[JohnP]

A few months back I picked up a rather sorry looking Airfix-MRRC Honda F1 with a view to renovating it - never thought I'd actually get around to doing it of course. Well, that's forums for you I suppose!

I began by stripping it down to it's component parts and giving it a general clean up:

Quite a few parts were missing: one mirror, suspension detail, drivers head and the underside of the nose. The nose was a bit of a curiosity in itself as it appeared to have a slight "V" indent and was a little short compared to my Model Cars plans. Maybe it ran like this somewhere or maybe I just had more missing from the car than I first thought?

Anyway, I set about correcting it as follows:

Armed with a tube of Chip & Dent filler and aluminium car repair mesh I made a small bridge to the underside of the nose:

This was held in place using Araldite Rapid.

After a quick fill (not one of howmet's snack breaks I might add), I lengthened the nose by gluing on a small piece of plasticard,

sanded it to shape and then hollowed it out by drilling a few small holes, finishing off the inside with a small Minicraft grinder.

Next I added more mesh and filler to cover the steering mechanism and rear motor mount cut-outs and ground out the inside of the shell to give as much room for the motor as possible:

Still more work to do but now on with the chassis...

 

[JohnP]

...which will be a flexi made from piano wire and brass:

I've cut the parts to fit the original Johnson 111 motor although I might yet use a standard Scaley. As the Scaley is a little taller, that would require some of the plastic cutting away from under the engine/exhaust moulding but it is do-able.

 

[David Lawson]

Aha another 60's F1 car to join the scratchbuilding forum and some good tips on how to repair and breath life into old bodyshells. The chassis looks neat so far and I'm keen to see the progress John.

David

 

[BEEJAY7]

Excellent John....Don't tell me you also bend your wire round an old nail !.

I really enjoy these articles on the old single seaters, although I've never tried one myself.

Great Work.

Regards

Alan

 

[howmet tx]

I did a similar job on the Eagle and BRM, JP- and I have the Matra shell still lurking in my bits box...

Wouldn't it be great to get all these F1s lined up on a grid together sometime?
60s F1 Proxy anyone?

 

[JohnP]

Thanks for the comments all.

No nails Alan, I use 16swg wire squeezed in a bench vice and mercilessly thrash it into shape with a big fat hammer... great for working out the tensions of the day (although there are better ways I hear). However, where I need to get bends close together (like with the rear end brace) I use a smallish set of mole grips to support the work and bend and hammer it in a slightly more delicate and circumspect manner!

Guys, I think a proxy race would be great at some point - if only to see all these great old cars lined up together. What a sight for sore eyes that would be

 

[BEEJAY7]

Right, that's it I can't stand it anymore, I'm just going to have to build one of these things!......

I swore when I finished racing in the Seventies that I would never build a brass chassis again, but if there is a potential proxy race I don't want to be left out, and I need a chassis to put that spare Scaleauto motor in (

)

John can you please show some more excellent photo's of building the front end of your chassis, because I am just going to copy it. Afraid I've never had an original chassis thought in my life!.

Now what bodyshell?.....I guess we are talking 1960 to 1964?....Any Suggestions for one thats not already been done on here and is readily available.?

Regards

Alan

 

[GRAH1]

Got an airfix cooper spare if you want and a super shells sharknose

 

[JohnP]

Hi Alan - knew it could only be a matter of time

These cars are from the 3 litre formula dating from 1966 - David's Lotus 49 is from 1968 for example.

As you probably know (but that won't stop me

), it was a great period because there was so much variety in the appearance of the cars. At the start of the formula, cars ran with no wings at all but by around '68 various nose fins were appearing along with high suspension mounted wings to the rear, then to the front too.

The trouble was they were flimsy and dangerous and were soon banned. This ban came during practice for the '69 Monaco GP and the cars ran the race without wings - ironically they were mostly faster!

Soon wings were back though - body rather than suspension mounted this time. All this happened around '68/'69 and I was lucky enough to see some of it first hand at the '68 British GP and '69 Race of Champions. Thanks for taking me Mum and Dad!

The best source for bodies is probably the Classic fibreglass range - check out Chas Keeling's SCD site for a list for example:

BETTA and CLASSIC LIST

 

[JohnP]

P.S.
QUOTE Any Suggestions for one thats not already been done on here and is readily available.?
The Brabham BT26 is one of my personal favourites. It appeared in lots of different guises - one time with a curious "V"-shaped wing at the back. There is a Classic shell for this although I've not seen it myself.

 

[David Lawson]

Good to see someone else weakening Alan - I also said I wouldn't pick up a soldering iron again and my chassis aren't anything more than a frame to connect the wheels and motor together and hold the body in place but I'm happy making models that move and I'll leave the fancy chassis design to others much more skillfull.

John and Howmet - I think a Proxy F1 race could be good and without getting too restrictive maybe have it for 60s cars that originally ran on treaded tyres and possibly another class for 70s cars that ran on slicks this would keep the right type of cars competing against each other, anyone else have any thoughts?

David

 

[David Lawson]

I agree with you John the Brabham BT 26 was a nice car driven by Brabham and Rindt and the Classic body is one of their best for accuracy and there's definitiely room in there for the Scalex Mabuchi.

Here's a picture of some static models I made from Classic shells about 15 years ago the car at the right rear corner is the BT26

Buy it and build one Alan!!

David

 

[GRAH1]

David do you want to run this f1 proxy down your end of the country later in the year I have a couple of suitable candidates in my collection I would be willing to send , set up the rules and regs and name the day it sounds good

 

[ProfFate]

Hi

If you looked at the Vegas photos..you saw I have a BUNCH. EM was building his Eagle to spank ME!!

Anyway, ok, I am in the U.S. But I will offer to host a proxy for these cars!

Rules are simple. SCALE(ok, a fudge, if what you are using are the Airfix bodies...ok, but). Class 1: 1965 through 1970. If there is interest, 1971 thorugh 1980. No magnets. Unless someone chimes in, no prizes, just GLORY!

Venue, a series of races: 1 on a 125 routed track, 1 on a 4 lane club track of about 65 feet, and others as I get local interest. One option might be that I will do up 4 lane revell as a model of various REAL tracks on the model of the old Bob Schleicher series. Who drives what locally will be random. Postage, being in america, I will do it this way, Iwill pay the postage back, and swap value in Pre-ad bodies! Interested?

Fate

 

[GRAH1]

Ok Rocky name the date I have a Lotus 24 ready to go .

 

[JohnP]

Well, I'll need to finish building the darn thing first ...and what's all this about a '70s F1 proxy race now too !!?

But, oh my, that's a mighty impressive line up of statics you have there David! They'd make an awesome centrepiece in a paddock diorama for your new track. Just wonderful

 

[Ecurie Martini]

Well, I still can't see any of the images but the topic is intriguing

QUOTE Guys, I think a proxy race would be great at some point - if only to see all these great old cars lined up together. What a sight for sore eyes that would be

And, despite my comment that I would never venture another one of these minature sausages again, I must confess that when I ordered the replacement shell for my Eagle, I added a Lotus 49, a Cooper Maserati (so ungainly that it is appealing) and a March 701 to the order (this is in addition to the Supershells BRM and shark-nose Ferrari already on the shelf)

If we wanted to mail cars around, there will be, by the fall, two 4 lane routed tracks in this (Baltimore MD) area that could be added to the circuit.

EM

 

[JohnP]

QUOTE I must confess that when I ordered the replacement shell for my Eagle, I added a Lotus 49, a Cooper Maserati (so ungainly that it is appealing) and a March 701 to the order
...and why not indeed

Sorry to hear about your Photobucket Blues EM - there's some lovely engineering in howmet's M7A thread and David's 49B all-in-one chassis concept is quite stunning. Hope you get to see it all very soon.

 

[David Lawson]

QUOTE (GRAH1 @ 20 May 2004, 16:24)David do you want to run this f1 proxy down your end of the country later in the year I have a couple of suitable candidates in my collection I would be willing to send , set up the rules and regs and name the day it sounds good
Graham - Not to put too fine a point, I wouldn't know how to do this!! If you would be willing to give me some pointers I would have a go.

David

 

[GRAH1]

Ill drop you a pm with some ideas david Trev May came up to one of ours so he might help if you plan to use the south end track