customline

I think maybe the easiest thing to do in order to get the trim to meet without a gap is to do the nose trim over and extend it a bit rather than mess with the hood. The look will be better with a closed hood. I should set the hood up with magnets first, though, so it always lines up. When the hood is off, the trim will be seen to extend a bit but hey, you're the only ones who will know ? The first photo shows the poorly shaped hood. I would like to fix that. The second photo speaks for itself. I gotta fix that (again) ?

Hey, Greg, thanks for your kind words and I hope to get more done soon but progress is slow lately. I'm trying to get my painting station put together in my garage plus some other stuff. My nose panel seemed too narrow but I think my body shell may have been a little warped because I had to glue one side and after it had set, pulled it together and glued the other side. Let's face it, it's a pretty crappy kit. It's a shame because these pre-war Plymouths were good 1:1 hot rod material in the '70s and '80s. There should have been more attention paid to them in the 1:25 world (and still should).

I hate to say this, Len, but if you are holding still sealed '41 Plymouth kits for future collectability, you may be wasting valuable attic space. ?. Unless, of course, you have a first issue, but other than that.....well.....I think you know. Just sayin' ?. I have the black BMF in stock but the only way I could use it, at this point, would be after a bead has filled the groove that I have created. Is that what we are talking about? It just may work, but it's going to be uncharted territory. You go first! ?. Did the"Rocker" have the same crappy custom wheels as the current $13 Ollie's kits?

Thanks, Carl, it's do-over time ?.

Yeah, Len, the hood is a hot mess. I feel like I should try to do something with it because I've put this much into it so why not? If I can get the hood to sit down properly, I will need to re-do the little horizontal bars (which I'm not really happy with anyway ☹️) and I know I'll need to replace the hood trim completely. Oh well.....

A word about the hood, Len....the hood fit just plain sucks. The whole kit sucks. But because we like the subject matter, we must endeavor to persevere. My hood trim isn't going to meet with the nose trim because of the crappy fit of the hood. I wish I had spotted that issue earlier so I could have dealt with it before doing the trim mods. There's only so much we can do before it becomes a fool's errand. I have done what I can to improve the look of the mess that AMT left me with. I wasn't going to continue with it beyond re-shaping the nose, for now, but I put the engine block together and found that to be pretty poor too. In the photo below you can see the manifold in place using the locating pins in their corresponding holes. Does that look right to you? Another thing to fix. And oh, yeah....no distributor. I did a bit more today on the "dent" I created and some other minor gaffs and got some primer on it. Thanks for your input, Len, I'm sure the others here are interested in what you are doing as well. Here's what it's supposed to look like ? If I try for a better fit of the hood, it will probably mean a re-do of the hood trim. I need to figure out exactly what is causing the bad fit. I've got to think about this. ?

Feel free to post a few pix of your '41s here, Len. We are in a somewhat uncharted wilderness and those of us interested in this kit want to see what's out there. I'm waiting for Hobbylinc to send me some .020 styrene rod that I plan to try. The danger with styrene that small is the solvent melting it. I also ordered a bottle of thin CA for that task. Not sure how that's going to go. I'm pretty sure the original fender welt was black but many photos on the web are showing a bright finish on the bead. I recall J. C. Whitney catalogs advertised "chrome" fender welt. It's an aftermarket item, as far as I know. It looks great but I'm going to play it down. I don't want to mess with the paint job by adding the bead post-paint. Besides, whatever you do on the fronts should be the same on the rears. I have a '41 Ford Woody kit that I'm considering converting. But all that woodwork ?. BTW, is the black beading wire just a metal wire with a very thin coating of something black? Might you sand through it?

I download lots of photos for most of my projects and this photo shows off that fanciful front end design. As much as I like the forty for it's blue collar look, this whispy, fluid styling has a sort of Art Nouveau look. Big, curvy lines with a feeling of air flowing by. Gotta love it ? It's really quite beautiful ?

They were pretty simple. I was building mine as a resto-rod and kept the front suspension stock. This is around the time the pros were adding IFS to Fords, ha ha ha ha.....anyway, I got an education on kingpin replacement. It was a fun time.

Today's update: I noticed the molded-in trim on the grille panel didn't line up with the same on the hood like it should. Another thing is the two horizontal bars were not prominent enough to get a good foil job. Same with the bar at the peak of the hood, which is almost non-existent. I used .040 half-round for the verticle strips and .030 triangular rod for the horizontal bars. It looks OK but we won't know till it's foiled just how much of an improvement this has made.?. Still much tweaking ahead and I gotta fix the "dent". Thanks for stopping in. The relief is too low for anything but a difficult foiling experience. And....the trim doesn't line up. When you look at a 1:1, the trim is quite prominent. The .040 half round seems a bit too big but I will be sanding it down a bit but my purpose is to provide a good base for the foil. It needs to be flattened out a bit to be closer to the hood trim. The horizontal bars were a beeyatch to attach for my 70+ year old fingers. If this all works out well, I will be quite proud of myself. You be the judge ?. The spacing isn't quite right but, like I said..... The headlight situation is still a little iffy but it's better than just using them as is. They will necessarily be lower on the fenders than designed by AMT but will look more like the 1:1, hopefully. I have thinned the bezel as much as I can and I can't finalize the tweaking until there is a finish on the body. But I'm close. I am still deliberating about the trim on the hood. I feel like I need to add some thickness to the trim but for the way it matches up with the body trim. If I add to it, it won't match up at the cowl. I dunno. That's it for now. ?.

Welcome Lenny, and I'm happy that my project moved you. Your projects are very interesting to me. I'm following.

I won't use model putty of any brand due to the shrinkage issue but the solvents can be a problem when used in heavy applications. This was my first adventure with sprue-goo and I was lucky to get away with very little damage. It didn't dawn on me what I was fooling with. My plan was to have some styrene back-up in case I went through the fender (which I did). It's all good, though. The damage is in the wrong place to be legit believable dent so I gotta fix it. Gotta love it, though. Can't wait to employ the technique ?.

The gasser has a street hemi from (probably) a Revell kit, maybe the '68 Charger kit? I don't know, Carl. I wish I could tell you with certainty but it was years ago. Maybe someone here will recognize it

Yes indeed, David. It's my first time using sprue filler. Lesson one: use sparingly ?.

Yup. Pretty cool, huh? ?

I was not totally happy with the contour after priming. I wanted to start the slope of the fenders a little farther back so I added more sprue-goo and set aside to dry. Tonight I checked to see if it was hard....yes it was.....but there was a ? surprise waiting for me. A nice little dent. So I thought "the wife did it backing out of the garage"....I will leave it for a touch of realism. And then I thought "what a great way to inflict a little collision damage for a patina job". ?

Those funky fenders on the '41 are embarrassing. They did better in '42 and, luckily, those carry over. Looks-wise, they seem to have the same biz coupe body from the firewall back from maybe '38 all the way to '48. From '42 to '48, they have a four-seater coupe that has a different greenhouse along side the older biz coupe. They also cover the boards from '42 on. Post-war Plymouths were everywhere. They were the lowest of "the low-price three" and it seemed there was still plenty of them around in 1970. I got my '39 coupe out of a junkyard for $75.00 ? and a 4-door parts car for $25.00. Those were the days.

Worked on the right side today. My Micro made quick work of it and I got a little primer on it. Worked it a little more with a black stick followed by a blue one and more fine surface gray. I'm close but playing a light beam across the contour at different angles will guide me while tweaking it. Then the other light bezel gets worked. I anticipate some filling with Mr Surfacer to bring it all home but it looks like it's gonna work to my satisfaction. It's extra work but should prove to be worth the effort. Also, I removed the .023 solder from the left side and I will be replacing it with Evergreen or Plastruct rod (David G. again, folks ?) for a better look. This modification will necessitate a lot of priming and sanding but that's the game. I want what I want. Some will think it isn't worth the work but others will, and just enjoy doing it. ?. after looking at these photos(now) I see I need to replace that top trim piece that's messed up (maybe I did that?? ?)

I think Ace nailed it, Dave. It's just how things had to be done to facilitate the molding process. The '46 model, I believe, is new sheet metal. We're gonna find out, though. Wait for it..... You may be able to turn the '41 into a '46.....maaaaaaybe. the greenhouse looks the same on that top photo. You have to mess with the fenders quite a bit but the general shape is there. The grille would be a labor of pure love. The chassis could go as is. Bumpers from the stash. Gotta cover the running boards.....the headlights would be easy ?. Fun! Ya know.........?

I'm just trying to get this old Mopar to look more like what it's supposed to be. It's not one of AMT's best but I will build it the best way I can. The kit is just raw material.

The backside of the bezel is not flat. It is curved. My desire is to reduce the thickness of the headlight door and lower it so the parking/turn signal appendage gets closer to the top of the fender and not stick up above it. It's not really clear in the photos but not from lack of trying. Below: First photo - unaltered right side... second photo- lowered and thinned left side (no mods on the right side yet)... third photo - 1:1. You can see the AMT part is poorly engraved and a bit out of scale. Thanks for your interest, DW.

You know what? I think you may have something there, Jeff ?

I grooved out the fender welt on the left side with a PE saw, mostly, and followed with my BMF scribing tool in preparation for installation of a new welt bead after further reshaping near the headlight. (THANK YOU, DAVID G) I think I have that side pretty well done so I glued down a length of .022 solder. It's a bit big but I will reduce its height later on. I tried some beading wire which was smaller and stiffer but it was too hard for me to handle. The solder was much easier to work with. I also played with the headlight to get a more realistic look. Still more to be done there. Thanks for the company.

Yes they did unless they were converted to sealed beamers. ?