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1959 Chevy Impala----Just a tease! 4/9/16


MrObsessive

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With the "blacken-it", have you ever found it to "greenen" metal?

Thanks for the compliment!

As far as the brass turning green------not really. I know that if the Blacken It is left out in the open and there's residue, that ends up turning green. It may be that you'll need to wash off any excess after you've dipped the part. That's one of the things I've done in the past.

I'm working on the interior as far as the seats right now-------not a fun job as there's some problems I'm running into. Today's a snow day, so later on I might post pics as to what's happening with that right now.

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It's time for more interior work, and I must say-------there's a lot of work that needs done to the seats! :o First, here are a couple pics on how I want my interior to look............

photo-vi.jpg

photo1-vi.jpg

As I'm learning, both the front and rear seats will need some major correction to be close to what I want. IMO the front seat needs the most work as the overall shape is wrong, and NOTHING fits right according to the way the seats go together.

For example, looking at the pic below, you'll see how mismatched the trim is despite having the seatbacks lined up as well as possible!

photo7-vi.jpg

Woefully out of line here! So here's what's in store...............

photo1-vi.jpg

I'm holding the seatbacks as well as possible, and I flowed some Ambroid Pro Weld to glue them together. When the seats were dried somewhat, I started to try and fill in the seat tops with .015 styrene round rod from Plastruct. I also sanded away the seat top "chrome" trim using Ted "Chopper" Lear's trick of sanding away the trim, brushing on some liquid glue, let it dry, then sand it away again to get rid of the "memory".

You know what........................the heck with this! I'm going to go whole hog and cut everything apart and make to seats tilt up just like the 1:1. ;)

photo4-vi.jpg

To make things work halfway reasonably, I soldered up this "T" joint which the insides of the seatbacks will swing on............

photo1-vi.jpg

OK, I set that aside and started work on trying to get these seats to appear a lot more accurate........after some sanding and filing away to get the correct shapes, I'm trying to replicate the side trim per the 1:1.

photo-vi.jpg

I'm not done yet so hang on!

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On the driver's side seat, you can see I added piping which should wrap up and around the sides of the seats. I used Plastruct .010 round rod to duplicate this. BTW, I highly recommend Plastruct styrene for jobs like this. Plastruct seems to be made of a denser material than Evergreen as it doesn't snap so easily when trying to go around corners for instance.

photo-vi.jpg

I finished the driver's side of the trim, and here is a "mock up" piece of BMF over the trim. Not too shabby if I must say so myself! I tried to replicate the "indentation" in the trim per the 1:1 as best I can.............

photo1-vi.jpg

I wanted to start working on the seat bottoms and like the seatbacks, I used the same round rod to reproduce the piping which goes around the multicolored seat pattern. Revell gives you a stick on decal for this so I'll have to see how well this will hold up.

As you can see in this shot, since the seats have to lean forward, the rear part of the seat bottom sides have to be "notched" a bit for clearance.

photo2-vi.jpg

Top view....................

photo3-vi.jpg

I'm adding some semi round rod to fill in the empty space left by the notching and filing. Of course, this will be all filed and sanded smooth when it's all said and done.

photo-vi.jpg

The chrome bolster on the very bottom of the seats had to be cut apart to make hinging of the seatback easier. BTW, the other hinges will be made of flattened brass rod.....I just haven't made them as of yet.

The little "dimple" you see in the middle of the thin section that was cut away, will be where the soldered T section will go.

photo-vi.jpg

And just a mock up to see how things are fitting so far.

photo6-vi.jpg

Well that's it for the time being! Between shoveling snow, chopping up ice among other things, I hope to get some more done on this today. Modeling time is few and far between these days due to work, endless snowstorms and the headache that gives, and just life getting in the way.

Thanks for keeping up just the same, and I do appreciate all the nice comments!

Edited by MrObsessive
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My work with electronics and data immediately told me the seat swivel

is made up out of a wire crimp connector.

Those puppies are sometimes stamped out,but the better ones

look milled. I really enjoy the fact that I'm not the only one

that looks at a connector and have a " hmmmmmm ....I wonder if ? " moment. LOL

anyhoo...thanks for sharing/posting

....and for letting us walk around your brains(so to speak) on this

Chevy build of yours.

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James the seat swivel I soldered is actually some thin flat brass stock (not sure of the size), and .040 round brass stock. The round piece does look like a stamped contact one would use in crimping wires, as I worked and trained people in crimping in my last job. There was some flux residue that I hadn't washed off before I took the pic, lending itself to the appearance of a contact.

Interesting that you mention it though, as I'm considering using "pogo pins" to eventually latch the doors. I've got a million of those as my job was just throwing them away for some reason. I said to myself "NO!! Those can be used to make catches for doors, trunks etc!". :D

So I now have a supply which will last me the rest of my modeling lifetime!

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And I'm happy if I can simply get the thing together and it looks nice.... :blink:

Talk about "sometimes you raise the bridge, sometimes you lower the river" with those seats. You're doing both?!

Bill, you make us all proud to be modelers; it's the guys like you that raise this to an art form in its truest sense.

Charlie Larkin

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totally fantastic! that interior work is pure art along with everything else. one of these days I hope to see one of your builds in person, Bill, because they look super in the photos, and its great how you share your secrets with us. I want to go build some seats now!

jb

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

wow! i havent looked in on this one in a while, and i gotta say.......again WOW!! i love the E brake cables, they looks great, and the engine is just incredible. beautiful work bill. im keep an eye on this one...

keep up the great work!

cheers

bryan

x2 - awesome work. The enginebay looks excellent Bill, the chassis too. This will be a fantastic car.

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