NOTE: this is Part 2, click on HERE to read Part 1

My week off from work found me working on the house, but I managed to finish the Splendid Teapot Racer. Truth be told, I finished it on Christmas day, had to wait for paint to dry from the first article. Last we saw, I’d disassembled the truck down to the chassis. Let’s pick up from there and see how I put it all back together.

Paint Makes It Better

I saw an opportunity to spruce this up. The exhaust pipes were removable and fit onto the chassis. So I put them and the bumper on my painting table and blasted them with some Hammered Copper spray paint. I could improve it by adding a black wash, but I was in a hurry. I figured with as the paint wears from use, the underlying black plastic will look cool.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

In order to fasten these parts on, I had to drill some holes. Worked out great on the exhaust pipes. Turns out I was a little off for aligning the tray and had to re-drill. Nobody’s going to see the extra holes, but the words of my old shop teacher Mr. Smith came back to haunt me. Otherwise, this step was easy and soon I had the tray mounted to the chassis, along with most of the cups.

Tricky Nut Action

I utilized the original front mounts on the chassis, but the last cup would have to sit over it. I setup all the cups to be bolted to the tray by a tiny bolt from the bottom through the tray, saucer and cups. For the last cup, I needed a bit of lift over the chassis bolts. Putting a nut over that saucer screw gave me the lift I needed and ensured I could tighten that screw before I lost access to it when I put the tray on. If that was hard to follow, it took a bit of thinking and revising to come up with. This is the fun part of steampunking something, figuring out how to adapt what you have to what you want. Here’s a pic of the tiny space I had to get a nut onto for the chassis bolt from below.

Ready for Racing

Once I got those chassis bolts done, It was easy to put the final saucer and cup on their bolt. It’s not as pretty to have the end of the bolt and nut in the cup, but it was simpler to assemble. I skipped painting the rims for now, this is a cheap car and the tires don’t come off without breaking something. The bumper isn’t quite steampunk enough, but it’s just there for damage control. Other than that, it worked out great, and I can spruce it up later.

Conclusion

That ends how I made my first Splendid Teapot Racer. Cost a little more than I wanted, but it worked out. My next step is to find an event to race in or help set one up in my area.