Pocher Alfa Fuel Tank, Pocher Alpha Romeo Spider Part 10

Here's some images of the fuel tank for the Pocher Alfa I am slowly working on. Every little bit of this project takes a long time... In a Pocher kit, no parts really work as there are out of the box. The fuel tank and related pieces were no exception. It took quite a bit of sculpting, filing and carving to get it as good as it is (which is not that great). It is also time consuming because one must assemble many parts to check fit, and disassemble them all to make changes, over and over, and all before any painting.

The dashboard assembly is in these photos, but that is temporary as I plan to make one out of some nice hardwood.

It's definitely getting crowded.

I have a complete write up this car here.

The complete album for this project is here. See all my posts on Pocher models here.

For more on scale models, look here.

Cat Shelves

Need extra space to store and display your cat collection? How about some extra cat shelves? They're simple to make and will keep your cats happy and organized.

Testing the Body and Frame Fit, Pocher Alpha Romeo Spider Part 9

One well known problem with this Pocher classic is that assembled "as-is", and hood appears to be about a quarter of an inch too short. The hood is correct though. The real problem is that the radiator should tilt back at a significant angle. But assemble "as-is", or as directed, and the radiator ends up at 90 degrees. A secondary issue is that with the radiator at the right angle, the engine doesn't fit. It is too close at the front.

There are a few fixes to do; changing the angle on various connecting parts to the radiator, moving the engine back, and altering the radiator so the brass fill does not really connect to the hood ornament. To get the engine to fit requires a pretty significant change. But I am going to get that quarter inch by doing several smaller changes to everything.

 On the hood ornament, the brass part passes up through the nose body piece. This has to line up. By not having that part there, the nose can be shifted back enough to make the hood fit, but the radiator inside does not have to shift back so much that the engine doesn't fit.

Rather than leave that part out, I ground off one side of it's base. Now it sits closer to the back of the radiator. I can pass up outside the body, and the radiator can still sit ever so slightly forward. I haven't seen this suggested anyplace else, but it buys a couple of millimeters.

I still have to change the angle of holes for the support rod and other connecting parts, and I will have to move the engine a little, but not so much that a new front support for the engine will have to be made. From my rough assembly shown here, it looks like it will all work.

As part of all this, the main body piece has been significant altered to slide on the frame just right. The pieces are very large, thick casts of plastic. Fitting them is like sculpting.

The complete album for this project is here. See all my posts on Pocher models here.

For more on scale models, look here.

Frame, Pocher Alpha Romeo Spider Part 8

I primed the frame, plus a few other recognizable auto parts. Even though these parts won't all go together quite yet, it's at this point that something has to be done about a couple of issues involving major parts not fitting together (at all), before final paint of these pieces. Changes and alterations have to be made and I need to test the parts together to see how bad the problems are. They're bad.

But here we can see the scale of the thing. I'm going to need a bigger work surface.

The complete album for this project is here. See all my posts on Pocher models here.

For more on scale models, look here.

Pocher Alfa Romeo Update, Pocher Alpha Romeo Spider Part 7

The steering gearbox is completed... I can now see that the scale of this car is going to be an issue for the spot I'm using as a workspace.

The gearbox is a good example of where the Pocher "instructions" that come with the kit are wildly misleading.

After completing the engine and transmission, the diagrams show assembling the main chassis with the engine, but in the diagrams the steering gearbox, shown here on the side of the engine, is already in place. The diagrams covering assembly of the gearbox are a couple pages later along with assembling the firewall. But you can't wait that long. If you assemble the engine without the gearbox, with the main frame, the gearbox later won't fit and you have to take apart everything you just did.

The complete album for this project is here. See all my posts on Pocher models here.

For more on scale models, look here.

Alfa Romeo Transmission, Pocher Alpha Romeo Spider Part 6

Completing the transmission completes this whole phase. I did everything except the ignition wires. I'm trying to think up a good way to make spark plugs. The kit as-is has little brass eyelets that go in holes in the distributor and at the top of the engine. Wires go into those parts. I want ahead and installed the eyelets in the distributor, because they look good, but at the spark plug end it really needs something more realistic.

Almost everything here is assembled with screws, bolts and nuts, or is friction-fit. I used some glue here and there, but it is intended to be all but unnecessary. One could, in theory, completely disassemble it and redo things differently.

The complete album for this project is here. See all my posts on Pocher models here.

For more on scale models, look here.