This review covers packs 4, 5, and 6 of the Agora Models Jaguar build. Please see part 1 of this review for the first 3 packs and more information about the kit.

Pack 4 of this kit starts with building the spare wheel and tire, and then continues with assembling the front subframe.

The wire wheels are probably the stars of this kit and are certainly the part I was both most looking forward to and most dreading. You build the wheels spoke by spoke, 120 spokes per wheel, in a painstaking process that is fear-inspiring for someone as fumble-fingered as I am. Thankfully, the first wheel to be built is intended as the spare tire, so any novice mistakes that can’t be repaired can at least be relegated to the trunk…er, boot. Agora also provides a video of the build process on their website so you can see the procedure in action before you attempt it yourself.

The process starts by mounting the hub and the outer wheel rim in a sturdy jig that keeps everything in place and correctly aligned for the first half of the build. Agora also provides you with a pair of angled tweezers to help you handle the individual spokes during assembly. While greatly appreciated, my tweezers had a sharp corner right where I tended to hold them, which became rather painful after a while. I ended up getting out my own set of tweezers to use instead.

There are 48 spokes to install in the first layer. The spokes are designed with an angle at one end to lay into slots in the outer rim and a head at the other end to keep them from coming out of the hub. The instructions do an excellent job of showing the correct way to install the spokes. I had very little trouble getting the spokes through the tiny holes in the hub, but I did struggle with getting them turned in the proper direction so they would seat into the outer rim. Several times I had to go back and re-seat spokes that had gotten knocked loose due to my own clumsiness. It also didn’t help that the outer rim is chromed, and the reflections sometimes made it difficult to see what I was doing.

With the first layer of spokes done, I proceeded on to the second layer of 48 spokes. These go in just like the first layer but angled in the opposite direction. Again, my main problem here was getting the spokes to face the right direction while trying not to knock the already-installed spokes out of place.

Once all the spokes are in place, a retainer ring gets screwed onto the outer rim to hold them all in position. I had to remove and replace this ring twice because I kept knocking spokes out of place in the process, but I did finally get it right. The assembled wheel was then removed from the jig and a metal retaining ring installed for strength and spacing.

At this point, it was time to turn the wheel over and add the remaining two sets of spokes. These spokes must be strung down through openings in the first set of spokes. It takes a bit of force to get the spokes to go down through these openings, but fortunately the wheel is already strong enough to take some manhandling. But here is where I messed up. When installing the final set of spokes, I failed to cross them over the previous set, and so they did not settle into either the hub or the outer rim properly. You can see in my photo of the completed wheel how the spokes are sticking way out into the hub, when they should be flush against the rim. By the time I realized what I had done, it was too late to fix the problem, so I chalked it up to beginner’s mistakes and took comfort in the fact that this wheel would be in the trunk.

These final sets of spokes are hanging loose at this point and must next be hooked onto the back of the outer rim. To do this, you must turn the wheel over, so you need to hold the spokes in position in the hub to keep them from falling out. The instructions say to use “cotton wool or kitchen paper” to help keep them in place. Thinking I knew what “cotton wool” was, I tried a cotton ball, but felt it was not helping much, so I ended up just using my thumb. Because of my misplacement of the final set of spokes, I had a great deal of trouble getting them to fit into the outer rim properly. I eventually got them in place (more or less), attached the inner wheel rim to secure them, and declared victory. Then I took the inner wheel rim off again to secure some spokes I had missed, and then reinstalled it. It was at this point that I also noticed that one of the spokes in the first set had apparently come loose. But it was late, and I was tired, and this was the spare tire, so I chalked it up to lessons learned and decided to move on.

The next step was to insert the wheel into a tire. This requires soaking the tire in a bowl of near-boiling water for a couple of minutes to make it pliable enough to stretch around the completed wheel. I was worried about breaking or bending the wheel, but it is extremely strong and easily withstood the forces I had to apply to get it into the tire.

The rest of Pack 4 was spent installing the front suspension, the cooling system, and some additional bracing onto the front subframe, and then installing the torsion bars onto the sump (oil pan), which will later be attached to the engine. It was here that I found the first major mistake in the instructions. Stages 27 and 28 are for the left and right suspension assemblies, but the parts packets are mixed up: my stage 27 packet had the right-hand parts, and my stage 28 packet had the left-hand parts. To be fair, it appears that Agora is aware of this problem because the instructions mention that the correct parts might be found in the packet for stage 28. Fortunately, this occurs very early in stage 27 and no harm is done.

Pack 5 has by far the most going on of any pack thus far. Several major assemblies are constructed and brought together, so that by the end of this pack we have a completed front subframe.

It starts by attaching steering system components to the front suspension and subframe. The main thing to watch out for here is that the steering column must pass at an angle through the subframe; I missed this and had to partially disassemble some things to get it positioned properly later on.

The next step is to install the engine into the front subframe, and then connect various wires and hoses. In the process of doing this, I knocked the spark plug wires out of the distributor. I would recommend tacking them in with some white glue before attempting this step.

Next, the sump (oil pan) is installed onto the engine, and then the radiator is assembled, installed on the subframe, and hoses are connected to the engine.

Next comes the assembly of the bulkhead (firewall), to which the fuel filter, brake servo unit, vacuum reserve tank, and several other items must be fitted. It all looks pretty impressive when completed.

The next step is to join the bulkhead to the front subframe. This involves quite a bit of maneuvering various bits into their proper positions to get everything to fit so it can all be screwed together properly. A few additional items get added, and finally we have what appears to be a completed subframe.

The final part of this pack has us building the right front wheel. The procedure is the same as for the spare wheel in the previous pack. Armed with my lessons learned from that experience, I was prepared to get this one right. I made it through the first two sets of spokes with much fewer spokes knocked loose, and in the end it all came together well. I did have to remove the retainer one time to correct an errant spoke, but other than that, it went well.

Installation of the second two sets of spokes went much better this time. Knowing how sturdy the wheel would be at this point, I was much more willing to put the necessary pressure on the spokes to get them to fit through the wheel. I also discovered that a pair of needle-nose pliers gave me the grip I needed to pull/push the spokes into place. I was also careful to properly line up the final set of spokes, crossing them over the previous set like they should have been.

Flipping the wheel over and getting the final two sets of spokes onto the rim turned into a game of whack-a-mole. Some spokes went into place easily, while others had slid back slightly into the hub. In the process of pulling those spokes back into place, I would knock previously placed spokes loose. After a while, I came up with an idea. Every time I got a pair of spokes in place, I put a small dab of superglue on them where their ends met up. Working around the wheel with this method allowed me to pull the loose spokes into place without knocking others loose. Pretty soon I had all the spokes in place and was able to attach the outer rim with no problems.

One note of caution: as this was the end of my build session, I tucked the completed wheel into the box for the night. When I came back to it a couple of days later, the super glue had apparently outgassed inside the box and left some dull residue on the chrome rims. Fortunately, this was easy to clean off with my fingernails and some wiping with a soft cloth. But lesson learned: don’t put freshly superglued parts into a closed container!

This brings us to Pack 6, which is the last pack I will cover in this part of the review. It also marks the halfway point of the build, as there are twelve packs.

Pack 6 begins with putting the tire onto the wheel we built at the end of pack 5, and then installing it onto the front subframe. Again, building on my experience from the previous wheel, I got the water hotter than before, and it paid off in making the tire even more pliable. The tire went onto the wheel much more easily this time. Installing the completed tire and wheel onto the spindle was easy, and seeing the completed tire mounted on the front subframe really drove home for me the scale of this kit.

The remainder of this pack involves the assembly of the rear suspension. While there are quite a few parts involved, it really all went together quite easily. I did find that my small pair of needle nose pliers were not up to the task of pressing some of the spindles into place; the assemblies were simply too large. Pulling a pair of regular pliers from my home toolbox solved that problem.

This pack finished up by installing the rear subframe onto the floor of the car. The floor itself is a two-piece assembly to which the anti-roll bar is attached before the subframe is installed. When all is said and done, the suspension looks great and appears to work just like the real thing. My only disappointment is that it seems that the rear wheels will not be able to rotate, as the hub carriers to which the wheels will be attached are solid, immovable pieces.

And that brings us to the end of Pack 6 and this part of the review. So far, I am very happy with the way things are progressing. The instructions continue to be clear, the engineering of the kit is excellent, and the quality of the parts is high. One thing I forgot to address in the first part of this review is the time required to build the kit. Agora says that it takes about 60 hours to complete a build. Each of the first three packs took me about 1 to 1.5 hours to complete, but the second three packs took me 4, 5.5, and 3.5 hours respectively. This means I have about 17.5 hours under my belt so far. I expect the remaining packs to be similar in length to the last three, so right now my estimate is 40 to 45 hours total. We’ll see how things pan out in the next installment of this review.

By the way, I finally looked up the terms “cotton wool” and “kitchen paper”. It turns out that cotton wool is what Americans would call surgical gauze, and kitchen paper is a paper towel. On the next wheel build I will try those to see if I can make them work for me.