A new 1/18th scale die-cast journey begins..

[ET2SN]

So, after a stressful weekend of Whack-A-Squirrel my 3D printed radiator showed up in the mail and it was time to tear down the Shelby.

This tear down wasn't mandatory but I really wanted to clean all the goop and crud off the plastic interior parts including the windows. I was concerned at first that there may been some CA glue fogging on the clear parts but a quick swipe with a Q Tip showed it to be some kind of grease.

I also wanted to do a more detailed survey of this die-cast to figure out how much I wanted to put into the rebuild. The first thing I noticed was that the factory in China must have hired Man Mountain Dean. ALL of the screws were torqued down super tight. This put the condition of the interior into a better perspective- someone new had assembled this die-cast.

I had almost talked myself into flocking the carpets and surfed over to Detail Master to order the flock and some parts. Its a good thing I wasn't 100% committed, the black flock has been on back-order forever and all they had was Charcoal Gray, which would have goofed up the look of the interior. So, I'll just lay down a thick-ish coat of flat black enamel paint then stipple it slightly before it cures. This also makes it much easier to add a pair of "Cobra" floor mats. DM's floor mats are made out of a kind of thick construction paper that looks convincing. They are also slightly over sized for 1/24th and 1/25th scale cars which makes them perfect for 1/18th and 1/20th scale. All you need to do is lightly buff the floor mats with an eraser to raise the grain in the paper then add any folds. Finish up by gluing in place with either white glue or, better yet, Elmer's rubber cement. Elmer's doesn't glue the parts in place as much as it "tacks" them down. Just apply the glue to the mats and where you want to stick them on the floor, then allow the glue to dry until its tacky. Stick the mats in place and nudge them slightly into their final position, and you're done.

Engine and spark plug wires- On modern cars, this is a toss up. I've done this in the past where 10 hours of adding wires results in something you'll never see. I want to do a little more research on the real car, but I'm 90% sure I won't bother with wires.

The missing radiator- Basically, all I needed was something to cover the hole behind the lower chin inlet. It didn't have to look 100% accurate, it just had to be there. A quick trip to EBay showed two possibilities, one was a 1/18 scale radiator/intercooler in resin from somewhere in Europe that looked really nice but was priced at "only an arm and a leg" while the other was a 1/18th scale 3D printed radiator with two electric fans for die-cast dragsters. Close enough. I'll even add one or both of the electric fans, they look too good to go into the parts stash. Just some quick painting followed up with some panel liner, then drilled, pinned, and glued into place on the chassis. Job done.

Wheels and suspension- Pretty good but there was room for improvement. The model comes with turning cross drilled brake rotors and detailed stationary calipers. The rotors only need a little detail painting on the center hub and some panel liner to make the outer rotors "pop". Since this is 1/18th die-cast, it also features a solid metal rear axle that is a couple of cm's too long which results in a sloppy fit. I'll either cut down the metal axle or replace it with aluminum tubing.

Final details- These are well within reach and its easy to add some "easter eggs" that really make your model pop. The main reason I wanted this GT 350 was because I wanted that unique Shelby gauge cluster on the driver's side of the A pillar. As it turns out, those three gauges are only painted silver.
Not to worry, this is why we stash decals. Some 1/24th small gauge decals will fit nicely and I'm going to cut and polish some bezels out of some aluminum tubing, glue them to the sides of the gauges, then fill in the new "pocket" with some clear parts glue. Shazam! Accurate 3D gauges with glass faces. They are also more rugged than you may think, the clear glue for the gauge faces also bonds all the parts together into a solid unit.

After that will be some final details. The instrument panel and center console need some minor detail painting (I need to look up some pictures first) and I might add some aftermarket cloth seat belts and p/e buckles. Then, everything gets screwed back together ( 1/18th scale die cast is one of those hobbies where you want a couple of types of Loctite in your tool drawer).

[Onkel Neal]

Post some pictures, please, I want to see what is going on here. This is a metal model, not a plastic one, correct? I'm not sure how to disassemble a built plastic model, so I am assuming it is metal connected with... screws?

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

Post some pictures, please, I want to see what is going on here. This is a metal model, not a plastic one, correct? I'm not sure how to disassemble a built plastic model, so I am assuming it is metal connected with... screws?

Plastic = Glue
Not necessary if you watched these two videos I posted in my thread you could see that many of the plastic parts in the engine was put together with screws. Some part was glued.


Markus

[ET2SN]

I'm pretty sure I would need some kind of camera to post pictures.
Maybe someday?

Rebuilding and detailing 1/18th scale die-cast is kind of a hybrid hobby.
Its the same skill set of normal model building, especially when you get to the point of scratch building parts, but its a much easier scale to work in and much more rugged in terms of durability and operating features. Most of the rules for building plastic kits still applies but you need to adapt them to working with the actual stuff they build real cars from.

The funny part about die-cast is they are supposed to be complete when you buy them. The reality is that most of them (even the expensive ones) aren't.

[mapuc]

It's about 1/8 scale cars in this thread so I post it here.

Was told about this model in a yt video..

It's classic in Sweden.
The Volvo Amazon

https://www.ixocollections.com/en/fu...-full-kit.html

They have also this classic car as full kit

https://www.ixocollections.com/en/fu...t-205-gti.html

Markus

[ET2SN]

Well, this project is almost wrapped.

I got the clear plastic polished out and cleaned, detailed the dash by filling-in the speedo and tach with clear parts glue and letting it dry (this gives a clear plastic cover look and protects the graphics underneath), fixed the rear axle, added the missing radiator/oil cooler and even added some dark grey wash to the brake rotors to get them to "pop" a little. The "A pillar" gage cluster worked out better than I planned. I used an aftermarket 1/25th scale white background gauge set and used a 1/8th inch hole punch for paper to cut out the gauge faces then cut and filed the metal trim rings and glued everything in place with clear parts glue. The glue will also give the gauges a more 3D look while forming the "glass" covers. I'm just waiting for the glue to fully cure before I use some really thick "glues all" plastic cement to re-attach the gauge cluster to the A pillar (this stuff is like tube glue but thicker and you can find it at most discount and hardware stores).

One thing that's neat about 1/18th scale die cast, you can just screw everything back together to check your progress or when you're waiting for parts to arrive.

Stuff I'll probably do later when I get bored-

Flocked carpet. I have the jet black flock on my parts shelf. All I need to do is find a large shoe box and throw down a tacky layer of either black paint or clear glue then sift the flock onto the "glue" and let it dry. There are two problems, flocking is a VERY messy process and I'd need to break the glue joints that hold the seats to the floor pan.

Seat belts. Once again, 1/25th scale aftermarket parts come to the rescue. I have a black seat belt "kit" with p/e buckles and it didn't take long to figure out how to thread the belts into the buckles. The only thing I need to figure out is how to get the belts to hold a tight "fold" so they look natural.

So far, the one "curve ball" in the project has been one door hinge. On older-styled die-cast, the door hinges are rather large and thick and they get screwed into a post in the body. What would usually happen is that the driver's side door hinge would get loose due to the screw getting turned slightly when you open the door. The die-cast companies "fixed" this by adding a washer but the screw will still get loose over time. After I picked out some detail on the inner door panels, my plan was to use some "lok-tite" on the screws when I re-assembled the doors. The driver's side door came back together with no issues but, and this is why you need to take some breaks during a project, I couldn't get the passenger side door to "bind down" to the post. The screw is super tight and the "lok-tite" is doing its job but the hinge is loose as a tooth. If I had to guess, I lost a small washer or plastic shim when I took the door apart. Making a new shim isn't that big of a deal, getting the screw back out will be a weekend project.

I should have just stopped and thought things out before I broke out the "lok-tite" but the end of the build was in sight and I got impatient. Dammit..

I can fix it but its just adding another "pain in the ###" layer to this project.

[Onkel Neal]

Got any pictures? Sounds like a nice model.

Have you ever used Future/Pledge as a clear coat? I'm finding that it is very popular for clear parts. At first I thought using floor polish was a goof but I've read about it everywhere.

[ET2SN]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

Well, this project is almost wrapped.

I need to have that engraved on my tomb stone.

While this die-cast isn't fighting me, its making life an adventure.
The door hinge is fixed and working nicely.
I got a dandy pair of "Vampliers" to remove the loc-tite'd screw then scratch built a plastic shim/washer to add some tension. A quick test fit showed it was working the way I wanted so I finished the re-install with some more Loc-tite and bound the screw back down after doing some detail painting on the door panels and adding some Bare Metal Foil to the inner door handles.

After another tear-down, I got the "it just needs to be there" radiator installed with some "micro" sized self tapping screws. It worked almost like I knew what I was doing. No worries about the radiator ever breaking loose or flopping over.

The only thing that still "has" to get installed is the gauge cluster that attaches to the A pillar next to the windshield. The gauge faces (white background with red pointers), bezels, and "glass" faces are done. What's holding me up is the best way to glue the cluster back in place. The cluster sits next to the windshield so I don't want to wind up with smeared glue or fogging when the project is 99.999% done. Its also a die-cast car which means the plastic parts are funky which makes them more durable and they need to get bonded to metal. In other words, model glues ain't going to cut it. I'm not going to use super glue unless its my last option, so I have a couple of options I want to test before I commit to anything. My main contender is Loctite "Stick'N Seal" glue. This stuff is thicker than Testor's tube glue or PVC cement and takes a while to fully cure.

All that's really left are seat belts and carpet. For the belts and buckles I already have a plan of attack. Each belt will use three of the photo-etched buckles in my stash. One buckle just has to get glued into the belt, its the actual buckle you would use to put on the shoulder belt. The other buckles will get a small hole drilled in them so they can be screwed to the the plastic interior. What I still have to figure out is how to get the belts glued together so they look like they are hanging naturally.

With the carpet, I already know how to do it which is why it will probably happen. This car has a "black out" type of interior so the only person who will know I put in the effort will be me. I'll also need to break the glue joints to remove the seats in order to do it right. Decisions, decisions..

What's fun about these die cast projects is that I had everything taken apart to finish the work on radiator and get it installed. That was earlier today and everything is now screwed back together.