A little while back, I decided that as I am a model engineer, I wanted to make a present for my nieces. The question arose, however, of what the present should be. The nieces were four and one at the time so I felt that a steam engine might better be left for a while. Then I remembered the most beautiful electric Bugatti car that Jim Bowler made for his granddaughter some years ago. This really fired my enthusiasm so an electric car it would be. Of course, the next question was what sort of vehicle it should be?

At about this time, an article was published in ‘Old Glory’ magazine showing the construction of a Series One Land Rover to a published design. Now I had seen some published designs before but they were all very much ‘Noddy cars’ and did not appeal. However, the Land Rover really hit the spot. Not only did it look like a real vehicle but my father, the girls’ Grandfather, had been issued with one during his National Service and had a photograph of it. Thus was the decision made!

The drawings were obtained from ‘Real Life Toys’ of Biggleswade. This is a predominantly mail-order business which can supply all of the parts needed to create a good working car. All components from licence plate transfers to finished running gear and a complete kit of pre-cut panels are available. However if you have a practical bent and model engineer’s workshop then the drawings are comprehensive enough to allow you to make all of the parts yourself. This was the route I chose.

I was surprised to find that paper patterns were supplied with the intention that they be glued to the MDF to allow the panels to be cut out with a jig-saw. This probably works fine but I didn’t want to risk any inaccuracies caused by the paper stretching so I chose to mark out and cut the components all by hand. The main body shell is a monocoque of 12mm waterproof MDF board and used a sheet and a half of it. This does make the car very heavy but it is surprisingly robust and takes paint very well. All of the panels were screwed and glued together.

The suspension, as drawn, is solid but I chose to upgrade this to fully leaf sprung. I rolled and heat treated the leaf springs and then fitted tubular steel axles to them. I bought the wheels from RLT and made the axle ends to suit the roller bearings already installed in the hubs. The springs have worked well but a rubber bump-stop has had to be incorporated to prevent them from being squashed flat when the car is driven by an adult. The steering mechanism is a simple crank arrangement on the bottom of the steering column. I was fortunate to find some rod ends in stock so they were fitted to the track rod and drag link. I also bent up a steering wheel rim by pulling a piece of copper water pipe around a wooden former. Steel spokes were silver soldered into the ring and the ends were joined at the same time. Finally, the wheel was keyed to the column. I am very pleased with this as it does look a lot better then the plywood wheel recommended.

The bonnet was next and this was an interesting challenge. In the end, I planed a laminated lump of MDF to the complete finished shape and then screwed a flat strip of the material to each end. These strips were planed to match the form and a piece of 1mm aluminium was screwed to the top. I pushed this around the curve by hand screwing down to the end pieces as I went. Finally, the screws were removed and the panels were separated from the main block. The aluminium bonnet was then screwed and glued back to the end strips using ‘No Nails’ adhesive and, fortunately, retained the shape I wanted. The spare wheel boss was simply spun over a piece of MDF screwed to the face plate and then bolted on.

Motive power is provided by a pair of 12V 180W wheelchair motors, connected in series, which drive the wheels via chains. It was at this point that I realised I had shot myself in the foot by fitting full suspension as the chain length changes when bumps are negotiated. I have therefore had to fit chain tensioners. These take the form of two brass rollers which are pulled together by a spring so that they squeeze the chain and remove the slack.

Once the motors were fitted, it was time to paint it. A quick trip to the local agricultural supplier where ‘Landrover Green’ was available off the shelf provided that. The paint proved to be evil to apply with a brush but after six top coats rubbed down between each, an acceptable finish was obtained.

At this point, the car looked complete. However, the biggest challenge was yet to come in the shape of the control system. Now, my electrical knowledge is a bit weak so rather than take the solid-state PWM controller route, I decided to use relays and resistors. I have put three micro-switches underneath the throttle pedal, operated in sequence by cams. These in turn switch the two batteries installed such that first 12V through a ½ ohm resistor is applied. The second switch cuts out the resistor and the third applies the full 24V across them thus giving three speeds. The girls caught onto this very quickly and, much to my surprise, don’t drive everywhere with their feet clamped to the floor. A mechanical change-over switch was made up to look like the gear lever and a key switch was screwed to the dash to prevent the toy from being used unsupervised.

To complete the job, side, head and tail lights were fitted and the final finishing touch was a set of decals to show the military markings carried by the prototype vehicle including the licence plate.

Whilst a lot of components were available from RLT, I chose to manufacture everything I could myself and buy only the lights, mirrors and bonnet catches. This did, of course, increase the manufacturing time from the ‘fortnight of evenings’ quoted to a total of 370 hours. My own fault, I suppose, but I wanted to do a better job all the time. This wish resulted in the full leaf spring suspension, disc brakes, correct geometry Ackermann steering and halogen headlights with which it is fitted. These are all a bit over the top for a toy but never mind. It had to satisfy me as well as the girls and they are very pleased with it. They even made the front cover of the Honiton local paper in it last year!

Now, of course, I have a new problem. How do I follow it? All suggestions gratefully received!