215 replies to this topic

[Road Runner 79]

Here my six cylinder powered car!

[Custom Mike]

Nice work Pat, how'd you get the paint so weathered looking?

OK, update time for mine, still no engine work though, I'm waiting on a resin copy of the Paxton Supercharger from the AMT Avanti kit from a member here. Next up are the tail lights. For some reason, the Corvette ZR-1 style tail lights were nowhere near big enough for the tail light panel in this kit. No problem, I just added a strip of .010 styrene around the edges, and they're a much better fit. I also didn't like the fact that the attachment pins made them look bad, so I drilled them out to accept more...straight pins! They'll get a dab of Clear Blue to make 'em look like the old "Blue-Dots" once it's all done!

[Custom Mike]

Next up is a minor body mod, I removed the filler neck for the gas tank, it was basically just a tiny stump sitting there. I'm making my own filler neck and gas cap from Aluminum tubing and a bit of sprue!

Begone tiny stump!


Big tube with little tube inside, big tube with some sprue shoved into it, ready to be cut into a cap!


The gas cap has been made, polished, and is ready to go!


Gas cap in place on the filler neck...


And the filler neck in place on the cab!

[Custom Mike]

Since I decided after painting the cab to add the gas filler neck and cap (Heck, after painting everything I decided to go back and get crazy with details), I needed to repaint the cab. Dupli-Color Ultra Silver base coat anyone?





And three coats of VHT Engine paint, color name is Red Fire!







Now onto a modification for the interior. This is me bringing the dash into the current century! I sanded off the kit speedometer, and dug out some PE gauge sets I had for my '32 Ford 5-Window that never got used due to time constraints. I traced the shape of the new gauge cluster on the dash, broke out the Dremel, and carefully removed enough to get the gauges flush. I had to add some filler since I screwed up a bit on the top edge, but it looks fine now, trust me!

Now if I could only find my PE radio faces, I could have some killer tunes in this baby!

[Casey]

Love that color, Mike. Great gauges upgrade, too.

[Custom Mike]

I had to use 'em sometime, I figured this was a good place to start. Now to find a use for the other ones on the fret....this could take years! And that color is beautiful even without polishing or a clear coat, it lays down so smooth straight from the can that I was tempted to leave it as-is and do it as a Satin paint job. But I polished up the tail light panel, and immediately knew it had to be shiny, the color pops when it's got a shine on it!

Edited by Custom Mike, 19 August 2012 - 05:34 PM.

[Road Runner 79]

Nice work Pat, how'd you get the paint so weathered looking?

Thanks Mike !
A lot of dry brushing and pastel dust covered with dull-cote.
That 's some nice work you are doing on the Chevy!

[zenrat]

Coming along nicely Mike. You can't beat real wood for looking like er, real wood.

[Custom Mike]

Now a bit of suspension work. The kit axle melted on me after being glued, so I cut the rim attachments off. I drilled out the pumpkin, cut a piece of aluminum tubing to the proper size, and drilled some holes in it for the leaf springs. I slid the tubing through the pumpkin, epoxied the leaf springs to the new "axle", and slid my rim attachments into the ends. Now I have a new back axle!

The new back axle, I'm thinking about repainting all of the suspension and frame Black, what do ya think?




And the frame and suspension mocked-up. I'm just not feeling the Silver anymore...


A hole drilled in the frame for routing the brake line to the rear axle...


And a hole drilled in the battery box so I can get the positive side out and up to the starter.


Now onto the brake lines for the back axle. I started out by shaping a piece of sprue for my line junction, I'm getting better at making these little boogers!



Two holes drilled on the axle side...


And the block mocked-up with the line from the master cylinder side. BTW, this kit does not have a master cylinder, either that, or it got lost when this kit was removed from it's box and put in the one-gallon Ziploc bag I bought it in. Heck, I don't even have the instructions, so who knows if what I'm doing is actually correct!


And the two lines mocked-up out to the rim area, so far, so good!

[Custom Mike]

Note: before anyone says anything about the brake lines, Alyn has already beat you to it, and I'll correct them just this once, but on my next build I'll make the brake lines into a wild mess of lines with no rhyme or reason!

Now here's where I make Pete ( A good friend of mine over on Scale Avenue) happy, I show the seat back he sent me being put to good use...after some hacking on it!

First up tonight, a skull shifter knob! I picked this up from Scale Repro's Plus, along with a 6-cylinder distributor for this build. I hacked off the T shift knob, added a small piece of 24 gauge wire to the skill, and drilled a hole in the shifter. A dab of superglue, and it's ready to go!





Now onto the seat, I really worked hard for this part, believe me! I took some tan leather I got from Danny years ago, and started thinning it for use on the bench seat. This is where Pete came to my rescue, supplying me with a second seat back.


Elmer's Craft Bond, thinned leather, and the seat base, all ready for some work!


And the seat back Pete sent me, with it's piece of leather, waiting for it's turn!


Now the hacking on the seat back happens. To get the leather on the seat back, the arms had to be removed, which is why I needed a second seat back. I carefully removed the arms from the seat back I got with the kit so they could be re-used, then sanded the arms off of the seat back Pete sent me. I wrapped the newly bare seat back in leather, drilled two holes in each arm (And the sides of the seat back), added a pair of straight pins to each arm, and we have a leather covered seat back! I'll put some Detail Master Krome Foil on the arms later, this is just for mock-up purposes, and thanks again Pete!









Nothing simulates leather better than real leather!

[Olskoolrodder]

Wow...

[cobraman]

That model is coming along very nicely.

[Ace-Garageguy]

How about this? I designed it around 1:1 junk I've got in the basement and shop that's gathering dust and supplying nice nesting places for rodents. Datsun 240Z engine with tripple 40DCOE Weber carbs, Porsche 914 front suspension, re-pop '32 rails, Porsche 944 gearbox, clutch and torque tube, cut-down plexi windshield from a Cirrus SR-22 airplane with custom plexi side-curtains, a genni but rusty '30 Ford roadster body shell, and the busted-up glass nose from a Kurtis Indy roadster with '36 Ford headlights up high to hide the Porsche struts.......



Z-motor.....



Making a '30-'31 A body shell from a '32.....





....and working out fitment of the guts......

[hacked]

liking that lots, very cool

[Casey]

Nice work on the seat, Mike.

Good to see someone jump in with a Datsun Nissan I6, too.

[Custom Mike]

Great start Bill, that should be a very cool Hot Rod once you're done!

Edited by Custom Mike, 03 May 2013 - 04:55 PM.

[hacked]

hi Guys, hopefully back at it after a month, real life seems to get in the way, should have the vette ready for mock-up on the weekend. but in the meantime i found a old monogram 38,39 chev??? with this one i'll go for body mods, starting with a chop and channel.

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[Custom Mike]

Sounds like a lot of work Jeffery, I'll let you handle all the heavy lifting while I watch, sound like a plan?

Since I'm too freakin' tired to work on this tonight, I'll just post a pair of pics of the bed mocked -up. The straight pins were glued in place and the fenders were glued to the sides of the bed, the it was all slapped together for a few pics, enjoy!

[Ace-Garageguy]

That bed is really really beautiful, Mike. Great build so far.

[Custom Mike]

Now for a bit more work on the seat! Since the upper part of the seat is visible through the rear window, I had to fill in the hole in the back side of it. I added two strips of angle stock, cut a filler from .010 sheet styrene, and got to work on thinning another piece of leather. A bit of Detail Master Krome Foil was added to the arms, then gluing them down to the seat got me ready for the new seat back to be installed. A bit of Craft Bond was sprayed on the filler piece, and now we have a completed seat!











And now just some random stuff I worked on yesterday. The filler piece at the back side of the bed has been modified to fit the new wood bed, a bit of paint later today will finish it off. Then I test fit the filler at the base of the cab, it's a good enough fit that I'll just glue it down, if I ever build another one of these, it'll be molded in. I'm not willing to chance re-painting the cab again, so I'll live with a filler panel that doesn't exist on the 1:1 truck. And finally, a pair of steering wheels, I'm leaning toward the one on the right, we'll see once I get going on the rest of the interior!