Revell 56 Chevy "The Original"

[disconovaman]

Hey Folks.. I'm getting my feet wet after a Hiatus... I haven't worked on too much lately. I still have been attending the local clubmeets though... last month it turned into a swapmeet when a fellow club member brought a bunch from a collection he acquired. I ended up bringing home 23 kits that hadn't seen daylight since the 70's!

This Original Revell 56 Chevy was built up and I thought a good cleaning and replacing the melted wheels and tires would do the trick. I'm not satisfied to conclusion so I'm going to rebuild this and make it show quality, Gasser style... 

To me It's like what normally happens when you find a barn covered car. Clean it, maybe get it running, replace dry rotted or flat tires and then decide what to do.. My style is to rebuild it so I have to make it new agian... until then I'll show what It looks like before, during and... along the way ? Thanks for looking.

[cobraman]

Cleaned up pretty nice.

[Tom Geiger]

Looks great!  She’s a keeper, just put her on the shelf!

[disconovaman]

See kids, this is what happens when plastic and rubber meet up and stay together for 40 years... Tires survived, wheels are melted...???

Also, here is a sneak peek of what color she will live on as...

[Snake45]

8 minutes ago, disconovaman said:

Hey Folks.. I'm getting my feet wet after a Hiatus... I haven't worked on too much lately. I still have been attending the local clubmeets though... last month it turned into a swapmeet when a fellow club member brought a bunch from a collection he acquired. I ended up bringing home 23 kits that hadn't seen daylight since the 70's!

This Original Revell 56 Chevy was built up and I thought a good cleaning and replacing the melted wheels and tires would do the trick. I'm not satisfied to conclusion so I'm going to rebuild this and make it show quality, Gasser style... 

To me It's like what normally happens when you find a barn covered car. Clean it, maybe get it running, replace dry rotted or flat tires and then decide what to do.. My style is to rebuild it so I have to make it new agian... until then I'll show what It looks like before, during and... along the way ? Thanks for looking.

OMG don't rebuild that thing, it's ALMOST perfect now! All I'd do to it at this point would be re-chrome the bumpers with Krylon Foil (would probably just lose the front bumper altogether) and then touch up the rest of the chrome trim with Molotow and/or Silver Sharpie. What a fantastic time capsule! 

If you want a "show quality gasser," start with a new kit. And IMHO you'd be better off starting with the "new" Revell '56 Del Ray, a MUCH better kit in every way. 

[disconovaman]

Thanks guys. I sure hope I don't break any hearts ??? with this rebuild. I'm not into erasing history but I'm not into displaying old build ups either. So the best thing for me to do, if I own it is to make it mine. I promise it will be fabulous!

[disconovaman]

6 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

And IMHO you'd be better off starting with the "new" Revell '56 Del Ray,

Yeah, I have that kit and I agree with you but this old Revell kit works great and IMO the 56 was the best one of the opening door kits that Revell ever made. It really works well and I believe I can get it to come out pretty nice. I want an opening door/ trunk Gasser in show quality without having to do massive work, this really fits the criteria for me. Sorry if I offend the preservationists. I have a bunch more original build ups if that makes you feel better.

[disconovaman]

Here is a 55 that I snagged from the collection an Original Pre-BADMAN Monogram 55 Chevy custom. It's Kinda cool and really dives into how car culture was in the early days of Kustom cars.  I'm not sure what I will do with this one yet, maybe restore it to exactly how he originally built it?

[Snake45]

Very cool old Mono '55! Do you have the hood? If so, clean it up and leave it alone.   I came into one of these a couple years ago and I'm just gonna clean it up, polish the lovely turquoise plastic, put it back together and let it stand as a time capsule. I'll probably take off the decals (and the fender skirts if they'll come off without damage) and do the body chrome with a Molotow or Silver Sharpie. 

[disconovaman]

4 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

  I came into one of these a couple years ago and I'm just gonna clean it up, polish the lovely turquoise plastic, put it back together and let it stand as a time capsule.

Wow! that is really cool! I've seen the turquoise, always said if I found an original I wouldn't paint it, just polish the plastic or maybe clearcoat it. This one is red I'm pretty sure.

I have an original 55 nomad, A 33 and 36 Ford and some other kits built up but the majority of the kits were in the box original unbuilt. I paid $110 for 23 kits, I thought that was fair.

This 55 is complete except for the front valance and he removed the trim from the quarters too.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I'm all for seeing you rebuild the ol' '56 as a show-worthy gasser.

Correcting the apparent sag and slump on the right rear quarter, where it looks like the builder used a half tube of glue to mount the taillight, might be the toughest part of the resurrection.

Some of my most satisfying work has been done reworking somebody else's sorry mess into a decent model.

I've never understood the penchant for saving mediocre or just plain awful workmanship done by some unknown entity...though I have preserved a very few extremely clean and competent built-ups.

 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Ace-Garageguy

[Snake45]

8 minutes ago, disconovaman said:

I paid $110 for 23 kits, I thought that was fair.

Hella deal! My '55 came out of box of "random parts" I bought at a flea market for $42--and the vendor wouldn't budge on the price. When I got it home and sorted it all out, it turned out to be nearly all the parts to 14 complete models, hence the price--$3 each. So far I've only "rescued" one (a '32 Vicky), traded one off (an MPC '76 or '77 Vette) and there are three or four I'm not interested in working on at all, but there are at least five or six other interesting projects in there, including the '55. 

[disconovaman]

3 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

$3 each

Yeah, when you can get em that cheap you best do it ? I'm fascinated by original built kits and I'm always looking for the best ones built up that only need very little to be perfect. It's hard to find well preserved built kits though, usually because most of them from those days were built by kids, if you stop and think about it, some of them are pretty well done for a kid I think... they definitely tell a story.

Wouldn't it be cool to start a community group build where we swap our acquired build ups? not your own but something that you're picked up along the way...

[Snake45]

33 minutes ago, disconovaman said:

Wouldn't it be cool to start a community group build where we swap our acquired build ups? not your own but something that you're picked up along the way...

I'm not really interested in that (swapping), but I was thinking of starting a "Rescue a Glue Bomb" group build. The key word here is "rescue"--not a complete rebuild, but some quick, easy, FUN upgrades/improvements that could be accomplished in, say, 3 to 12 hours of work. It would be like the BOYD build but would be an ongoing thing, running every 30 days--i.e., starts on the first of each month and you have till the last day of the month to GITTER RESCUED. Think there would be any interested in something like that? 

[espo]

I look forward to seeing your rebuild of the '56. While a curtain part of me wanted you to leave it as a barn find but it is yours after all and I'm sure you'll do it justice. The '55 Bel Airs roof almost looks like it's been chopped near the rear window.  This would make a great bases for a Kustom. 

[disconovaman]

58 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

Think there would be any interested in something like that? 

I think so.. if you could find enough guys that have passion to Rescue rather than Restore or in my case make it my own. Like I said before I really think a Good Rescue is hard to find. 

 

56 minutes ago, espo said:

I look forward to seeing your rebuild of the '56.

Thanks, It's gonna be a project. He used a fair amount of glue and so far it's coming apart good enough but I'm taking my time...

[Snake45]

30 minutes ago, disconovaman said:

Like I said before I really think a Good Rescue is hard to find. 

Maybe I've been lucky but last time I counted, I think I've done around 50 of them--10 of them my teenage builds, the rest bought off eBay, flea markets, and the monthly local toy show. And I've got at least two dozen more in the Snakepit waiting for their turn. (One's on the bench even as we speak.) 

[Zippi]

Nice job Anthony.  Those old wheels and tires should buff out just fine ?

[Bob Ellis]

8 hours ago, disconovaman said:

See kids, this is what happens when plastic and rubber meet up and stay together for 40 years... Tires survived, wheels are melted...???

Also, here is a sneak peek of what color she will live on as...

Those skinny Revell Good-Years are carnivorus to plastic. maybe worse than AMT or MPC tires. Painting the tires with black latex paint may protect from damage.

[Dragonhawk1066]

That had definitely seen better days, lol. You cleaned it up nice!

[disconovaman]

1 minute ago, Bob Ellis said:

Painting the tires with black latex paint may protect from damage.

That's interesting, these had a white wall sticker? Not a decal... the tires cleaned up and I can re-use them They're nice too. Maybe I'll paint them black to protect the wheels.  I believe this kit is from 62-63 it has these pin style axles in front simular to that of the modern Revell kits. Really interesting features...

[Bob Ellis]

I tried painting white letters on tire with enamel paints in the '70s and found that the paint never dried, just stayed sticky forever. I used white latex house paint and it dried perfectly with no rubber paint interaction.

[PappyD340]

Looks great, excellent weathering!

[disconovaman]

So I'm back from the our local monthly clubmeet with some news.  I was pretty surprised by one of the builds that showed up. Jimmy, one of our members built this tribute to my 56 before I stripped it. He used the current Revell 56 Delray. Anyways, I thought I'd share his with you all. I'm still in progress with my rebuild on the original.

[olddude55]

Sweet!  In my opinion, the '56 was the best of those old Revell kits.  The '55 and '57 kits just didn't look right.

Built them all back in the day.  Well, built them after a fashion.  They weren't the easiest kits to finish.  If I had a '56 right now, I'd build it as a 150.