Belanger Special Done and assembly question

[cobra276]

I just finished my Belanger Special last night, came out real nice.




As I was thinking about what I would have done differently I was wondering if there was a better way for test fitting these resin kit suspensions. Would it work to super glue the suspensions in place prior to painting to assure fit and stance then use debonder to disassemble the kit for painting? I've never used debonder this way and really don't want to mess up a good kit, and those soft suspension parts.

Dave

[pylonguy2003]

Dave -

Super job! I recently picked up a copy of Dick Wallen's book on 1950's racing and this car is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. I too share a frustration as to the best way to install the suspensions on the Jorgensen kits. Hope someone comes up with a good method. Thanks for sharing these photos!

Tim
;D

[Deleted]

Very, very and very nice! Beautiful build. What did you use o the grill? One thing about a Jorgensen kit...it allows you to come up with the answers to some of those questions...

I remember I painted the body first, then I mounted the rear suspension parts and the rear suspension. You got to love the old engine up front Dirt/Indy Cars! Again, nice work!

Best to you

Russ

[macsparty]

That's a beauty.

The suspensions are definitely the hardest part for me, considering I'm one of those who is not entirely sure how things worked on the 1:1 cars, and looking at old (and new) photos can only help so much. Darn wheels seem to always be in the way.

I can say on the Dallaras I've built, I make sure I have holes drilled and lined up to take the pins in the suspension pieces. Then I put a stack of business cards under the tub to "jack" it up to the desired height, glue the suspension pieces in, then glue the wheels on, letting them "sag" to the table surface so all four are level. All this is done after the body is painted, but before decals.

[herk56]

Suspensions can be very "fiddly", even for someone that DOES understand how they work. It's just hard to get everything lined up. I sometimes mock things up with white glue and even make up "sub-assemblies", 3 or 4 parts that can be glued together and detail painted before attaching to the car. Anyway, nice job on that one, Dave! I like the color. The Belanger actually had a very interesting suspension, parallel torsion bars. They can be seen in some pics of the car. Bill didn't really include them with his parts but they would be easy to scratch-build. You can also get a pretty good idea of the set-up from Bob Clidinst's drawings.

Brian

[sandysixtysfan]

Really nice job! Good timing also I just got one from Bill J so I've been real interested in this thread.
Sandy

[cobra276]

Mighty Tacky, is that like rubber cement? Rubber cement came to me as something to try. Shouldn't effect the resin, its soft and be easy to remove.

Paint was Duplicolor DM2585 Dark Blue Metalic. I use mostly lacquers on my models, enamel just goes on too thick, especially the bodies.

I used the kit grill. I found some nice pictures on the web at
www.rumbledrome.com/belanger.html

In web site I noticed the grill had ring around the grill, so I reduced the outside diameter and glued a piece of sytrene around the outside. Painted it with Autoclad chrome, which all the suspension and exhaust was painted with. I also drilled a hole in the grill and glued in piece of brass for the starter access.

I did see the torsion bars on some of my references, but decided that this is supposed to be fun and adding them might just be more frustrating than it was worth. Sometimes I just go way to far over the top.

Dave

[2lapsdown]

Could we see a photo from the front to see how you handled the front suspension? I agree with all the others, a really great job!!!

[racerbrown]

man that is just beautiful!
more pics please!
duane

[cobra276]

Here's the bottom which shows how I used a brass pin through the front end to mount it to the body. I didn't see an offset to the suspension in the books I had, so I centered it. I noted the fitting wasn't centered in the front axil, hence the offset on the body. I had the depth set right before painting, but painting filled it somewhat and when I glued it in place it was too high and the steering alignment was off, hence the reason you can see pin shaft connecting the steering shaft to the tie rod end in one of the photos below. Dimples in the body located the hole for the steering rod. Close up photos show me where I need to touch up the paint. I need to had some hex styreen rod to duplicate the castle nut that would be used on the steering shaft.
<P>
<P>



<P>
It's amazing what close photos show. You can see I made the tie rod arms and glued them to the bottom of each spindle and a a steering arm on the top, I forgot to glue up one end.

After I got it assembled I noticed how really large the brakes were. The photo in the Rumbledrome web page shows a significantly smaller brake. Maybe the Indy configureation had larger brakes but I'm not sure.<P>



Here's the grill which shows the starter shaft hole I put in and better shows the styrene rim I put on the resin grill. Gad a dog hair...we have 4 so keeping it off my bench is a real challenge! <P>

<P>
All the rods were brass tubing. I cut off a piece the same diameter as the rod, set it on a surface for soldering hole side up agains the horizontal rod basically adding ends, which I used straight pins to connect. Something softer would be better to use, pin top finishes it off nicely though.<P>

[Deleted]

I think you did an awesome job on this one!

I am not real sure if I have a kit of this one, or not, on order. ;D I am getting ready to finish the '56 winner from Bill's and I am going to build the #98 that Russ showed after that.

Mongo

[cobra276]

I appreciate the compliments but I see a LOT of nice models on this forum, which is why I'm watching it. I'm also one who is never satisfied...good and bad

The biggest challenge with this kit was the louvers. Casting those must be tough because I also spent a lot of time cleaning up the vent and filling all the lilttle air bubbles. I did find a neat tool, a palette knife used in oil painting primarily, nice little point and handle. I recommend checking them out.

Dave