|
|
Post by illeagle10 on Feb 19, 2019 18:56:10 GMT -5
Finally back at it again! I dug out three AMT 1987 March 86c Cummins cars. I have always wanted to redo these kits for the longest time. I had done them back in 1989-1990 when they first came out. While building them I had realized that the rear suspension was incorrect along with some other areas of the car like the bulkhead. At the time I did the Unser and after I was done I put it away. I wasn’t happy with the 86 March car because it had an 88 March rear suspension. I figured I could do better. A couple of years ago I pulled out another AMT March kit and began scratch building my own rear suspension. Low and behold as I was doing this Michael from Indycals came out with a nice little upgrade kit for the March 86c!
Unfortunately the upgrade kit is not currently unavailable. Hopefully they will be back in stock in the near future. Fortunately I bought a number of these little upgrade kits so I would be well stocked as I have planned on doing a number of these kits. While the AMT kit is still not totally accurate, Indycals’ little kit does bring this kit a long way! Now I think I’m ready to build a little more accurate kit that I will be satisfied with.
Also new for me, is building three kits at once! So, I hope you will bear with me as I attempt to build the 1986 Indy winner of Bobby Rahal, the 1987 Indy winner of Al Unser and the 1987 Pocono winner of Rick Mears. They are all March 86cs, each has differences between them. Hopefully I can keep things from getting too confusing!
I will be using the AMT Cummins March 86c. For most of this WIP I will be using the same pictures most of the time for all three cars except where there are differences.
The first thing I did was set out to see the differences between these three cars, yes besides the car numbers! LOL! I tried to find as much reference material on these cars as I could. Using my library of books, photos I had taken and of course the internet. The tub of all three cars is about the same, with Rahal’s having one minor difference. The main difference between the cars is the rear cowlings. Also Mears’ car was running the Chevrolet engine, while Rahal and Unser had Cosworths. Another difference is in the plumbing of the exhaust and turbo chargers on each car. Even though Unser and Mears were running different engines the plumbing of the exhaust is a little closer on these two cars.
Okay! Let’s get going! As I said there are some small differences between the cars. Rahal’s tub had two small differences. The first was the NACA duct on the nose of the car. I cut a small hole in the nose shaped it and filled to look like a NACA duct. You may want to do this before you glue the tub together. The second difference is the two small holes just below the roll bar, behind the driver’s helmet on the rear of the cockpit. I also put a little putty on each side of the head rest area on each of the cars to round out the area a bit more. Also a small hole needs to be drilled behind and in between where the roll bar attaches for the air jack. Once that was done I glued the tops and bottoms of the tubs together using liquid plastic glue  Once glued together I carefully cut off the front suspension with an Exacto knife. I cut the suspension as close as I could to the tub. Set aside the suspension, don’t lose them, we will need them later. Using the areas where the suspension was cut, I drilled locating holes when we reattach the suspension. Once the holes were drilled I then sanded and filled the seams.
At this point I started using the Indycals upgrade parts. Moving to the rear of the under tray, there is a small lip where the rear of the bulkhead will mount. This lip needs to be removed. If it’s not removed it will be in the way when it comes time to mount the bulkhead from Indycals upgrade kit. Next step is to cut the kit bulkhead from the cockpit tub.  Once the lip is removed and sanded smooth I added the Michael’s middle piece to the under tray. I glued this in place with super glue.
Next is to make sure of the fit with the Indycals bulkhead.
I then primed the tubs to see if I needed anymore filling and sanding, and of course it is always needed.
In this picture you can see on Rahal's car where the hole needs to be drilled for the air jack hose.
Check back later, I might have more!
Jim
|
|
|
|
Post by 2lapsdown on Feb 20, 2019 8:09:40 GMT -5
Boy, I'm glad you're back. I love your WIPs. I built the kit as the 86 winner years ago and planned on redoing it with Michael's kit. I'll be watching this closely. I've already learned some things.
John
|
|
|
|
Post by illeagle10 on Feb 20, 2019 16:08:04 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Dan Belcher on Feb 20, 2019 18:26:11 GMT -5
Excited for this one! Very cool. The last time I went to the Speedway's museum, they had the Unser exhibit including Al Sr's 1987 winner. Very cool to see, but it still bugs me how they don't have the right sidepod's Cummins decal as it was on raceday with all caps!    |
|
|
|
Post by MikeB on Feb 20, 2019 18:29:33 GMT -5
Looking forward to this
|
|
|
|
Post by illeagle10 on Feb 20, 2019 19:32:41 GMT -5
Excited for this one! Very cool. The last time I went to the Speedway's museum, they had the Unser exhibit including Al Sr's 1987 winner. Very cool to see, but it still bugs me how they don't have the right sidepod's Cummins decal as it was on raceday with all caps! Right Dan! The right side was in all caps, the left side was not. The rear wing markings are also incorrect for race day. It should be Cummins and not High Life!
Jim
|
|
|
|
Post by illeagle10 on Feb 20, 2019 19:59:29 GMT -5
Sorry guys, I did miss a step, prior to priming the cars. There is a bevel on the bottom part of the front of the tub on each side. The bevel runs along the bottom of the tub starting at the front of the side pod and runs to the front lower suspension, tapering as it reaches the front lower suspension. This is not prevalent on the kit. So I took my handy dandy file and started filing away until I achieved the look I wanted. This was done on either side of the tub.   Okay back on track......I hope? Jim |
|
|
|
Post by illeagle10 on Mar 8, 2019 20:20:39 GMT -5
It’s been quite cold in our area the past few days, so that means it’s been cold down at my workbench too, even with a space heater on. That also means that I have made little progress the last few days. So, what little progress I've made, I'll show you! While waiting to get back to work on the bodies, I started to look at the real reason I held off on building this kit again, which was having the right rear suspension. I began by gluing the engines and transmissions halves together.  Once that was done I dug out the Indycals updated transmission. This is the correct transmission for March Indy cars from 1985 through 1987. The kit transmission and suspension is for the 1988 March. I cut off the kit transmissions and glued the Indycals transmissions on.   As I was doing this I also mounted the heads. Using the kit heads for the Cosworth engine for Unser’s and Rahal’s cars. For Mears’ car I used the Chevrolet heads from an AMT PC-17 kit and putting them on the kit engine block. 
In the picture above you can see that I have already pinned the lower A-arms and have drilled holes in the new transmission for the lower A-arms. I will comment shortly also on the upper suspension arms and sway bars.
Okay! Stay tuned for more, Jim |
|
|
|
Post by MikeB on Mar 8, 2019 20:39:39 GMT -5
I love this!!!
This is what building these is about showing the differences how to correct the errors and just really putting on a class
Thank you for this Jim
|
|
|
|
Post by illeagle10 on Mar 9, 2019 8:24:42 GMT -5
Thanks Mike!
Jim
|
|
|
|
Post by Dan Belcher on Mar 9, 2019 9:44:58 GMT -5
Amazing attention to detail Jim. That's what makes the difference between a good build and a great one.
|
|
|
|
Post by illeagle10 on Mar 9, 2019 11:03:03 GMT -5
Thanks Dan!
Jim
|
|
|
|
Post by shunter on Mar 10, 2019 14:41:10 GMT -5
Wonderful work, loving it so far...
|
|
|
|
Post by illeagle10 on Mar 10, 2019 15:14:27 GMT -5
Thanks Shayne!
Jim
|
|
|
|
Post by illeagle10 on Mar 16, 2019 20:00:04 GMT -5
Picking up where we left off with the rear suspension. I began using Indycals upper rear suspension. This piece will give the car the proper look I was looking for with the rear suspension.  First we need to cut off the upper part of the rear hub from the upper A-arm from the AMT kit.  I then pinned the hub to the rear suspension and glued them in place on either end with super glue.  Next I took some Evergreen strip and drilled a hole into the end of the strip. I then shaped the end of the strip in a rounded fashion and then cut off the end. I made two of these for each upper rear suspension.   I then glued these into place just inside of the upper arm of the suspension.  I then took Evergreen rod. Flattening one end with a surgical clamp and drilled a hole in the flattened end. I then rounded the end by filing in a rounded fashion, like we did with the flat plastic stock. We will need two for each car.  I then used Evergreen rod to hold the rod with the hole in the end in place. Cutting the rod at the length needed to reach the hub. The rod end was then glued to the hub with liquid plastic cement.
This is how the upper suspension should look.  I then pinned either end of the coil over vertical shocks and fished them through the upper suspension framework. Here is how the upper suspension should look when all the suspension pieces are put together.  There are a set of sway bars that still need to be added once there is color on the transmission and all pieces are glued into place. Till next time, Jim |
|
