[Coides]

This began nearly 2 years ago when I was browsing as usual through Ebay and noticed a 1/24 Lola T70 body with what looked like a Cox driver. The photos were bad but I had a vague memory of the existence of a 1/24 RTR Lola T70 made by Cox in small amounts shortly before they went bust.

I did a bit of quick Googling and quickly discovered that this was indeed a genuine Cox body. For those of you who don't know the story of this model you can find it here.

Well, I'm not really a 1/24 person but who can resist Cox cars, especially rare ones, so I bid for it and somewhat to my surprise I got it. When it arrived it turned out to be in better shape than the pics suggested - a nice example of a 'played-with' shell in good shape, with a few body bits damaged or missing.

A quick dialogue with the seller revealed that his stash of slot bits contained the original Cox front steering unit but the main chassis etc was long gone. That's a serious bummer because this particular chassis was a one-off, built in Hong Kong from pressed anodized aluminium and it was never sold separately, so the chances of finding one were microscopic. So, what to do?

After about 9 months of thinking, and one abortive interaction with somebody who promised to send me a half-chassis but never did, I decided to build a replica chassis myself. Clearly I wasn't going to fake the real thing but I wanted a close rendition that kept to the spirit of the original model, keeping the basic pressed aluminium concept and using 100% Cox running gear. The entire rear axle for the original Lola was unique to this model so I'd need to adapt regular Cox bits. I gave up on anodizing and decided to use a lacquer coat that would be less long-lasting but look very similar.

Here's the result. I'm very happy with it - it looks about right and it drives well. And how many people out there can say they've driven one of these beasts?

If there's interest I'll provide info on how this all happened

Best wishes

Andy

 

[Aurora]

That is very very pretty!

 

[dgersh]

Frankly Andy, that's a beautiful job! And yes, I'd like to see some steps in the process if possible. I was kind of in the same case, with used body and part of a chassis, but since I already had a complete one, traded my bits to a friend who had found a complete chassis and he was able to put it together beautifully.

Looks very close to the original, just missing the ridges in the stampings and a few other layout details - really captures the spirit. And glad to hear it runs well! I haven't dared try mine, but I don't get the feeling it will be a barnburner!

Don

 

[loosesalute]

That`s a really, really nice job.
Thanks for posting, & please put the steps up.
Cheers,
Kev.

 

[CJA]

Ey Up Andy,

Blooming Marvellous !!.

Really neat, a good job, and as you say, no intention to "replicate", just simulate !!.

vbr Chris A.

 

[Coides]

OK here's what I did. The biggest problem was designing a chassis based on photos plus the body in my possession. I'd done enough chassis building to know that it would be long, heartbreaking task to start cutting and bending aluminium sheet without a seriously accurate plan. As a start, I took a very long look at all the photos available of the real thing, compared them to a regular Cox 1/24 magnesium chassis in my possession, and the measured distances for my body and decided that the basic geometry of these two chassis are very similar, particularly the crucial relationship between the motor and the rear axle. I therefore hatched a plan to start with the mag chassis and design an alu rear chassis motor carrier built around its dimensions. The front could then build forward from this.

First, I took lots of photos, from all sides, of the 1/24 chassis, with and without a ruler in the pic to allow exact measurement.

This allowed me to generate a plan of the Mag chassis (using Powerpoint), upon which I could super-impose a draft of the proposed alu motor carrier thus;

All those squares are centimeters.

The alu motor carrier could then be easily converted in Powerpoint into an 'unbent' flat representation (like a Penelope Pitlane chassis when it arrives at your door). The front chassis member could then be built to fit onto this, keeping all dimensions correct with regard to the known wheelbase, track and body mounting screw points from the body. Below is my first attempt at this:

This was then printed out and taped to the alu sheet, a scalpel was run along all the lines, then the sheet was cut with sheet metal shears, fine hacksaw, drill, lots of careful filing etc etc etc! Then the chassis was bent into shape and checked for fit.

My first build had a few fitting probs - eg the two main chassis parts didn't fit each other very well and the front mounting point was all wrong. It's real hard to predict how much sheet is taken up at a bend in the chassis! The next try was much better and the third was spot-on.

Here's a side by side, comparing the real thing to the copy. They're taken from slightly different angles but the geometries are identical (believe me!)

 

[dgersh]

Very impressive Andy. Is that Powerpoint, like in slides???

Don

 

[Coides]

Precisely! It's actually quite a powerful platform for graphic design and I use it for decal design too.

Andy

 

[Brian George]

Very impressive and what a story teller.
Your posts are first rate and very informative .
Thank you for sharing.
I'm new to scratch building and find your posts very helpful and inspiring.
On your post about the Porsche, 907 BOAC 500 1967. What make and colour of blue paint did you use on the No12 car. I have an old French Scaley C22 917 and I want to decal and paint it as the original car?

Thank you for any assistance you can give.

 

[Coides]

Tamiya Sky Blue (X-14) basically. Looking at the pot now, I may have dribbled in a bit of Tamiya Flat Blue (XF-8) as it seems a little bit darker. I always try to get the colours as right as possible.

Thanks again for the encouragement - that makes it even more rewarding

All the best

Andy

 

[dgersh]

Thanks Andy, very thoughtful of you. It would be a shame to lose this record...

Don