PACK 1 - LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH LP 500S – 07th MAY 2019

STAGE 1

PICTURES 1 & 2

The instructions supplied in this kit follow along the same lines as those I am receiving for the Harley Fat Boy Build. Very nicely produced with large clear pictures and easy to follow text instructions.

PICTURES 3, 4, 5, & 6

The very first part of the build has us fitting the rear wing stays. These are press fit but by design are very tight so follow the instructions and be sure that you do not damage the paintwork on this part.

With hindsight it might have been best to leave this part of the assemble until a later time so there is no chance of it getting damaged. That said its together now and I will wrap it in some pack padding I have so that should resolve any issues.

STAGE 2

PICTURES 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11

The next stage is to fit the tyre to the wheel.

They will have you remove the tyre liner and then brush the tyre to remove any residue left over from the manufacturing process. I used a nail brush (don’t think Mum would have been too impressed if I had pinched her toothbrush for the task 😊).

My tyre seemed to be well made and to be honest this stage was not really needed in my case.

Having put the tyre liner back in place its time to press the tyre over the wheel. That did take a bit of force as the rubber was “grabbing” the metal tyre. Some sort of lubrication might have made that task easier but its not called out in the instructions and I do not want to ruin my build by using something that might affect the rubber.

Patience is the name of the game and soon wheel and tyre are together. And a very heavy wheel this is.

STAGE 3

PICTURES 12, 13 & 14

This stage has us taking the camshaft covers supplied in Stage 2 and fitting the Chromed bolts supplied with this stage

PICTURES 15 & 16

The instructions tell you to remove all of the bolts from the frets but as we only install 14 of them in this stage, I decided that would be all I remove otherwise you can guarantee you are going to lose one of these tiny pieces.

Slight Typo in the instructions (PICTURE 16) as it mentions installing 16 bolts but prior to that you are told to leave one of the bolt holes empty so it’s a total of just 14 you install at this stage.

PICTURES 17, 18 & 19

Having cut off the 14 bolts required for this part of the build (Making sure it’s the A type bolts you have removed and NOT the B type, all you need is a decent pair of tweezers to insert them. Should add here that this stage does include a pair of tweezers so a useful additional if you do not have a set already.

Once in place (PICTURE 19) they really look smart and so much better an effect that if the manufacturer had cast these in with the camshaft cover.

The final part of the build in Pack 1 has us installing the camshaft covers onto the cylinder head.

You need 4 of the 5 screws supplied in this pack (so you have 1 screw spare). When screwing the covers in place make sure NOT to overtighten the screws. You will feel when they firm up and its best to stop at that point or you could end up stripping the threads out of the camshaft cover.

So that completes PACK 1 and I must say you get a lot more to do from what I am seeing with the first 4 packs so a good amount of build time with each pack.

Enjoy your build, very nice kit.

Mark

thanks everyone for the kind comments.

Had an extra day off today (back to the joys of work tomorrow) so pressed on with some more of the build but its so detailed I have spent most of today just on pack 2. Not an issue in the slightest as its kept me well occupied today and "touch wood" I have had no major issues so far with putting it all together.

Tony

STAGE 5

PICTURES 9 & 10

In this stage we put together the first of the two front wheels.

Its suggested we run an old toothbrush (or in my case a nail brush) over the tyre to remove any debris left over from the moulding process.

Followed the directions but no debris on my tyre.

Its then fitted over the wheel and being a narrower wheel, this was slightly easier than I found when fitted the tyre to the back wheel.

With the 2 wheels assembled so far, we are also given the centre caps. These are small and could easily be lost so make sure you store these securely for when required later in the build.

STAGE 7

PICTURES 17 & 18

Absolutely loads of small parts in this section. All very well individually packed.

PICTURES 19 & 20

We complete PACK 2 by assembling these 2 parts. You will have some parts left over from Stage 7 so if you are breaking from your build at this point then ensure you bag these left-over parts safely so they do not go missing before you get chance to use them.


So that completes PACK 2 and its kept me nice and busy today to the point that I have only just made a start on Pack 3 but will update on that one later.

STAGE 9 – DISTRIBUTORS

PICTURE 5

While we get 4 sections of the exhaust pipes in this section these are not used at this stage so they can be safely stored away until a later time.

PICTURES 6, 7 & 8

In this section we are shown how to fit the distributor parts onto the high-tension leads. And these in turn are fixed to the Oil Casing Assemble from the previous pack.

Once installed we need to isolate the single leads from each distributor and feed these 2 leads through the supplied lead retainer (Pic 8)

You're right about where I am in my build---a couple notes/responses:

I have left the spoiler and its mounts disassembled for the time being--I agree it's a very real possibility of breaking them while dealing with all the other parts/assemblies, as it is the last piece to attach. (I also need to polish/repair some poorly-painted areas on the spoiler anyways---and I've got plenty of time before pack 24 gets here to do so)

I too bought a 2.3mm tap just for this kit---and the screws that went into the tapped holes went in the easiest of any in the kit by far. I plan to tap quite a few more than the instructions suggest now, due to how much easier it made it.

I had to loosen the screws for the valve covers a LOT to get the oil casing on, to the point that I practically removed them.

I didn't find any need to enlarge the holes for the foglight lenses either---and I had both chrome-painted the housings, and Future-coated the lenses, and the fit still was "just right".

I used the "officially shown in the instrucitons" Mr Hobby metal primer on the exhaust tips, but used common "Tamiya Gloss Clear" spray as the overcoat on them, after decaling.

Excellent progress being made Tony, looking fab.....

Regards

Alan

Alan/Mark

Many thanks for the comments.

Just about finished with my pack 4 with just the final section 14 to do.

This is the exhaust decaling so that will have to wait until next weekend but have managed to complete up to that stage.