customline

Steve, how do you black out grilles like the one here? Your method? Materials? Just curious. ?

That coupe looks absolutely real. Great rust on the welds! Love it, love it, love it.

The custom backlight piece is too short for the T-bird roof. The windshield frame is molded with the body. In a perfect world, the top should be chopped but I wanted to avoid cutting those A-pillars so I "adjusted" the Cs so I could get the backlight more or less centered, top to bottom. The result is a sloped back roof. It's a compromise. The custom backlight piece also needed to be set at an angle I could not give it without a real chop. Compromise. When viewed from the rear, the backlight looks "humped" in the middle. Hey, it's an experiment. The next guy to take this one on will look at mine and say "Oh he'll no" ? . Your assessment is spot on, Steve...and I liked Rusty's idea too. I looked for a bumper that would work (to wrap around the lip - his illustration didn't include a bumper but the look suggested it to me). It's hard to describe my thought process ?. I got to finish up the body tweeks and as soon as the "smoke from a distant fire" goes away, get another primer coat on it. I thought about painting this one with Createx iridescent dark blue. Then I watched some videos on you tube...... Nope. Not doing that.

Oh they're welcome if not needed, David. A comment or suggestion may not work out in the current context but those ideas add to the overall base of thought for everyone to draw from. If I don't use an idea as presented, I may find something in it and apply it in another project or someone else will. Feel free to empty your bucket! Actually, Dave, what I had in mind was drilling the pan below the grille opening on each side and inserting a piece of tube for a Frenched-in look but it might detract from the smooth, clean look. I think I will just pretend that they lie behind the grille out of sight. I appreciate your thoughtful input and that goes for everyone.

Steve, your stance is perfect for a "street machine" of the time. The trend was getting some 60 series wide ovals and deep dish mags which usually caused clearance issues. It was easy to get a Mopar up on all fours. Love that look.

It's a process.....? Hang in there, friends...Rusty, I will look at the hoods and listen to what the voices tell me to do. Charlie, it was not intended as a pun. I'm not that clever ?. Thank you both for hangin'.

Update: The bumper thing didn't pan out. I noticed that the "lip" , if viewed from above, matches the shape of the nose (duh...) . The lip must remain unaltered. The solution to my quandary is to add more Bondo ☺️. The bottom corners of the grille surround needed re-contouring. Did that and opened the Bondo. The results, I believe are an improvement. The only question now is weather or not adding parking lights would be a good move. And what about skirts? My wheel/tire situation is unresolved, I'm told. Thanks for looking ?

Great idea, Bob. Thanks! But I'm afraid I don't have that kit in stock. And my birthday has gone by......wait.......FATHER'S DAY!

Thanks, Rick, I keep forgetting about those cute little dimples. You should see my '50 convertible disaster ?

That's got me thinking "bumper". I have an extensive collection of bumpers. You have just opened Pandora's box, Rusty. The right bumper would be welcome, certainly. Good work, Thank you, sir! A set of lakes pipes are in order too, by the way. Gotta look for those.....same box ?.

This is bothering me now. I need to rework these areas for a cleaner look. Not happy yet.

Thanks, Rusty. I'm going to try a front-hinge hood. It's that or it's magnets. Lots of fussing with cleaning up the body. Lots of boring stuff to deal with now. This is where some projects die on the vine. I'm thinking Testors Extreme Lacquer in turquoise or ? orange? emerald? Wherever the spirit shoves me. Hey, how about that lip that sticks out under the grille? Is it me or does it need to be trimmed back?

Thanks, Charles. It isn't as clean as it may look. I'm hoping for a really good paint job to bring this one home.

Another quick mock-up . Now I need to fill the gap below the backlight and some other minor defects with some Mr. Hobby. Comments always welcome.

That thing is beyond awesome. If Ford had thought of that, they'd have sold a million more.

Thanks for your interest, Robert. My stuff is old school because I am, in fact, old. ?.

I decided to just go ahead and add in the rain gutters before I prime. I cut a backlight pattern too. Neither the color of the "glass" nor the color of the sheet metal is decided yet. More later.....

Thanks Andy, it's way past the point of no return now. I'm hoping for at least a 51% approval. Here's a quick view of my morning's Bondo work. I'll have some primer on it today to check contours. Hopefully this roof idea will be an improvement over the stock kit roof. The vinyl was a non-starter for me and then this Impala roof showed up on my radar. I like the concave backlight but didn't want to trash the whole Impala to get it. I tried to get the general look of the Impala roof but it's still not there yet for me. I had to compromise a bit too much maybe. I may or may not add back the rain gutters....Thanks for looking!

I welded the roof on today. I noticed a slight warp across the top panel (on a corner-to-corner axis.) That impacted the attachment process. The remedy was to make the attachment to the windshield header first and then just bottom it out the C-pillars and straighten it out. Consequently, I decided to retain the vent windows for the strength. Without those posts, it would be unpleasant, if not difficult to finish the body work. I could probably 86 'em before the last primer coat should someone like to debate it ?. You could tell me it would make my tinnitus quiet down.... I added some strip to the roof to change the window profile to look more like the Chevy. I'm open to debate on rounding the top corners JUST like said Chevy. And I'm hearing the voices saying "why would anyone want to do this to a freaking T-Bird?? " if you have to ask that question, you'll never know. But then a voice says " just because you can, it doesn't mean you should. MI

Here we go. This is the roughed-in roof, just tacked but fully committed. Had to cut the vent below the glass away in order to fit the custom bezel in place. The C-pillars have been cut to match the angle of the Chevy roof and I will need to attach some Evergreen strips to trim out the side window openings. Some reinforcement will be added inside to secure the backlight area, then it's Bondo time (my favorite part). I'm thinking it may look better without the vent windows. It should add a little more drama. Thanks for looking.

Hey, Claude, that old crow looks fantastic with that feline lid. I Like your ideas but I'm trying to avoid any A-pillar work on this one. I was lucky with the '53Ford/Camaro thing. It just worked out but I'm just not that committed to this build because of the curbside nature of it. I'm sure I can get where I want to go with a minimal amount of difficulty (windshield involvement.) Thanks for your input, as always.

I do too, Mike. But it may involve a substantial amount of reworking of the Impala roof. The windshield is a big thing when doing a full roof swap like that. It's not my first. What I see is the easy inclusion of the Impala's custom backlight as a way of contributing to the "flow" due to the forward bow of the backlight which is one aspect of the impala roof anyway. Also, the angles of the C-pillar are easily modified to match the Impala's and the attachment of the roof to the windshield is not an issue. Using the Impala roof will A) wipe out a good body, and necessitate windshield work. I could possibly use the front edge of the 'bird roof grafted to the Impala roof but I see a hight difference and chopping the windshield posts is trouble I would like to avoid. If I'm not satisfied with the 'bird roof after mods I still have the Chevy roof to use or a convertible custom Thunderbird and a whole Impala to build. Logical? You may have seen a previous roof swap I did. I wonder how the Camaro body would look with a lid from a '63 'Vette ?

Thanks, Sam. The end result is credited to Bill for what should have been, for me, a no-brainer. I got a lot of practice, though, for making tail lights from sprue. The big take-away here is those red bullets from the AMT '57 Fairlane kit are a real good fit for this application so add it to your data base ?. Thanks for your interest, Sam. P.S.....I kept the red bullets that I made for some future project. You never know.?‍♂️

Well, we'll just have to wait and see what I come up with. ?. I just found a replacement for the engine I stole out of the Impala kit. Gonna hafta think real hard about cuttin' 'er up. (Actually, Steve's idea is a pretty good one. I'll probably start there ?)

Absolutely, Steve! Customizing is unmitigated freedom. For better or worse ?. Beauty is in the eye.....well, anyway....I'm still entertaining roof swap ideas and I can't shake this one. I really like that Impala roof but not wanting to cut up a good Impala, I'm thinking about incorporating just the custom backlight panel into the 'Bird roof and duplicating the angles of the Impala C-pillar. I'm just kicking it around. ? it's a custom, right?