Catch Up With Part 4 : HERE
Next up is the doors, and here’s where I did my usual break with the planned “don’t do more than has to be done”. First up I decided I wanted the rear doors open, not because they really needed to be but just because I could. This meant redoing the interior of the storage compartment which really should have been done before it all went together, but hey, why do things the easy way. So the little storage section accessed from above was added as well as internal lining and bracing and a middle shelf.
Then the doors needed to be detailed which meant adding the locking mechanisms and wiring to the inside, and redoing the fittings on the outside to make them look closer to the real thing, which included adding the rubber stoppers and redoing the handle. Not really that much to do to these beyond the fiddly little bits ( my hobbies include crawling around under tables with a torch and a pair of tweezers ).
Then the side door dilemma. The outer handles had to go, no question about that, but I really wanted to add the internal grab handle and the mounts for the side glass panels. But the centre part of the doors was too thick. So after much internal debate I just dived in, thinned the doors right back, removing all the internal detail bar the locking mechanism in the process.
Then it was just a case of adding lock tongues, rebuilding the edge bracing, adding the grab handles and the window mounts, drilling the holes in the top of the window mounts and adding the external stopper. Easy peasy and only a day per door, and the whole time asking “are we having fun yet”.
The photos show the kit door next to the modified door, and yes they still need the final sanding and clean-up ( and yes I slipped with the knife and took a slice out of the lower frame of the door handle inset which I needed to patch up ). The version as seen in the undercoated photos is a huge improvement over the kit doors and from here just needs the final tidy up before the final undercoat. The last series of photos is of the doors to scale ( assuming a 19in monitor set to 1366×768 ) as this gives a better idea of the finished effect without all the grossly magnified scratches etc.
