Bi Polar Too

[Mysterion]

As a kid, my first automotive rivalry should have been Chevy vs Ford. My entire family on my mothers side were gearheads of one type or another, and they were all diehard Chevy fans. So of course my first automotive rivalry did involve a Chevy, a Corvette to be precise. And who would the foe to this Corvette be, why a Jaguar XKE. So you're probably asking why a XKE? Because my first HO track came with a Stingray and a XKE.

I posted the build of Bi Polar on another site and in the early stages the Corvette body was mistaken for a XKE, this made me think of the old Thunderjets and I decided I had to recreate my old Model Motoring experience.

While waiting for supplies to arrive on a current build, rather than do the smart thing and finish up an already started project, I decided to start Bi Polar Too.

IF you missed Bi Polar, here it is.



The victim for BPII is an Aurora glue bomb from ebay.



After stripping it with a plastic razorblade. and marking out the hood hump.





After the first set of cuts, including a major chop.



Starting to fit it back together,






It's amazing how fast this is going now that I've done it once already.

[Mysterion]

I have a bottle that I throw scrap styrene in, along with some lacquer thinner, to make a thick "Taffy". I thought I would try using it for a filler/glue on this project. So far it is working well as a filler and it appears to be pretty strong.

I wanted to narrow the body a bit in the rear to keep the proportions close to that of the Vette.

I have the right side roughed out in this pic,



I split the body from the front of the door to the back of the body, removing about a 3/16" "V".



Using a liberal dose of Bondene to some .015 styrene sheet, I filled in the large gap.The extra glue softens the .015 easily so it can form to the compound curves of the body. The rest was filled with the styrene "Taffy".
I take a wire with a hook bent at the end to pull some of the "Taffy" out of the bottle and roll it into a long tube, ( the length of the area to be glued/filled.

I apply 2 liberal coats of Bondene to soften up the body and immediately shove the "Taffy" into to cut, follwed by 2 more coats of Bondene.



After 2 days, the styrene is dry and hard enough to sand.

The white filler you see on the roof, is done using the process I just mentioned.

[Mysterion]

At this point I was unsure if the XKE had the lines to pull this off. it's pretty round and blah next to a 1st gen Stingray.

I decided to mock up some paper body panels to see if it will work, if not it'll be a cool street rod or something.

I do like it! Now to hunt down some cheap Indycar kits and some more realistic wheels and tires.

[RatRod]

I really dig your building style man, this one should be as cool as the other one!!!

[kettlekettle]

both of those are very cool.

[jondutch46]

Looks like some pretty kool stuff in the background, too.

[badroadahead]

You have great foresight!

I love all the cutting and chopping.

I may have to try your "taffy" recipe.

Dave

[ira]

[glow=red,2,300]Thats some Nice Slicing![/glow]

I thought this might be a Bonneville Racer at first....

[Mysterion]

I won two Monogram Indy cars for $8 on ebay, they arrived last night and I had some time to do some cutting.

What took me over a week to get done on the first BP is now getting done in hours.

After cutting the body of the Indycar up to get the side pods off, I had to shorten them 1/4" to fit the way I wanted.

A comparison shot.



I also made up a quick jig by simply making a center line with tape and then taped the rest of the parts in place for widening the undertray.

The undertray cut into three pieces ready for widening.



Getting the side pods to line up with the body is a 2 step process creating a tight fit.

First I hold the body above the pods and mark the shape of the body to the top of the pod. I then add about 1/16" to this mark and cut. Step 2 is simply placing the pod against the side of the body and cutting the shape of the pod out.

Now with the body cut, replace the pod moving it inward that 1/16" so the body is siiting on the edge of the pods.

The final cut,



Some mock up shots.

[Mysterion]

A comparison shot of the stock undertray and the modded one.



Some more progress. Mocking up the cockpit and engine. I had to move the engine/suspension forward about 5/16" to get the wheelbase I wanted.