Pocher 1:8 1907 Fiat F-2 Race Car
-
- 1. Rather than replacing the original "F-2" sticker, I left it because looks sufficiently weathered.
I bought this kit when I was in high school back in the early 1970s. I was browsing around K-Mart one afternoon when I stumbled upon this Pocher kit for the unheard of price of $20; a savings of $80 over the usual price of the kit. Back in the day, Pocher made some very high-end car models that cost hundreds of dollars - far out of the reach of a suburban Air-Force brat high school kid. (You can read about Pocher here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocher and here: https://uk.pocher.com/about-pocher) So this kit was a steal, and I bought it and immediately built it.
I distantly remember building this kit to this day probably because most of the pieces were screwed together and many came pre-painted. But what I really remember was meticulously assembling the drive chains as they came in several hundred individual metal pieces. The kit came with a special punch for tapping the chain links together. Most of the screws holding the model together were brass as were many other parts (such as the radiator frame, fuel lines, and wheel hubs). Leaf springs were made of steel and the black side panels made from a canvas-like material.
Not long after building this kit, I stopped building models to concentrate on my college studies. Gradually, I began tossing out my collection of armor, plane, ship, and car models, but I managed to hang on to the Fiat. It lived on a bookcase in my living room at several different addresses for nearly 30 years and spent the last 20 on a storage shelf. Shortly after restarting my modeling hobby, I considered this kit, moldering away on the storage shelf, and decided to give it a full frame-off restoration.
Over the years, the model had collected a lot of dust and cobwebs and a few parts had fallen off. The leather straps around the bonnet and the fuel tank would crumble to the touch, but the tires where surprisingly free of dry-rot. It seemed doable, so I disassembled the model to the extent possible, cleaned everything, did some repainting and fabrication (the collant hoses were dry-rotted, so they required replacement), and reassembled everything to what you see here. (You can see more pictures in the “rebuild thread” here: https://imodeler.com/groups/work-in-progress-automotive/forum/topic/pocher-18-scale-1907-fiat-grand-prix-race-car-rebuild/?topic_page=3&num=15
-
- 1. I thought I had lost the red hand crank, but I found it in the body of the car.
-
- 1. Using sheet styrene, I fabricated the "metal" backs to the seats.
Nice restoration!
Thanks!
So glad to see this project completed, Greg, I followed your thread with interest, and you’ve successfully overcome all the difficulties you encountered, definitely liked.
Thanks.
Beautiful restoration. Great work.
Thank you.
Greg, that is fantastic! ?
Thanks, there's nothing like early 20th century automotive technology...
Congratulations on your restoration, Greg!
The result is truly spectacular, the amount of work you put really paid off.
It was a big pleasure to follow your thread.
Thanks, Spiros. Now on to something newer...
Fantastic rebuild, Greg @gwfabian
Thank you. This project almost motivates to doing a real car restoration.
Well done, Greg. She's a real eye catcher.
Thanks, I think the red paint job really sets the car off. I find it interesting that Fiat was painting their cars red thirty years before Ferrari was founded.
Great job!
So jealous. I spent years lusting after Pocher kits, but couldn't afford them. The aftermarket now is crazy, I'm surprised nobody picked up the assets and did some nostalgia re-releases.
I would have loved to have built one of the other kits Pocher made. I found a couple of unbuilt versions of this model on the web going for over $1,000. You're right, the aftermarket is crazy.
🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
A pure joy to see Greg !
Very nice work, good work on the homemade details, they really standout
and give the model a unique touch.
Thanks. The leather belts were something I've never worked with before. The original very thin leather belts that came with the model were so old they fell apart in my hands.
Insanely cool machine, I´d love to have one of them. The scale is large enough to actually detail them and they will look like a real vehicle.
Maybe in a few years I'll take her apart again and super detail her. You're right though, this is a big model.
Really beautiful build, so nice to see an old classic like that, so different to the usual car kits. You did it so nicely.
Thanks, it was quite a change from the newer models. The subject of the model was an engineering masterpiece in its day. Fun to see how automotive technology changes.
Greg, Really nice work bringing this fabulous kit back to life. I hope you have a nice display case to keep this beauty looking good for many more years.
Thanks, but, alas, I don't have a display case to put it in. Maybe I'll ask for one for Christmas...