Dec. 4^th 2010: The second day in the Furgone project will be dominated by adjusting the rough shape of the first casting to represent the Giardinetta shape more detailed. The 1:43 scale print out of the vehicle dimensions (taken from the instruction booklet) will assist in determining the correct dimensions for the scale model. First the model which is positioned on a plastic base plate will be grinded to ensure the car is level. I grind it to a status where I think it is level and then ask the judgment of the skilled Ito-san to make actually sure it’s level. Next a relative simple tool is used to draw horizontal lines on the casted car to show where excess material on the roof is existing. This excess material is grinded away by moving the car over sand paper. The roof looks quite nice now.

Plastic base plate grinded on big sheet of sanding paper to ensure body is level.	Masked rear window and compass & other tools.
Rear window surface finished, unfortunately in the middle too much material removed.	Masked body & roof for protection during sanding of side section.

Ito-san uses a compass to determine the correct dimensions and then draws some lines by hand on the rear section to show how much material has to be removed. The fact that he can do that by hand shows me the extent of his talent. I’m already having a tough time making such a line with the aid of a ruler and he simply does it by hand. In order to avoid too much material is taken away the rear end is covered in masking tape. The removal of the material is done with a moon shaped sharp knife. Although the masking tape provides a very good guide line on how much material should be removed I unfortunately removed too much material. I didn’t take into consideration that the knife is moon shaped and therefore in the middle area more material is taken away. Ito-san ensures me that the material which was taken away too much can be compensated by adding some filler. Now that the roof and the rear end are in the shape they should be, the side section is the next task to tackle. Some guidelines are drawn on the roof to determine the to be removed excess material on the sides. Masking tape is applied along these guidelines on the roof and also on the lower section to avoid damage to the body whilst removing excess material. Now the sanding of excess material on the right hand and left hand side section can start. The result is quite good but in some portions I removed too much material and I also made some small damage with the tools. The vast amount of experience of Ito-san will resolve that problem for sure. A different colour 2 component resin/filler is made to remodel all these small imperfections. With the filler in place and sanded down by Ito-san the geometry looks very nice.

An important operation is to scratch the boundaries of the windows in the resin car. Very thin masking tape is used to show the boundaries and a scratching pen is applied to scratch the boundaries. This scratching is a essential and difficult task therefore it is done by Iot-san. Now another cardboard box has to be made for the second stage mold. Again the model is glued to a cardboard sheet and positioned into the cardboard box and tape is applied to the outside of the box to avoid overflow during the vacuum operation. The silicon mold material is now pored into the cardboard box and the vacuum operation starts. Again I’m surprised about the amount of air popping up. The second stage silicon mold is now ready. The last action for today is to make a resin cast of the new mold. The end result of the work today is a pretty nice shape vehicle.

2 Different kinds of filler applied to the body and sanded down to repair imperfections.	2 Different kinds of filler applied to the body and sanded down to repair imperfections.
Window boundaries indicated with thin masking tape.	First stage (top) and second stage (bottom) resin casting .

Dec. 12^th 2010: Day number 3 in the project will be mainly used to shape the interior. The first thing to do is to remove the plastic base plate which was used to level the body of the scale model. This base plate is removed with the usage of a sharp knife and chisel. The resin in the interior is removed with the aid of a power tool and several grinding heads. I do some of the work myself, but the detailed work is done by Ito-san to avoid overenthusiastic work which leads to too small remaining wall thickness/destruction of the model. The clever thing is that the resin removal is started from the windows. By grinding deeply into the windows it is easy to recognize from underneath where to stop grinding. The speed of Ito-san doing this work is amazing. I guess this clearly shows the difference between a professional and a beginner like me. The shape is more and more looking like the desired Furgone shape. Unfortunately the enthusiastic usage of the power tool lead to some damage on the right hand rear wheel arch. This is something which needs to be corrected in the future.

Base plate removal with knife.	Base plate removed.
Resin removal with power tool starting from windows.	Internal resin removal with power tool.
Result when power tool is finished.	Detailed resin removal with razor sharp knife.
Base model and current status Furgone.	2nd stage resin cast and current status Furgone.
2nd stage resin cast and current status Furgone.

Dec. 19^th 2010: Day number 4 in the project is planned for the repairs of some small damages, construction of the chassis, casting of the rims and construction of the rear inner wheel arches. Due to the fact that the damages are small and the shape of the right hand rear wheel arch is a difficult one Ito-san does this job with yellow coloured 2 component resin. Some exquisite grinding skills are shown by him and the wheel arch is as good as new. The chassis will be made out of styrene. It takes some time and adjustment to the body inner walls to get the styrene board to fit, but in the end it fits. Next are the rims. A small box is made to serve as a boundary for the casting. The same method as for the previous casting is followed and within a short time 4 rims with the correct shape (no hub caps and rectangular holes) are available. The final activity of today is the construction of the rear inner wheel arches. They are made of a different kind of material. This 2 component material is more aggressive then the resin and needs to be taken of the skin directly after completion of usage. The mixing of the 2 components is done by hand and then it is applied to the inner side wall of the body. In order to get a straight shape of the wheel arches at the bottom section the chassis is fastened to the body. After drying/hardening of the resin the chassis is removed and so are the inner wheel arches. Now the adjustment of the wheel arches has to be done in order for them to resemble the actual shape. To get the same shape on the LH and RH side the wheel arches are glued together and then the sanding operation starts. All in all some significant progress was made today.

Different project stages from current back to base model.	Filler applied to damage portions.
Adjustment of the styrene chassis width by sanding.	Rear inner wheel arches.
Rim (grey coloured part) ready for casting together with some other parts from a different vehicle.	Rim mold filled with resin.
New casted rim (left) compared to base model rim (right).	4 Newly casted rims with the correct geometry.
New casted rim with base model tire attached, looking good.	Final status on December 19th.
Final status on December 19th.