customline

I won't bore you with all the minutiae, the body work was just the usual - lots of CA and Bondo Pro. glazing putty. Filing, sanding, etc. Tail lights were transferred to the Chrysler and trim was modified.

The AMT '53 F100 kit provided the DeSoto Firedome engine which was "weathered", as was the undercarriage.

The interior from the Chrysler was used and painted like a DeSoto. The dash had to be re-made to look like the DeSoto.

This project is actually finished but I think it's important to point out that if you reeeeeeeealy want a scale model of your favorite 1:1, and neither a resin nor a styrene kit exist ☹️, you might still be able to have it. Such was my situation. Back in the early '70s my personal transportation was a '56 DeSoto Firedome Seville 2 door hardtop. I loved it. It was a pretty cool ride for a car nut like me. It came to a violent end! ?. Some idiot stoner ? rear-ended the Gray Ghost at a red light. Split the trunk wide open and bent the frame.? After searching many sources, I could only find a promo on Ebay and I won it for $70. But it was a four door. I figured I could settle for that. Years went by and it sat in its box while I built other projects. Then, one day, I discovered Moebius had re-tooled their '55 Chrysler 300 into a '56 300B. I bought one figuring it was the same body as the DeSoto with different side trim, tail lights, and grille. The engine was found in the AMT '53 F- 100 kit -the only source of a DeSoto Firedome engine. All I had to do was a little kit bashing! So, here we go....it occurred to me that the easiest way to accomplish this was to convert the Chrysler body by swapping the nose and tail lights and modify the side trim. Also, the trunk letters and chevron would need to be transferred. Just a cut and paste operation.

Yup, I saw that. Reeeeeeealy tasteful color scheme. I have a hardtop kit waiting for me. These ford's look great in two-tone. Can't wait to start it. Thanks Bob. ?

Thanks, Crazy Jim (I wish I'd thought of that handle). That SHINE is not clear of any sort. I just use the "Lone Wolf" method I learned from his DVD. The only drawback of this method, if you go without clear (like I do most of the time), is that there must be enough paint on the model because you're going to remove some and how much you remove depends on the severity of the "orange peel." ? I'm not a really good at paint work and they don't all turn out as good as this one ?, but I'm OK with that. My paint work is done under some "unhelpful" conditions. I do the best I can. ? Testor's paint is really good stuff (well, it was, but I don't know about now). It's a shame the parent company shut down Model Master.

I agree wholeheartedly about the '64 Galaxy. Great sculpturing, a milestone in automotive styling. After that it got ugly (the '65 was a dog). Anyway, Mario, beautiful as usual and I think your bold color choice is magnificent ?although my wife didn't like it....it's a good thing I don't listen to her! ?

Looks like the centerfold spread in Rod & Custom circa 1985. Master work, Steve...upholstery color is perfect for the orange pearl. Beautiful!

GO MANGO !..... that's what that color looks like to me, Mario. Remember those Mopar colors? Really nice combo with black, quite striking. ? I think I need to be more careful with Windex ?. I love those backgrounds too, they look absolutely real! I'd hate to have to pay your Evergreen bill.☺️

Because of the modifications I made to the rear sheet metal, I had to remove some material from the rear of the chassis to make it fit. The "Law of Unintended Consequences " may be in play here. There is absolutely no wiggling room with the interior to chassis fit and it's the same deal with interior to body fit. I might need to make room at one of those contact areas. Wish me luck ?.

I was a bit skeptical about Dusty Rose but now that I've seen it, I think I might want to use it on a '60s style kustom. Thanks for the input, Dave! BTW, that roadster is super nice!

This Chevy is jewel. Don't let that splash pan thing make you crazy, we all do that stuff. I can't tell you how many times I find stuff like that on my builds. You have a really nice build. Period. Nice clean work. Great interior, great paint. A jewel. ?

Foil installed. Tail lights installed. Headlights installed. Hood repainted.. I am scared to death that I'm going to have a problem mating all 3 major components. The interior tub is a precision fit to the chassis and the body must be an exact positioning with the interior tub. I don't think it's going to happen without a lot of pain. ? . I'm holding off installing the side trim till the body is on the chassis because the flexing to assemble it may affect the installed trim ( it might pop off) It could get ugly ?.

I checked on the color and I am almost certain it is Krylon Dual gloss ivory. ?

Thank you! ?

That's the way it came. I sprayed it with Krylon satin black but it looks like gloss?. Gotta hit it with dull-coat. I guess I didn't shake the can enough. No one has commented on the diamond shaped back "window". It was somewhat common to have a custom back window made when replacing your convertible top. Maybe it was a local thing. ? I dunno. East coast stuff. I remember seeing a back window shaped like 2 interlaced hearts (I couldn't figure that one out so I settled for the diamond.) It's just nostalgic nonsense for us oldies ?

Everyone, I appreciate all your kind praise of this project but, really, the credit should go to the designers at Ford for this simple, elegant work of art on wheels. I've got to wonder, though, if it was the same crew that designed the '58. ?

Those tube grilles were pretty popular back in the day. You could get them from J.C. Whitney. I spent a lot of time perusing their catalogs ?

Pro weld? Is that a solvent type? The solvent softens the big tube enough to form it? It looks like the real thing. I gotta try that ? !

Yup, the second set. How did you make the juice box straw conform to the four pipes at the junction? It made me think of shrink-tube.

Thanks, Glen. It's that color. Too bad they don't make 'em anymore ?.

Can't see the tail lights from that angle but they are in there ☺️. The antennae are something I wish I hadn't done. They're a bit out of scale. ?

Thanks John. I'm not sure about the color, I couldn't find the bottle but it could be Dusty Rose or maybe Candy Scarlett. I have both of those in stock but I don't recall using either one. They are both full but I had more than one of some colors. The mystery deepens.?

Thanks for your interest, Mario and Steve. Some of the work was already done by Revell. I just finished it for them. Steve, the kit is not currently available in stores mostly. This is what it looks like (below).

Thank you all for your compliments. The paint is Boyd's (MM), I'm pretty sure but the color name ? maybe purple pearl ? I looked for the bottle with no luck.