ChrisBcritter

It's probably less work than what I'm doing - transplanting a good roof from a damaged '64 sedan body onto a '65 convertible; but it will be a challenge to cut that hood open cleanly (I'd use a the tip of an X-acto blade to deepen the groove a little, then a photoetch saw) and hinge it properly so it doesn't bang into the hood ornament.

Here's a switch - just saw a Buick Grand National headed south on I-94 on a trailer; the car was very rusty (like holes in fenders, doors and quarters). Totally original but must have been driven in the winter on salted roads - a far cry from most of the GNs I've seen which are pampered show cars or are stored with delivery miles only on the odometer.

Those were the 13" compact car tires first introduced in 1963; the Corvair kits used them longest (I think the later Corvair also might have used those plastic sidewall covers for the racing version?)

I tried a test of something like this long ago; wrapped a fender in kitchen aluminum foil, removed the foil and dented it, then mixed up a little resin and poured it in to sort of slush-cast a new fender. The test seemed to work OK once it set and I removed the foil.

That must be a major relief to find it so clean - that much paint could have hidden who knows what. I have several parts sellers I watch - will keep my eyes out for a hood.

The aforementioned '58 Fairlane arrived Saturday - as I had hoped, there's enough usable for a conversion on one of my convertibles. The black and blue paint has various shades of red, yellow and more blue underneath; I gently chipped/peeled away several layers on the roof to reveal some light coarse grit sanding scratches - but the seven grooves were intact. Interior came out with some grinding on the posts, but the windshield is glued on the A-pillars so the photoetched saw will get a workout again. Right now the purple stuff is at work on the body and interior, so we'll see what happens later. By the way, I once asked on the forum about the spacing on the roof grooves - if you need to do a conversion to a '57 roof, they're all spaced 7.5 mm apart. The more you know...

Looks like someone was trying to cheat... the wind?

My first reaction would be "OF COURSE THEY (censored) ARE - I JUST GOT A (censored) '58 FORD YESTERDAY!!!" Seriously, I doubt it - even if by some miracle they found the molds they wouldn't reissue all of them. The Pontiac, yes - possibly the Ford and Buick - but why the Chevy, Edsel or Imperial (which was probably altered to make the '59 anyway)?

Simplest idea: make a casting of the hood and resell the kit? Otherwise you could make a dirt tracker or jalopy racer with a simple sheetmetal hood. I'm sort of in the same boat with an ITC '40 Mercury - I've had no luck finding the missing hood so I figured I'd build it as a gasser, but it wouldn't conform to the class I want to put it in without one, so I'm going to patch one together.

Elegant job, Peter - Jo-Han really went out with a bang getting the look of this car right. If only they could have done a '79 Eldo before they went paws up. Ray Liotta's ride is a rare canvas-top Phaeton edition - they came in that bronze with a black top and white with a navy blue top. Not too tough a conversion in scale, mainly reducing the opera and rear windows and adding a simulated tack strip. Differences in grilles from '77 through '79 are easy if you remember them like this: '77 - mail slots '78 - egg crate '79 - fine mesh

Tim, is the deeper offset on the wider rear wheels going to be all on the inside? Usually I've seen them deeper on the outside. Also, is a vintage 4-door police/taxi package something Moebius would even consider if they could piggyback it onto this tooling without too much expense? Thanks for posting the photos - looking forward to the Jo-Han/Lindberg/Moebius roof comparison!

I built one of these back in the day, too! I got this sometime in the early '70s and built it stock, painted green like on the box. Then after seeing too many movie car chases, I decided to try making it look like it had been through some action. This was mostly done by holding it up to a light bulb to soften it up, making dents with a screwdriver and carving wrinkles with an X-acto blade. I left the right side undamaged except for several bullet holes made with a straight pin in a Dremel (had no micro-bits then!). Sometime after that, a friend of mine was making a stop-motion monster movie, so I repainted it black and blue to match a wrecked/abandoned car we filmed with me in it, then filmed the model being blown into the air by the monster (using a firecracker, which knocked a hole in the chassis and blew off the lower rear axle). So this poor heap has been through quite a bit but it's one of my oldest surviving models.

The roof transplant seems to line up very well - was it a close fit or did it need finessing?

I've been wanting a '58 Fairlane 500 hardtop in the worst way - and that's pretty much what I just got : Kit body on a friction chassis; but it was the cheapest one I've ever found. I think/hope there's enough good material left to kitbash it with one of my '58 convertibles and a spare '59 Edsel chassis. Wish me luck getting the roof grooves opened up again... I wonder about those odd front wheels; those shallow discs with that bolt pattern look like they belong on a late '20s car.

I love seeing his builds - and I've noticed recently he's still using the 1956-62 California license plates I made back in 1983: (yes, I was once part of the aftermarket... I consider this an honor! )

Sweet job anyway. Other than the license plate, it looks completely different from the ol' Husky and Starch ride...

Found these on eBay cheap: They're 1/28 scale WWI aircraft spoke wheels. I want to build some sort of homebuilt '20s speedster either from a Model T or the Beverly Hillbillies '21 Olds, and these might do the trick for the accessory wire wheels some of them had. At 14.90mm diameter the size is good and the style looks pretty close. Also finally picked up some Alclad chrome the other day; here we go, folks... Edit: Just trimmed the wheels from their backing and checked the fit, and it looks like they will work better with Model T rims and tires. I have an unbuilt AMT '23 T Budweiser van as a starting point, so off to the research pile...

Hoo boy. I really hope you're finding smooth plastic under all that goo - no lacquer check or 80 grit sanding marks. I wonder if you could modify the SC/Rambler hood to match? Basically re-contour the front profile and fill in the scoop hole.

+1 for using the thin material - big reason being that the thickness of the glass will be obvious when a hole is drilled through it.

Yay! Now I can build the cop car from Cooley High (already have the '64 Caddy). Looks like I'll have to rob a Jo-Han '67 for the bench seat, decals, etc.

Now here's something I want to see. Will you keep the steerable wheel setup from the sedan? I recall someone posting they needed some A wire wheels if you're not using them.

I have one as well; how will you deal with the pebbly finish - prime then sand, or sand first then prime? Plan for mine is a beater surfboard carrier jacked up in the rear with some primer/mismatched paint on the front end and a '60 grille, like someone bought it wrecked and fixed it up on the cheap.

Keep those tires bagged - they're big-time plastic melters; you may want to recast the whitewalls in resin or they'll soften up pretty fast. Don't ask how I know this...

Thanks Ron - there's a photo that's worth a thousand words!

I really want to see how this comes out - was the vendor autozonehobbies? Almost all the kits/promos from their collection look like they were painted with a trowel. I put in low bids on a couple of them, but I just couldn't tell what was under that stuff. I should have saved some of the images...