MFH Porsche 917 Le Mans Winner 1971 in 1:12 Scale

[Flemming]

Hi

Great stuff - will follow with interest!

Flemming

[sky1911]

Hello, it's time for my next update

Those of you who have already built a MFH Porsche 917 (1:12) may agree that getting the doors fit is the most challenging and bothersome step when building this kit.

As with my previous 917s , the starting point was less encouraging

Blog_Part7_4.jpg

After many hours of gently bending the doors into the desired shape, I finally got both doors to fit

That is the step I'm stuck with on all 3 917s I have. None of them fit remotely. I have tried a "beta" version
of another approach. I attached a piece of paper / thin cardboard to the WM door I wanted to fit. Taped it
to it really, then cut it to match the outline of the door. Tried to get the paper to stay roughly in the shape
of the WM door. Then I took off the paper template and tried fitting it into the door opening of the body to
see what the fit / the gaps would look like. I think I still have a door with the paper templated attached to
it somewhere.
The paper template would only have been that, a template. For in the end I had inteded to cast the door
using low weight fibreglass cloth (I've got both, woven and chopped strands mattes) and resin. That would
give me the basic shape that would still need to be tweaked into place. But as always, I ran out of time
(and patience).

If you have the doors fitting, I would be willing to buy a resin copy of those doors of yours when made to
fit (for all the 917s ), because twiddling around hours for just 2 doors...

Of course, all pictures have been saved - thank you again for this guide.

As for the car... yes, I think we share the same passion for the 917. I've recently made the 4h trip down
to Zuffenhausen to the Porsche museum just to see those 4x 917s (3 of them "real") in the flesh for once
and take a few pictures of them - LM 1971 #21 (917LH), LM 1971 #22 (917KH), LM 1971 #23 (917/20) and
a fourth, I believe, was wearing a made up Martini livery #20 (917KH). To me it is the greatest race car
ever made. Oh, and then there was the 917/30 engine, another thing of beauty, deserving a model on its
own, displayed the way it is shown in the museum.

[Joaquin]

Comparing pictures of the real car and the kit, the shape of the nose corner is too square in the kit. Are you going to make a correction? I think this is one of the weak points of this kit

[VR2]

Roman, I'm afraid that casting a door in resin, which fits to a specific 917 build, will not 1:1 fit into another 917 build. All four of the four 917s, which I've build so far or which are currently WIP had been different in getting the doors into a acceptable fit. E.g. after many hours of (sometimes frustrating) attempts), I finally got both doors of the Daytona Winning car into an acceptable fit. E.g. the left door, which is closed in this pic is not glued in place and can be opened/closed as you like. However, installing exactly this door into another 917 kit will (most) likely not fit w/o adjusting it again - guess this was the case on the real cars as well. My explanation is that the B-pillar of the front cowl has some "preload" to direction L, which is not evident until you remove the "reinforcement bridges" and this preload is a bit different kit by kit.

In order to fix this issue, I've got the best results by a temporary assembly of all body and chassis parts, which have an influence on the final fit of the doors. This is done with all door hinges and screws installed. Typically I have to repeat the "install/test/uninstall/modify" cycle 10+ times for each door and yes, that's not what we modelers like. But when you're finally done, the result is rewarding. We should also not get blinded by the perfectly restored 917s in the Porsche Museum. If we look at the contemporary pictures of e.g. Joe Honda, we see the fit of some body parts far from being perfect.

Btw. the Porsche Museum is very close to where I live. In case you plan another visit there, just PM me. Might be a good opportunity to meet there f2f and share our experiences.

Joaquin, you're absolutely right with the shape of the nose corner .. too square on the MFH kit part vs . the real car. I was already thinking about to correct this and will likely do it (at least round the nose corner a bit more). Many thanks for pointing to this issue.

Cheers, Uli

[whatisdeletrazdoing]

Uli,
Lovely work, this is an incredible build. While looking for a new background picture for my computer I found some nice photos that could be useful for this project:

From the front - before the damage

Also before the damage

From above

Right side

Pits close-up

Pits from afar

Hope it helps!
Jake

[VR2]

Jake, this pics are of great help. Thanks a lot !

Joaquim, coming back to your very valuable input. I've again checked/compared pictures of the real car as raced in Le Mans (from different viewpoints and taking also Jake's pics into account) vs. the MFH kit and concluded that the difference is not as big as it appeared at a first glance. Depending on the viewpoint, you get a more squared appearance or a more rounded. Nevertheless, there is a slight difference vs. the kit, which I've corrected in the meantime.

Thanks again,
Uli

[VR2]

In the meantime, work on the engine has started. Building the model of this magnificent engineering masterpiece of Hans Mezger deserves great attention in terms of authenticity and detailing.
As in my previous posts, I'll focus on how to avoid potential pitfalls during the build and on the extra details added to the MFH standard kit.


At the cylinders, the hole on the exhaust side should be enlarged to 3.5mm to ensure a good fit when installing the exhaust assembly later on.

The cylinders got a wash and have been polished afterwards. All holes for the intake and exhaust side have been fully drilled through.

Cylinders attached to engine main body

Extra details added to Gearbox

Plenty of extra details added to the Oil Distribution Casting at the front of the engine.

The lathe will be frequently used during this build

Next update coming soon.

BR, Uli

[CBartholomew4677]

Wow!! Such fantastic work you're doing with the Porsche here. The attention to detail and added details are really impressive. Keep up the great work, looking forward to seeing more.
Cheers,
Chris

[sky1911]

Hello Uli,

stellar work as always. Thank you for showing your steps and also the parts you are using when they are
not selfmade.
Regarding meeting up and comparing notes - I love that idea and I will get back to you regarding that. You
are lucky in that you live close to the Porsche museum. For me it's a day trip. Initially I wanted to go there
for this year's "Soundnacht" (917!!), but as I was planning on going on a vacation to some tropical place, I
didn't bother calling their hotline for a ticket. In the end I ended up not going on that trip and was left
without a ticket to the show (sold out by then), so I actually visited the museum the Saturday before the
"Soundnacht"... D'Oh!

[Gooch]

Excellent work great attention to detail.