Ford P68: Front suspension, interior and trial fitting

Front suspension went together OK. I didn't bother piping the master cylinders and their respective bottles as it is all very fiddly, and won't be visible. If the bottles had been immediately above the masters, I might have attempted it, but they are on the chassis centreline with a significant offset relative to the pedals in order to allow for the steering column.



The little black screws provided for the uprights were replaced with #00-80 brass screws; heads were snipped off once I was happy with the location..



The radiator is well located by a couple of big dowels, but the photo-etched shroud is not quite right. A certain amount of dithering got it to this point.



The interior is pretty simple. A couple of toggle switches attached to the right side inner fender well forward of the gearshift lever were forgotten, and there was a structure under the dash that needed to go in about two steps before the instructions showed it going in. But as it doesn't show, the fact I cut it in half to get it in doesn't matter. Nonetheless this illustrates the key with these MFH kits: trial fitting is critical.




Speaking of trial fitting, the body components are all very snug fits over the chassis, and could use some carving out with an end-mill in the Dremel. The right side rocker doesn't quite fit over the battery; the forward body section doesn't quite fit over the radiator shroud; and the engine cover doesn't fit over the oil cooler or the rear tires which are probably way out of scale. The central cockpit seems to fit OK, however. Fortunately the panels are fairly thick resin and there is some room to carve away.



A very low, sexy little beast, and it took a miracle of packaging to get it all into the volume allotted. The fact the thicknesses of the resin parts are way out of scale is for the builder to solve.




So some more Dremeling is needed; then the red paint needs sanding and a couple more coats before decals and gloss coat can go on. Then onto final assembly: lights, glass, wiper.





Elsewhere the missing injector trumpet mesh guard will have to be sorted out, and the exhaust will need to be completed. I've scuffed the paint on the undercarriage with all the handling. The spare tire likely won't fit under the rear cover. And the big wingnuts holding on the wheels are too long, or I didn't push the driveshafts far enough into the transaxle. Just another MFH build... But a very neat kit. To Be Continued.