Return to the BUILD
“Fit the radiator honeycombs, cooled water return pipe, and oil cooler line to the radiator housing, then install the housing to the main chassis and engine.”
Contents
Parts
- 35A – Large Front Honeycomb (F1)
- 35B – Small Front Honeycomb (F2)
- 35C – Large Rear Honeycomb (R1)
- 35D – Small Rear Honeycomb (R2)
- 35E – Cooled Water Return Pipe
- 35F – Oil Cooler Line
- 2x CM screws (+1 extra)
Materials: All of the parts in this phase are plastic.
Magazine – Issue 10
- Assembly Guide: Model Instructions
- Track Legends: AC Cobra & Lola T70
- The Story of Motorsports: Hillclimb Races, Competition in the 1930s and 1940s
- Ace Racers: Carroll Shelby
- Challenging Circuits: Paris-Bordeaux 1895
Build
The Honeycomb Heat Exchanger
If you look closely at the Honeycomb parts, they are marked with F1, F2, R1, and R2 to tell them apart. The recesses in the Radiator have similar markings to press these into:
Step 01
Retrieve the Radiator assembly from the previous phase. Press the four pins of the Large Front Honeycomb (marked F1) into the matching posts at the front of the Radiator assembly, as shown.
These Honeycomb parts are all just press-fit and will stay in place without any glue or screws:
Press the two pins of the Small Front Honeycomb (marked F2) into the matching posts at the front of the Radiator assembly, as shown:
Step 02
Press the four pins of the Large Rear Honeycomb (marked R1) into the matching posts at the rear of the Radiator assembly, as shown:
Press the two pins of the Small Rear Honeycomb (marked R2) into the matching posts at the rear of the Radiator assembly, as shown:
Step 03
Press the D-shaped pin of the Cooled Water Return Pipe into this matching hole at the bottom rear of the Radiator assembly. The free end of this Cooled Water Return Pipe should angle up and back, as shown:
Step 04
Retrieve your Chassis assembly. Bring this Radiator assembly to the front of the Chassis until you can fit the free end of the Cooled Water Return Pipe over this pin of the Water Pump, as shown.
Take care not to damage or dislodge any of the delicate existing parts on your Chassis assembly. This pin on the Water Pump is hard to see and even harder to try to take a picture of:
Lower the two tabs on either side of the Radiator assembly down onto the Main Chassis, aligning the screw holes as shown.
There are recesses in the Main Chassis that these tabs sit down into:
Push the pin on the end of the long silver Radiator Hose B (from the previous phase) down into this hole of the Firewall:
On my model, this hole in the Firewall was just too small to fit the end of the hose into. I had to enlarge the hole a little bit using my round needle file:
Finally, secure the Radiator assembly to the Main Chassis with two (2) CM screws, as shown.
Since this screw is driving into metal, I recommend a little drop of 3-in-Oil on the tip:
Step 05
Push the end of Radiator Hose C (from the previous phase) onto this pin of the Coolant Expansion Tank Top:
Push the downward-facing pin midway along Radiator Hose C into this matching socket of the Intake Manifold:
Press the downward-facing pin at the bend of Radiator Hose C into this matching socket of the Intake Manifold:
Step 06
Push the two pins underneath Radiator Hose B (from the previous phase) into these matching sockets of the Engine Cylinder Head.
These pins look like they should go all the way in, but they do not. There should be a gap between the hose and cylinder head, as shown:
Step 07
Push the hole in the end of Radiator Hose A (from the previous phase) up onto this pin of the Intake Manifold:
Step 08
Starting with the shorter ‘leg’ of the Oil Cooler Line, press these two pins into the matching holes of the Radiator Top, as shown:
Push the socket at the other end of the Oil Cooler Line onto this upper pin of the Oil Reservoir Filler Tube (from Phase 27).
The hole in the end of the Oil Cooler Line was too small to fit over this pin. I has to use some of the smaller drill bits of my pin vise set to make the hole a little larger until it fit over the pin nicely:
Step 09
Fit the free end of the Cylinder Head Oil Line (from Phase 09) onto the lower pin of the Oil Reservoir Filler Tube, as shown.
The Cylinder Head Oil Line is much longer than it needs to be. I cut off a good amount of it until it fit better:
While the previous step completed this phase, I wanted to share a photo of the overall Chassis progress so far:
Thoughts
Wrangling all of these radiator hoses required some patience. They are not very flexible and I can tell they are quite delicate. Just take your time and don’t force anything. The next group of phases involve assembling the interior of our 300SL, so we can store this Chassis someplace safe for now.
Next Up
Phase 36 – Interior: Floor Pan