Viva La France

[OldSlotGuy]

The Ford France crew work tirelessly thorough the night to finish the its 1967 Targa Florio entry – a brand new GT40 decked out in the patriotic Tricolour hues, the red, white and blue of course. The build started off easily enough using Devcon Plastic Welder to mate the front and rear of the body and to secure the hood. The first of many “problems” leading to delay was the selection and application of paint. I chose Rust-oleum painter’s touch 2x gloss white. I found this brand takes at least two solid coats before the surface is consistently shiny. I sprayed the first coat it the finish looked great. When I returned to look at the model a couple of hours later, the paint dried to a dull finish. After waiting 48 hours, I painted the GT40 again and the finish turned out fine. The next issue occurred when I test fitted the body to the finished chassis. The chassis side pans were a bit too wide and when the body was mounted it interfered with the Scholer chassis movement impacting handling. After much consideration, I decided to “stretch” the body in 165 degree water rather than re-make the pans. I worried that the process might interfere with the paint so I waited a few extra days for the paint to set. Also, I worried about the single decal I had affixed. In the end the stretching went fine but again delayed completion. I tested the car this morning. It ran well but I will experiment with some weight “tuning”. Below are images of the finished product. Enjoy.