So now on a real computer I can write easier....
I wanted to do something slightly different this time. I wanted to write the series of frustrations, mistakes and down right cock-ups that I made with this car. These threads can get a bit sychophantic if one is not careful - not that I don't like a bit of praise just like the rest of us but I think these posts should offer a little more insight into the real goings on, when one is alone, working it out, late at night and getting stressed. That is the real 'space' that scratch builders inhabit - the moment of 'completion' is just that, a moment after many many moments of thought, action and reaction.
In fact the complete car is in many ways a total anticlimax. Its done, so now what? Put it in the cupboard and start another.......
Its a strange world!!
So, as I mentioned before the first mistake was to miscalculate the length of the motor so that it wouldn't fit INSIDE the chassis. I discounted the FF 030 beardog motor on the grounds that it just isn't competitive ont he type of circuits that we race on here. I dropped the whole project for amonth after that before finally plucking up courage to cut out sufficient of the chassis behind the seat so the motor would slip through. I finally worked out you see that once the seat was in you would really not notice as the flared seat back essentially hid everything. It was a BAD moment though..
Another bad moment was the soldering of the front suspension arms (A frames). I was using my usual soldering iron, having given up on the gas torch years ago with the Vanwall. The problem was that given the weight of the brass I just couldn't get enough heat just (and only) where I needed. So I went a bought the torch which took about 3 weeks in itself and then, as I've always found ended up making a total mess as it proceeded to melt all the solder apart from the bit I needed. i don't want to go into another discussion about soldering here as I have a LOT of experience but this was very difficult to control and again I left the model for a month before getting the patience back to try again!!!
That brings us to testing. The car was complete to the stage of the post before last. I.e. chassis and motor detail done but no body cover, driver etc. I took it to Gubbio, our track which is very fast and quite large. i don't remember excatly the dimensions but I think the striaght must be 8m and overall it must be about 35m. Here competition cars lap around 11.2 sec's although my handicap is around 1s more than that. My 'fan car' is capable of around 12.3 (me 13.2) but with me driving a standard F1 March and my Surtees with a Scaley FF motor can only manage about 14.3s. I ran the car hard and fast all night with my new slot.it controller and managed to get down to 13.2s and Walter Merulli (ex italian champ) got it down to 12.2s with which I was well and truly happy!!
Anyway at a certain point at full throtle down the straight the trigger seized at full gas and the car went off the end, hit the low flexible barrier, bounced up, hit the wall still moving very fast and landed on the floor some 3m away. At frist glance one could see that the rear wing, oil radiators and exhausts were all smashed but what I only discovered later was that the impact probably on the floor had bent the whole rear end of the car slightly to one side so that all the trailing links were bent and this had also wrenched the motor sideways (remember the motor is screw fixed to the chassis). It has been a major struggle to get that all back in line again.
Finally, painting. For many people on here the 'body' and the painting is where scratch building starts and stops. So obviously I recognise that this is an important part of the overall art. However for me by the time I arrive to sorting out the body and well and trully fed up with the whole project. I see myself as more of an engineer - designer than a painter - decorator and so for me its far more important to understand the original engineering concepts of the car and transfer them to 1:32 than it is to spray. I'm at least partly saying this as i'm just not that good at painting........ It just takes me ages and so many coats going back and forth between colours to get a decent finish. Most of that is because masking around curves is just so hard. How is that done properly. not to mention I have to paint at 5am as that is the only moment when noone is int he living room!! Yes I spray on the dining table as its the only place warm enough. Finally everything was done, i'd finished Depailler's helmet about 30 mins before, all I had to do was assemble and I realised Depailler was just sitting too high. So I had to cut a lot off his bottom and legs. Of course i'm too impatient to wait so while I do it I totally mess up the still tacky paint on his helmet. What a palava!! Easier to paint 1:1 than 1:32 I can tell ya.......
Well there ya go - a few insights into this project.....
Enjoy
Andi
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