Thanks for the positive comments folks, much appreciated!
Apologies for the long delay between updates, but here is the latest news from the bench...
Blimey, is it really over a month since my last post?
I have been doing bits and pieces here and there, but nothing major until I sat down this weekend with a view to designing the front friction shocks. That unfortunately brought to light another error with the kit. The dampers on this car mount sideways, parallel to the front cross member. Unfortunately, there isn't enough room! I measured up and compared to plans I have, and came to the conclusion that the front of the chassis frame is slightly too wide, meaning the space between the springs and the crossmember is too narrow. Easily solved with a saw!
In the following pic you can see the moulded in engine mount between the chassis frames. I cut this out with a fine saw, cleaned up the cut edges, and reglued it. It's not a huge reduction in width, about 1mm, but enough (I hope!). The front bodywork was also cleaned up a little with a jeweller's file to trim it to size.
You can also see now how wide the springs are, compared to what they should be.
To correct the springs, I removed the front cross piece. This should be round anyway, not half-round, so 2 improvements in one there! A piece of 0.75mm plastic rod was glued on after recessing the front of the springs and the chassis rails slightly to accept it.
After reattaching the springs, I placed the front cross member on top for a pic. One side is in the locating hole - you can clearly see how much narrower the chassis is now. Which of course means I now needed to design and print a new cross member!
I did that this afternoon and it is printing as I type, along with the slightly tweaked seats and front brakes. When I test fitted the drums it was clear I had made the steering arms too short, so those were lengthened and angled down a little more. Along with previous adjustments reducing the size of the mountings, that should improve the space available for the friction dampers.
So now I need to test fit the bits that are printing now, then design the dampers.
Progress has also been made on the wheels. I spoked the rear half to check my spoke arrangement and it all looks good!
That wheel can now be finished off, and the other 4 done, but not today!
That's brought everything up to date, thanks for looking in!
Ian
