Poseable Front Suspension

A number of kits have been produced that include poseable front suspension as one of their features. Then there are others that include most of the parts necessary, but don't quite go to that extent. Such was the case with AMT/Etrl's '53 and '55 Corvette kits. When i was building a couple of those, I decided to add this extra bit of detailing. Click on any of the thumbnails for a larger image.


Your kit will need to have the necessary front suspension parts, including a separate tie rod and moveable kingpins.

You'll also need some very small machine screws and nuts. I used 00-90 x 1/8" round screws and 00-90 nuts from MicroMark.

Using a small hand-held drill with the proper size bit, drill holes in the tie rod ends.

The kingpin bracket where the tie rod mounts will need to be wide enough to drill the holes for mounting the tie rod. In the case of the Corvette kit I was building, the bracket was too narrow.

I used flat strip styrene to fabricate new brackets.

To make things easier I drilled the holes in the strip styrene before cutting the bracket piece to the proper length.

I removed the old brackets and glued the new ones in place.

Here's the tie rod with the small machine screws in place.

The tie rod is mounted to the brackets...

...and is held in place with the nuts.

And here's the finished project.
 
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