Armortek

another sunday instalment of master building, a pleasure to follow, regards simon.

Seems like I've been on the suspensions for a long time. Now moved onto the moving parts. Although the roadwheels hide most of the suspension mechanism, I've selectively modified the kit parts where I think it will be visible. Thanks again to Paul Scott for the superb reference photos.


First the suspension arms need rebating:








Then the spring cap retaining nut needs a bolt for the end cap:



Rebates on the rear and sides of the suspension arms:



First station complete and a heap of parts ready to go:











Regards

Stephen

And this week came the update of my favorite show!
As always an enviable attention to detail. Beautiful result!

Ciao,
Iacopo

Hi Stephen.

Run out of things to say on this now my friend just continually impressed.
Cheers Paul.

It feels like a milestone of sorts - the suspension moving parts are now assembled. I'm sure the hot weather affected tolerances between steel shafts and brass bushes but it's all done, after some fine tuning:








There remains the shock absorber link arms. The kit is supplied with a non-scale ball and socket fitting at either end:



Whilst the bottom end will be hidden behind the roadwheels, the tops are very visible, so it probably means replacing the link arms with ones with a machined fixed lug at the top and modifying the lever arm:







Regards

Stephen

In the end, I've found a simpler way to deal with the shock absorber link arms. Although I hope Paul Scott will be able to confirm the true diameter of the full size from his restoration, it was obvious that the steel rod of the kit could do with beefing up and the socket ends can be turned down in diameter. Having worked out a nominal 7.55mm diameter, I set to turning a sleeve from aluminium bar stock and turning down the kit socket arms:





Before and after:





I think these will look the part. Now to look at the fixtures on the ends.

Regards

Stephen

Extraordinary power of the internet, modern communications and international collaboration. Paul just emailed with the diameter of the link arm, which is 38mm, not far off the estimate and fixable with another go on the lathe. Thanks again Paul. I wouldn't be able to get this accuracy without your help. Stephen

Hi Stephen

Your attention to detail is truly outstanding and your work method for working around problems is proving a real inspiration to me.

Many thanks for the time spent showing such a detailed build.

Regards

David

David, kind words. Your Cent is looking magnificent, beautifully executed.

Some work on the shock absorber arm end fittings to try to simulate the fork and pinch bolts. More to do on this:









Regards

Stephen

At the risk of being repetitive, I can not help but reiterate my congratulations for your attention to detail.
Good job!
Ciao,
Iacopo

Always good to hear from you Iacopo.

I've done my best to camouflage the ball and socket fittings on the shock absorber link arms, whilst keeping their functionality. It was relatively easy to make a piece to simulate the fork end fitting of the real shock absorber lever arms and pin that to the kit ones. This is probably one of the less convincing bits of my model but I didn't want to compromise the mechanical integrity of the kit. I can at least now say the suspension housings are well and truly done, save for some final tweaking and a check of clearances at the final drive end.













Also cleaned, primed and painted 26 roadwheels, having drilled the lightening holes (6 off on each), so they can be made up on the hubs during the week.

There were roadwheels with three lightening holes but I wasn't able to check if they ever made it to Australia, whereas the 6 hole type certainly did.







Regards

Stephen

Excellent, as always!

Now for the tyres. I use a small Warco desk grinder to remove the mounding lines on the kit tyres so that they represent a well worn appearance:



New full size roadwheels did have a similar moulding line and so I've left the spare roadwheels on the glacis untouched:





I use Loctite 480 to bond the rubber to the rims. It doesn't have an infinite shelf life once opened, so it's a question of lining up a production line and doing all the tyres in one go. I use cable ties to ensure a tight fit while the cyano based glue is curing:





The real roadwheels have a very distinctive flange where they are bonded to the rims and it was simple to turn this on the lathe, although far from simple cleaning up the mess afterwards:



Modified (L), unmodified (R):





"Gear down, three (12?) greens...."

Regards

Stephen

Hi Stephen.

The bar is climbing very high now for mere mortals
Cheers Paul.

Cheers Paul. Last bit of roadwheel fettling. The spare roadwheels are mounted with the inside facing upwards, so I turned the distinctive grooved shape in the tyre:








Hub caps next. They need a deeper dome, so I thought I'd give the new Cx5 material a go when it arrives.

Thanks for looking.

Stephen