Franzis 1/3 Porsche Carrera type 547 engine

[kpnuts]

Hi all got this for my birthday, I'm well impressed, the instruction manual is a thing of beauty I've never seen one like it before. 

It is full of history and information also loads of beautiful pictures of the cars this engine was in.

The actual instructions make up about a third of the manual and are also beautifully printed and clear to follow.

The box is huge, good quality and stuffed to the brimm with high quality plastic.

I'm intending to build this as half see through rather than completely see through as is intended with the kit

[fordrodnkustom]

Nice! Looks like an exceptional kit. I dig the old Porsche's and their workings so I'll be watching this build with great interest!

[kpnuts]

It helps that I work at a classic Porsche restoration workshop, so I've seen dozens of these engines stripped.

[kpnuts]

So I've started the crankshaft and piston.











I've built the casings of the half I'm going to paint, we have a machine at work called a vapour blaster which we use to clean engine parts which I'm hoping to use to give these parts a cast look (it uses tiny glass beads and is only supposed to remove 30 microns on metal parts will try it on a piece of sprue first)

[Bernard Kron]

Looks like a fabulous kit. IIRC these engines had built-up Hirth-type rolling bearing crankshafts permitting one-piece connecting rods, benefits of which were greater strength and lower weight than the normal two-piece variety. Apparently the original reason for using this method in early Porsches was because the rounded big end of the one-piece rod allowed for greater clearance in the Volkswagen crancases they still used in the early 50's. By the late 50's Porsche made its own crankcases but retained this this system, improving it with the lower friction roller bearings.

[kpnuts]

Yep we had an original 8 piece crankshaft in a while ago (what a piece of engineering) the tolerances in these engines is formidable you have to be absolutely spot on for them to run right(mind you when set up they will accept no end of abuse)

[kpnuts]

Hi all more work on the engine, im certainly getting a lot of practice creating metal effects on this one.

[Bernard Kron]

Wonderful! This kit presents a terrible conundrum. With all the interior detail and mechanical wonderment it's obvious why they have a transparent exterior. But the beauty of their work in detailing makes it a pity not to finish the exterior surfaces in metal as well. Perhaps it's a reason to build 2 versions... LOL

[kpnuts]

Hi all one of the advantages of having a 547 engine completely dismantled at work is loads of reference material, for instance this main drive gear should have 6 30 mm holes in it, 1/3 equates to 10 mm 



I also took the half I'm painting aluminium to work to vapour blast it (for a cast effect)





And the first coat of the casting effect

[kpnuts]

More work on this, been adding a few bit of discolouration to the ally side, got a bit more work to do on those effects yet.











Still loads more bits in the box.

[kpnuts]

Well I've got the valves installed worked some more on the casings getting happier with the results (I think maybe its too shiny needs dulling down a bit) I don't want to make it look grubby just weather worn and aged.

[kpnuts]

Hi all more work on the valve gear


youtu.be/wG8IpL55tx4

[kpnuts]

Hi all started on the exhaust down pipes (dosent really show in the pics)

I tried an experiment with metal effects on the exhaust as I didn't want it to look the same as the engine and im really pleased with the look of them.

[kpnuts]

Got the exhaust on and more experimental metal effects, a word of warning to anyone building this kit and painting parts of it the black shiny plastic is of a different type of plastic to the rest of the kit I sprayed the cowl for the fan (with the same type of paint used everywhere else) the plastic on the cowl has crazed and cracked (and that's even with using plastic safe primer) im hoping a layer of filler sanded down then sprayed over will fix it.

[kpnuts]

Nearing completion now.