customline

TODAY....I polished out the upper body and tried some home-grown decals. I also cleared the nose; gotta give that a day or two before wet-sand. While mocking up I discovered some fit issues that weren't there before ?. Anyway, I screwed up a couple of my decals by trying to cut them too close...sometimes it may be better to leave a little extra unprinted film.... another do-over on the way. ? Thanks for looking ?

I got the wheels detailed and "mounted" for a mock-up with the engine in place. Engine is mostly wired and fuel line at the carbs is in place as well as the heat riser tube and the vacuum advance was "installed". I sunk a brass wire between the quads to mount that monstrous air cleaner in a removable fashion (seemed like a good idea ? ) because it hides all my eye-straining detail work ?. I need to do something about the carb linkage but I just haven't got the ambition yet. The elements involved in that are just too small for my 70 year old hands. I seldom build OOB because I feel compelled to do all the detailing and the issue becomes "if I add plug wires then why not the fuel lines.... and brake lines and then why not the carb linkage... and the battery cables and solenoid ...and on and on....I have to draw the line somewhere. I simply can't do all of it and that frustrates me. I'm venting, ? sorry. Also, I got the interior panels painted but not detailed . There may be a change of plans on the exterior color. I saw that '62 Chrysler under glass today by Tommy124. That color would look fantastic on the Riv. I have a few bottles of Boyd's Dusty Rose and I think it might work really well for this build.(I don't know what Tommy used but that's what it looks like to me.) I added "wheel cylinders" to the backing plates and drilled for brake line and parking brake cable placement. I thought about the bleeders but figured that would be completely insane. Anyway, thanks for your patience ?y

I totally agree with all of the above! That color looks fantastic on that Chrysler. I've been holding a bottle of Boyd's Dusty Rose for a few years not knowing what to use it on. ? it's got me reassessing my plans now. Amazing craftsmanship, Tommy! Congrats!

No need to apologize for poor English, Pascal; most of us would hardly notice! ☺️ Welcome!

Thank you. It had to be done. ?

You used that nasty little four letter word, Rob ?. Welcome aboard. Should be done with it by this time next week, weather permitting ?. Thanks for the encouragement!

Well, thanks for talking me off the ledge, Dave. ? There was a time when the body would be painted yellow as well as the rest. I had a bad experience with my home-made decals and it gave me second thoughts about yellow messing with decals printed on clear paper. White or silver or a very light gold shouldn't be a problem. The can of Tamiya white pearl I currently posess (and was saving for a special build) might have made it to this project had I not started the '66 Riv. I've had that can sitting on the shelf for 2+ years and the Riv will get that paint job. So the red- headed step-child got the $2.00 can of Duplicolor I scored from Ollie's a few weeks ago. ?. I tested one of my decals on the silver and there won't be a problem regardless of what color decals I apply. I wish I hadn't used that one though. I only made 1 set of each type . Today the sun is shining and it's 64...gotta go clear the body!

A good solid lesson !

I agree with you on the red lettering, Dave, it's my "gut" choice. I jumped the gun on the chassis color and it's too late to go back and do something else. That yellow engine and frame would, in a perfect world, go better with green. The silver is pretty neutral so purple or magenta or whatever would work with it. But that yellow.....I dunno. ? I really need to plan better. This build was a departure from my usual thought processes and kind of an experiment. You all have helped with it and it was a way to get out of my rut. But the yellow was all me. ? I don't know what I was thinking (maybe it was the booze ?) my glass is covered no matter what I decide. I have all the colors of the rainbow in acetate (a gasser gotta have colored glass!)

Thanks, Rusty, I went that way because of the decal situation. The paint was certainly cheap enough! It had to be a light color so I could use clear paper. Even after a second run-through, I worry. In the sun it's pretty glittery and it might help brighten the decal colors.. not sure which ones to use but I gave myself options.

Yup. The red one. Love it! ? all of 'em cool.

Nope. 86 the 'Vette tail light. Not gonna work. It was a great idea but I couldn't make it look right. Bummer. It's getting either '41 Plymouth units or some other nondescript things I picked out of my chrome junk. It's gonna work, though, trust me...? Today I painted the upper shell (for the second time ?) with Duplicolor (see below) and this time I will be covering that with Krylon gloss clear, out of necessity, and again after decal placement. Gotta do it all before the green dust flies because I paint out in nature ?. I'm getting there, but it's not easy these days ?. Thanks for looking. Still some decisions to take.....stand by....

Cool slump-buster, Bil, the Starliner is high on my want list. That's not a mess, man, it's just the residue of accomplishment! BTW, I hope the boxes under the bench are empty, the ones up against the convector. ?

Awesome! Thank you! ? Nope, not too late, I work really slow ?. These ref shots will get me where I want to go. I found some nice chassis shots but they don't give me much for the line routing. I just want it fairly close. It's a model nobody in my house will ever see the bottom of unless they drop it on the floor. ?

I tried to find reference pix of the chassis/underside of the Riv for brake line routing but there isn't much help out there; only a little for the rear axle housing so I worked with that (most live axles would use similar positioning. ) the rest will just be WWJD (what would Jimbo do?) The exhaust follows the "spine" so, if I want the line to show in a logical way, I'll have stay off the side of the frame behind the pipes. Suggestions encouraged ?. I glued a small piece of angle, with a hole to accept the flexible line, to the inside frame rail and attached a drilled block to the axle housing and connected them with black insulated 30 guage wire. It ain't perfect (in scale the block is about the size of a Marlboro box) but I drilled it through for the solid line to go through. Not easy for me to work with tiny stuff like that at my age. ?. A little detail painting and we're good. By the way....because this build will be slightly altered from a showroom stock rendition but is still basically out of the box, I feel it's time to create a proper acronym for this type of thing. This is a BOOB....Basically Out Of Box. ☺️

YAAAAAAY!! ish ? Thanks, Snake, looks fantastic. ? This car looks really nice in white. I've been saving a rattler (pun intended) of pearl white (Tamiya) for a build like this, with an interior a dark red or "ox blood" red. Thanks for the peek!

....but on a positive note, this kit is a blank canvas for some obstacle-free detail work. The underside of the floor is free of cast-in fuel, brake, and emergency brake lines so that they may be realistically represented with appropriate materials. ? . Like Manfred Mann said, "That's where the fun is!" All I need now is some good reference photos. Incidently, if you install brake lines to the backing plates, you won't be rollin'.? I have left the spindles free to pivot for now. I'll decide on positioning later. ? I gotta work on the wheels now so I can mock-up a (non) rolling chassis. Thanks for your interest!

A minor thing but just another issue to be aware of if anyone here plans to build this model kit. First the reference photo: showing the automatic choke on the right side of the rear carb. Then the instructions showing the carbs in the correct positions. Clearly, the choke is visible if you are paying attention but if you use the orientation pins on the bottom of the carbs to locate them (blindly) you will find that the joke is on you. This may only be a problem if you are going for a well detailed engine with fuel lines (and heat riser tube) on those nice carburetors. Now you know what to do ? ! Take your instruction sheet and stuff it....well... sell it on Ebay.

Mmmmmm...... the styrene addiction....I'm so sorry. I didn't know it could get that bad but, apparently, it's pretty serious. Maybe I could get my wife to use her thousands of dollars worth of computer-aided plotters, cutters, and card-making equipment and room-full of paper and card stock, stamps, dies, embossers, and on and on.....to make a sympathy card to send you. Issues....yeah, I know. ? ..... but not me, I'm ok.

I will try to not disappoint, but as I plunge further into this kit, which I originally thought was a super nice kit, I am finding some pretty "common" stuff I gotta fix, bringing this kit down to 3 ? stars. Thanks for your interest!this is the sort of detail found in better kits, but the little glitches in casting quality brings the kit back to ordinary. I primed the body today and the hood shows a sink line all the way across the panel where a cast-in brace runs across on the flip side. When the primer dried it vanished. But it's there and I gotta fix it. That nice detail is a double edge sword.

THANK YOU MISTER RUSTY ! ! I knew there was a crazy person out there who could identify this wacky thing (it's yours, isn't it? You don't have to answer that) ?

Here's a shot of the flip side of that weird floorboard/pyramid thing. I can't find anything on it. It must be valuable! ?

Small headaches. This kit, despite the decent parts count and details, is giving me small headaches ?. The Deluxe Champions are nice and the super cool ribbed whitewall inserts will surely look fantastic but when I attempted a mock-up the wheels wouldn't fit. Not just a tight fit; WAY OFF! I Got to work with Mr. Dremel and enlarged the insert till the wheel went through. Not good enough. I'm now having to thin out the wheel rim for a proper look. Headache.? I decided it was more important to me to get a nice finish rather than have a showroom stock Riviera with door handles and scripts....... Mild custom ?. I'm finding the instructions aren't quite perfect either, but all of these things are pretty normal and a full detail kit of this subject is still worthwhile. I shall press on ?.dAnybody know what this is? (Below) It came in a junkyard lot that I got on Fleabay.

OK, good. That'll work. Thanks again!

Easy to fix, though, on the tyranny pan. The big, fat pin marks on the axle housing will be a pain. The (lack of the) valley cover surprised me. Got that covered, the only thing I accomplished all day. I just got a 100' roll of 30 AWG Kynar covered wire in black for stock type plug wires so I used that to look like the perimeter bead of the valley cover. Crude but it will sorta look OK if you're looking for it, but who would? Nobody in my house ?. Better than nuthin'. It's great they made the effort to detail the engine where nobody could see it. But if you do that, why not give us a valley cover? ? Don't worry- after it's painted, it'll be fine.