Let's move the story along a little. I've attacked the
suspension sag and cured it, this time pretty well I think. I drilled
out the rivets, replaced the broken plastic suspension with wire and
re-assembled the model using dummy rivets. Finally using my new
mini-studio to photograph the rebuilt car, all in a Bank Holiday
afternoon. Story below:
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This is the first stage. I've used a large drill (6mm) to drill
out the rivets. I did the drilling in the post drill to get the
needed accuracy. The idea is to drill off the rivet head without
damaging the base plate, achieved on the rear rivet but not quite at
the front. This is really hard to do. |
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As I lifted off the base plate the tow-hook fell
away, here it is. |
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This is what you see when the base plate comes off.
The suspension was as I suspected part of the one-piece brightwork
moulding which also includes the front grille & bumper and the rear
lights & bumper. It was obvious right away that they had failed, as
soon as I touched them they broke away |
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Another shot of disassembly, this time with the
axles removed |
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Here we have the interior plastics and you can see
the suspension lugs broken away at the rear, the front ones went the
same way soon afterwards. The car was really dirty inside and looks
a lot better now it has been thoroughly cleaned. The cream coloured
plastic interior moulding has a separate piece in front of the
firewall which has springs to hold the doors closed. Unsurprisingly
one of these is broken away too, which explains why one door does
not close that well. |
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This is a shot of the body with only the seat unit
left in |
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Just the body, window unit & doors |
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This is the seat unit, look how dirty it was when
it came out. Both seat backs are still present, which is good, but
the separate piece at the front has only one of the door springs
remaining. I did not replace this piece. I washed the seat unit
using water and plain soap, which worked well. I was really
impressed with the standard of the interior detail, the only way you
can see this is to take it out, but it is very good. |
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Here is a shot of the seat unit once cleaned, I
wanted to capture the detail, partially successful I think. |
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The car is completely taken apart now and all the
parts cleaned. Here is a shot of all the components. |
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My plan was to replace the broken plastic
suspension pieces with wires. These are wires from Steve Flowers cut
to size. However to trap these between the brightwork unit and the
seat unit I would have to make some space. I planned to do this
using the cutting disc in the Dremel. There are two lugs on the
brightwork which locate into the front seats, these would need a
groove to be cut in them to accept the wires. |
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Here the seat unit has been placed over the
brightwork unit - it does not sit comfortably with the wires in
place, Slots will have to be cut into the seat unit as well to take
the wires. |
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Don't bother to click on this one. It is very fuzzy
and you get the detail in the thumbnail. I've cut the slots in the
seat unit and placed one of the wires in position |
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This is the brightwork unit with the grooves cut
into the seat location lugs with a wire placed in one of them. |
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Same shot from above |
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Here begins reassembly. The body unit has been
cleaned as have the windows. I've also done the hardest bit. I plan
to use dummy rivets so I have drilled a 2mm hole in each of the old
rivet posts. This was unspeakably hard to do. I also made the dummy
rivets fit at this stage. I used rivets from Steve Flowers
that appear to be cast in a two piece mould which leaves excess
metal or flash behind. This has to be cleaned away before they can
be used. As they are tiny this was hard. I tried to hold them in
pliers but in the end I had to hold them between finger and thumb
while grinding away the excess metal with the Dremel. These items
are about 3mm long so this was really very hard indeed and they got
hot. I broke three of them either in the process of grinding them or
testing them in the holes. One broke off in the hole and had to be
drilled out.. |
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Reassembly is almost complete. You can see the
wires in place. This part took a long time to get right. The
suspension wires were running nicely through the slots I had made
and the parts going back together nicely, but they were not sitting
right to get the car at the right height. In the end I superglued
the broken off plastic suspension bits to the bottom of the seat
unit to space them. Significant fiddly bit this. |
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Now the base plate is back on and the rivets in
place. If I hadn't slipped with the drill taking the front rivet out
you'd never know I'd been in there. |