Body
Now it’s time to get cracking on the body. To start the body update, I’m going to replace all fans with Cannon & Company. For the radiators, I’ll be using Cannon 1705. I’ve been a supporter of Cannon parts since the mid-80s. You will discover I find reasons to use their parts. Now, as nice as these parts are and like all other manufacturers of detail parts, they’re not without some mold flash. And the flash needs to be removed. First, I start by looking the fans over to see how much clean up I’m going to have to do. I always inspect for damage and poor mold shots also. I begin the cleaning process by leaving the fan bases on their mold trees. It makes it allot easier to get these cleaned up. You defiantly want a fresh #11 blade to clean the flash off them. I gently scrape all the flash off the fan supports. There’re is also a parting line around the inside of the ring I gently scrape away. You want to make sure you scrape flat to the ring. I then move to the outer ring and clean up what I need to. When I’m happy with the cleaning, I remove the fans from their tree. I use a flush nipper to cut these away. I've learned never to cut these flush to the part. Experience has taught me well and they do damage easy. So, I cut these back a bit from the part and then nip the remaining extrusion flush to the part. I then scrape clean the outside ring of any signs of mold extrusion.
For the top ring it’s a bit trickier to clean. I leave the ring on its tree and clean all mold lines and flash on the inside ring. These rings are thin and easy to damage if you’re in a hurry, so take your time. You don’t need allot of pressure to clean these.
When I’m done cleaning the inner ring, I remove them from their tree to finish the outside. I follow the same removal procedure as the bottom rings. To clean up the outside of the ring, you need inside diameter support so you don’t crack the rings. My first tool was the end of a large reamer. I then made a dowel to slide the ring over to clean up the sides. I made the OD of the dowel .532. Making a tool similar to this or using the back end of a large drill really is the key to cleaning the outer ring. It’s very tricky to clean these without any inner support. When these fans first came out, my fans looked horrible because I couldn't get the outer ring cleaned right. And of course I damaged a few. I currently use a tool made for Brian Banna to help clean up the rings. Apparently he wasn't happy either with his original results. The only problem using just a tool like a dowel is you do have to hold the ring in place. With the tool Brian had made, it’s held in place by the tool itself. I don’t understand why Dave at Cannon hasn't produced a tool to aid in this process. But anyway, when I get the outer rings cleaned up, I set these parts aside until the body work is complete. The fan blades, motor caps and screens will be grit blasted and painted separately. So I’m not going to bother with these until I’m ready to paint.
For the dynamic brake fans, I do the same procedure as the radiator. I will use Cannon 1853 for the dynamics.
Now that the work on the Cannon fans is done, I’m going to remove the Kato fans. I started by locating the center of all the fans. I use a heavy needle in a pin vise as a center punch. I then push the pin into the fan to mark center. Starting with a small drill helps to keep the hole centered. I start with a #75 drill bit and center drill all fans. Then I use a #70 drill and work my way out with larger diameter drills. I open the hole large enough to place the end of my step drill in. With the step drill in my drill press, I set the drill press to its slowest speed. I then slowly drill out the holes and get them as close as possible to the inner fan ring edge. I take my time with this process so I don’t melt the plastic. I do what is called pecking. You drill a little and pull drill out and repeat until you’re done. If you don’t have a step drill, use a sharp #11 blade and cut out the remainder of the fan material. When I get close to the inner ring of the old Kato fans, I use a half round file to get an inside diameter of .570. Cannon gives you a plus/minus number to work with on the back their package. I just make my holes a little bigger in case I went off center a little. Make sure you keep rotating the file to keep the inner diameter center. Now I take a Cannon fan base and use it to check the diameters of each hole. When the fan fits properly, I run a piece of masking tape down the length of the fan hatch to protect the bolt detail on the hatch. Don’t forget the ends. Now I shave off any remaining fan ring off the top of the hatch. I also remove the cast on lift rings and sand fillers. I sand flat the rings of the Kato fans. I test fit the fans again to make sure they are now sitting flush on the hatch.
The dynamic hatch fans are done the same way as the radiator. When I’m done cutting away old fan material, I remove the dynamic hatch to clean up the top surface of any trace of the old fan rings. I then glue it back in place. Now, I've had this happen to me before. Once in a while the hatches would pop off while drilling out the fans. If that happens to you, your choices are to finish the holes while the hatch is off, or glue it down with CA and let it dry well and finish the job later. For me, I always did choice number one. You choose what’s best for you if that situation occurs.
Next, the Reading units did not have a brake vent on the roof. I removed the brake vent and used scrap styrene as a plug and glued that in. I sand the area smooth and use some putty over the plug. I wet sand the vent area again when the putty has dried.
Next I’m going to remove the exhaust stack and replace it with Cannon 1952. The dust bin will also be replaced with Cannon 1353. To do the exhaust hatch, I used a #17 chisel blade to shave the hatch off. I start from the top and work my way down to the base plate. I then shave the base plate down to the top of the hatch.
Now I’m going to remove the dust bin. I drilled around the raised portion of the bin and then cut that away. Then I shaved away the base flush to the top of the body. I then sand the dust bin and exhaust hatch areas flush to the body. I test fit the parts to make sure they are flush on the hood. If you have any gouges that are going to be seen, putty them up. At this point, you do want to make sure there are no sanding scratches on the top of the hood. I wet sand the areas including the fan hatches with a series of 600 and 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper. This will make sure you’re free of scratches that will be seen after painting.
Next, I clean of any dust at the top of the dust bin area. I glue the Cannon dust bin down with liquid cement. I make sure the dust bin is in its proper location towards the rear of the body along with side to side.
I'm going to let this sit a couple hours before moving on.