Le Mans Contest Entry: Sauber-Mercedes C9 1989

[agamo]

Hello everybody, this is my first post, so I'll introduce myself:
I'm Ramón García, from Puebla, Mexico, am 34.
I've building model cars for a little more than 20 years, building any car at the beginning, but after my preferences settled down I do prefer to build exotic and sport cars, mainly Ferrari, Porsche and Europeans.

Then this is my entry to this great contest.
I'm building the Tamiya kit as it won the LeMans race in 1989 car #63.
I'm openning doors and front, so I have lot to scratchbuild specially at the front

The first step is to fill the holes in the undercover.


Then cut everything that will be opened for an start


Cut in the undercover for the front


The rear suspension lower arms have part of the undercover molded, so I separated them and sealed the undercover sections to the undercover since this underpanel is made of one piece, the lower arms then will be fixed to the transmission as in the real car, so I added some stirene to support brackets for the rear lower arms.


The engine area of the chassis needs some work after sealing the fixing holes, at first brackets for the rear cover support, the "X" mark is for the position of the oil tank, and also the sealed suspension covers are seen.


Then, starts the work on the front, making the chassis structure with stirene.


Best regards to all!

[Technoman]

Wow, very very nice work so far. This should be good

[RallyRaider]

Hi Ramón, welcome to AF Mighty impressive build you have begun there. If you continue as well as you've started it looks sure to be amongst the frontrunners of the comp.

[MickSz]

Looking good man. This should be a heavy contender.....
The C9 is on my list. I'm thinking sometime in 2016.....

Mick Sz.

[robrex]

Great start!!
Welcome to AF!

[godfather23]

Yup, looks very cool, I think the contest is going to be one of the hardest contests ever. So many beautiful and detailled models. Can´t wait to see this one finished with all the details!!

[Spitfire7]

Nice start, and welcome to AF!

[p9o1r1sche]

Welcome to AF!
Looks like a good start. What were the holes in the undercover for? Attaching parts on the top of the undercover?

[agamo]

Yes, the holes are to locate the turbos and exhaust pipes, rear cover support, interior tub, radiator panel, firewall and some other parts.

And Thousand Thanks to everybody for your nice welcome words!

[OrangeR]

Hi Ramón and welcome.

It's nice to see you here.
This seems to be an impressive build by the looks of it.
Keep updates coming.
By the way...

¡Viva México cab..!

[agamo]

More on the Sauber...

Since I removed the front lower suspension arms from the front undercover I had to make the joints to the chassis, which I made with styrene rods:


Another important part in the construction of the front suspension is the support that holds the upper suspension arms, fot this part a friend of mine suggested using the aluminum part of a 3 1/2" diskette and it worked perfect for the required dimentions:


Here are the lower suspension arms and the support I mentioned, drilled and located in place:


Then I made the upper suspension arms ensuring that the wheel hub keeps its straight angle against floor:


Time for the coil over shocks wich I made with plastic rod and some wire and used the ends of the original parts:


Here are shown the finished parts, as well as the upper control arm made with the original previously removed part and with some plastic pieces and a pin for the joints to the upper arm:


Tomorrow I'll upload more pics, hope you like it!

[freakray]

Welcome to AF

You're work is outstanding, I can't wait to see more of this build!

[robrex]

Like it? I love it! The front suspension supports look amazing! I eagerly await more progress pics!

[pettercardoso]

I think you have made a bombastic entrance in AF!
Welcome to this endless source of information

I must say that your work is quite impressive. I look forward to the next update..

Would you mind telling me how to you cut that metal sheet so cleanly? I mean, what tool do you use?

Best Regards,
Pedro.

[agamo]

Originally Posted by pettercardoso

Would you mind telling me how to you cut that metal sheet so cleanly? I mean, what tool do you use?

Best Regards,
Pedro.

Sure Pedro!, I used a mototool (Dremmel) with a cutting disk, since it's made of aluminum is very soft, so, after cutting I trimmed it with my X-Acto blade and sanded to a smooth edge, you can cut it easily even with scissors.

The advantage of using this part of the diskette is that is already bent to shape sharply.

Note: some diskettes use steel instead of aluminum.

Thanks fr your words!