Speedpro

The idea for this next mod came from a conversation I had with my good friend Kit karson. Are talks come up with some interesting Ideas. So, what this mod is going to do is give the effect that the frame has been Ze'd, but infact hasn't. It is going to take a fair bit of work to do, but I like a challenge. The first thing to do is add some strips of evergreen on top of the frame rail as shown. This material will be sanded down to make a nice smooth radias on top of the frame rail. To off set the added material on top, the bottom of the rail lost the same amount, keeping the rail thickness the same as when I started. The rail looks taller and flow's better now, which is what I wanted. When the body and frame came together, one area that I found needs help is where the body joins the frame at the reveal on the frame. I had added the extension on the front lower part of the cowl. This needs to be addressed as it needs more room. In this picture, you can see how the reveal on the frame flows up and gets real tight with the bottom of the cowl. What I did to correct this, was to change the angle of the reveal as it flows up the frame rail. This worked perfect. Another area that needed a small addition is the visor. A small piece of scrap evergreen was added to the body, connecting the drip rail to the visor giving it a continuous bead that runs around the top. A little reshaping at the visor was done to complete this mod. Another small detail was to give the frame a nice smooth radius leading to the rear inner fender. Arrows point to areas of the mods. A last but not least, The rear of the frame recieved a part. Out with the square, in with the smooth. In the next update, more work on the frame and floor. Thanks for all the comments. Much appreciated!

Thanks Jim, I love your comment ‘it’s different but I can’t tell HOW’. Thats exactly what I am looking for. I think I'm on the right track!

For this next mod, I want to lower the body a couple inches on the frame, but without actually channeling the body over the frame. Having worked out a seemingly reasonable way to accomplish this, it is the other things that change along the way, that may be the real challenge in this mod. So far, the firewall, trans tunnel, drive shaft tunnel, rear inner fender panels, and all new attachment point (mainly because I don't like the one it has) are just a few of the fun things to come by doing this. Got the frame taped off. The predetermined area of the frame was cut down 3 scale inches checking with the trusty calipers while doing this. Here's with the first fit of the frame to the floor pan/body. You can see how much of a difference this is going to make. I cut enough off the body mounts to get the body to sit on the frame. During a mockup with the interior door panels/rear inner fender panels, I found that some trimming was needed on the bottom of the inner fenders. I want to seperate the inner fender from the door panel, so now is a perfect time to get those fit. At this time, I decided to remove molding on the front of the cowl. I had extended the cowl and had to add to the bottom body line. Got the body sitting on the frame and now have a whole lot more to do. Next time, I'v got some plans for the frame. Thank's for any comments and for checking this out......................

With the wedge in the body done, filling the top is next. Using the kit part of course, test fitting shows the top filler sits too low in the body. There is a channel that the filler panel sits on that needs to have some material added to get the filler panel sitting were it needs to be. Using some .026 sheet, strips were cut and added to the channel in the top. Things were cleaned up and the top put in place to check the filler panel fits correctly. Since the filler panel was raised,the bottom side now needs material added. Using the needed thickness of evergreen sheet, a panel was made to fit the bottom side of the filler panel and glued in place. The filler panel is now ready to be installed using some ca glue. No filler's were used to fill gaps, just the ca glue, then sand and repeat as needed. Next, some primer was sprayed on and sanded smooth a couple times, till things looked good. While I was at it, I recessed the license plate and added a little something to the lower leading edge of the cowl. Next time, the '30 is getting channeled, kinda?

Great looking build. The detailed engine turned out very nice. Your choice of wheels and tires are perfect. This is the first time I'v seen Barbartos Rex's paint. I knew of the paints and colors, just haven't seen the stuff sprayed out. Great job applying it. Looking forward to more updates.

This is one of my side builds that gets a little work every now and then. My thoughts when I started it were to take each part and modify it in some way. In this case it turned out to be "Take 2-3 scale inches out of the part in some way" and see what comes out of it. I'v got a few things done and some pics to share. The first thing I did when the build started was chop the top 2 inches. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken during this modification. Wasn't looking for a huge change, just enough to make a small change. So the next mod was for the body. Plan is to take 2-3 inch wedge cut out of the body. The interior side panel's and fire wall were taped to the body. The side panel will be used for locating the first cut. If you look at the second picture you can see the blade cutting through both the body and door panel at the same time. It was important that the cut is perfect separating the top of the door panel from the bottom part of it that has the pleats. The next cut took out 2-3 scale inches tappering from front to back. Things were cleaned up and the body was glued back together. No putty here, just ca glues to fill all gaps. You can see by the cut line, It was a challenge at times. The top is not attached yet. Next time we will fill the top............. Thanks for looking.

Here is a AMT '95 S-10 pro street p/u. Kit bashed with the soft seal '57 chevy pro sportsman.

Your paint shop is doing a great job Bill! Nice save on the roof. I like the colors your using as they work so well together. Hope all goes well from here on.

Thanks Steve, Stretching the wheel openings is not one of the easiest things to do, but worth the effort. Not only does the tire fit better, It makes the car look longer than it really is.

'66 Chevelle SS with '67 pro sreet chassis. Stretched the rear quarters for the firestone slicks. On going project.

Thought I would show the results of taking a wedge cut out of the front fenders. Not sure if it was worth doing, but there is a small change. And I'm glad I'm not building new fenders. That's it for now.

So I have yet another little mod that I want to do. As I was reviewing the pictures of the front of the car, I couldn't help but think that it just looks like it needs to loose some weight (make it look thinner). And also noticed how far the front tires are in under the fender. So what I am thinking is, why not remove a wedge cut from the center of the fenders right down through the running boards. Not a whole lot, maybe around .060 at the big end and going to the thickness of the blade at the end of the running boards. Both fenders have been taped off and are ready to see the blade. I'v got a lot of time in these fenders. I hope I don't mess this up, I don't want to build another set. When the parts are glued back together, only CA glue will be used to fill the gaps. You can see the gaps that are being filled. Not just the top side, but the bottom too. Glue, sand, glue, sand for a while. Still have to fix the left rear fender darn it. Things happen. More to come.................

'32 Sedan getting primer.

Bill, I appreciate your comment. Alot of the mods that I do are what I call the 2-3 inch rule. Just change things enough to make a person look twice. I think it gives a little character to the build. And I want to say, your '32 is pretty impressive. Just the right amount of this and that. Well done sir.

Awhile back I put my '32 on the back burner and spent some time building and working on a few other projects. A couple weeks back I pulled the '32 back out and have been working on getting it in primer. Alot of the small imperfections have been fin tuned but there is still more to do. Here is a few picks of it's progress. As you can see, things are getting close to paint. I am trying to build this thing more or less with the parts that are in the box at this point. Spent alot of time trying to figure out "What can I do" and just found it easier this way. Its a great kit, don't mess with it, just modify it! The blower and rear end extension are the only added parts so far. The engine is being built with the kit parts and will be using the blower from the nova gasser kit. The interior..................I don't know. Haven't got that far in my head. Thanks for looking and more to come...........

Thats a great looking interior. Nice color choice and I like the wood grain and bronz strip on the coach interior as it adds extra detail.

I have one out of the '60 chevy pickup you can have. PM me your address.

Good looking project. I like the color and it pops in the sunlight. Is that revell chrome spray your using?

Definitely worth going. I myself drove 3 days from Kalispell Montana.

Need one front tire for this Hasegawa kit.

Wow, That's pretty nice! Exceptional detailing in the engine bay. Great build!

Very Nice! The interior is really wild looking in those colors.

Headers and exhaust look like they are working out so far. Nice work Bill!

Really looking good Greg! Everything is coming together nicely!

Nice clean build!