Assembly of the front wheels is very straightforward and consists of three pieces- the rubber tire, the wheel hub and the resin hub cover. Both wheels are mounted using a .25 in steel rod. Easy.
We began the installation of the M3 running gear by fabricating the suspension blocks that were cut from original sheet metal. Folding these units into the correct shape was tricky with lots of room for error. We mounted the blocks to the underside of the chassis after adding the boogey cradles to the suspension blocks.
The Running Gear
The resin boogey wheels are mounted to the cradles using steel pins and threaded rod. Its a good idea to paint the wheels and cradles separately before final assembly. Pictured to the right is one of the finished assemblies prior to paint.