Front suspension

With the damper rods and upper attachment hooks left in chrome, I chose to paint the body of the dampers in semi-gloss black and the lower attachment hooks in Boltgun Metal. Then came the tricky part... I chose not to cement the front plate to the body so as not to pry on it to put the springs into position, so every mobile part was ready to fall off if my hands got too shaky! I worked with the chassis in a vertical position and snapped the dampers to the lower suspension arms. With the springs in place at both ends of the dampers, the game was to find eventually a way to slide the upper part into the lower part. Once it is done you have to lift the front plate in order to attach the lower arms to the frame. With both sides ok, all that is left is to cement the plate to the sub-frame and make the proper paint repairs.
The only disappointing thing is that he springs were not made with suspension in mind. They should have been flattened at both ends to match the end plates of the dampers. That is why something looks wrong in the pictures: with only so little contact area between the spring and the plastic parts, the spring tends to bend a bit. I am not sure I can do anything about it now since access to the spring is uneasy but I will make sure I modify the rear suspension springs when the time comes to use them.