vacation time in the next fiscal year at work.

But I'm also planning to head back waaaaaaay down south of the border to Puerto Rico next year :mrgreen:.............. so I'll have to see how the money goes.

I have plenty of acetate to do for the windows, this one won't have roll up windows (haven't figured out power windows yet ) but the windscreen and rear backlite will be acetate.

Thanks for the offer!

[MonoPed]

Very cool work Bill... I think I'll wait afew years before I even think about getting one of these kits...LOL!!

[sno_man80]

Bill, I posted a new topic in the "on the workbench" with my progress on my cut out doors and trunk lid. Go check it out and feel free to leave feedback. Anyone with feedback is welcome, thanks

[MrObsessive]

Finally I've gotten to the last inning of the bodywork! I'm still amazed out how many things that needed to be fixed on this car..............it's funny how 22 years can change your perspective on things!

................and that doesn't necessarily always apply to models of course, but to life in general. :wink:

I have to give credit where credit is due however.............The engineers at Johan really did some daring things circa 1964 when this kit was considered state of the art. I suspect though that they were ahead of time inasmuch as this kit has some unique build troubles and techniques that the average modeler in '64 just couldn't overcome. :shock:

The leading edge of the door as I mentioned in another post needed to be reshaped to conform to the contour of the right side fender. Some sanding and filing and constant test fitting was done to make sure that the shut lines aren't too wide, and also at the same time, the door can open and close without scraping.

Now I've turned my attention to the deck lid and GASP!!!!:shock:.....................look at that gap on the right side!! :x

No centering could have been done here as the "windsplit" would have been off center..............This would be cured after I check the framing.

I decided before I did any work to the decklid, I needed to make sure the decklid would open and close without much trouble. Johan did a nice job of making this a separate piece as it does make for nice detail when the decklid is open.

The decklid has positive locator pins to center the frame, but the lid did not swing "high" enough for me. This was cured by reshaping the radii of the hinges on the inside, and test fitting again.

Note that there are slight channels that were molded in the tulip panel for the hinge pins to rest in. During assembly the shelf area beneath the backlite "traps" the hinge pins enabling it to swing up and down.

I have to admit that the last time I built this in '85, this was a trouble spot as over time the hinges could slip out of the decklid tulip panel and make for a sloppy fit.

Once again, the decklid edges are too thick for scale appearance..........after I add some plastic to slim down that gap, this will get filed down to a more scale appearance.

Here's some plastic square rod on the right side of the lid and attached with Ambroid Pro Weld..........

Come to think of it, the leading edge of the deck lid will need to be "angle filed" to make for better clearance when the lid swings up. When I was test fitting the movement of the frame and the lid, I noticed binding of the edge against the tulip panel.

Once the Ambroid was allowed to dry overnight, I used some Tamiya Putty to fill in the area a bit where it will be sanded away. This was let to sit overnight again for it to dry thoroughly.

Okay, I did sand the edges down a bit and it does look better and more "in scale".

I also filed down the leading edge of the decklid and it now swings up and down much better in the body without binding or scraping.

After I sanded down the side that needed the square rod, I wanted to check and make sure that area was featheredged cleanly. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I like to use Tamiya Acrylic Flat Black as a bodywork checker.

Once it dries and everything looks to my satisfaction, you can take some Windex, (or other ammonia) and wash it away.

Now we're talkin'! That huge gap is gone, and I replaced the chrome strip on the tops of the fenders and decklid with Evergreen Styrene Strip (.010" x .020").

Things have finally taken shape on the Turbine Car. I did deepen the fender skirt panel lines on both sides as they were very shallow, and I may tweak the chrome strip again on the right rear fender so they line up better with the door.

The front fenders won't be permanently put on until final assembly.............there are locating pins on the fenders to make things easier to hang, likewise the doors hinge pins won't get epoxied until the interior and chassis are done.

Next, I move on to the chassis floor and its fitting...............I did do some work on the rocker panels to fix some errors there------so sometime over the weekend I may do another update of what I've done on the floorpan and some corrections I think that may need.

Thanks for bearin' with me.......it's gonna be a loooooong ride! :mrgreen:

[SteveG]

Bill,

I always enjoy watching your "Obsessive Projects" come together. Thanks for posting!

-Steve

[MonoPed]

this is soo cool to see come together!

[jbwelda]

wow man i am totally impressed! the only problem will be, the unitiated (like me before i saw what youre going through here) will just think, nice out of box build there!

[Steve H.]

It may be a looooong ride... But its worth it! Very nice work! I guess thats why they call you Mr. Obsessive!

How much space do you leave to account for paint thickness? Thats always been a major hangup for me when I do opening panels, although its gotten better with the advent of hobby lacquers.

[MrObsessive]

How much space do you leave to account for paint thickness?

Steve, the 3x5 card method seems to work for me..........if you can slip a 3x5 card in and out of the opening with no gaps around it, that should be fine. I'm also careful not to spray too heavy around those edges.

I can always touch up the edges with a brush if there are bare spots.

[Guest zebm1]

Do yu wet yur plastic strips with Tenax 7- R or its equivalent Bill? So as to make it more flexible?

And which Ferrari body surrounds that V-12 Bill, as I've nevah seen it? 8)

Zeb :twisted:

[MrObsessive]

Zeb, I don't like to soften up something as thin as those strips beforehand. As big as my fingers are they would be smushed in no time! :wink:

Also, Evergreen if it's too heavy with liquid cement can dissolve quite quickly...........Especially the thin stuff. It's not as dense as Plastruct which makes styrene strip also. I just don't have any Plastruct in that type right now.

Actually, I'm not a big fan of Tenax..............while it works okay for awhile, after a period of time it loses its punch and evaporates too quickly in the bottle for me. I switched to Ambroid Pro Weld years ago and it seems to hold up better in the jar over the long run.

This is the car that has that V-12...........

It's the Italeri 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB ............I modified the body somewhat to represent Sterling Moss's car as it is today. I originally built this back in '98-'99.

Thanks for askin'!