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SMP '58 Impala ala Larry Watson! Interior Done, Final Assembly!


John Goschke

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  • 5 months later...

Finally to the paint shop for some primer!  Now you can see the full effect of removing the excess chrome gingerbread, especially the "pitchforks" on the quarter panels...

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That is very clean work. I did the same on one of my AMT '58's. I may dust it off, polish it, and put a post of my build on the board. One of these days, I am going to build a model of my Dad's 58.

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I really like this but don't get the chance to build much these days but there are a few projects and half finished kits stashed away.

One of my to do projects was one of these, bought like yours, built but unpainted, or at least stripped, also a lot of the details sanded off. Not really sure what to do, sell or build(one day) with it but this does give me inspiration.

My real question here is what kit did your wheel covers come from please. 

Cheers, J

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Looks great! I like that you removed the "pitchforks." I never liked them, but that was the style in 1958!

Sam

Thanks, Sam!  Yep, '58 was the year of "more is better," especially at GM!

That is very clean work. I did the same on one of my AMT '58's. I may dust it off, polish it, and put a post of my build on the board. One of these days, I am going to build a model of my Dad's 58.

Thanks, Ron!  I'd like to see your '58. 

This look very nice!

Thanks, Zoom!

Admiring everything about this restoration. Some fine modeling taking place...

Thanks, James!

I really like this but don't get the chance to build much these days but there are a few projects and half finished kits stashed away.

One of my to do projects was one of these, bought like yours, built but unpainted, or at least stripped, also a lot of the details sanded off. Not really sure what to do, sell or build(one day) with it but this does give me inspiration.

My real question here is what kit did your wheel covers come from please. 

Cheers, J

Thanks, 'Saurus!  You should build yours!  The wheelcovers were available in a number of AMT 1960 annual kits as a custom option. They're supposed to resemble the '57-'58 Dodge Lancer wheelcovers.

I only really like customs when they improve on, or at least rival the original design and that's exactly what you're doing here.

Beautiful work as always, looking forward to more progress.

Thanks, Peekay!  That's a perfect description of how I like my customs – as a refinement or development of the factory design.

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Interior attachment points

The process of disassembling this old model when it arrived required grinding off the interior attachment posts and tabs inside the body where cement was used unsparingly by the original builder. This left the interior with no firm mounting points, a problem compounded by my desire to build a top-up convertible requiring the removal of the package shelf behind the rear seat and replacing it with some sort of representation of a floor for the top well.

Before making the top well floor I wanted to make sure I could install, remove, and reinstall the interior in the same place consistently, and to have top edge of the interior and the top edge of the body line up every time.

To do this I shaped two tabs of Plastruct ABS plastic to fit and cemented them inside the body, lined up with the door opening. I then cut a slot in a piece sheet of styrene to fit on the tab. The slotted piece was cemented to the side of the interior tub after the location was marked with a sharp pencil while the interior was held in place. Note that the side of the tub needed to be built out a bit because there was a step near the top edge.

This is the first time I've used this technique and it worked great, and will come in handy in future rebuild projects.

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Great idea!

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WOW!! Looking good John!

Your uptop looks better than the one I did for my '58. I got the shape of the quarter windows a bit too rounded as yours show they should have sharper corners. Some pics I had showed a round profile to the glass, while others didn't.

She's gonna be a real beauty! B)

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Outstanding! I bet the BMF will really make'er pop too. 

Thanks, James!  Got some work to before foil, but I'm getting psyched to finish this one up!

WOW!! Looking good John!

Your uptop looks better than the one I did for my '58. I got the shape of the quarter windows a bit too rounded as yours show they should have sharper corners. Some pics I had showed a round profile to the glass, while others didn't.

She's gonna be a real beauty! B)

Thanks, Bill!  Most photos I looked at show a sharp corner to the quarter glass and some old photos showed what I'm guessing were original tops that had a sharp corner. As the tops got old this stretched a bit resulting in a softer corner. Replacement top profiles could show curved corners.  I love ragtops with the tops up – every one has a distinctive look that's often better than with the top down.

Looks GORGEOUS in red!  Stunning!

Thanks, Cabbie!

 

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