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After almost 20 months away from the hobby, I am back sitting at my new desk and building again!
The kit I chose to start with was a Fujimi Mitsubishi Evolution VII which I chose because it doesn't have lots of parts and I thought it'd be easy... but I was very wrong in my thinking because these kits require so much work to make them decent! Anyways, here is my progress so far.
The kit I chose.. the Tein version which I'll however build into a road going version.
And all the box contents.
I was happy to find an official 2002 Tein catalogue, it was a nice surprise inside
Here is the body which has a big amount of mold marks and requires many hours of sanding to get smooth.
The wheels were also a nice surprise.. a set of 18" Enkei NT-03s which I will keep
And speaking of size.. 18" NT03s look great lowered beneath an Evo.. so I'll definitely keep these
First thing to do was to sand off all the body mold lines and temporarily assemble the chassis to see the standard Fujimi ride height... which I find to be disgusting and required a lot of work to lower correctly
From these pictures, it does look like a Pajero ride height, but it might not look as bad. But in real life, believe me, it does look bad!
Here is my progress in getting the Evo to sit low and keeping all the wheels rotating.. I won't be playing with it but I like to turn the wheels the way I want once completed!
First thing to do was to sand down the back of the body arches to make the plastic as narrow as possible, since the body's plastic is so thick and will leave the wheels way back into the arches once completed. Then I sanded down the inner arches on the chassis to allow the wheels to move upwards as requested!
Then it was off to the rear set-up. I separated the disc brakes from the shock absorbers and attached the discs directly to the arms at a higher position.
This made the rear wheels sit at the required stance, however they got in the way of the shock absorbers. So I cut out the top part where the absorbers slide into the chassis and moved them the maximum possible to the inner side. This will make the shock absorber stand further inside the arch and free from the wheel!
Once both were glued in place, the arches were filled with putty and sanded!
Then it was off for the front set-up. First thing was to cut 2mm off the shock absorbers.
This made the wheels sit at my required stance, however now the steering rod connecting both wheels was touching the chassis so I opened the slot seen below to make way for it!
Then I added 2 spacers beneath the front arms to compensate for the smaller shock absorbers.
Finally, here is a view of the chassis! All arches were re-inforced with styrene and I built that box in the front to cover the opening I made earlier for the steering rod!
And did all these modifications, actually work?? Yes they did
.. here is how the Evo is now sitting at my desk
Next challenge was to detail the under body since Fujimi's diff and shaft were making me sick
This is how the original under body looked when assembled
So I brought out the saw and began cutting off the differential (or T-shaped box!!) together with the one-piece shaft. The open hole was then filled with styrene and finally finished with several layers of putty.
The under body was then lightly primered in white to reveal any defects in the putty. Beneath the chassis are the new parts from the spares box which I'm going to use instead of the original diff and shaft assembly!
The new parts were butchered up and re-arranged to get them to the exact needed lenght for the Evo. The blue pieces are also from the spares box and will be used as bellow covers behind the rear disc brakes. The 2 holes beneath the diff were made to hold the diff exactly in place when final assembly comes!
Finally, here is the new Evo under body all assembled and in place. It may look like a minor modification, but I'm sure the long hours spent on this will make the chassis look muuuuuuch better in the end
Last piece of work on the chassis.. I've replaced the exhaust muffler with a new one made from scratch by a friend from aluminium rods. It is exactly the same size and diameter as the Fujimi A'pex N1 Muffler! I'll polish it later on during the build to bring it to a nice shiny finish!
Here it is.. and next to the car you can see the original Evo muffler.
Thanks for looking,
Karl
The kit I chose to start with was a Fujimi Mitsubishi Evolution VII which I chose because it doesn't have lots of parts and I thought it'd be easy... but I was very wrong in my thinking because these kits require so much work to make them decent! Anyways, here is my progress so far.
The kit I chose.. the Tein version which I'll however build into a road going version.
And all the box contents.
I was happy to find an official 2002 Tein catalogue, it was a nice surprise inside
Here is the body which has a big amount of mold marks and requires many hours of sanding to get smooth.
The wheels were also a nice surprise.. a set of 18" Enkei NT-03s which I will keep
And speaking of size.. 18" NT03s look great lowered beneath an Evo.. so I'll definitely keep these
First thing to do was to sand off all the body mold lines and temporarily assemble the chassis to see the standard Fujimi ride height... which I find to be disgusting and required a lot of work to lower correctly
From these pictures, it does look like a Pajero ride height, but it might not look as bad. But in real life, believe me, it does look bad!
Here is my progress in getting the Evo to sit low and keeping all the wheels rotating.. I won't be playing with it but I like to turn the wheels the way I want once completed!
First thing to do was to sand down the back of the body arches to make the plastic as narrow as possible, since the body's plastic is so thick and will leave the wheels way back into the arches once completed. Then I sanded down the inner arches on the chassis to allow the wheels to move upwards as requested!
Then it was off to the rear set-up. I separated the disc brakes from the shock absorbers and attached the discs directly to the arms at a higher position.
This made the rear wheels sit at the required stance, however they got in the way of the shock absorbers. So I cut out the top part where the absorbers slide into the chassis and moved them the maximum possible to the inner side. This will make the shock absorber stand further inside the arch and free from the wheel!
Once both were glued in place, the arches were filled with putty and sanded!
Then it was off for the front set-up. First thing was to cut 2mm off the shock absorbers.
This made the wheels sit at my required stance, however now the steering rod connecting both wheels was touching the chassis so I opened the slot seen below to make way for it!
Then I added 2 spacers beneath the front arms to compensate for the smaller shock absorbers.
Finally, here is a view of the chassis! All arches were re-inforced with styrene and I built that box in the front to cover the opening I made earlier for the steering rod!
And did all these modifications, actually work?? Yes they did
.. here is how the Evo is now sitting at my desk Next challenge was to detail the under body since Fujimi's diff and shaft were making me sick
This is how the original under body looked when assembled
So I brought out the saw and began cutting off the differential (or T-shaped box!!) together with the one-piece shaft. The open hole was then filled with styrene and finally finished with several layers of putty.
The under body was then lightly primered in white to reveal any defects in the putty. Beneath the chassis are the new parts from the spares box which I'm going to use instead of the original diff and shaft assembly!
The new parts were butchered up and re-arranged to get them to the exact needed lenght for the Evo. The blue pieces are also from the spares box and will be used as bellow covers behind the rear disc brakes. The 2 holes beneath the diff were made to hold the diff exactly in place when final assembly comes!
Finally, here is the new Evo under body all assembled and in place. It may look like a minor modification, but I'm sure the long hours spent on this will make the chassis look muuuuuuch better in the end
Last piece of work on the chassis.. I've replaced the exhaust muffler with a new one made from scratch by a friend from aluminium rods. It is exactly the same size and diameter as the Fujimi A'pex N1 Muffler! I'll polish it later on during the build to bring it to a nice shiny finish!
Here it is.. and next to the car you can see the original Evo muffler.
Thanks for looking,
Karl
