Denny Hamlin's #11 FED EX

[white97ex]

I was headed into work a couple of days ago (wal mart) and stopped by the toy section, and much to my surprise, they had the new monte kits in stock....well needless to say I had one in the bakery before the night was over and even had the box open. lol. I watched one of the Pocono races earlier in the year and decided I just had to do a FED EX car as soon as I could get my hands on the kit. Now all I have to do is wait for the Decals. I plan on using some Modern Motorsports peices for the dash and some various other areas. There will be no trunk detail on this one, but I do plan on plumbing the engine bay. Only time will tell how far this one goes. I plan on doing it as a short track car, seems like everyone does the SS thing. Any comments and suggestions are welcome. here is where it is as of right now.

[tigeraid]

Certainly off to a good start. Remember that short track cars don't have the side windows in place. Also, beat it up a little, maybe a couple tire marks on the doors for good measure

[white97ex]

I prefer the look of a pre raced car......the thought of beating it up is cool, but I just hate to mess up all those nice decals and good paint

[SkylineFan]

Lookin good so far Russell... If I were you, I would build the greenhouse area from scratch. Those PF kits bars sit too low in the greenhouse area... also widen the side A pillar areas so they are not as narrow.... Look at what I did here....

http://badscaleracing.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=204

I am doing a short track 2005 Miller charger and I show you how to make a Pro finish style superdetail chassis.....

DaveT

[white97ex]

Dave, thanks for the link. It will help a TON. I need to order some more rod. What sizes do you recommend I purchase. I will need .080 What else? Also, do you have any good reference pics of the chassis? I've been searching for some good detail shots of this car, nothing fruitful other than decal placement and such. I would like to get some under hood shots and interior. I need to search the rest of the joe gibbs team and see what comes of that.

[SkylineFan]

Originally Posted by white97ex

Dave, thanks for the link. It will help a TON. I need to order some more rod. What sizes do you recommend I purchase. I will need .080 What else? Also, do you have any good reference pics of the chassis? I've been searching for some good detail shots of this car, nothing fruitful other than decal placement and such. I would like to get some under hood shots and interior. I need to search the rest of the joe gibbs team and see what comes of that.

Try these:

http://public.fotki.com/jeremyr/refe...carolina_trip/

[JTRACING]

looking good, thats one I will be making also

I agree on rebuilding the "greenhouse" to, I did it on my Jeff Gordon car.

[white97ex]

Finally some updates on this guy. I managed to get the roll cage almost completely finished. I still need some supports in the rear area. If there is anything I've missed, feel free to point it out. I was shooting in the dark for hte most part for the bracing for the front bumper.....Oh which reminds me, I still need the bars that support the upper part of the fascia.

[white97ex]

I haven't posted or updated here in a while, but I have started building again and this car is at the top of the list to finish up. I've been using DaveT's (skylinefan's) NASCAR builds as reference. Stay tuned and I will finish this post.

Here is how the body sits right now. I need to order another set of decals. I ruined the red bow tie for the front and I want to double up the numbers. It is difficult to see, but I cut the roof decal to allow it to fold down into the lines for the roof flaps.



Quick shot with the body on



Starting to detail the chassis





Engine starting to come together





Headers from .062 solder and heat shrink tubing. Painted with a mix of Tamiya, Alclad, and Model Masters paints

[white97ex]

Starting the tubes for the jack bolts. These will get finished later once I get the body in place







Engine almost completed. Wired distributor (this was an aluminum piece with a resin cap. Looking back on it, I would go with something less...Expensive... as the aluminum base is not noticeable at all)



Remote mount oil filter and housing, complete with wix decal





Engine sitting in its home. I believe this is where I mounted it, for what I thought was the final time. It had to come out to make some adjustments



Shots of the front suspension. This has been a learning experience, lots of stuff I will do differently on the next one. The engine sits too low to allow for the braces for the A-Arms as well as for the steering to be set up properly. So, I made it up. This is 100% inaccurate and would not function, I just hope I don't get hit too hard at the judges table. The "steering links" are a combination of aluminum tube and Dirt Modeler PE Rod ends. The sway bar links are pieces from the Dirt Modeller sprint car linkage kit.





The front end was taken apart this morning. Some of the details I was not happy with. The sway bar end links will be redone and I decided to modify the kit A-Arm/spindles. The way they came from Revell, I was not able to add coil springs. At first, I was ok with that. Then, I decided it had to come apart. So I devised a plan to fix it. The A-Arms came off, and I cut down the thickness of the molded in spindles to accommodate coil springs.

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[white97ex]

Last nights work:

I started on the rear end and trailing arm set up. I had to fill the top of the housing so that I had a place to attach the lines for the cooler and pump. I did this with a mix of styrene stock, Tamiya white putty, superglue, and Bondo glazing putty. Once primed and painted, it should be sufficient. Being on the top, it won't be extremely noticeable. The U-bolts will get sanded off and replaced with wire for realism. The bolt heads on the bottom will also get shaved off and replaced with Pro-Tech PE bolt head/nut detail.



Here is the "pumpkin" or differential housing. It was painted with a model masters Rust red color (I don't recall the actual name). The bolt heads are Pro-Tech PE pieces



All of the update pictures posted today were taken with my Samsung Galaxy phone. I decided to try out an app for the camera to hopefully capture some of the detail better, though I'm not sure it worked...



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[white97ex]

Where am I at, where am I going, and whats the purpose?

My son is 18 months old, my job was CRAZY busy the last quarter of 2017, and I had all of these model kits filling up Storage drawers and shelves. So, I decided that I needed an outlet for the stress from work, and I got back to the bench. Couple that with noticing a post from the MCMA (Metroplex Car Modellers Association) and I decided that I was going to make a run at winning the pavement competition class, or even an overall award. So, out came the Denny Hamlin car....and the checkbook. I think I have lit the checkbook on fire at this point, all of the aluminum, PE, and decals to try and make a show stopper add up in a hurry! The deadline for this car is March 3rd, which is the date for the MCMA showdown this year.

What you see here is currently where it is at. I get a little bit of time while the kiddo is napping, before I leave for work, and when the wife isn't working on school work.

This is my first time to dive into this much detail on a build. Some of you who have been around for a while may remember my '87 Wrangler Monte Carlo from 2006 (?). It was done on a budget, I made my own fittings from plastic, my braided line was stuff from the craft department. Well, this time around, everything is "legit" and I'm having to figure things out and learn as I go. I have missed some detail, put some pieces in the wrong place, and am now having to go back and fix things. That is leading to doing things twice, or having to figure out how to add parts to the chassis and get them the correct color. Hey, it's all part of the learning process right?!

So, Things that need updated and/or redone. The metal work for the transmission will get some re-work, specifically the lower piece. I don't like how the "bead rolling" looks, and once I add in the lower brace for the radiator, I plan to extend it so that it mounts to that brace and add some PE bolt heads. As mentioned earlier, the front suspension is getting some re-work to add detail and get cleaned up a bit.

My goal for this week is to have the front suspension put back together and have the rear suspension ready to mount. Once that is done, the next big task is to get started on the interior. I have a Kirkey racing seat on the way from a member of a Facebook group. He was kind enough to sell me one of his since Dirt Modeller took some time off in 2017 and hasn't restocked their inventory. I also plan to re-build portions, if not all of the dash to put an electronics tray in so that all of the ignition and electronics are right up front. I've seen several builds with a koolbox, however, this car ran in the spring race in Martinsville, and may not have had one. If I get there, it will get done, though I feel like I am running out of time. I have just over a month to knock this thing out, and work is starting to pick up again!

[Shunter2402]

Great to see it back Russell and yourself...good luck with it and watching with interest.

[white97ex]

Thank you!

I started buttoning up the rear end assembly last night and this morning. Still need to add a belt for the pump, a few lines, the spring cups, and brakes then it is ready to go in!

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[Stubeck]

Awesome job!