Aurora Ram Rod

[TooOld]

With all of the interest lately in this kit I figured I'd be first up and start on mine , I've had this for quite a while and don't remember where I got it . It's practically mint condition so should be a quick fun build ! Only issue will be the decals so I'll probably print my own .



I want to assemble the body and paint it as one piece so a small modification will be required , the cowl and the rear package tray need to be cut from the interior .


The dash is glued to the cowl since it will be body color .


And the package tray is glued to the trunk .


Next the body sides , cowl , and trunk are glue and taped together .


Then the roof is glued and taped in place .


Here's the assembled body , the interior slips right in !


A little body work and it will be ready for paint .

To be continued . . .

[stilljustharley]

I know it's extremely unlikely but I've liked to think that somebody on the Ferrari Testarossa design team had one of these kits as a kid and thought "I know just what this car needs to make it really stand out - a stack of side fins!"

[TooOld]

Sept 19, 2021 0:50:34 GMT -6 stilljustharley said:

I know it's extremely unlikely but I've liked to think that somebody on the Ferrari Testarossa design team had one of these kits as a kid and thought "I know just what this car needs to make it really stand out - a stack of side fins!"

They had to get the idea from somewhere so why not the American Hot Rodders , companies "borrow" styling ideas all of the time .

[TooOld]

The body work involved fixing the cowl by filling and rounding both top corners to meet the body sides , and I filled and smoothed the firewall .
Also repaired the trunk . Somehow when gluing everything together the trunk got recessed slightly so I just glued a thin sheet of plastic on top and tapered it smooth .


After primer I used some half round to replace the body lines that were removed .


Sprayed with white primer .


The top insert was taped off and the body sprayed with TS-50 Mica Blue and cleared with TS-13 .

[TooOld]

I've been painting all the small parts and when I got to the tires I decided to experiment with something I've wanted to try for a while .
But first the tires themselves . . . after gluing the plastic halves together there was some seam repair that needed to be done .


Then they were sprayed flat black . When that was dry I brushed on a coat of Future .


Now for the experiment . . . White Walls !
I bought this little circle cutter on Amazon for $11.47 and the adhesive backed vinyl sheets were $11.21 a pack . They have both Gloss and Matte and I bought the matte , not sure if it's better or not , just what I picked .


I started by practicing to see how well it cuts . Surprisingly it cuts really easily !


I found immediately that I couldn't spin the cutter like a compass and make an even cut so I taped a piece of vinyl to a small piece of cardboard , that way I could keep even pressure on the cutter with one hand and spin the cardboard with my other hand .


It took a lot of practice and many tries but I finally got four nice white walls stickers . Take accurate measurements of the tire with a caliper and adjust the cutter to the correct radius .  Cut the I.D. first then the O.D. of the white wall , and do two at a time so the cutter only has to be reset once .


How much practice ? This is the scrap pile , not a deal breaker since there are enough vinyl sheets to do thousands of white walls !
It took me about an hour to make this pile .  The biggest issue was setting the cutter to the right radius . Even with measurements it took a few attempts to get the diameter right .


I brushed another coat of Future over the white walls and installed the painted discs .
Pretty decent for my first try !


I don't think this is the best adhesive backed vinyl to use for white walls , it's more like a coated paper and doesn't conform to the shape of the tire very well , it didn't matter with these tires but it could be a problem on more rounded sidewalls .  This stuff can be used with an inkjet printer so maybe that's an issue , I'll buy the regular self adhesive vinyl before I try this again . 

[plastimatic]

Nice job on those whitewalls.

Way back when I was working on a Beatnik Bandit, I used two different sized papercraft hole punches on white decal paper to produce these:

This technique also had a lot of left over scraps, just trying to line up the holes.

Your cutter would allow for more precise versions, tho.

[TooOld]

Those look great Jim , I don't know how you ever got those punches centered like that !
Originally I was going to use white decal paper but at the last minute decided to try the vinyl , maybe not the best idea . But the circle cutter works great and I'd recommend it if you ever try making any more .

[TooOld]

Not much to show for this update . . .
Painted and installed the engine , it was a whole nine parts . Maybe the fastest engine assembly I've ever done .



Thought I'd add a firewall to break up all that blue paint , then thought maybe an upholstered firewall to match the roof insert ?



And since this is almost finished I worked on the decals . The originals are yellowed but may still work on the dark blue paint so I sprayed them with some sealer . In case they don't work I printed a back up set .

[TooOld]

The 60 year old original decals have a slight yellowish tint but they worked great !

[patw]

Super build Bob! I like the work on the whitewalls and wheel centres.

[TooOld]

Thanks pat ! Should be wrapping this up real soon .

[Deleted]

Love that blue. 😎😎

[stevielewis]

Great work as always.

[Starry Eyes]

Great job on a vintage kit Bob !

[TooOld]

Thanks much Don , Steve , and Chuck !

[erwin]

Nicely done! Makes me want to find one for myself.

[Starry Eyes]

Oct 8, 2021 19:11:20 GMT -6 erwin said:

Nicely done! Makes me want to find one for myself.

I have one Erwin if you find you just can’t
live without .

Starryeyes