The next car I present I met by chance on the Internet, it is a Honker Ford, one of the many cars that participated in the Can-Am back in the 60s. This car was designed by one of the engineers involved in developing the Ford GT 40, Len Bailey, and was driven by Mario Andretti in 1967 in two races, fitted with a Ford engine. Not very successful car but its beauty is undeniable, like most, for my taste, the cars that participated in this competition. As a curiosity, this car appeared in a Paul Newman film. Here I leave some photos of the car taken from the following website.
http://www.conceptcarz.com
Like all the cars that do, the transformation has dilated months time, sometimes out of laziness, others to have multiple fronts (which is difficult to start and stop a car without getting in between another ...) and others for find complicated problems to resolve. Also in this case was accompanied by a problem, and when I started the project was convinced that this was a roofless version of the Ford F3L, and as such I was doing, so I left to start from a resin body of that car that was home for years:
The resin body was not bad but has a rather small size, the car really look like it has been quite small, which meant an additional challenge to me as I wanted to include a detailed interior like Fly Car Model slot cars style, so that forced me to make a chassis with a transversal rear engine and Watermarking everywhere .. As I like, I always start with the mechanical side and then turn to the transformation of the body itself, and in this case wouldn´t be different.
As I said, to make a a full cabint supposed to place a tranversal rear engine, instead use a Ford GT40 Fly Car Model chassis, endlessly modified, shortened to keep the wheelbase of the resin body, widened a bit for the connection with the bodywork to be as continuous as possible and elongated in the rear:
To attach it to the bodywork my preferred solution, bicomponent glued pins:
The next step was to alter the body. With a minidrill I cut the roof and with evergreen plastic sheets covered it where it belonged, namely the empty side of the engine and passenger compartment.
In the photos also shows the shapes of the air vent bonnet, which I fill with Nural 41 (bicomponent putty) and then carefully pouring lime base, to give the proper shape.
In the above picture shows that opened the holes of the rear optics, the intention was to put 4 leds small for light, and also because they were too good to be rounded, but I discarded the idea of putting lights to the car.
The body shape was more or less done so I started work on the car interior, the intention was to do with depth and not just a flat tray. The work was not overly complicated, I drew on plastic evergreen forms of 0.5 mm thick and then paste with bicomponent glue:
I took the dash of the resin because it had the right shape, and of course, fit perfectly into the bodywork.
To attach inside the body, the solution was hitting below the cabin equipped with pins and screw to the chassis independently of the body, at style of the Superslot Ferrari 330 P3. The work in question cost me as pretty because I had to adjust as best as possible once the body and also because the engine had to get into the car without problems. More or less the car interior was bolted to the chassis as follows:
Continuing with the details also made the car engine. This set off a simulated Altaya GT40 engine who was at home and I modified it a bit with Nural 41 because it was a little short. The inlet trumpets were the most laborious of the whole engine. One by one, the tube was cut from evergreen to which was giving shape at one end with the hot tip of a Phillips screwdriver, slowly so as not to crack. Once they made, a few tweaks of sandpaper to finished the ledges and paste them on the simulated engine:
Once pasted the inlet trumpets I cut the simulated engine to quit the right size and gave it a coat of enamel aluminium paint.
At this point is where the project took a radical change, and I found a bunch of photos online of the model in question and I realized that this car really was not a roofless version of the Ford F3L/P969 but a different car, and searching and searching is when I found the "final document" to make the car as faithful to the real model, the blueprint of the model on pagehttp://www.tutorials3d.com
As seen, my car had good intentions but resembled the real model as an egg to a chestnut. My model was longer, with less rounded shapes in the rear wheel arches and a nose narrower and shorter .... What did I do this? I change everything. In the front I got the right length sticking evergreen strips 1 mm. thick plus putty.
I also had to make the bonnet air vents with larger and more rounded shapes, as you can see in the picture above.
I cut the rear and reshaped again with Nural 41 putty, which forced me to slightly modify the chassis to the rear as it was a bit narrower and the rear wheel arches to give them more curvature
The result after this work could be more or less appreciated here:
Now the car looked much more the real model, still lacked a lot of putty and sanding work but it was on the right way.
Virtually remaining details to finish it, and one of them, and rather laborious, was the back with their unique shapes and especially the spoiler:
I started with the rear wing, first drawing it in cardboard until into the shape appropiate and then passing it to an evergreen strip of 0.5 mm thick.
Once done just had to stick it to the body, first with cyanoacrylate and then reinforce it with bicomponent glue.
The grid behind the car I decided to make it simulated because otherwise has greatly complicated the construction of a model already complicated. I would have enough problems as failing to properly planned layout from scratch could cause more havoc that arrangement. So I pretended the grid gluing small half-round shape plastic strips smoothly to make it more or less similar to the original model. A picture to illustrate:
And one more picture:
Before placing the rear lights, I supplemented the area where they were placed with two pieces of evergreen of 0.5 mm. thick. The headlamps were simulated with two red led three millimeters in diameter and the exhaust pipe with two electrical terminals:
To end with the body, left only mark the headlights. I didn´t wanted to do them as the original model because it was so complicated, so I only marked on the body, as if the headlights were covered with tulips of the same color as the body:
The bodywork was finished in the absence of the last coat of primer and some touches of putty and sandpaper.
I went to painting it, first hand gave it a coat of gray metal Tamiya XF-16 acrylic paint, and there were weaknesses in the body like mushrooms on a rainy autumn... So I had to fix them with more putty and sandpaper. I did the metallic purple color mixing the gray XF-16 with a little touch of purple X-26 and result a color very similar to the original car as you can see below:
and if the gray color showed the failures, the purple one shouted them from the rooftops as seen in the previous photo ... so I fixed the failures with putty and sandpaper on all sides... fortunately I did enough to paint for another coat...
Since I had to sand back the car, took the opportunity to make a few modifications, one of them was to remove the gas cap, and the other to mark the door groves over the body, to give a bit more realism :
I also thought of making a heat-molded acetate dome from a magaziine blister but it was rather complicated task it and gave up the idea.
I tried to do the wheelrims starting from those who are set in the classic formula 1 Altaya / EXIN, making the holes with a minidrill and filing then to give the right shape to the spokes, but it was a huge job and the results were not the desired as can see here:
de modo que fui a lo fácil, y compré las llantas del Ford Mk II de Fly, que son muy parecidas a las del modelo original, a pesar de que llevan palomilla. Lo único que hice fue rebajar los neumáticos delanteros para ajustarlos al paso de rueda de la carrocería, que es diminuto..
But the problems did not end there, is that, despite having watched the car 100 times, the front wheels touched with the wheel arch and rear as well .. But worse was that the chassis did not fit well with the bodywork:
At that moment I saw it clear ... I had to modify the body (a little ..), although I thought I had applied the definitive coat of paint, and
chassis, that it hurt much more because it was painted too and varnished ... It is "hard" work that
seemed to change almost finished but I had no choice but... so cut your losses
The body changes were minimal, a little touch up the rear wheelarch and a hand soft sand in some places. The interior practically required no
retouching, except modify anchoring lugs to the chassis, they were displaced one millimeter on the modified chassis.
Once painted and placed on their site:
The pilot is a Cartix one suitably adapted, and details of the dashboard are painted with Vallejo acrylic paint. I probably retouch the steering wheel a little to make it a little lower. The body naturally I had to paint again, and I was even better than before. The details are painted black with Vallejo acrylic paint again and the decals are coming with the resin of the Ford 3L I have used. Not match the original decoration of the car but I like it as are left. The mirror is one of those not used in adapting the model of the Lamborghini Countach (you can see it in this webpage). The metallic color is quite real and I achieved first white enamel paint (Humbrol) and then with silver Edding indelible marker, is not as metallic as the models but very real, although the photos look a little matt.
The exhaust pipes are two electrical terminals and taillights are two red 3 mm diameter leds, which fit phenomenal .. To protect the paint two
coats of varnish "Bosque Verde" and nothing else, I did not take more trouble with the glaze Duplicolor bilayer ...
And that's all, as said probably retouch the wheel and the chassis a little something but the car is finished. Finalized and running because he has lacked time to Mr. Andretti to put it on track as you can see below:
You see, a better planning about the car would have saved me a lot of work. And it is essential before starting a model for maximum drive documentation in the form of photos, measurements, etc... to help us when we do the work and to avoid unnecessary efforts.
| Chassis | Ford GT40 Fly, adapted |
| Wheelbase | 69 mm. |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 132 x 58 x 35 mm. |
| Weight | 77 gr. |
| Engine | Short box Mabuchi |
| Front tires | Fly Ford GT40, lowered |
| Rear tires | Fly Ford GT40 |
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