Hi Guys,
So, I have some photos and work to share. It's been a while since I asked the first question here, but now I've finally gotten somewhere. First of all, a model and this little hobbyist do not go together well...
I forgot the first rule of Dachshund Kingdom: "If it's on the floor, it's mine". I left a few parts on the ground and in no time at all I had a severely altered firewall and teeth marks in my oil pan. 
Off to eBay to order another one....
Anyway, I've been doing a lot of research and doing some test-fitting; it seems that it's ok to add the nose cone if you DON'T add this filler piece, inserted here as a prudent spacer while the cone glues. The chassis inserts around the bottom of the radiator, and if you add the spacer, you can't do that when ou assemble it.
The body so far. The tail wing is not glued on, but it's in three parts and needs to be assembled, so I have the tabs in thebody where it will go so that it sets straight.
The sides of the tub. I used some BMF (bare metal foil) here, but realized that it really didn't look much better than the silver enamel paint, so I didn't bother with a lot of it on the small details. All of the lines and seams were detailed with a pin wash of gray oil paint. This really gives some depth to the white parts.
The re-assembled 2nd engine. After reading through a bunch of hoohah on that internet on the "correct color" of orange, I painted it Tamiya Orange and declared it perfectly suitable. It really seems that Tamiya matched their orange to a good Hemi orange. I detailed it with pin washes of Black oil. The pipes have been roughened up a but by adding Mr Surfacer 500, and were painted Gull Gray and speckled with craft store "Pennsylvania Clay" to show a little bit of heat damage.
The interior got a "carpet" of embossing powder over white glue. This looks MUCH better than flocking material for a realistic carpet.
How it looks with some paint...
The wood parts were painted with craft store acrylics. Tan first, then diluted wood color stroked on with an old brush. The silver parts are painted, not BMF'ed.
The tub assembled with dash.
I'll be going for the Bronze/Copper finish on this one. I've got some "poverty caps", and will be making what is essentially comedian David Spade's new Daytona.
So that's all I've got so far. Stay tuned for more fun! 