If I thought these 1/12 scale white metal chassis tubes would be stiffer than the 1/24 equivalents, I was wrong. Lots of minor bending and fiddling was needed to get pins to line up with sockets, without snapping pins off. Only one pin, a ridiculous 0.5mm item, has been lost. Most are 1.4 mm, but still flexible.
Getting the engine out of the chassis looks to be a major challenge, unless there are bolted-in chassis bits, which does not appear to be the case ... so what happened when Phil threw a rod? Right, Phil didn't throw rods. The gearbox comes off the back OK and perhaps the engine can be lifted out once one of the cylinder heads has been removed, or at least the exhaust cam covers. The 120 degree V6 certainly takes up a lot of width.
The frame is poorly triangulated. It may have been a beautiful car but the Lotus and Cooper folks, with their fancy new monocoques, were just waiting for a decent engine to beat the Ferraris.
It's all held together with crazy glue at this point. I'll take off the upper tubes around the engine, then toss the chassis in the acetone bath to clean it all up and strip out the glue. Then polishing and paint, and another test fit as I will no doubt bend a few bits here and there. Final assembly will be with 5-minute epoxy, unless I get brave enough to learn how to solder again. I am told I need 70 degree solder, and obviously some form of mini-torch. To be continued...
Stay tuned!
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