Altered wheel base body and chassis mods

[68383]

I'd like to attempt my first home grown, altered wheelbase build. I'm not one to normally do a lot of cutting and hacking, so this is a little daunting for me.

Are there any good step by step tutorials, videos, etc. that document how to pull it off effectively? I've searched Google and YouTube, but haven't come up with much yet.

Thanks.

[david]

What kit do you plan to use? I have one of the Moebius Belvedere kits and was planning on doing that same thing. I'd be happy to soldier along with you on this project as I have changed wheelbases on several types of race car build in the past. The '57 Ford in my avatar is just one example.

[68383]

Mar 28, 2018 14:39:40 GMT -6 david said:

What kit do you plan to use? I have one of the Moebius Belvedere kits and was planning on doing that same thing. I'd be happy to soldier along with you on this project as I I have changed wheelbases on several types of race car build in the past. The '57 Ford in my avatar is just one example.

Thanks for the offer!

I pulled out some spare parts that I was planning to hack on, rather than potentially destroy a whole kit.

So I'm planning to use a '69 Charger body and chassis. My thought was to get an idea how to pull it off in 25th scale as a dry run for an 16th scale version.

[david]

I will use my old '57 Ford to help get you started. First, determine how far up you want your wheels. The old '65 Dodges had the rears moved forward 18" and the fronts 10". You may choose something different for your Charger as I did for the Ford. I use Dymo tape (Yep that old stuff we used for labeling back in the day and I get it at the big box Office store). I make sure I position it so that I have good contact for re-gluing and most importantly, can sand and smooth it out afterwards. For cutting, I use my Exacto knife blade turned backwards and I just PATIENTLY scribe, and scribe, and scribe. . . and finally you will end up with a very nice, smooth cut with very little kerf material removed. You basically cut out the wheel well-then cut out your piece to move the wheel well forward-then insert your cutout piece behind the wheel well-then fill in with styrene/putty,sand out smooth. I always do the body first and then work the chassis to fit so we'll just start on the body. Maybe some of this will help get you started or may otherwise be helpful in some way.






We'll work on the chassis later but after the bodywork is smoothed off, it'll look like this (in this case, the '57 Ford).

[68383]

Nice. I'll have to start hacking tonight!