customline

Oh....you don't know my missus ?

What type of bleach and how long does it take to do the job? I like this idea. ?

I shaved the badges and handles. Corrected some agregious mold mess-ups on the rear quarters, replaced a vent window pillar, installed the custom rear panel, the custom grille surround and added to the bottom for a full rolled pan (not fun). The custom surround is a little too wide and I didn't want to narrow it, nope, not a chance. Added some scrap .010 sheet to the front wheel openings as a dam for the filler and to hide the ends of the added panels. I applied Bondo to make it all work. Sand, repeat. The thing that worries me is losing the character line at the front between the wheel opening and the end. The necessary filling results in a different, flatter angle. I Installed the firewall( YAY! A FIREWALL!) Had to trim the front of the chassis to clear the added stuff in the front. I did the mock-up with the tires that were in the box. They are L60 15 Goodyears. I need to look for a better set and some "fitting" rims. Keystones or Cragar S/S. If I can find 'em. It will be a street custom. Thinking about making the vinyl top smooth and shiny. My mother's car had a vinyl top. Not my cool street custom. ? Although....if I make it a white vinyl top....with a white interior......I dunno, your ideas are as good as mine. In my mind I'm seeing a very dark blue metallic with a white vinyl roof and landau irons (and regretting it) I guess it could work. ?

I knew better. But I was curious. I grabbed the box off the shelf and I was just going to look at.....couldn't stop. Here's where I'm at. I was missing the tail light lens. I noticed that the custom parts in the kit are actually pretty cool, not like that weird asymmetric nonsense in the '63 Impala kit. I had to just check this and that and 6 hours later

A beautiful build of a great kit.

That Impala is absolutely dreamy,Tim. I've been itching to start mine. Ditto on all the color comments. ? .

Agreed, Claude, I'm pondering a recipient of a '53 Ford roof. And another for a '63 'Vette.

I keep a can of Easy-Off around for chrome removal but found it wasn't great for the paint I was trying to remove. I should probably give it another try. Some paints are pretty stubborn, I guess. ?

Oh yes. I'm a big advocate for the roof swap. This one is exceptionally nice. Great model, Claude! Gorgeous paint!

Dash to windshield fit ....maybe. probably. Ran into that with the '57 Chry. 300C kit. Some trimming might do it. I really hate when this happens. You'll get 'er. Beautiful work so far.

Yay! Another cool ride, Steve. Love Mercs.

Seriously, I think I got it straight. Thank you Mr. Ace-garageguy! (Well, I was on this...I was....really ☺️. ) And the winner is.....

Oooooo.....I think the green ones would be cool ?

All righty then....I finally got the point. ?? If you put a monkey in front of a typewriter and wait long enough..... Anyway, I found it very difficult (pay attention, Michael) to get a proper point on the clear red sprue. It was either too rounded or the point would just not form. What I finally did was chuck the sprue in a pin vise and grind a rough shape with the big sanding drum on the Micro at low speed. Once I had a fairly decent shape, I chucked the sprue in the Micro and smoothed it out with 220 followed by 400, then 600, then 1000. ? YAY! a point! Getting that point meant a light touch and good (in my case, magnification assisted) eyes. I guess it's just a matter of using the finer grits very carefully to get a nice sharp point. Not all sprue is good for this. My bullet (left) is actually better than the kit piece, ? which has a nice bubble ?. Behold! mine is a bit slimmer though ? (oh well.) Now I just need to make another one just like it but I think I'm going to take the advice of "Ace-Garageguy" and make a pair of clear ones to see how it looks both ways.

Yup. Totally thought of that one, Bill. I just "won" some lenses tonight that may work for this. They won't be as spectacular as those pictured above but, if they fit, I'm in business. And the Impala stays out of the box ☺️. I appreciate your interest, Bill, it is always welcome.

Well, it's difficult to work with. ?

Ahhh.....the Volvo powered rat-rod.....do you mean one of the Revell '56 kits?

You nailed it! Very cool Deuce ?

Steve, that would probably work on styrene but whatever they make tail lights from is sorta brittle and hard. Spinning the sprue chucked in my Micro and running against 220 grit it takes forever to shape a bullet taper on it. I had the fastest cutting with a file but it was difficult to match the contours of 6 pieces. While test fitting the new lenses I lost one to the "floor who eats dropped tiny parts". ?. Looking for alternatives, I shopped the parts merchant's on flea bay but not much luck there. I then searched through some of my kits for some decent red clear sprue and found some perfect size bullets in the AMT '57 Ford Fairlane kit but only four of them. Gotta find 2 more or make them from sprue to match the 4 I have. I must succeed or this one goes back in the box. ?

Yup, that's what I did. The material (clear red sprue) that I had to work with was not consistently shaped (round) and I had a bad time making a .....anyway, I will be looking for more sprue to work with because I don't like the ones I made. Gotta go through my kits. Thanks for your thoughts, Joe.

I found it difficult to shape this type of material. I thought it would be easier ? but with some practice and the use of better ("rounder") material, I might be able to make all 6 bullets closer in contour. These are a bit too random in shape. Uniformity is a problem. They are pretty small and are therefore hard to handle. I may need to try again but I think when these are in place they may be good enough. I have glued a "base" to each one so I can install them from the back side after everything else is done.

OK, I did it. I made bullets. With my Micro. On low. ?. Problem is the clear red sprue stock is not really round. But it fit in the Micro and I was off and running. I'm happy with 'em and that's all I'm saying. ?. I also drilled the lights out. I'm commited. Done deal. Wish me luck.

Thanks for a great tip, Joe. I will check it out!

Gotcha. You are absolutely right. Truthfully though, it irks me that I have to scribe those lines. Some of them are difficult to do cleanly. One little slip with a #11 and you add an extra step in paint prep. For anyone interested in adding panel lines, Dymo tape makes a great guide. Just stick it on.

The "new improved" type from years ago will curl, but it is manageable. The "ultra bright" must be handled very carefully and, for me, it's difficult (I'm old and impatient ?.) The Merc really looks great, Steve.?