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1950 Chevrolet 3100 Pickup


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When you consider the fact that I have one of these parked in my garage, It’s about time I got this of the shelf and started rendering something in scale.

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When I bought this thing ten years ago I had plans of a top chop, front subframe with discs and ifs, LS motor, and a Tremac  6 speed. Fast forward to 2020 and all I have done is rebuild the M-22, throw on some Torque Thrusts, and have some signage added. I’m still running the stock 283 with no other upgrades than a set of headers and an Edelbrock carb. The paint job even dates back to the early 80’s. I’d still like to see it chopped and, since I’m shrinking anyway, it may become practical !!!

 

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Stance is everything in any hot rod. On early Chevy trucks the semielliptical front suspension really limits how low you can drop the front end. My ’51 has a Mor Drop front axle and it is anything but in the weeds. My model gets a subframe, in this case the front clip from the  Revellogram ’59 Caddy which just happened to be the first kit I grabbed off my shelf. Since the Caddy kit lacks poseable front wheels, I fabbed some spindles from Evergreen and king pins from stainless tubing.

 

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I got started on the top chop before I realized I could let Jimmy Flintstone do all of the hard work so I snagged a resin body on Ebay.

 

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This is everything I’ve done so far held together with Elmer’s glue. I’m going for a beater vibe, weathered paint but minimal surface rust, tinted glass with a few period decals, using the inline six and stock trans. Stay tuned.

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First off I love your 1:1 pickup. I like the direction your going with your build also. You mention wanting to go with a 6 Cylinder engine. My suggestion would be to look at the engine from one of the Galaxie kits. I'm building the '48 Aerosedan right now and the engine option has all of the period goodies from Wayne Speed Equipment. This would give you a 3 - singles Carb. setup in chrome intake and carbs. and air cleaners. Also a finned aluminum valve caver and push rod side plate also in chrome. Even built stock this is a very well detailed stove bolt including the oil filter, road draft tube, even the floor mounted starter switch. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I had planned to use the stock inline six but when I looked in the box it was gone !!! That's because I used it for this

 

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So I decided since I have already raided the Cadillac kit for the front suspension I might as well use the engine as well. I even had a set of valve covers that had been plated by Chrome Tech 20 years ago!! I wanted to use to stock engine mounts which set the engine pretty far back .A little surgery on the firewall and I was in business.IMG_5502.thumb.jpeg.a953ae30126bd607dc1a745be0f38a24.jpeg

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I painted the body with Testors orange and did some light weathering. Found a really cool Fred Cady nostalgic speed shop decal sheet which provided the signage. I wood grained the bed using artist oils and a technique that can be found at this address http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/woodgrainel_1.htm

Check it out, first time I tried this and it turned out great!!

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Edited by Marc Weller
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Glad to see you're back on this one. The firewall may need even a little bit bigger relief for the valve cover clearance. The bed floor looks outstanding, are the metal strips going to be painted or chromed ?   I also like the painted wheels with the white walls. 

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Great question about  bed floor. They are chromed on my 1:1 truck. I’ll probably go with BMF then dullcoat and maybe mist some rust enamel from my airbrush. I have a bit of work left on the firewall before painting. Thanks for looking! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's kind of subtle but I have a lot of time in weathering these wheels and tires. I used a chipping technique on the wheels that utilized a Testors rust base coat, a few dabs of white glue in the areas to be chipped, followed by Testors orange and, finally,  Dullcoat. I used a wash of Tamiya flat black after painting the lug nuts, bearing caps (front) and axle ends (rear). The thin front white walls in front were created with a circle template and a gel pen. The rears are the inserts that come with the monogram tires. Each tire was mounted on my Dremel and, while spinning at low speed, dusted on the tread and sidewall surfaces with Testers dust enamel. The whitewalls were aged by airbrushing Floquil rust on the spinning tires . A lot of work but worth it.IMG_5583.thumb.jpeg.7509f467a7ab0bd60a0b9ec565952d18.jpeg

The bed was similarly chipped using the white glue technique utilized for the wheels. There are so many cool YouTube videos about weathering techniques. I spend hours watching these and trying them out at my bench. I Bare Metal Foiled the bed rails then applied Dullcoat. I used a white gel pen to letter the rear gate. Once this thing is done I'm going to load the bed with rusty flathead parts.IMG_5585.thumb.jpeg.66e6bf36a74a0a4c75148e43f330a098.jpeg

 

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Edited by Marc Weller
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Excellent work so far!  The Caddy swap-out is a great idea!

This is such a great to work with, its versatility allows for almost unlimited building options. I bought one about 25 years ago and built it as a side-yard derelict in just about the same color as you chose for yours.

I can't wait to see how it all comes together.

David G.

 

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Looking good!  One of the few kits that I've built several versions of.  I owned  '48 5 window 1/2 ton long time ago, still had the 6 volt system, but a 235 Stovebolt.  I know the kit instructions show the driveshaft backwards, because I replaced the bearing at the transmission end.

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On 8/18/2020 at 4:01 PM, Marc Weller said:

Each tire was mounted on my Dremel and, while spinning at low speed, dusted on the tread and sidewall surfaces with Testers dust enamel.

Really like where you are going with this build.  I have a couple in my stash and will hopefully some day get to them.  Just wondering about spraying those tires with enamel.  Are they dry yet.  In my experience enamel never dries on those tires, it will stay tacky forever, but acrylic works very well.  Just my $.03 (adjusted for inflation).

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     Hahahaha ! I’ll be switching to acrylic since Pegasus just informed me that Model Master is no more ! I already used my last drop of Model Master dust and Tamiya buff is really close.  I’ve never had a problem with the enamel failing to dry on tires but I’m shooting it very dry and the tire is spinning so very little paint is being applied. As for the Floquil I similarly have never had a problem. Floquil rust is semi transparent and it is absolutely perfect for “aging” white walls. I don’t know what I’m gonna do when I run out. They are already getting 18 bucks a bottle on eBay !!

       I love that picture Kurt posted. Tomorrow morning I’m going to Dullcoat the grille and do a fine stippling with rust. I kept blowing output seals on my M-22 until a transmission guy told me my driveshaft was too long !! I would have never figured that out on my own !! 

       
 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I haven’t been goofing off, just working very slowly! The Cad mill is done no thanks to the instruction sheet which has the exhaust manifolds reversed and neglects to show any distributor (the kit has a nice distributor BTW). I hope Cadillacs have the same firing order as SBCs or this thing is going to have a terrible misfire. image.thumb.jpeg.33cea96b9467881ac36766583363414e.jpeg

Used the Molotow to detail paint the dash and Micro-Scale  Krystal Klear for the gauge covers. I painted the seat with flat black enamel and then, after a week, burnished the surface with my finger tip after a trip to Popeyes. Yeah it’s gross but what a great technique. That’s all for now.image.thumb.jpeg.9861e06367aa765e587289abcab1de5c.jpeg

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  • 1 month later...

David was correct. The firewall relief was not adequate to clear the engine location. In fact, trying to use the stock Cadillac mounting points was a stupid idea which I remedied by fabricating new forward mounts and a new transmission mount bringing the engine forward to a more reasonable location

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The interior is going to be nearly invisible between the chop and the blue tinted glass so I didn't get too carried away. Just some detail painting and a shifter fabbed from some stainless tubing.

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The V butted windshields turned out way better than I expected. Ignore that shmutz on the passenger side. Just some lens cleaner I neglected to dry.

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Just need to finish the exhaust system, add shocks, mount wheels, and liberally dust the undercarraige and she'll be ready for the showcase.

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  • 1 month later...

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