customline

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. ?

Ahhhhhh......I totally agree! But my heart still belongs to the '39 ?. Seriously, the '40 is a handsome face, for sure, and there's no beading on the skirts. Shoulda kept it that way. The '40 has a folding hood, too. Cool, if you want to leave the sides out and show off that boat mooring.

Yes, with one little problem. The recess of the bucket sticks out the backside. It's necessarily some careful knife work because it's almost impossible to sand. My fingers can't seem to hold on to one of these bezels so the micro is a non-starter. I built 2 of these and had not, until now, known there was a L and a R headlight bezel ☺️. Gotta play with it. Luckily, I have a couple more of these kits if I muck it up. (Hell, They both look the same, don't they?)

Ace, I'm glad you checked in on this one. Your input is always needed on stuff like this. Yeah, I understand that how the tooling is designed for any particular kit is subject to all sorts of limitations (I did say "I'm sure there was a good reason" ?) I don't have it beat yet but it's on a long, bumpy, pot-hole perforated, deep ditches on both sides with no guard rails and no freaking street lights.....road to a beat. Thanks for your interest and input, Bill, I appreciate it.

I just noticed the kit headlight bezels seem a bit "thick" compared to the 1:1. Any thoughts? ?......

I looked at your WIP, David. Super-nice work and you have given me the answer for the fender welt problem. Beading wire is a great way to replace the welt. I love what you did with the wheels, too. To anyone reading this: look at David's WIP. David, the first thing I did was install the grille panel and, in doing so, found I had to get one side glued tightly first and then pull the fenders together to get the other side connected tightly. The body I have seemed a bit out of shape (the age factor). I didn't have the situation that you had but I will still have to replace the welt after I get the area on the inside of the headlights re-shaped. Your method worked really well and I intend to use it. Thank you!

I don't want to disappoint you, Carl, but I may not do much beyond the nose mod. The rest of the build will likely be shelved for a while until I can get caught up with all my other unfinished projects. It's just a "normal" build after the nose job anyway, but I had to do it just to see if I could. Sometimes these things don't go where I want them to ?.

This kit is a great start for a gasser. I just wish AMT had seen fit to treat it like it really mattered. It could have been really great if they had had a little vision. Instead, they try to sell it to Coke collectors ?. Here's my gasser:

Look at this face Now look at this one OK, my problem with the AMT '41 Plymouth, one of my all-time favorite kits, is the contour of the nose. In my humble opinion, they coulda done a better job with it. Why they molded the grille opening as a separate panel is a mystery to me. I'm sure there was a good reason. Now, after decades of re-issues, the front panel needs some coaxing to fit in place properly. The top seam does not exist on the 1:1 so it needs to be disappeared; that only gets you part way there. The transition of the fender top to the vertical "face" is squared off but the 1:1 has a continuous curve- its the primary design element. The contour of the fender/grille/ hood is everything. It flows. I want to build this one as a stock example so, in order to satisfy my somewhat anal desire for authenticity, I need to re-contour the fenders to look more like the 1:1 so I made a small batch of sprue goo and let it sit covered overnight. Then I filled the back-side of the grille panel-to-fenders seam and let it dry for a day and a half. The next step is simply sanding a new contour. Its probably not possible to get it completely accurate but, hopefully, I can get it closer than AMT did. In the photos below I have started to re-contour the left side and I'm proceeding cautiously. I'm not sure what I can do about the molded fender seam where it passes by the headlights. It's too square and the molded-in "seam" makes it obvious. I may remove the seam and replace it after re-contouring that area, to give the seam a more accurate curve. The headlight may need to be modified as well. If you have this kit in queue, you may want to study photos of 1:1s and compare the kit body. Thanks for looking and, as always....comments, criticism, and vulgar language is always welcome.

Settled science.

Following this now. Planning one for a while so... lead on, MacDuff!

They were a bit stubby. I had a Rambler American of the same vintage and Larks were a little bigger. Considered a bit odd back then. Studebaker was a red-headed step child. ?

These are all amazing, imaginative, extremely well executed projects! Very inspirational, Claude. Every one of them. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Ya know what? I believe it!

Beautiful paint! Time for a mock-up!

Can't get enough of these. Love the '40 coupes. Nice quick turnaround, Jeff. Where'd the caddy come from?

I like the engine choice, Bob, and that's a really nice chop on a 5W. Will this build be an era-accurate example?

Thanks James. A little truth, now....after several attempts to paint the hood with the green paint, I stopped trying because something weird kept happening (probably human error), so I opted for the "new fiberglas hood" scenario. Gotta find some PE hood pins.

Just a few p-i-t-a things. At this point, I've moved beyond, mentally. I don't remember what's glued and what isn't. It's been a weird couple of weeks, C-19 included. ?. Now we play catch-up with the Gen 2&3 brats. Thanks for your interest, I do appreciate it.

Well you got my attention, Bil. From where did you "lift" that '40 X member? It's a beauty. I know it wasn't an AMT.

The dash was the give-away for me. I've got this kit somewhere ?

I did a quick investigation (looked at pictures) and I didn't see snaps on mid-size GMs until '68. Weird, huh? I wonder if it was an option because I did see one but figured it was a custom installation because almost all I saw had no boots at all except some that appeared just laying on the down roof but not snapped down. Who knew? Just the full size cars had snap-down boots. I'm surprised ?.

Plenty of room on the other side of the radiator ?