Johan 1935 Mercedes 500K Work in Progress.

The first thing I did to the car parts, physically is I cut the fenders off.

Here is the floor pan with the front and rear fenders, and running boards cut off. This is the rough cut, I left some material so I can sand the part to the right shape.

And here is how the body sits on the floor.

Next step I murdered the chassis.

Here is the stock chassis.

Here I marked the parts I am going to remove to simplify the chassis for hot rod use.

And here is the simplified chassis.

Once I cut away half of the car, I got to work on the engine.

I kept the supercharged inline 8, but I hot rodded it. I added wiring. I replaced the chrome mesh air cleaner on the end of the intake with a "scoop." And I replaced the end of the plastic oil filler with a wire dipstick handle to add a little detail.

Then the most notable hot rod feature. I replaced the exhaust manifold with 8 straight pipes. All the chrome in the photos below is done with SMS Hyperchrome.  I love this stuff.

And then here is a shot of the engine sitting in the chassis with the body on it.

Exterior paint is applied now.  I decided to try out Mission Models Paints this time. I usually use Splash Paints on my exteriors.

Mission Models Paints took a little learning, but I really like how well they coat. I screwed up the paint the first time by not following instructions. I just said this is acrylic paint, so I thinned it 50:50 with water, just like I do with Tamiya paints.

I tested the paint and it took a miilion coats to get and even color coat. I counted, it took 1,000,000 coats.

This couldn't be right, so I looked up how I was supposed to mix it. 10 parts paint, 1 part poly clear, and 1 part thinner is what Mission Models said to use. I found this to be too thick, so I played with it and eventually ended up happy with 10:3:3 Paint:poly clear:thinner.

With the 10:3:3 mix, this maroon paint went over black primer and coated well with only 2 coats.

Once pait was applied, I added clear. I used my go to, my favorite clear.... Mr Super Clear UV Cut from Mr Hobby.  I have an airbrush, I can use any clearcoat I want. But I use this Mr Hobby gloss clear in spray cans. It is that good.

Enough words, here are the photos.

I still need to polish these parts.

Here is the chassis.

The floor pan.

The body.

Everything kind of set together.

Interesting modification plan!I like it!

As someone once said "Love it when a plan comes together" (or something close to that).

Looking great!

Stay Safe.

Jim 

I made a little more progress.  I have a rooling chassis!

I need to go back and make a driveshaft though. Johan didn't seem to feel that it was important that the transmission and rear differential were connected.

The frame is painted the same maroon color as the body. And the wheels and tires come from Revells new 29 Model A kit. I painted the wheels BBS Gold.

The body is all done, and the interior is done as well. I just have to glue them to the chassis. After that I have to figure out the headlights and other fiddly little bits.

Coming along very nicely! 

Stay Safe.

Jim 

Love those old JoHan classic kits, even with their gaps and occasional flaws.

Great work! 

What!? Hot Rodding a....! why you can't, uh well.....   I guess you can and have, I might add, done it very well.  Very good modeling. Well done.