Out of the box, uncut and unmodified.

First cuts. removed the engine mold.

Next to cut out was the hood.

Sanded and smoothed area after cutting out engine mold.

More cutting. removing material from around the rear crossmember area.

This just will not do. about as lame as a kit can come. with the exhaust actually molded to the chassis, not separate like most kits.

Removed exhaust.

Exhaust gone. time to reshape the transmission tunnel. Decided the wheel wells needed to come out as well. they just don’t look realistic enough to work for this build.

Using styrene strips from my box of styrene stock. not sure the size as I just eyeball most everything I build. Eyeball engineering ftw!

Frame rails going on. My plastic welder I HIGHLY recommend, pictured on the left. approx $5 a bottle.

Frame rail close up.

Engine test fitting after both rails are installed

My drying rig I made using popcicles and masking tape. Was gluing bottom pieces to the frame rails, including the front rad support beam.

This is how I set some things when I glue them and need curing time. Paint bottles work great as weights in cases like this.

More framing going on.

I used a .20 Microlon pen to trace out where I will cut for wheel and tire clearance. I use this technique in all my scratchbuilding.

Progress…

Trimming out for wheel clearance.

Adding vertical framing and more test fitting.

starting to look like an engine bay

Much better fit for the K20 now than with the standard wheel wells it had before I cut them out.

making trim to support the hood when closed. the Inner trim of the 1:1 fender if it were real

trim installed.

adding vertical frame support as well as for structural integrity.

Time for the firewall to come together

What starts as simple shape, will become much more with the use of geometry and my imagination.

Trimming and test fitting firewall. a teaser of the Mf10s it will have on it. test fitting strut towers as well.

the only part of the stock fenders I used. this small portion will work great for replicating the real strut towers.

More strut tower progress.

strut tower testfitting

I scribed and then bent my base firewall shape, the glued the weak points before adding the top portion I cut out, shown here.

The firewall is officially 3D now

Added styrene strips after shaping and angling them.

So many little pieces to put this together.

Master cylinder area in progress

Progress….

Comparing a stock chassis to how much work I’ve done so far.

test fitting and smoothing.

Transmission tunnel coming together. added steering shaft/gear mount for the rack and pinion.

Steering shaft area added to firewall. where the input shaft for the steering rack will go.

Transmission tunnel is almost done

Test fitting strut towers. they’ll be going on soon

marking off where the chassis section of the engine mounts will go.

One shock tower in with wheel wells filled, one side to go.

First shock tower glued in and wheel wells filled. I used cut up ping pong balls for the curved effect they offer and are pretty strong to be such thin plastic. works a bit better than styrene when clearances are this close and tight, every mm counts to get the suspension to sit just right as well as the wheels in the wheel wells.

Test fitting engine. Never enough test fitting.

the center console is molded for rhd only, so I’m going to have to fix that.

Driver side chassis mount progress. Making it as accurate as I can. It’s getting there.

Pass side chassis mount fabbed up and in place.

Right side mount almost done. Once welder and styrene are cured over night, I can clean it up nicely tomorrow. Kmotor, with crank and pulleys, still fits just like the 1:1, just right on point. No measuring, just eyeball engineering.

Part of engine bay coming soon…