Citroën Xsara WRC - Francois Duval, ADAC Rallye Deutschland 2007 (part 5)

As promised in the previous part in this update I'll show what I changed on the roll cage.

The roll cage as included in the kit is far from complete. When looking at on-board footage and reference images found on the internet the roll cage needs some extra tubing added. 

Over the years the roll cage of the Xsara WRC has had several variants as I've noticed studying my reference images. Which isn't that strange as the crash test and safety regulations have changed over the years. 

The reference images I have of the specific chassis (#28) which Duval raced during the 2007 ADAC Rallye Deutschland are sadly inconclusive about which version of the roll cage was fitted. Which means that the adaptations I made are at best a good "guesstimate"... As long as it looks and feels right, it is right I guess...

I used Evergreen styrene rod of 1.6 mm in diameter for the added sections for the rollcage. 

The added sections are highlighted in the images below.

Another section I've been working on was the rear bumper. The joint between the body and bumper parts isn't razor sharp. There were a few dents and deformations leading to a rough joint with several (small) gaps.

 

 

I decided to try and fill the gaps with pieces of styrene strip. After the glue had set I tried to get the joint area as straight as possible. Which proved rather problematic as there are some protruding studs for alignment on the body.

As the bumper appeared a bit too wide near the ends I used some pins to make fitting and gluing the rear bumper to the body an easier process. 

 

 

Initially everything looks reasonably okay. Now let's wait and see how everything looks under a layer of primer.

Next I took to the intake opening in the front bumper. I already removed most of the solid plastic of the main opening. But after studying the reference images I concluded that I needed to remove the two remaining sections either side of the opening too.

 

 

While I was at it, I also removed the plastic above the intake behind the Citroën logo.

For all the removed sections I have made blanking plates which will be painted flat black to give a sense of depth and to ease the painting (at least, that's the theory).

 

 

With the opening up of the holes, the work on the body was nearly finished.

Before committing to primer I wanted to add the towing eyes to the car. The moulded stumps passing for towing eyes were removed and replaced with PE versions.

This proved easier said than done. As I needed to make a small slit in the body to fit the towing eye.

After determining the position I first drilled a few holes with a 0.4 mm drill bit. After that I connected the holes to make a slit.

 

 

To aid the positioning of the towing eye on the rear I used copies of the kit decals and reference images. The front one was a bit easier to position luckily. I had to cut a piece of the PE part though, as the towing eye sits rather deep into the front bumper (as seen in reference images).

Now the body was ready for primer.

First I washed the parts in soapy water to get rid of all the sanding dust and grease and so on.

 

After a first coat of primer this is how the parts look.

 

 

As can be seen, the primer highlights perfectly the areas needing some additional work (and there are quite a few of them). Apart from that it appears that I need to thin the primer a bit, as the coat is very rough, which didn't happen when priming the Aston Martin several months back (using the same primer).

How this additional work will turn out I will show you in the next update. Until then.

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