The story of the V71 Mark X (V71-X)
The story starts to unfold about a year ago when I decided to make my own pack shell and create a mold to make fiberglass copies… Having the skill set and full 24 hour access to a fully stocked and operational cabinet shop I was about to embark on the long journey…
But, before I left on the long journey a very generous offer was made to me by a fine outstanding gentlemen (you won’t find many this dedicated and generous) of this community… To make the story short he was willing to provide me with a copy of his newly created masterpiece to use as a building block and base for my creation, complete with full permissions… How could I say no… It would give me a huge head start and knowing the reference used to create it, it was undeniably the best building block I could have ever expected or dreamed of…
So the journey took a new path, the masterpiece arrived and I looked it over like a kid in a candy store… Then sadly it was tucked into dark storage while I worked on other projects… It seemed like it was tucked away for an eternity, and it seemed ashamed to dig into it and only use it as a base to create my own… It was perfectly fine on it’s own… But, none the less I had set out to bring my own vision to reality and it was donated to the cause so off to the operating room it finally went…
The initial stages of the operation were done at the Tattoo shop, in the basement since it’s the slow season and nobody would really be bothered… This proved slow as progress was halted as customers arrived… So out to front of the shop on the sidewalk it went on several occasions, even drawing the attention of the local PD that probably wondered what that awful noise was at midnight… No worries he just did a drive by, made eye contact and had that “Yeah OK, silly Tattoo shop guys” look on his face… After initial surgery it was off to outpatient services, this included my driveway, and when the weather suddenly went south the girlfriends dining room table and garage… It wasn’t all smooth sailing, there were many times when I literally asked myself WTF am I doing to this poor thing… I was going to take progress pictures but the horror was simply too much…
Gentlemen we can rebuilt him… We have the technology… We have the capability… Wait, wrong story…
But, rebuilt I did… Some changes were subtle, some you will never see and yet others were more drastic… In all there was nothing wrong to start with so every modification was carefully thought through… Pretty much every inch of the pack has been worked to some degree, be it a little sanding or attacked with a cut off wheel…
I believe the end result still has it’s original heritage, while incorporating my visions, and came together quite nicely… It’s still an idealized build but I like the way it came out… All the sanding and intricate work destroyed my wrist, damn tendinitis, but I feel it was worth it, you be the judge…
Some things to note, due to it’s heritage this was not built to anyones plans, thus it’s unique in pretty much every aspect… Any changes I did were idealized changes based on available reference photos…
A satisfactory fit to the current laser cut motherboards can be obtained with a little filing, but it’s not a ‘perfect’ fit… I have contacted MMM and if there is enough interested he might be persuaded to do a custom run of motherboards… But, I believe most people with a little work can make the existing motherboards fit more then good enough, at least as good as the originals…
You will notice the booster tube sits slightly recessed in the PPD, this should provide a more stable mount and help keep the seam from cracking open on those less then perfect angle cuts…
The shell incorporates many of the newly discovered details, those being the different size cyclotron rings, the 15th cosmetic plate, the shelf on the powercell fin, the one piece segmented strip on the lower crank generator, and the tapered corner of the PPD…
Sorry about the glossy paint job, bad for pictures, good for a final wet sanding, buffing and waxing prior to molding…
