1955 Ford Fairlane Victoria WIP

[Lyle Willits]

In fact, I prefer the '55 Ford over the '55 Chevy! (gasp! HERESY!!)

Oh my! Bill was my very good friend until I read that sentence. Oh well, friends come and go I guess.

Just kidding. I'm very spoiled. I get to see Bill's incredable work every two or three weeks at club meetings.

This is going to be an amazing piece of art when finished.

[MrObsessive]

I had some time off this week so I needed to do some changes to the doors on the '55. I had planned to do roll up windows, but I REALLY want to get this done in a reasonable amount of time............so I'm going to scrub those for this build. I did make window like tracks, but that's more for the look of the vent windows which I redid, as I needed to make the vent windows narrower per the 1:1.

Here's some pics of what's been done so far...........

I took some H channel Plastruct styrene and added a couple strips to the inside of the channel. This'll make the channel narrower where the window would travel, and more in scale appearing.

After the strips had dried sufficiently in the channel using liquid cement, I filed down the H channel and then test fit it into the door to fit into the A pillar of the body so it would fit flush like the 1:1............

Here's a pic of the inside of the door after the rest of the vent window was scratchbuilt.........

I needed to add some tiny (.010) round strip to the inside of the vent window for the "glass" to rest on. The pic below shows my attempt at this.......

I'll use acetate to make the vent window glass, and I may try to paint the thin strip black to replicate weatherstripping.

Here's the drivers and passenger side all done now.............once again the hardest thing about scratchbuilding mirror images is to get them to be symmetrical to each other.

In the above pic, I can see a potential problem with the drivers side A pillar .......it's trying to work loose where I had glued the extra height on the original pillar. I'll have to add a tiny bead of super glue to keep that joint from snapping in the middle of everything.

Stay tuned..................there's more to come!

[MrObsessive]

I've got the body work just about licked, so it's time do yet more work on the floorpan. Some time ago (before all the moving hassles!) I had did some extensive work on the floorpan.............I wanted to get rid of the molded in exhausts as I'll be making my own down the road.

One of the first things I did was cut away the floor itself, grind away at the exhausts, and reattach the floor............

The floor needed some new plastic reattached, so this was done using some plain 'ol .020 sheet plastic.

The smaller piece above needed some grinding down likewise...........

Here's the whole floorpan with everything put back in...........with all the ribbing that can be added at this point. The spare tire well was deepened somewhat as I want a full spare in at the end of the build. I was going to "flatten" out the trunk floor, but decided to leave it alone as it would of meant all new frame rails and such...........I want this to go as drama free as possible!

You can see the putty I used to smooth out where the '56 exhausts were located..........my good 'ol Dynatron Putty-Cote to the rescue!

But wait there's more!...........

[empinut]

Bill, Thanks for taking pics as you complete each task! Amazing dedication to perfection!

[MrObsessive]

It's time to do the topside of the floor pan now..............I don't really like interior "tubs" especially for models that have opening doors. If you open the door of any 1:1 car, you'll see that there is a slight "step down", in the interior. Even in cars of the mid '50's, which were a lot taller than their later '50's counterparts would be, the floors were not totally flat (save for Studebaker).

I figured I'd cut out the driveshaft tunnel on the original interior tub and graft it on the topside of the floorpan and build the interior on the flipside of the chassis floor. 1:1 cars are built this way.........there are no interior tubs (Unless it's a Dune Buggy ) when the car is coming down the assembly line.

I took my dremel tool and a cutting wheel to cut away at the driveshaft tunnel on the old interior tub..................please excuse the sepia look of some of the pics! I've had to switch work lights recently as the flourescent light is bothering my eyes now. I've shot some of these under a halogen lamp.

After the driveshaft tunnel was put in, I added some sheet plastic to cover up some of the roughness of the floorpan. This shouldn't add to the thickness of the interior as the original interior tub was very thick!

When things looked satisfactory to me, I got out the Dynatron and filled in the driveshaft sides to the floorpan and blended them in..............I then to begin to add the toeboard to the firewall area and blended it in too........

The trunk area needed a separation wall, so I added that too here............one discrepancy I can't seem to pinpoint is the added structure in the trunk area itself. I've seen some '55's with it, some without. I added it to make the trunk area a little tidier.................

A pic with the body in place..............I'm thinking about adding trunk hinge bracing to the inner fenders to make things a little more realistic.......we'll see......

I have some "trunk material" for the trunk floor in case I can't find the houndstooth like pattern for the floor. In the meantime, I'll want to put some putty around the edges somewhat to close up the gaps.

Thanks for lookin'!

[dub]

Bill, your work is phenomenal! I always love to see your progress on any of your builds. You probably think I'm bummed you aren't doing roll-up windows. Nah... I'm not bummed at all, I wanna see it done too! Keep it up, I'm hoping you can make the meeting Saturday so I can drool in public.

[parki]

Looking great so far Bill. Your work never ceases to amaze me!!

[Fisher61]

Top notch building as usual, Bill ! Thanks for your pics and in depth explanations, you really help alot of us novices! I like the elimination of the interior tub, they are so hard to get a decent level of detail out of. What you are doing here can be applied to lots of other kits as well. Keep at it and keep us posted!

[Irvin Arter Jr.]

Hey Bill,

Get ahold of Larry Booth for the trunk pattern. I made a special print for the trunk pattern on his 57 Thunderbird. He may have a extra copy of it. I will check I may have the orginal negitive I made of it. He shot a real trunk mat and I took a 1/16" square and step and repeted it a few hundred times at work.

[MrObsessive]

Hey Bill,

Get ahold of Larry Booth for the trunk pattern. I made a special print for the trunk pattern on his 57 Thunderbird. He may have a extra copy of it. I will check I may have the orginal negitive I made of it. He shot a real trunk mat and I took a 1/16" square and step and repeted it a few hundred times at work.

I remember Larry's '57 very well!! I fact, it was he that inspired me to do super detail as that was one of the first models I had seen when I joined the MAMA club in 1994. It still ranks as the best '57 T-Bird ever IMO!

I haven't seen or talked to Larry for quite a while since he moved to Texas...............Do you have an email addy or snail mail address Irv?

You can PM me if you do........

If you're going to the CPMCC meeting Saturday------If you find the negative, maybe I can get it from you then. Although I'm not sure I can go because there's possible OT at work and I'd like to work it if I can before Christmastime.

Edited November 26, 2007 by MrObsessive

[Len Woodruff]

Bill, Terry Love should have just PM'ed Larry Boothe's contact info to you. Let me know if you don't get it.

Edited November 26, 2007 by Len Woodruff

[cruz]

This project is too deep for me I don't know how you do it Bill

[Irvin Arter Jr.]

Bill,

I found the neg. The trunk mat is 2"X 2 3/4". It is a 175 or 200 line screened halftone. I might try to scan it in or I can just send it to you. Just let me know.

[JAFFA]

So I quietly put the project on hold and started to work on something else.

[Bill Coulter]

Hi Bill...

Lyle always sends me pictures from the club's monthly meetings. A while back, I spotted what was obviously somebody's early attempts at making a 55 Ford h/t. I quickly wrote back and asked Lyle which resin caster would soon be offering a 55 Ford for sale. He replied, "nobody" to my chagrin. Then he said it was one of your efforts and there was a chance between zero and nada that I'd ever see it in resin. I'm happy in one way to see you back on this project and disappointed on the other that I will likely not be joining you in building a 55 Ford model in this lifetime.

I too am waiting with great anticipation to see your final results.

I would sure like to see you make that long trip back to Beavercreek for COMA and the whole October Toledo weekend. It's been far to long since we've seen you Bill.

BC

[SteveG]

" A while back, I spotted what was obviously somebody's early attempts at making a 55 Ford h/t. I quickly wrote back and asked Lyle which resin caster would soon be offering a 55 Ford for sale. He replied, "nobody" to my chagrin. Then he said it was one of your efforts and there was a chance between zero and nada that I'd ever see it in resin. I'm happy in one way to see you back on this project and disappointed on the other that I will likely not be joining you in building a 55 Ford model in this lifetime."

Bill Coulter,

FWIW, R&R resin lists both a 55 Ford Fairlane HT and Sedan Delivery, Hendrix Resin list both a 55 Ford Customline and Fairlane 2Dr sedans. I don't have any of them so I can't really speak about the quality or availabilty.

I doubt any of them are as nice as what I expect Bill's Victoria will look like, unless of course Bill buys one and turns his "magic elves" loose on one of those resin kits. I'm not knocking Hendrix or R&R either. I'm just a fan of Bill's "Obsessive" builds.

-Steve

Edited December 13, 2007 by SteveG

[MrObsessive]

Thanks for the nice words Bill and Steve!

Bill, hopefully I can get back to Toledo in '08------I haven't been there since '03! With home ownership and all, my dollars don't go as far as they used to in the "old days"! I also have more vacation time at work now, so that at least won't be a problem.

Steve, I've seen R&R's '55 Ford------and while not bad, it's not quite representative of the car I want to do. Ray's '55 is more of a Crown Vic without the tiara, not the round roof car I'm doing.

Here's a pic of R&R's I got from Star Models.......

I should have bought one though to steal that trunk trim!

Hendrix's Ford isn't bad either, but it's a post sedan.

If I can carve out some time, I'm about to paint the chassis red oxide primer as I've got the floorpan and chassis widening pretty much done. I'm debating now whether to scratchbuild the rear suspension, or just leave it alone.

The axle and springs are so dang plain that either way, I've got to dress 'em up somehow!

Overtime at work is taking its toll on building------at least I'll have this weekend off to get to the big MAMA party on Saturday!! (hopefully no snow!!)

[OLDERGUY]

Your name really suits you. I sure hope I see the completed 55 Ford. Your a great scratch builder. I wouldn't have even tryed. You musted be a very patient guy. Great job.

[raisin27]

There is hope for all of us mortals that arent up to Mr Gearys skills! Hendrix offers several body styles of the 55 Ford, and they really arent bad at all. I did these two awhile back and in additionjh I have a 55 customline, and a Fairlane 2 dr sedan that I havent started on yet. I believe he also offers a station wagon. I dont remember seeing a 2 door hardtop like Bill is doing though.

Never saw an R&R before, but from the pic it looks like it has a 56 roof, not a 55.

By the way ..........Fantastic work Mr Obsessive!

Raisin

Hi Bill...

Lyle always sends me pictures from the club's monthly meetings. A while back, I spotted what was obviously somebody's early attempts at making a 55 Ford h/t. I quickly wrote back and asked Lyle which resin caster would soon be offering a 55 Ford for sale. He replied, "nobody" to my chagrin. Then he said it was one of your efforts and there was a chance between zero and nada that I'd ever see it in resin. I'm happy in one way to see you back on this project and disappointed on the other that I will likely not be joining you in building a 55 Ford model in this lifetime.

I too am waiting with great anticipation to see your final results.

I would sure like to see you make that long trip back to Beavercreek for COMA and the whole October Toledo weekend. It's been far to long since we've seen you Bill.

BC

[Bill Coulter]

Thanks Steve G and Raisin...

If I can find more information on Hendrix products and prices I just may have to pick me up a 55 Victoria. At this point in my building I prefer to keep projects pretty simple. If it can be built with hood shut and a bit of chassis detailing (I call it Curbside Plus) I'm a happy camper. If either or both of you can point me in the right direction it would be appreciated.

BC

[MrObsessive]

Bill, click here for Hendrix's models. He's got pics of the '55 in raw resin and builtup pics.

You'll have to scroll down a bit to see 'em.

HTH!

[MrObsessive]

Guess it's been too long since I did an update! Work got in the way over the last couple weeks even over the holiday........and when there's overtime, I ain't much in the building mood! Not to mention taking pics and making a reasonably coherent post!

Things have slowed down at work so that's given me some time over the last week or so to get some more done on the '55.

The chassis has been a slow go, due to my dislike of what was in the original kit and some reengineering I had to do to make it suit my tastes. One of the things I did was to redo the trunk floor, as I just didn't like the flat sheet plastic floor that covered over the gas tank.

I found some good photos on the 'net of the Ford's trunk and even with the trunk mat in place, there's a noticeable depression in the floor of where the gas tank would be. Here's the messy details so far!................

I ripped away the plastic sheet covering the trunk and got out my trusty Dynatron Putty-Cote. As seen, I spread on a whole bunch of it leaving the depression area open and let it dry overnight.

After everything was dried, I sanded, filed and smoothed everything out to my satisfaction. There need not be a squeaky clean and smooth surface here as the trunk mat will cover everything......but I wanted a surface smooth and as crater free as possible for the mat to adhere to. Not shown in the pic are the side fender walls which I did reattach.

I thought it time to paint the chassis floor red oxide primer, and then overspray the sides with the Regency Purple Metallic from PaintScratch.com. The frame rails were hand painted with Polly Scale Engine Black. Before too long, I need to paint the gas tank steel. I thought it high time to scratch build new mufflers and exhausts before I ran out of ambition!

The mufflers came partially from the cut away floor and the rest was added plastic. The exhausts are aluminum rod while the front exhaust pipes leading to the engine are bent solder. I used solder for this area as it was easier to bend through the frame rails. The exhausts are just test fit for now and will be tweaked a bit more for final assembly later.

With the chassis work mostly out of the way now..............I turned my attention to the front suspension. Looking at my 1:1 reference photos, '55 Fords used a front stabilizer bar which I thought was more of a '60's thing. I wanted to put this on the model which had just molded in bar of plastic going from one side of the frame rails to the other.

In the pics you see above, I wanted to make a "perches" for the sway bar to sit on. These were made with cat food can aluminum. The hobby store stuff is always too thick, so I figured, next time I feed the cats, save the tops of the cans as the aluminum is just the right thickness to scratchbuild stuff! The perch is held down with tiny brass bolts and epoxied over. The holes were drilled with a #75 drill bit.

Next, I needed to try my hand at scratchbuilding springs. These won't be functional but they're better than the molded springs the kit gives you. The wire is bead wire from the craft store. I simple wrapped it around tubing which was the approximate size of the inside of the kits lower and upper A arms, and tried to make the spacing as symmetrical as possible.

The springs were mounted and straightened out in the housings and painted.

More to come!

[MrObsessive]

I went about scratchbuilding a new sway bar..............I found some really flexible wire that one can get from the craft store------it's the stuff that folks use to hang up plants from the ceiling and it comes wrapped up in kind of an oblong shape. I don't know the exact name of the wire, I just remember getting some a while back because it looked proper for certain things.

I tried bending steel rod, but it was soooooo stiff and unforgiving, frustration set in and I scoured my scratchbuilding supplies to use the "hangar wire"

I drilled out some plastic rod, to slip over the wire to simulate bushings per the 1:1. Then I bent the rod to suit the model's chassis.

I needed to make some hold down brackets for the sway bar.................cat food can aluminum once again to the rescue! I bent the brackets over the bushings and then drilled holes later to accept more brass bolts.

I then cut the sway bar down a bit and then got out my mini vise and flattened both ends of the sway bar. Holes were then drilled with a #75 drill bit to hold the vertical ends of the sway bar later.

Now I went and scratchbuilt shocks to slip inside the springs and then the lower A arms were glued in place.

The tie rod was now painted and snapped in place on the king pins. I was going to scratchbuild a working idler and pitman arm but decided to let that go for times sake!

BTW, the lower part of the sway bar was made with brass tubing with an I.D. of 3/64". This is available from Special Shapes and come in handy for certain aspects of scratchbuilding. I painted the tubing with Alclad to match the upper part of the sway bar.

Some touchup paint is needed around the bushings, and I'm going to wrap thin strips of electrical tape around parts of the sway bar to simulate rubber bushings.

I'm working on the rear end now.............some reshaping and making of extra parts is needed with that too. I don't know when I'll post an update again-------hopefully soon as my work schedule allows.

So stay tuned!

[Randy Kern]

Looking like the real deal as usual, Bill! Isn't it good to have a few pets around to help with the build in one way or another? Now excuse me while I wipe off some Pug drool on my latest project.

[Raul_Perez]

Bill,

Where did you get those bolts for the sway bar bracket? They look great!!

Thanks,