Super 7 GTS

[Scale-Master]

After sanding and shaping the doors and fenders I think there’s at most about .015 of the styrene at the thickest areas. It was time for the first prime to check progress. The door gaps still need some serious fine tuning, but that will wait until after I do more fabrication on the frame mounts.

[Scale-Master]

The kit brakes are accurate for a stock Super 7, but with the larger wheels I’m using they look way too anemic. I had drawn up a set of rotors for my Lola T70 years ago but opted to machine them for that project. These wheels have larger hubs than the T70 so I modified the file and grew a new set of rotors (they also required some machining after being printed). The rotor hubs are a press fit to the rotors and the new brakes are a direct retro fit to the Caterham suspension. The stock Caterham brakes are in the foreground.
Front:

Rear:


The wheels fit right where they should in the wheel wells and have clearance for steering and the working suspension.

[Scale-Master]

Since there isn’t a proper trunk inside like a traditional full bodied car would have, I decided to use the rear aluminum sheet metal from the Super 7. Because I had originally engineered the body to not use any of the exterior body panels, I had to do some cutting on the aluminum and a little sanding inside the body for the added wall thickness.

[Scale-Master]

The calipers are also carry-overs from my Lola T70. They are Wilwood 6 piston Corvette retrofit units that I designed in CAD and printed masters for casting. The brake pads are separate parts. New brackets have been added to the Super 7 front spindles to mount the calipers. I will machine proper bolt hardware for the final assembly.

[Scale-Master]

Brackets were added to the rear axle to mount the calipers too.

The axle stub from the kit was repurposed and machined bolt hardware will replace the screws later.

[Scale-Master]

The body was engineered to use the kit provided headlights and they fit as planned.

[Scale-Master]

The muffler mounts to the outside of the body on a traditional Super 7, but on this one it is enveloped within the body. That created a minor installation challenge. I cut the kit exhaust into three pieces and drilled the ends of the muffler to accept machined brass sleeves. The forward section of the exhaust pipe was bolted to the header and will be installed with it. (The original exhaust is above the cut up one, I have extras from other builds.)

This allowed me to install the muffler from the opening in the bottom of the body, then attach the tailpipe through the same access hole.

An exit hole was cut into the body matching the angle of the tailpipe.

[Scale-Master]

I used the same technique for the hood and top of the front fenders as I did for the doors, sheet styrene to build up the low spots before sanding the areas to be true to each other.

After priming, much better.

[Scale-Master]

I bent a piece of steel rod to fit around the windshield in a groove I engineered into the design for it and heavily cemented it in place.

[Scale-Master]

The door handles are two piece affairs and there is a left and a right that match the contours of their respective doors.