customline

Just a couple of things. I didn't like the air cleaner from the kit - it didn't seem correct so I found a replacement in my stash. Now it looks more like what I see in web pics. I hope it clears the hood. I tried to find an add-on oil filter in my kit inventory without success so I used my infinite talents and made one ?. wooo hoooo! Then I tackled the rear end/shocks. I discovered that I would not be allowed to sneak the exhaust system under the installed rear axle housing so the axle must be painted by itself and installed in the painted chassis after the exhaust system is in place. I also discovered the shocks would not fit nicely without some cutting away of the spring to axle mounts and thinning of the lower shock brackets (It seems it was designed to have the lower shock mount join the top of the spring right on top of a u-bolt (?) and on an angle. It could not possibly work like that ?) I positioned all of that with tape and I glued just the lower shock brackets to the springs at the front of the modified axle mounts. This makes painting and assembly a bit easier. I hope. Then I checked to see if I could slip the engine in after the floorboard was assembled to the frame. Yes- but with a slight reduction of the trans mount. So I glued down the floorboard and hopefully I can get paint on this stuff tomorrow. Thanks for coming by ?.

Yeah, Dennis, I can rob one of my kits but then...well, you know. I've got a '41 kit but wanted to do an "esthetically abandoned " job with it but who knows by the time I get there. Yours looks terrific. You have a lot of wires to connect. I'm gonna open that box since you pointed me that way. Yes indeed! Who will miss it? ?

I figured I'd get the chassis assembled so starting with the front suspension seemed like it would be fun. It was not. The parts fit is fiddly and difficult to to assemble. Because I did not want to paint everything first, I needed to ad lib and I'm sure glad I did. Anyway, I got the lower control arms, coils, and stock spindles all in place, leaving the spindles to swing free. They will be glued later. The instructions call for the wheels/tires to be mounted on the spindles and then assembled to the control arms . You can probably do it that way by forcing the spindles into place after assembling the the rest of the suspension first. The fit is pretty loose. The spindles are just crude square blocks with round pins and the wheels fit on the dowels and are retained by rings. I glue my wheels, I don't like wobbly wheels. Then I got to the sway bar ? . They made it with the links pointing the wrong way. Or maybe the anchor brackets upside down. Whatever. I had to fix it and I don't like how I did. I cut the links off and drilled out the bar ends so I could insert new links pointing the other way. It was a big mistake to use solvent to glue the new links to the bar ends. They split open. Should have used CA. Next time I will make the links more to scale and kill two birds. The pictures tell the story. Thanks for not laughing. (Oh...go ahead ?)

Here's the ol' Stovebolt in stock drag. As soon as the paint cures a little more I'll be washing with some brown and black stuff to give it a little age. The transmission looks way too small,, doesn't it? The crankcase is badly formed. Instead of having a boss for the distributor as part of the crankcase they made the boss like a stalk, a separate part like it was part of the distributor. Really goofy. They figured kids wouldn't know the difference. Good thing I'm not a kid, huh? I believe they should have provided an oil filter but, because it was a dealer-installed option ( thank you, Greg ), they didn't so I guess I'll have come up with it somehow (you know... builder installed ? ) According to many photos I find on the Web, the air cleaner isn't right either. W T F? Sorry....thanks for checking in ?

Dan, I am a big fan of these Chevy Fleetlines. The body style reeks of a mindset unique to that era. I have a Galaxie '46-'48 Fleetline kit waiting for me. I just love the idea of that body style. The archaic aerodynamic style. It's so post-war. I love it.

Bill, I just watched a great video. Check it out https://www.enginelabs.com/videos/tech-videos/engine/redline-rebuild-watch-a-chevy-stovebolt-six-come-back-to-life/ I was looking for some insight on detaili g the stovebolt when I found it. Less than 10 minutes. Do it!

Thanks, Greg. I always thought( because of apparent ignorance ?) that those old Chevies had splash oiling, not pressurized systems, which is what confused me because I kept seeing apparent add-on oil filters on these stovebolts. ? That is a shared observation, Bill, but I suppose the same could be said for a vast number of kits across the entire brand spectrum. To quote a famous physicist, "it is what it is". I really like the car so I've got to deal with the kit. I just scored another one on Fleabay this weekend ( planning a custom for that one. The Fleetline can be such a wicked cool custom) so that says something about my capacity for pain and anguish

Thanks, Ron. Got started on the stovebolt today. Found a few tiny issues that are easily fixed. If you build it "custom" the following won't be a problem but I'm going stock so I found the exhaust manifold does not cover the two inside "ports". The custom headers should fill all the holes but I had to plug them. Why they don't line up with the stock manifold is a mystery...also, there is no provision to align the intake on the exhaust manifold. You are shown, I guess, to just glue it on there according to the illustration. That's fine but I pinned them together and added the carb as an assembly which I will paint by hand. There is no oil filter provided so I will need to make one if I want one (was it an option? See bottom photo ?) I am happy the oil pan is a separate part; I think we all consider that a big plus but you only get a portion of the crankshaft pulley. I'm sure there's a good reason for that ?. The distributor is a two piece affair with a cap big enough to drill all seven holes. This will allow me to wire correctly according to the firing order (which I wont.) I drilled holes for fuel lines and ignition wires and for pinning various attachments. This is ? boring.....Anyway, this is what it looks like before I paint everything. Notice the instructions call for the exhaust and intake manifolds to be painted aluminum.....aluminum? I dunno ?.

Thanks, Ron. Got started on the stovebolt today. Found a few tiny issues that are easily fixed. If you build it "custom" the following won't be a problem but I'm going stock so I found the exhaust manifold does not cover the two inside "ports". The custom headers should fill all the holes but I had to plug them. Why they don't line up with the stock manifold is a mystery...also, there is no provision to align the intake on the exhaust manifold. You are shown, I guess, to just glue it on there according to the illustration. That's fine but I pinned them together and added the carb as an assembly which I will paint by hand. There is no oil filter provided so I will need to make one if I want one (was it an option? See bottom photo ?) I am happy the oil pan is a separate part; I think we all consider that a big plus but you only get a portion of the crankshaft pulley. I'm sure there's a good reason for that ?. The distributor is a two piece affair with a cap big enough to drill all seven holes. This will allow me to wire correctly according to the firing order (which I wont.) I drilled holes for fuel lines and ignition wires and for pinning various attachments. This is ? boring.....Anyway, this is what it looks like before I paint everything. Notice the instructions call for the exhaust and intake manifolds to be painted aluminum.....aluminum? I dunno ?.

Looks like a barn find already ?....just add mouse droppings!

Looking at all this super nice work on the roof got me wondering if the '64s had the glass window. I learned to drive on a '65 (Chevy) and the rear window was glass. I think that was fairly new then. Have you thought about it yet? I remember not having to unzip it, just pop the latches and push the button. The plastic one on our previous family car, a '59 Ford, had to be unzipped first (Dad told me.) I just wondered when GM started with glass. It must have been around that time. This may or may not affect what you do with this roof since you are dedicated to authenticity ?.

I love a fat-fendered forty...(especially with a rocket under the hood)....proceed with extreme prejudice!

OK, now I want one ?

Lets be clear.....I didn't want to do this. It was just to fix the issues and then put it back in the box, put the T-Birds together, get some paint on the other four and oh...the Boss 302....and only then bring the Fleetline back to the table. The best laid plans of mice and men....I got primer on it yesterday so I could put some Mr. Surfacer on the other minor issues. The original plan was to build a stock, shiny example of this iconic Chevy but then I started thinking about doing a patina job on it and....well... as you can guess, once that thought landed in my head, everything else got pushed out and.....well....here we go ?. this is the rear bumper that was in the box. It appeared to have been removed from some other build so I scraped off the glue and stripped the chrome. I added a piece of .010 to the back side to facilitate filling the chunks missing on the top edge. If I go the patina route I will, no doubt, want a little rust on this along with well-worn chrome. (Anyone out there use that Revell chrome stuff? Fill me in please ?) Thanks for looking!

Bob, if you are referencing the ķit glass, this kit came with the front and back separate. I am not using the kit glass now. I had to go with acetate.

Yup. Totally get you on the airbrush. I have a detached garage for painting. Not the best situation. Winter is almost here. The Caddy looks fantastic, JR!

Yes it's pretty slick but it's pretty darn sticky. It's 2" wide and it's thin like Scotch tape. I can't attest to its ability to hold paint. One would need to experiment. I've only used it to tape seams on Tyvek sheeting (some sort of plastic.) And I put a cardboard spray booth together with a half a roll that's been out in the garage for about ten years. Still like new. Great stuff. It was just a suggestion. I suppose if it was me, I would use a primer made for plastic to test it.

John, are you decanting or spraying from the can? Your paint jobs look great and I wondered if you are using an airbrush. Also, why not go ahead and use some plastic or aluminum tubing and make a distributor that you can fill with 17 wires? Nobody really knows what a '33 Caddy distributor looks like anyway so why not fake one? The look of a wired engine has some wow factor and however you can fake the distributor is better than a sixteen cylinder engine with no ignition wires! ?

Got a bit more done today. I added some short pieces of rod to the inside of the A posts to "catch" the thin acetate that I cut from Wifey's card-making supplies or stamping nonsense or scrapbooking junk( ? )packaging (well, she is good about saving the stuff for me. I have much more than I will ever use). Did the same for the backlight. This gets the "glass" in a more natural location as seen from the outside. Once satisfied with all this, I finished up by replacing the windshield center divider with .040 square strip and added some little pieces of .030 sheet to the bottom corners of the new windshield molding to be formed into the corner radii with the help of a little filler and some sanding. That's it for now. Gotta try to finish up some other stuff and then I'll get on with this one next year ?.

Late to the dance again ?....thin tape, extremely sticky? Tyvek tape. Thin like scotch tape, sticky like forever.....too late I guess ?.

Yeah, Bob, the kit glass was not planned to be used from the start but, when I tried it earlier, it didn't look too bad. After narrowing the A posts further, it's passable but not looking great. I'll need to put in some strips on the inside of the posts to "trap" an acetate replacement. I've used the "trap" method on some other projects and it will probably work here.

OK, the A pillars were too wide and it needed adjustment. So I did. Thanks, Andy. I was chicken but I swallowed hard and picked up my knife and emery board and here it is. The kit glass is in there and if I want to settle for this it will fly....but I'm going to cut an acetate WS and see if I can get a much better look. I'm hopeful. this should make most of us happier. I know I am ?

I recently bought some PE saws and find them useful for cutting fragile parts from the trees instead of a sprue cutter. Beautiful work on a favorite body style of mine. Congrats!

Not only do we have design deficiencies but manufacturing issues too (see circled areas - there's quite a step I've gotta fix ?.) I tweaked the backlight opening a bit more and wrapped the .040 rod around the inside in four pieces - the only way I could do this. I've tried to do this operation using one length of rod and it ends up as a waste of material as you can imagine. This experiment may or may not work out well but I feel like I did what I could to get it more correct looking than if I had just did it OOB. (I think it should be "BUILT OUT OF the BOX or "BOOB")

I agree the A pillars need to be thinner but I didn't want to create a problem for the chrome moldings that, on the 1:1, are very close together and, on the model, the pillars seem to be angled wrong maybe....I dunno. I'm just trying to get things better, not perfect.