The past week has been slowed by devoting full attention to the door hinging. To mount them, I taped the doors in place on the body, and then glue the hinge in position. Started with the drivers door, and had to do the process three times to get a positioning and wire bend that gave a square fit when closed, and a decently horizontal swing with minimal "droop" on open.

Incredibly slow and tedious. Once this is done, I'll need to open a small slot in the very forward most part of the interior sidewall panel (mostly hidden behind the dashboard end and bodywork) to allow for the hinge to clear when closed.

Oh, and my initial idea for having the doors open "correctly" so that the leading edge of the panel drops behind the bodywork (instead of swinging out) was abandoned. I did built and test mount one door using such a hinge. To get a good clearance, I would have needed to open up a considerable panel gap at the top-forward corner of the door panel. With the door open, it would look right. But closed, there would be a very significant "hole" that would, I feel, just be too large at 1/25th scale.

Passenger door is now drying.




With the door hung, now I can begin looking at making the sheet styrene edges of the door, filling between the interior and exterior faces. Also opened up the little slot for the scratch built side windows to slide into. You can vaguely see the step-back just rear of the wing window base.

Looking great! The engine compartment with th ehood opened in the 1st shot looks amazing. This is going to be a very nice looking model when its done. Im partial to Mustangs too especially this one.
Keep us updated on the build.

Rob

More work on integrating the door hinges as cleanly as I can with the interior. Bunches of test fits revealed that my door hinge shape would poke considerably into the interior, way too far. Thinking for a few days on the geometry of the hinge wire, I realized I could reduce this intrusion by steepening the bend of the wire, similar to how my trunk hinges are bent.

So I cut off the passenger door hinge (yet again!) and did a test bend/fit. You can see the difference below compared to the original hinge (still glued to the drivers door):


Looking at the interior panel, you can see the slot I had to cut to allow the wire clearance to close. If I had not reshaped the wire, that slot would have gone all the way through the part, lopping off the upper part of the panel. Since that panel is key to alignment of the dashboard, and plainly visible from the exterior when the door is open, I can't chop it off.


Here's the new wire fit in the slot, for clarity.


So again, glue and dry. Door closed, good alignment.


Interior with door closed, nice fit into the panel slot.


With the dash sitting in place, the hinge will be invisible. Before the rework, the hinge may well have extended through the front of the dash!


And from the outside, the appearance is not too bad. Saving the top of that panel is a big help for scale appearance. Next week, same thing on the driver side door.


I also worked to finish up some suspension details. Firstly, the rear shock mounts were bothering me. Take a look at this pic from an earlier post, and notice the rear shock mounts are flat, smooth, and have a "C" shaped socket to hold the end of the shock:


Looking at photos, it would appear the real car has an angled section which holds the end of the shock. So I cut off the flat part of the plate and made some replacements from styrene.


Here they are glued in place. This mod made the shocks too short, so I cut off the end and drilled them out. Glue in a short length of wire that will pass through the hole in the angled plate.


Near complete test fitting. New shock mounts are done, also note the bolts added on the flat part of the plate. Rear axle is pretty well adjusted for position. Shocks fit fine. Drive shaft is painted and glued to the differential. Final length of parking brake cable are in place at the brake drum.

Almost ready for final gluing and "painting-in"!

Incredible detail work man.

The hinging is really something...getting it all to align right.

love the detail on the chassis!

Awesome


Rob

Ok, well the other door is now glued/hinged and has clearance with the interior parts. Now the the interior interaction with the hinges is final, I can move to detailing the interior parts without worry of what comes after they are installed.

I airbrushed a new final coat of "parchment" on most of the interior parts, and started with some detailing. Using the Bare Metal Foil on the seat trim and rear interior grilles. The seats are ready for satin varnish and then some seat belt details.

The foil has been easy to work with so far, just slow and steady. Small pieces will try to "scoot" under pressure, but it's pretty solid for the most part.

Little bits more this week. Some progress on fitting in those rear interior side panels, they are now glued in place, along with the lower rear seat between them for strength and alignment. I'll look next at scratch building the folded down rear seat panels. I will likely flock them in the carpeted areas, and then use some metal foil on the panel edges.

Also you can see the strip styrene glued on the roof, making up the plastic cross member in the real car. All this, plus the headliner, will be parchment color.

A good bit of time was spent ensuring that those rear interior panels fitted as closely as possible to the body shell and door jambs at the rear of the door openings. The drivers side needed a bunch of sanding and carving to get a good fit.




And a test fit with the glued interior parts and all hinges in place. Body shell is easy to install/remove with ample clearance. The passenger door is a bit tight on closing, but this is because the forward interior panel is leaning out slightly. This should be resolved when the dashboard is later glued in, and helps pull that panel inward significantly. Moving the panel just 1/2mm is sufficient to clear the door, so it should work out OK.

Looks great! Carpet is a nice touch.


Rob

Finally making some headway on the interior. So many little things getting worked on individually, that it seemed like overall progress had slowed!

First picture shows the roll bar which I shaped from coated copper wire. To this bar I'll superglue the inertial reel seat belt mechanisms in place, as well as the mounting flanges that bolt to the roof. I am also thinking about building a little fire extinguisher and strapping it to the roll bar on the passenger side. It may add some interesting details and color variety in the interior.

The rear center panel of the interior is glued in place now, and I had to cut away the molded-in rear most rear floor panel which was attached to it. That floor panel was much too short, and it'll be easier to work the the floor panel as one piece, rather than several anyway.

So the floor panel in this first photo is a piece of carboard cut to shape, and has pencil lines where the panel seams should be.



Here in the second photo, the folded seat backs/floor panels are shaped in sheet styrene. Panel lines are scored in to a modest depth. This entire part is ready for priming, but the weather today isn't great so I may wait. After priming I'll mask off the edges of the panels where the metal frames and piano hinges go, and then flock it. The carpet flocking I am going to paint a slightly darker, warmer tan color, for a bit of visual contrast against the lighter plastic sidewalls. Then the masking will be removed and bare metal foil will be applied to the panel edges and along the scored panel lines.

The interior needs vacuuming again (with a soft brush, lol) as the sanding leaves little debris everywhere!

Wow! Coming along great! What color are you planning for the exterior?

Rob

I decided on red when I was in the store and bought the kit. Since then I have waffled around (looking at too many photos online!). But I am pretty sure it will be red, without racing stripes.

Got to build up the folded rear seat to pretty much completion. Just a bit of burnishing and touch ups remain.

Here is the part after priming, masking, and applying the flocking. Armed with my prior experience working with flocking, this part was done in a single attempt. I was quite pleased with the thickness and even appearance after the first application, so I stopped there.



And after removing the masking tape (cut around the edges before removing) and airbrushing the flocking tan. I then applied bare metal foil and lightly burnished it, and pressed it into the panel lines I scored on the sheet styrene. A bit of dark gray paint was washed into the panel line to enhance the depth (still WIP in these pics).

The result is better looking than I imagined. The metal foil could be smoother, but I will do another burnishing step and see if there is any improvement. The tan color of the carpeting is just different enough from the plastic interior panels for a bit of color variety in addition to the texture and materials variety of the flocking and metal foil.





And some scratch building the inertial reels for the seat belts mounted on the roll bar. Made from scrap tree material.

Coming along Great!
I agree, RED will look nice. I think thats the color I was thinking you would paint it. Either that or Dark green.


Rob

More little details being worked on. I drilled/carved out the hand pulls on the interior door panels, and drilled the hole for the door lock with a wire heated in a candle flame.



This past week, the seat belt hardware. Lap belt retractors, buckcles, belts, and floor hardware for mounting the shoulder belts later.



Here some test fitting the interior door panels to the exterior door. You can see the slot opened up for the window glass (and a scrap test glass test fitted on one side). Also used this time to work on closing the bottom and rear of the doors up with scrap sheet styrene.

Interior door panels were temporarily tacked in place using CA glue for this work.





All these interior parts went out for priming today. Here are the painted lap belt retractors with bare metal foil used on the catch.



And now, all test fit together. Still not going to glue the seats, as I've got to leave my fingers enough room to install the shoulder belts that hang from the roll bar. Once they are in place and glued, then the seats and lap belt retractors can glue in place.

The lap belt buckles are glued in place on the seats. Also note in the rear, the courtesy lights (below the roll bar) now have the bare metal foil rings and white lenses glued in place, made from scrap sheet plastic.

One other new bit of detail, after applying the satin varnish to the seats, I have brushed a bit of artists acrylic burnt umber into the fold of the seat, to add a bit of depth.

coming along great!

Rob

Adlabs, the way you improve on this model is really brilliant. This thread is becoming one of the most interesting I feel.

It looks great I would never have the patience to detail it as you do.

Thanks guys, I'm really happy to be getting the results I am.

I'm done with my work session for this weekend, so here's the update.

Front seat should belt mounting plates covered in bare metal foil and installed on the floor with E6000 glue.



And the shoulder belts themselves. Made from masking tape cut into strips, then CA glue applied along the sticky side. Paint and dry. Then they glue together into the "Y" shape and get trimmed to size.



Door panels are next, some primer from earlier in the week. Yesterday I painted them 3 times trying to get a good color match to the rest of the interior plastic (the seats are intentionally lighter). The little part is a wire WIP mirror adjustment joystick for the drivers door (you can see the hole I drilled), which wasn't modeled in the kit molding.



And this morning I applied the bare metal foil trim, the and some satin acrylic varnish. This photo makes the parts look rough as a cob! It seems to look better in person, even the two following test-fit photos don't look this bad.



So here's the test fit. Shoulder belts will be glued in next, then the seats and lap belt retractors in that order.

Also note the door lock levers installed, as well as the mirror adjustment joystick, all steel wire. Pretty happy with this!





After a final glue up on all these parts, I think the next step is the dashboard! I've been thinking about how I am going to do the dashboard details for weeks... Can't wait to get started!

Quite a bit of real life eating up my time this past week. But I managed a few bits of progress.

First, some prep work on the dash. Here's the stock panel, and a pic of the lower side where the pedals are molded on.



I drilled out the instruments and the radio, and will scratch build those. Also cut off the pedals, you can see the brake and clutch with extensions of sheet styrene glued in place. There is more to do here. I am not satisfied that the placement of the lights switch and ignition are far enough forward on the lower side of the panel, so I may drill them out and move them forward a touch. Also will probably drill out the dash latch button, for replacement with steel wire.

There also appears to be a strip of padding along the center-to-passenger side of the dashboard, which is not modeled here. I can make this with a strip of styrene.


Thinking a bit about the trunk interior...


And I also got distracted with building a fire extinguisher for the interior. These parts are scrap tree, some sheet styrene, and some ball point pen parts.


Glued up pretty well. Options for placement include on the rollbar, in front/under the passenger seat, or where it's shown test fitted.


Bottle again, and note the scratch built shifter. Stock part had a large mold mark in one side, plus some stubborn plating, so I built a new one. Styrene buildup, bare metal foil for the base plate, and a steel wire for the shaft.

What? no working glove box?

Great work, love watching your builds.