Sheepscot Autocar C-90 for the A&S Railroad.

[Raymo]

Last week a care package arrived from Orlando Fl. from Tom containing a plastic box I brought to the EXPO with some vehicles and a couple of Sheepscot kits Tom asked me to build for him. I decided to build the Autocar first, and if you've seen the video I did for Brian Bollinger, a lot of this will look familar.

[Raymo]

The contents of the kit

[Raymo]

We'll start by filing down the mold marks on the frame. I use a small file I bought at Home Depot and different grit sanding sticks to clean up the frame. I'll only use about 3/4 of this frame so that will be all that's cleaned up. I also won't spend time cleaning up inside the frame rails because they won't be seen. There are 2 ears on one end of the frame, these will be cleaned up so the grille can sit down on them.

[Raymo]

While I'm cleaning up metal parts,I'll do the wheels. I use the file and a coarse sanding stick also to do this.

[Raymo]

A little trick I've learned is to use the edge of the file to ream out the seam of the inside rear tire. You might also need to hit this with a small needle file so it fits over the nub of the outside wheel

[Raymo]

My super glues of choice are the one's made by Bob Smith Industries. The blue bottle is real thin and the pink is medium thickness. When working with the metal parts it's IMPORTANT that areas to be glued be cleaned whether by sanding or scraping the area to be glued for good adhesion.

[Raymo]

I pressed the inside tire over the nub of the outside tire and put a drop of the thin super glue at the seam and let it flow into the seam.

[Raymo]

While they were setting up, I went back to the front wheels and drilled them out with a 1/16 bit. I sanded up the brass wire and glued up one side with the medium superglue. I also did a rear wheel at this time. MAKE SURE you give yourself enough brass wire to work with.

[Raymo]

Time to switch over cleaning up the cab. There was a fair amount of flash around the bottom of the grille and a lot of little resin bubbles at the cab windows.  These were cleaned up with a #11 blade and needle files. The bottom of the cab was cleaned up with sanding sticks and some fine grit sand paper.

[Raymo]

While cleaning up the bottom of the cab ,I drill a 1/8th hole in the bottom of the cab to accept a Dremel #401 mandrel. You could use a sheetrock screw but I like these because they don't cut up your fingers and the cab will spin easy in your fingers when doing the detail painting.

[Raymo]

Here's the cab all cleaned up of flash. There may some pinholes on the bottom of the cab that could be filled with putty at this time if you feel the need to do so.

[Raymo]

Time to add some details to the cab... Auto cars of this era had the mirrors mounted high on the cab. George includes a set of 3 photo etch mirrors, a small set of round, a small set of rectangular, and a set of west coast mirrors, we'll use the small round. When cutting photo etch, I've found that you get a cleaner cut the deeper in throat of the shears you can get the piece. NOT THIS  THIS

[Raymo]

Hopefully you get the point.   I also installed the two headlights by drilling holes in the side of the grille about halfway between the horizontal bars.

[Raymo]

...More in a bit..

[Raymo]

At this point it's back to the frame to attach the axle blocks. Looking at this photo, the front is to the left, rear to the right. The front axle block is resin and George still includes this in some kits. The rear mount is metal and this has been swapped out for a resin piece in newer kits. I cut the lugs down to look closer to the front mount. I attached the front mount just behind the first crossmember. I've cut down the frame for the body I want to use and attached the rear axle mount just ahead of the 5th crossmember.