I have been away from the bench with work, but now I’m pushing ahead because I want to finish in time for our local Houston Automotive Modelers Society “Space City Shootout” competition on July 12th. One of the things holding me up was figuring out how to get the (scratch built) trunk lid attached to the (scratch built) hinge arms so everything would work. The whole tail is (scratch built) so there aren’t any of the usual markers. The top of the tail, the trunk lid and each hinge arm are all semi-independent parts.
Anyway, I figured out that I would need to build “flat” attachment points on the corners of the the structure inside the trunk lid. The real car has them (probably a clue I could have noticed earlier) so after a bunch of cutting, shaping and sanding, I had them.
They’re roughed in and will need some more smoothing and filling before paint. Next I put some cardboard strips under the hinge arms to bring them up to the (eyeballed) level of the inside of the trunk lid. Then to see how they would line up, I put a drop of black acrylic paint on the tip of each arm, held my breath and dropped the trunk lid into the opening and dropped the top of the tail into place. As you can see above, I kinda nailed it.
I left it overnight and then this afternoon I cleaned off the black paint, then put a spot of super glue in its place on the hinge arms and repeated the process… I was afraid to look, so I left it a solid hour to make sure the glue had set. And this is what happened…
Maybe not as ideal as I’d like, but fully functional. The lid opens and closes properly, and the magnets I put in the paper lip of the opening keep the lid open. This is pretty exciting because now I can finally button up the tail section and move onto the doors. Those will be a bastard, but I never let that get in the way. LMK what you think.
Cheers,
Chris
Looks sensational Chris! It is exciting to see your work in progress. Your conversion from fixed head coupe to convertible involved major surgery and major engineering. Your ability to picture engineering details in your head and translate them into 3D reality is an inspiration! I feel blessed to be in the same model car club as you and the other master builders. I keep hoping that some of that master builders expertise will rub off on me. At least you guys inspire the heck out of me. I arrived in Michigan on Thursday, May 2. My care package from Collin was waiting for me. I am doing some trial fitment of my newly received Leadfoot Models resin pieces. I am loving my 1/8th Scale Jaguar builders project! Chris I will see you at the July 12 contest. Thanks for sharing your engineering update with us. Stephen Miller
Oh I know what you mean - "can I do it"?? I am getting myself into trouble doing the same thing. And I know what you mean - hope it works!!! You are way braver than I. I am going to be trying a few innovations but no way near what you are doing. Cannot wait to see more of this project!
Hi Chris, I think you did a very good job! Nice work, its going to look great!! Keep up the great work. I don't think I would ever try to do what you are doing.
Oops, those magnets are in the upper lip of the opening keep, not the paper lip. Thanks spellcheck. In any case you might notice a metal band around each hinge arm. That’s intentional. When the lid is up, the magnet grabs it and holds it in place. And the hinge mechanism is just two magnets. One on the pivot point of the hinge and the other glued behind the sidewall of the opening. This makes the lid removeable for painting etc.