My Favorite Indy Car

[russd]

Paul,
Thanks for the link. Lots of info on the 78 Lola
Rusty

[kyledehart5]

Excellent reference. Thank you. Did not know about that site.

[pje]

Time to get back to this one.
This getting old stuff is a bit of a challenge at times. Last year I was diagnosed with macular degeneration. The VA sent me to an outside specialist and he started me on a course of injections. Into my eye balls!!!!!! Really kind of cool. This treatment has only been around about 10 years and I feel very fortunate to be getting it. It kind of reminds me of looking at an old lava lamp as the stuff is injected into my eyes. We started at 4 week intervals and am now up to 8, and my vision is improving. Not huge, but measurably, so I’m hoping for long term stability in my vision.
I need a little help here. I’m working on the cockpit as the photo shows. What is the part circled in red that is forward of the fire bottle? I don’t find anything that looks like that in any of the cockpit photos that I have of this era Lola.



Paul Erlendson

[russd]

Sept 15, 2022 22:53:41 GMT -5 pje said:

Time to get back to this one.
This getting old stuff is a bit of a challenge at times. Last year I was diagnosed with macular degeneration. The VA sent me to an outside specialist and he started me on a course of injections. Into my eye balls!!!!!! Really kind of cool. This treatment has only been around about 10 years and I feel very fortunate to be getting it. It kind of reminds me of looking at an old lava lamp as the stuff is injected into my eyes. We started at 4 week intervals and am now up to 8, and my vision is improving. Not huge, but measurably, so I’m hoping for long term stability in my vision.
I need a little help here. I’m working on the cockpit as the photo shows. What is the part circled in red that is forward of the fire bottle? I don’t find anything that looks like that in any of the cockpit photos that I have of this era Lola.



Paul Erlendson

I can’t be 100% sure but I think it has something to do with the lower aft front suspension pickups.

[Calvin]

Glad your eyes are doing better, Paul.

[indycals]

Wow... glad to hear that it's helping.

[pje]

Although I haven’t posted about any progress on this build in close to a year, that doesn’t mean I haven’t done anything. Time to get you all up to date.

First, I found this in a fortune cookie a couple of years ago and I stuck it on a shelf in front of me at my model bench. I know it’s helping me on this one.



It took a lot of thought, but I’ve figured out how to make the shape I want for the upper exhaust pipe. The lower one I think will do fine with just a little reshaping. To make an oval shape I go back to what I did with the headrest, but in this case, two half rounds and a rectangle. Glue them all together and I’ve got my pipe.



Then I determined where I wanted to cut off the original pipe, measured and cut the length of new oval pipe that I wanted and glued everything together. Then I spent some time over a day applying layers of Mr Disolve Putty to create a fillet between the round and oval pipes.



I also wanted to give the opening some depth so I painted the end with a little black paint. Using the painted end as a guide, I carefully used a Dremel bit to remove some material to create a concave shape. I was happy with the way it turned out and that my hands weren’t too shaky that day!





I didn’t like the look of the shape of the part in front of the pipe so I drilled it out and replaced with a bit of plastic rod. Quite pleased with how it all turned out.



Paul Erlendson

[kyledehart5]

Great to see a resumption of this one. That looks fantastic!

[harveythedog2]

Yes! Great to see you back on it Paul!

[harveythedog2]

Sept 20, 2022 12:08:20 GMT -5 harveythedog2 said:

Yes! Great to see you back on it Paul!

BTW - Looks great! Much better and matches the photo on page 4!

[indy]

Paul, with this new pipe work, will it require some reworking of the bodywork over this section? The 1:1 picture showed a more isosceles trapezoid shape at the top then the 1/25 kit with a rather pointy top of the trailing edge.

Jordan

[pje]

Sept 22, 2022 9:16:28 GMT -5 indy said:

Paul, with this new pipe work, will it require some reworking of the bodywork over this section? The 1:1 picture showed a more isosceles trapezoid shape at the top then the 1/25 kit with a rather pointy top of the trailing edge.

Jordan

Right you are Jordan. The story of that bumpy road is coming up next.

Paul Erlendson

[shunter]

Great to see this one back up on the bench…I’m interested to hear the next update regarding the engine cover

[pje]

Ah, yes…….that bumpy road. I’m back to talk about the bumpy road I’ve had with this build. And how I got back on track. I hope!
I was reshaping the engine cover around the exhaust pipe area and tried to drop the cover in place to check the clearance with the pipe. The cover would not settle into place. It would not sit right at all. Somehow I had over worked the cover and it was warped very badly. It was unusable. I turned off the lights over my desk and went downstairs for a good stiff drink. Actually, more than one.
So once I got over my funk I pulled out a new engine cover (a Chevy one this time) and got to work. After I was fairly happy with the fit, I had to address that additional NACA duct at the right rear. I was in fear of screwing up the cover again so I had a think on how best to do it. Simply. I took one of the lower side pod pieces and cut off most everything but the duct itself. I then sanded down the backside to make it as thin as possible and then glued it in place. Then it was a matter of some putty work to fare it into place. In hind sight, I could have sanded the backside more to make it thinner, but overall I’m pleased with the result.




Next I started to add Evergreen strip to the inside of the cover above the pipes. Once I got the inside looking about right, I started sanding down the top. Here’s how it looks at present. I want to get it tucked in more to the sides of the pipes but I’ve decided to first get the rear suspension built up. I think with it in place I’ll have a better idea on how it all looks.



Paul Erlendson

[Gary Davis]

A lot of great fab work going on here Paul. Glad your eyesight has improved also.

[kyledehart5]

Some impressive work for sure!

[pje]

OK. I’ve got the rear suspension built up and it all looks fairly well aligned. It might take a little tweaking and I’ll do that when I set up the ride height front and rear. I think I’ve decided not to bother with the links that connect the rocker arms to the rear hub carriers that I asked about earlier. I’ve determined that I would have to shorten the rear end of the under tray and add a lot of material to the bottom half of the rear uprights. “A man’s got to know his limitations”.





The kit driveshaft is in place for alignment purposes only. I’ve got some other units in mind that should look much more prototypical than the redwood trunks provided in the kit.

Paul Erlendson

[pje]

I’ve got the engine cover looking the way I want, but it doesn’t like to stay put. I’d been thinking for quite a while about making the cover more secure so why not do it similar to the real car. In looking through my photos I found where the rear fittings where placed. As you can see in the photo I got out the Evergreen strips and with a square and a quarter round I fashioned a mounting point similar to what the actual car had.



Then I taped the cover in place and drilled pilot holes. I missed the first time with one of them so I filled up the holes with plastic and putty and tried again. Got it right on the second try. Nobody said this was going to be an easy build! I then opened up the holes a bit more and counter sunk the hole on the outer bodywork and superglued in a small rivet. Once that was set up I then opened up the holes where the rivets fit in nicely, but not too tight. Now I just have to remember to plug those holes when I paint. Toothpicks should work nicely.





There is also a single mount behind the roll bar. I haven’t decided if I’m going to represent that or not. It would just be a matter of a short piece of Evergreen angle to represent the mount. I don’t think I would have to run a pin through it as the cover sits down nicely. Something to think about.

Paul Erlendson

[kyledehart5]

Man, I’m never going to be able to post one of my old junky Lola’s ever again. 😂😂 Seriously though, your work on this has been second to none since the start. I’m loving it.

[harveythedog2]

Put some paint on it Paul! LOL Looking great!

[indytreads]

Wow this has been an incredible build so far! So much attention to detail. 1987 was my first Indianapolis 500 and this car made such a huge impression on me at 12 years old. Can’t wait to see it finished. Joe

[pje]

While I was working on the final shaping and fitting of the engine cover, I decided it was time to take care of the rear floor stays. I’ve noticed on a lot of Lola’s that the teams used an angled setup. But, on the Haas Lola the stay was parallel to the rear of the floor. I struggled a lot to come up with something that looked fairly prototypical. After a few false starts, I came up with this using RB Motions banjo fittings, tubing and a couple of Scale Hardware stud nuts. I probably should have waited until Friday’s eye doctor appointment and my next shots. Ended up using a lot of magnification to see these little guys. I might try to do a little tweaking to get the ends to lay a little flatter, but the last thing I want to do is bend too much and break one.





Overall, I like the effect. I’ll decide later if I want to paint them black as the real car or leave them as is, so they’re more noticeable.

Paul Erlendson

[Calvin]

That's extreme attention to detail. Impressive!

[kyledehart5]

That’s wonderful

[shunter]

Very nice and a great pickup in your never ending research.

[pje]

Moving forward I concentrated on the area behind the roll bar. This area of Mario’s 1987 car looked quite different than what AMT represented in their 1988 Lola. So, first thing to do was get rid of all accessories behind the overflow valve.
The first part is the fuel overflow valve. This I turned on my lathe. It started out as a rivet and then turned to this. I can’t bear to paint it and I believe that on the car that I’m trying to replicate it was in fact bare metal.







Paul Erlendson

[Calvin]

That looks great! Very nice detail

[shunter]

Looks great and clever use of a plain old rivet.

[pje]

The next part is the air jack hose receptacle. I struggled for a long time to come up with this solution. The problem was replicating the funnel that surrounded the valve for the air hose, that’s plugged in during a pit stop, to activate the air jacks. The funnel acts a guide to quickly insert the air hose to connect to the jack fitting. I started to look at various funnel shaped parts and decided that fuel injectors might do the job. I first looked at the fuel injectors in the old IMC/Testors Lotus 38 kit and thought that one might work. Then I remembered some old Cody Grayland turned stacks that I never found a use for, and problem solved. In the photo with the stacks you can see a light blue part sitting behind the fuel overflow valve. I had planned on using that, but it just wouldn’t work with the aluminum stack.



I solved it by using a small aluminum rivet inserted into the stack.



Fits perfectly and looks very prototypical to my eye, especially after painting the stack satin black.



Paul Erlendson

[Calvin]

It looks perfect!