AMT's 1958 Edsel Pacer: WIP

[doorsovdoon]

That's the thing, if you keep getting issues it's not worth the hassle. In the UK I use paint from a motor factors called Halfords, I don't think the US has a Halfords. Other brands I've had excellent results with and you should be able to find online, is Hycote, Plasti kote, and Motip.

[Tom Geiger]

1 hour ago, David G. said:

Hello Gareth. My wife and I both have breathing issues so no, we don't have any aerosols in the house. 

David, do you have a spray booth?  I just bought a Pace unit and am amazed that I have no paint smell in the model room.

1 hour ago, David G. said:

Tamiya's pink just wasn't what I was looking for and I happened to find the Rustoleum by chance at Walmart. I should have known better but it had been a few years since I used Rustoleum so I talked myself into giving it another chance. The rest of the story you already know.

I made this same mistake with my 50 Ford pickup / Jitney bus.  I wanted a deep yellow I couldn’t find in Tamiya or Duplicolor so I bought the Rustileum. It took many coats with several days between to keep it from crinkling. In the end the paint looks too thick to me. But I can justify in my mind that it’s supposed to be a paint job done in an island shed!

[espo]

There may be hope on some new colors when Revell gets it's new paint line here. 

[David G.]

22 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

David, do you have a spray booth?  I just bought a Pace unit and am amazed that I have no paint smell in the model room.

I made this same mistake with my 50 Ford pickup / Jitney bus.  I wanted a deep yellow I couldn’t find in Tamiya or Duplicolor so I bought the Rustileum. It took many coats with several days between to keep it from crinkling. In the end the paint looks too thick to me. But I can justify in my mind that it’s supposed to be a paint job done in an island shed!

Hello Tom. I don't have a paint booth, I paint on my back patio. The Phoenix climate is great for painting outdoors for about ten month out of the year. I do hose the area down before I paint to keep the dust under control and I try to pick times when the air is still and the temperature is between seventy five and one hundred degrees. For the most part that works out pretty well.

I have considered a paint booth but my workshop is also my home office where I keep my PC and I have concerns about the effect that paint mist/particulates may have on it.

18 hours ago, espo said:

There may be hope on some new colors when Revell gets it's new paint line here. 

Let's hope so David. I sure do miss their Metalizers though.

Best regards to all,

David G.

[David G.]

After a couple of hours of sanding and polishing, I finally have the paint smoothed out. Yeah, I actually had to burn through the paint in several locations just to get it smooth enough.

 

It's time to get masked for the second and hopefully, final coat of pink.

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to comment.

David G.

Edited October 30, 2020 by David G.

[GeeBee]

5 hours ago, David G. said:

After a couple of hours of sanding and polishing, I finally have the paint smoothed out. Yeah, I actually had to burn through the paint in several locations just to get it smooth enough.

It's time to get masked for the second and hopefully, final coat of pink.

Looks like you're on the home run, good luck with the final coats.

[NOBLNG]

Wow, nice job on this! Certainly couldn’t lose that one in the parking lot!?

[David G.]

12 hours ago, GeeBee said:

Looks like you're on the home run, good luck with the final coats.

Thank you Geoff, I do feel like I could use a little additional luck on this one.

11 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

Wow, nice job on this! Certainly couldn’t lose that one in the parking lot!?

Thanks Greg, I wanted this build to be "over the top" to try to capture the feel of the era. I think I got it.

David G.

[randyc]

Crossing my fingers for you to get the paint done with no more weird things happening.

[David G.]

On 11/2/2020 at 6:48 AM, randyc said:

Crossing my fingers for you to get the paint done with no more weird things happening.

Thanks for the luck booster but unfortunately things didn't quite work out according to plan- well, at least not my plan any way.

I decanted enough paint to shoot through my airbrush thinking that I would have more control over the thickness and smoothness of the paint layer. Just to be sure, I even did a couple of test shots on some plastic spoons and things looked pretty good. I decided to paint the underside of the hood as a start and I was satisfied with the result so I started painting the body.

That's when everything went to rubbish. The airbrush immediately started spitting and spurting. Needless to say, I was a bit upset by this. I probably should have stopped right then and there but I thought, "Well, it doesn't look that bad, maybe it will flatten out as it dries. At the very least, I should get enough paint on it so that I can smooth it out... again, if I need to."

So I kept on and this was the result.

The photos are a little dark because though the glare was necessary to show the texture, I had to cut it back to keep from blowing out the image and obscuring the texture.

After I felt that I had splattered enough paint onto the body,  I tore down my airbrush for cleaning. That's when I discovered the likely reason for the entire misadventure. The needle adjusting sleeve was not only loose but only threaded in about half way into the barrel of the brush. It seems that the last time I cleaned the airbrush I hadn't completely reassembled it.  Oops. ? 

So from now on, there will be a preflight on the Ol' AB before each session. 

Though I had to set it aside for a few days to let both the paint and my attitude cure a little, I plan to smooth it out and polish this weekend. It's not any more work than I've done on it twice already.

If this is the worst problem that I have to deal with in my life for the rest of this year, I'll be doing great!

David G.

[randyc]

OH my gosh.   I hate when stuff like that happens.   BUt I've also learned to accept it and move on.   I'm looking at your photos and seing the issues.  And thinking if it were mine, I'd brush a couple coats of Pledge/Future on it and move on.   Or maybe hit it with some wet/dry 2000 and then clear and move on.   That's the now me.  An earlier version would be more distraught.  It's frustrating sure, but in the grand scheme, it isn't all that bad.   Just depends on how invested you are in this particular build.  

Good luck working it out - you;ve certainly had troubles with this one.

[doorsovdoon]

Sometimes when it's really cold here I get heavy orange peel in the paint. Just rub it back with some 2000 grit wet and dry followed by a good auto polish. 

[David G.]

22 hours ago, randyc said:

OH my gosh.   I hate when stuff like that happens.   BUt I've also learned to accept it and move on.   I'm looking at your photos and seing the issues.  And thinking if it were mine, I'd brush a couple coats of Pledge/Future on it and move on.   Or maybe hit it with some wet/dry 2000 and then clear and move on.   That's the now me.  An earlier version would be more distraught.  It's frustrating sure, but in the grand scheme, it isn't all that bad.   Just depends on how invested you are in this particular build.  

Good luck working it out - you;ve certainly had troubles with this one.

Thanks Randy. It's like I said earlier, if this is the worst problem I have in my life for the rest of this year, I'll be doing great. I'll just smooth it down and polish it and move on.

20 hours ago, doorsovdoon said:

Sometimes when it's really cold here I get heavy orange peel in the paint. Just rub it back with some 2000 grit wet and dry followed by a good auto polish. 

Thanks Gareth, that's pretty much the plan. I just needed to set it aside while the paint (and my attitude) cured a bit.

Thank you both for your comments. It's good to know that somebody is watching.

David G.

[doorsovdoon]

We're all watching, no pressure! xD

[David G.]

20 hours ago, doorsovdoon said:

We're all watching, no pressure! xD

Thanks Gareth, I got a chuckle out of that!

David G.

[David G.]

Hello everybody, I know it's been a while since I posted anything but I suffered an injury in September which has been effecting my ability to build. I was really hoping to finish this one this year but that doesn't look likely. So I guess I have a jump on next year's builds.    

I finally... Finally! Finally! Finally! ...managed to lay down a paint job I can live with. 

 

Using the same process as last time (color sanding, decanting and airbrushing) I achieved much better results with the airbrush in proper adjustment. I also found that I needed to thin the paint a little bit too. Typically one shouldn't have to thin paint that has been decanted from a spray can but my initial test shots showed a clumpiness similar to my prior misadventure but this time the effect was much more indicative of paint that was too thick. So I thinned it by about another ten percent which seemed to do the trick.

I also sanded and reshot the black to bring it up to the same appearance level as the pink. Being just standard Tamiya TS-14 rattle-can black, that was much easier.

 

There are a few small ticks and a couple of other imperfections but by the time I get all the bits and bobs fitted, most folks probably won't notice. Besides, at this point I'm honestly a little averse to try correcting any more paint flaws.

 

As a bonus, here is a shot of my project shelf. It's where I store my ongoing projects and one of the ways I manage my work load. I don't allow myself to start something new unless there is room on the shelf for it. So if I want to start something new, I have to either finish something that's on the shelf or box it up and store it for completion at a later time. "If it don't fit, I gotta quit!" .   

You may notice that in addition to the Edsel there are also some welding tanks and a desk and chair. These belong to my other current project the Fujimi Garage and Tools diorama which I've been working on sporadically for some time now. Here's a link for those of you who may be interested in checking that one out. 

That's all for now. I hope you all have a happy Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year, if I don't get to post here again before then.

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to comment.

David G.

Edited December 22, 2020 by David G.
typo

[randyc]

Can't wait to see this one all foiled up.  Or however you are going to do the trim.  And hey - BOC on the shelf as well.  You gotta be a good guy...

[espo]

First I'm sorry to hear of your injury. I was kind of wondering what happened to this build. Your paint job now looks great and hopefully you'll be able to get this build going again.   

[doorsovdoon]

Excellent job on the paint. It seems have been a constant hurdle with this one but your perseverance has paid off, it's looking really good there! Hope your injury wasn't too serious. Wishing you well, buddy.

[David G.]

20 hours ago, randyc said:

Can't wait to see this one all foiled up.  Or however you are going to do the trim.  And hey - BOC on the shelf as well.  You gotta be a good guy...

Thanks Randy. Yeah, foil is going to be the way on this one. It's not as bad as some others from this era but it still has its share. It took me a moment to figure out what you meant by "BOC". But yeah, it's one of their best albums, from before they were pulled into the overproduction undertow of the Eighties.

17 hours ago, espo said:

First I'm sorry to hear of your injury. I was kind of wondering what happened to this build. Your paint job now looks great and hopefully you'll be able to get this build going again.   

Thank you David, your kindness is appreciated. I was able to get some of the ancillaries cleaned up and painted yesterday, getting me closer to that final assembly stage.

17 hours ago, doorsovdoon said:

Excellent job on the paint. It seems have been a constant hurdle with this one but your perseverance has paid off, it's looking really good there! Hope your injury wasn't too serious. Wishing you well, buddy.

Thank you Gareth, I'm glad you like it. Thanks also for wishing me well, it's actually a rather serious injury and the recovery is very slow up to this point but I'm going in for a procedure this morning that should help to speed up my recovery. 

Kind regards to you all.

David G.

[David G.]

Hello Everybody, it's time for another update.

I completed the continental kit assembly but there seems to be an alignment issue when fitting it to the body. There is no license plate bracket provided for use with the continental kit so I manufactured one using a parts box license plate mount and some styrene bits.

 

When mounted, the right side of the bumper is slightly lower where it wraps around the fender. There's either a slight warp or a misalignment due to casting or design issues. In either case, I've decided to address it by adjusting the mounting holes in the rear facia on the car.

Sorry about the tape in the shot ?

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to comment.

David G.

[espo]

I'm glad to see you're getting back building again. In the picture it looks as if you only have the two mounting pins on either side of the spare tire. This doesn't seem like a very secure mounting even in 1/25th. Maybe a couple of additional mounting pins of some sort could better support and align the Continental Kit.  

[randyc]

I'm still with ya and hope you're healing well.   

[David G.]

19 hours ago, espo said:

I'm glad to see you're getting back building again. In the picture it looks as if you only have the two mounting pins on either side of the spare tire. This doesn't seem like a very secure mounting even in 1/25th. Maybe a couple of additional mounting pins of some sort could better support and align the Continental Kit.  

Thanks David. I'm still building but I have slowed down considerably. Right now I can only work for thirty minutes to an hour for one or two days per week before the mental fatigue sets in. 

Yes, now that you point it out those pins do seem a bit spindly. It's kind of funny that the stock bumper, which fits very close to the body and has almost no weight, is supported by big 2.5mm mounting pins that are placed in the outer third of each half of the rear panel. Very secure, very stable. While the continental kit which extends 2cm from the back of the car and has about as much plastic as the car's assembled engine is supported by two 1.5mm pins placed on the inner third of each side of the rear panel. Much less stable, much less secure. It would certainly make sense to supplement the mounting points for the continental deck.

However, a thought occurred to me during my initial test fittings when I realized that the bumper and continental deck each snapped in and out easily and held rather securely while in place. This would allow me the ability to occasionally switch between the continental kit and the stock bumper, an option I'd like to retain if only for its own sake.

So, I've already started migrating the mounting holes to better align the continental kit and it seems to moving in the right direction, so to speak. But it's slow work. File, fit, cut and place some stock, glue, cure, lather, rinse and repeat.

17 hours ago, randyc said:

I'm still with ya and hope you're healing well.   

Thank you Randy, I appreciate your kind thoughts and words. The healing progress is frustratingly slow but it is progress. I keep reminding myself how tremendously lucky I am that the outcome is not nearly as bad as it could have been and that helps too.

Best regards,

David G.

[espo]

I like your idea of being able to display your model with or without the continental kit. Maybe some added mounting pins that align with the original Bumper / Body  setup would give you a better support for the weight of the kit and allow you to line it up the way you want. That way using the same body mounting point you could easily switch between the two display options.