[mrhenley@yahoo.com]

I apologize in advance, that this will be a fairly long answer. I want to cover all the bases!
I haven't really decided on the best way to do the body. I am chatting with a couple of other modelers, and one has a CNC router. I am going to forward the cad drawing of the body, that Ozgur sent me, and see if the format is okay, etc. If that works, he'll make me a 1/8th form, and I'll lay up a fibreglass mold of it. With that mold made, I could either do fibreglass bodies, or with some extra steps, resin. If, for whatever reason, we can't do it that way, I am going to try to get a bunch of 1/8th cross sections from Ozgur's drawing. I will use the cross sections, and bondo, to make a buck, to take a fibreglass mold off of. Then, of course, I will be at the same stage as I would have been with the CNC master.
I haven't tried any tests yet, but I am also thinking I might be able to vac form the bodies out of sheet plastic. Normally, you can't vac form anything with sides that curve in and under, because it would end up locked to the mold. I have two ideas. I might try to make a master that would have some wedges to hold it together. I would assemble the master, and pull the plastic over it. Then, I would go to the bottom of the master, and take out the wedges, letting the master collapse and release the body. If this works, I could crank out bodies pretty quickly, and it wouldn't cost too much to make them. That would be great, because if I do try to sell some, the price would be a lot lower.
The other idea is based on the older Revell model cars, that had multipiece bodies you assembled. I would get a master made, by whatever method works best, and make a fibreglass copy of it. I would cut up the copy, into pieces with no undercuts, so the plastic would come right off the mold. I might have to make an intermediate casting to cut up. Then, I could set up each mold, and pull, say a dozen vac forms of it. I would do that for all the molds and pieces. Again, this would be fast and cheap. The problem here is that all the pieces would have to be assembled and carefully finished. If I did it, it would take more time, and I'd have to charge more. If I sold it in pieces the buyer had to put together, it might not appeal to less experienced modelers.
If I can work out the vac form process, I might make the engine blocks, transmissions, seats, etc. out of vac form plastic. Advantage: cheaper to make. Disadvantage: this would require more hand assembly work, like a multipiece body.
I'm thinking I MIGHT be able to vac form the tires. This would require some tricky molds, and hand assembly. MicroMark has a flexible casting material that can be colored. They say you can use it to make tires. I'll look into it, but I think it would more trouble, and cost more than resin. Not sure on this, yet.
At first, I am thinking of turned metal rims, and resin cast centers for the wheels. I'll just have to experiment and see if I can find a better way, for later.
Photoetching (PE): Several possible approaches here. I am learning to draw in CAD. If I can get good enough, I will do CAD drawings as PE patterns. The big advantage with this would be that I could print out the patterns in any scale. MicroMark has a PE kit, that uses CAD and an inkjet printer. The only potential problem I see here, is that I might not get fine enough resolution. If CAD is out, I will go the old way, and hand draw the patterns, to be photoreduced. I don't really have the best tools to etch with this method, so I would probably have to go to a commercial photo etching firm. Cost would be a factor here. Either way, PE is the best way to go for many of the parts, so, I will try real hard to work this out.
Right now, I can't think of a better way to do the chassis than soldered brass tubing. I have a resistance soldering outfit, so that would help a lot. I will build some jigs and fixtures, to assemble them.
That last paragraph brought up something that I discussed about the bodies. Since I will be looking for buyers of a lot of different skill levels and preferences, I will probably have to design the entire project with assembly in mind. I can see the chance that I would have buyers of several types. They will be anywhere from hard core model builders, who can and want to, do most of the assembly work, to those who want a finished model. I will have to figure out how to balance everything to serve all of them. I also might be willing to sell a few parts at a time, to builders on a tight budget.
You are absolutely right about scale thickness. Since the larger the model, the easier it is to get close to scale, I will start with the advantage of working in 1/8th scale. I might explore using actual sheet metal for the hood, hood scoop, doors, and trunk lid. This will have to be a matter of cost and time. I would really have to make resin or metal dies, and maybe some special metal working tools, so I need to work on that Idea. On the windshield frame, I have no good answer right now. I'll have to think about it.
Getting the whole model to look accurate and realistic, is a major goal for me. I'd like to have it where, with a good photo of the model, you'd have a hard time telling it was not a real car. I really think the 1/24th Monogram 427 S/C has the best body shape. The 1/16th MPC kit was, I think, based on a kit car, and not a genuine Cobra. It has a weird mix of features, and the body doesn't look quite right to me. Plus it is supplied with ridiculously wide rear tires. At the time I built the purple on my website, I was still doing mostly box stock builds with a few extra details. I didn't want the rear tires to stick out of the wheel wells, so I chopped the suspension severely, to make the tires fit. (sort of like a pro-street car)
As to correct shapes of other parts, I have some big advantages. There is a gentleman I met through a forum, who has given me a ton of pictures of the real cars, with all the details. This is a tremendous help.
I also have several other online friends whose help and encouragement have made me feel like I will actually be able to see this difficult, complex project through. You are now one of these friends.
So, congratulations on being a long time modeler. It's a great hobby. And a huge thanks for your interest and support.
I will post here, periodically, to report progress, or lack of progress. I'd like to see some of your work. Could you post some, or email me with some pics? My email is mrhenley@yahoo.com
Thanks

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

Mike,

Originally Posted by ERA Chas

What materials will you use for the body and chassis? I assume you will cast the engine, trans, wheels, tires and rear in resin perhaps? Will you photoetch details?
None of the commercial models ever gets the windshield frame thickness (or any of the edge thicknesses-such as hood scoop) correct in look or scale. Roll bars and sidepipes are terrible too.
Best of luck in your efforts, I'm a 50 year modeler too and applaude your project. I will watch with interest.