Ferrari 156 Sharknose: Chassis and suspension complete

I got brave and assembled the rear cradle around the engine, then the front chassis tubes were glued to the cockpit chassis, and finally the rear cradle attached to the cockpit.

 

The cockpit chassis section, which is made of large stiff flat pieces, was used to ensure the engine cradle stayed straight while the epoxy set.

Then the forward chassis section, which takes the front suspension, was assembled. The instructions had the entire front end, including suspension, radiator and various other gubbins, all assembled before fitting to the cockpit section, but that struck me as extremely foolish -- after a lot of gluing and fiddling, the probability that it wouldn't all line up was high.

 

 

Once the forward chassis was attached to the cockpit, I went and attached the engine cradle and drivetrain as well.

 

Some time ago I purchased a temperature-controlled soldering iron for this purpose, but chickened out and used 5 minute epoxy instead. No risk of melting priceless white metal bits into a little puddle, but it was still a stressful 5 minutes! But it's all relatively straight and it looks like it will sit pretty much square on its four wheels.

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At this point I used machinist's blocks to assemble the front suspension in such a way that even if the chassis is a bit crooked, the wheels will all sit flat. 

Stay tuned! This basking shark is moving right along.