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January 2012
1/8 '32 Ford "Big Deuce"

1/8 scale '32 Ford "Big Deuce"

SECTION 3 :- Rear axle build

To carry on the red theme for the car all the chrome bar the quick change cover, rear brake plates & rear hubs, so using a sandwich tub full of bleach/water I put in all the other rear axle parts including the rear springs & shock absorbers.  All they needed after this was a light sand to give the paint a surface to stick to.

The first section I did was the axle housing & it just needed a slight sand & fill on the joins before I glued it into the 2 parts of the rear end. When dry & the joint sanded smooth I fitted both radius rods & allowed it to set. 

Now for the painting of the rear end.  The whole unit was primed in matt red & then with the same flame red as the engine.  The bolt heads on the axle & rods were highlighted in matt Aluminium & the chrome rear cover fitted.  The shock absorbers were done the same way, but will be highlighted in matt black where suspension bushes should be.  The rear springs were sprayed in Halfords moondust silver & then the bolts & joints between the leaf springs highlighted in a slightly thinned Humbrol gun metal. (sorry but the photo below doesn't show this very well).

SECTION 4 :- Front axle build & axle fitting

Chrome city again adorns all of the front axle, so bar the disc brake plates & front hubs I took off all the chrome, & then painted the front axle, steering arms & supports in the same moondust silver as the rear axle.  I scraped off some of the paint from the steering arm & supports & removed the chrome from the inside of the locating points on the brake plates so they would get a very solid join.  While these parts set & painted the front radius rods & tie rod in Moondust silver & again highlighted the bolts with a slightly thinned Humbrol gun metal. 

The front shockers were painted in Nissan flame red like the rear ones & the suspension bushes given a matt black coating.

Now time to fit the axles.  I stared with the front unit & it fits very well into the locating holes in the front cross member & with a clamp holding it in the side support rods can be clamped or pegged onto the chassis locating points.  I could have done the front shockers at this point but though if  I let the axle set for a good couple of hours it would give me a more solid point to glue the shockers to & then not allow the front shocker brackets to move out of position.

  I fitted the rear springs to the axle & also the rear brake plates so allowing these to set for a few hours before locating them in the rear cross member.  This was to stop them coming out of place while the rear shockers were carefully glued in place.  I scraped off the inside where the front of the driveshaft fits the hole in the middle cross member & used 2 very small clamps to hold it in place against the cross member while it set.

SECTION 5 :- Steering & brake pipes

The steering column had it's chrome removed & then was put in place with the eyelets & gear into the steering column box.  While the box was clamped together I just every so often turned the column shaft to make sure it moved freely & hadn't got stuck in the box.  The whole unit was then sprayed in moondust silver. The brake cylinder was also done in the same paint colour as the finish does looked like brushed aluminium. The cylinder was put in place & the tubing measured & pushed into the pins on the chassis & on the cylinder.  I always put a very small spot of superglue on the end of the tubing as in some cases it has come off the pins.

Fitting the steering box to the chassis is easy & then all I needed to do was fit the steering drag link to the front axle. The ends of the drag link were painted in gun metal to highlight the threaded part of the rod & the ball joint at each end.  I then finished the front steering off by fitting the tie rod for the front wheels. Please note just a small amount of glue is needed on the top of the retaining washer or you will glue the whole tie rod to the steering arm.  When dry I cut the small bits of tubing & super glued the tips to the locating pins on the chassis & front wheels.

The same work on the tubing for the rear brakes was done  (sorry not very obvious in the pic)

COMING NEXT:-

Part 3 will be the firewall, interior panels & engine wiring....