microwheel

Another little tip for my interiors that I forgot to mention during the interior write up posts above, is when it comes to giving you seats that vinyl look, for me, I use either a semi-gloss paint or flat colored paint and once the seats are painted and dried, I give them a quick wipe down with Mothers VLR vinyl-leather-rubber conditioner. Same stuff you would use on a real car and can be bought almost anywhere. I had bought some a while back to clean the seats on my MG midget and while sitting in my hobby room one day, decided to see what would happen with it, I grabbed a old model seat from the parts bin, painted it a flat blue and then wiped it with a little of the VLR. I been sold on it ever since.

Love the color choice Gerald, glad to see you finishing this one up. I alway liked the looks of the Sting Rays'

Ditto what carl said Ron. Very cool project. I like the mid sixties Buicks.

Why thank ya kindly Carl. Yuppers most times for my interiors I do my foil work first. Darn I let one of my little secrets out. Ok so now for the dirty part of the secret lol, this doesnt work so well if you use a primer over the foiled parts.. Creats to much of a layer for the tooth pick in thinner process to cut through. So if I intend to use a paint that needs a primer barrier between the paint and plastic, I primer first then foil and then paint. The draw back to that is the ultra fine orange peel that even the finest primer creats really stands out when the ultra thin foil is applied on top of it. But it still looks better than it does laying the foil over the finished paint. I think the process speaks for itself. There are those times where there is no choice and the foil has to go on last. Ya just have to plan things out and know when and where and what is best for the job at hand.

Thanks John, I totally agree I lean something everyday, and I'm sure not gettin any younger lol

Well I still think you pretty darn good at interiors Mike. Thank my friend.

Nice work all the way around Joe, and I think your brake booster idea is pretty cool.

Afternoon everyone. Just wanted to let you all know, for those that are interested, I should have a pretty lengthy multi-post write up on detailing my dash for the SS either later tonight, or, but more than likely tommorow morning.

Nice Nice Nice Pat, and by the way I love your garage Dio as well. I got to get me one put together someday.

Nice work so far Martin, I'll sure be watching as you go.

Outstanding Steve, I love the plain simple look, it makes for one fine clean custom.

Beutiful work Eric

Nice build Bill. I actually thought the pacers were kinda cool. They had a ton of issues but they were cool looking. People sure knew who was driving them that was for sure. especially with all that glass.

Very Nice Work Kenny, As with the others, the rims and side pipes with a little color and you got yourself a show stopper.

Just to give you some perspective, I did most of my BMF work before painting any of the parts on this interior. the pic below is just to give you a over all idea of all the chrome work for the interior. The center console, and obviously the dash, were not done at this point. The console was completed after the seats and side panels were done. And the dash is still a work in progress. All the seats were painted Tamiya Semi-gloss black and once they had dried to the touch, I cleaned the paint off the foiled trim areas the same way I did with the side door panels, using my trusty denatured alcohol and tooth pic technic. The MCG photo-etched kit does come with the seat back center buttons but I chose to keep the molded on ones and just foil them. There wasn't enough of a difference to make it worth fussing with the photo etched ones. And here is a couple of pics of the completed interior parts to this point. The dash isn't completed yet and I still have the seat belts to make, but once everything comes to gether It should look pretty good in the Red SS. That's pretty much where I'm at for now. The dash will be covered in my next post hopefully in a day or two. I may post some of the process for the dash later today if I get time.. Thanks for looking and hope this helps some of you out. Feel free to use any of my ideas you find useful. More to come as I get it done......

Morning everyone, Well I'm back at it this morning. I wanted to try to get on here and finish posting my updates for Pop's Toy interior from last night. Moving on to the seats, this is where the little evergreen strip in my materials photo from my above post comes into play. One thing I did forget to include in the materials photo was the glue I used for the seats. I used tamiya liquid cement for this job. I like how quicky it works and the applicator that is included in the lid for it. It makes these kind of jobs easier. I have tons of different types of glues guys, so I don't use one type for everything, It depends on the project on what type of glue I use. I assembled the seat halves and right away noticed a imperfection in the plastic on one of the seats, so a little green squadron putton and some gentle sanding and it was all taken care of. Next using my evergreen strip, and my tamiya glue, I started in the center of the lower seat area and applied the strip using the seam where the two halves meet as the application point. Most of the 66 SS Nova's had chrome trim around the seats, and I wanted to replicate it, and no I don't remember the size, (I lost the package a long time ago) but it's about the smallest you can get, I suppose even some everygreen or plastuct round or even half round rod would have been just as good, but I went with what you will see in the following pics. First here is a refference pic of the interior I'm replicating. In this next couple of pics, I sat the two assembled seats side by side, so you can see where, and how, I ran the plastic strip for the chrome trim. One seat has it and one without, this is to give you a comparison of the seats so you can understand why I chose to add the strip. Eventually both seats were trimmed this way. Also you can see in the first pic the area I had to repair on one of the seats. I then added BMF to the newly created seat trim as well as the center seat button on the back rest. I applied the same process to the second seat. and added the BMF to the back rest buttons on the back seat as well. This pic shows both front seats trimmed. Here are all three seats trimmed and ready for paint. Remember I always give any areas of bare plastic I plan to pre-trim with BMF a light washing in rubbing alcohol first. The seats were no different. I cleaned them after applying the trim strip since that was the area to be foiled. Seat work continued in the post to follow....

I think a white top would look good on it to. But I the top in turquoise would also look good, I don't think you can go wrong with either color.

The trim pieces were applied to there respective locations on each side panel using testors clear gloss lacquer as a adhesive. I just brushed it on in the area I wanted the parts to sit, and layed the parts in place while the clear lacquer was still wet. Once it dried it holds as good as any CA glue, without the mess. This would not work for something that had to hold any weight,but it works great for photo etched parts. The next few pics show the competed door side panels. Next up, I de-chromed the center console with oven cleaner, and gave it a good wash.I trimmed off the ss console enblem since the detail kit comes with a better one, I also gently sanded away the shift pattern since the detail kit comes with a trim piece that has the patteren on it. The console was then painted Tamiya Semi-gloss black. The top of the console was then covered in BMF and then a wash of Tamiya flat aluminum was painted on that. The edges were then cleaned up from any over paint to reveal the chrome edge trim. The Photo etched emblem and shift trim supplied in the MCG kit were then detail painted and lightly sanded and applied to the console. I have more completed that I will be posting in the morning, But it's late and Mr. Sandman is calling my name for tonight.

Now is where wiping down the parts in Rubbing alcohol is critical. This helps the Bare Metal Foil stick to the plastic alot better and after paint is applied over it, it keeps it from lifting off the part as you clean the paint off the BMF. After a quick wipe down of the part with rubbing alcohol, I cut ample sized pieces of BMF and lay them loosely over the areas I want covered with BMF. For these panels, its the door handles, window cranks, and trim. Once I have the foil laying on the areas I want covered, I brandish it down gently with a qtip. Pressing to hard will cause the foil to rip or tear so for now just tamp it down gently with the qtip, there will be a few wrinkles and air pockets at this point, but don't worry, gently and I do mean gently with a very light touch, trace around the areas to be foiled with a tooth pic. It should take several passes if your doing it gently enough. If you try to do it all at once, you will most likely create rips or tears. A feather touch is always best when working with BMF. It's thin and pulls in the detail really nicely. But it's thiness is what makes it so sensitive to work with. Once you have it tight to the shape you want foiled, you can then give it a little firmer rub down with a qtip again to smooth out any remaining wrinkles. Why foil before paint you may ask. Well, yes you could foil after painting, but, for those of you who wonder why BMF always looks like it's wrinkled on some models trim work.. It's because BMF is so thin and hugs so tightly to the area it's applied to, that it can pick up even the slightest orange peal in the paint that it's applied over. If you apply the foil before paint, you will be supprised at how much smoother it will look. Once you have the foil as tight as you can get it around the area to be foiled, gently, using only the weight of the exacto knife, trim slowly and carefully around the area to be foiled and then gently remove the excess. I use tweezers for this process so I can use the scrap in another area. If you touch the glue area with you hand, the oil from you fingers will weaken the backing glue and it may not stick as well as it did before. The final result should look something like this. There is a chrome trim strip accross the top of both panels that will be covered as well. I also completely foiled the side air vent, this makes it easier to just clean away the detail I want to show. Both side panels were chrome foiled this way and then painted with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black lacquer. Once the paint had dried to the touch on both side panels, it was time to clean the paint off the foiled areas. I poured a little bit of Denatured Alcohol in a small cup. (I use denatured alcohol because it takes the paint off really well and doesnt damage the chrome surface of the foil). I dipped a tooth pick in the alcohol and gently shook off the excess. I gently rub the tooth pick on a small area of the trim, it may take several dips in the alcohol and repete rubbings before you start to see a result. This is where patience comes into play, Don't try to clean the paint off fast, take your time and use feather touches to clean off the paint. It will be worth the time spent. It took me a good hour or two per panel to clean the paint off the trim. And the longer the lacquer paint dries, the more time it takes to get the paint to loosen up and wip off with the alcohol. The pic below shows my work in progress on the first panel. Once I had both panels chrome work ceaned off, I took out the MCG detail kit, found the two door trim pieces, gave them a light wash of flat aluminum, and the emblems were touched with a drop of flat black applied with a tooth pic. Once the paint dried the trim pieces were gently sanded to clean off any excess paint and shine up the edges. Continued in the following post.....

Thanks alot for all the kind comments everyone. Somestimes I think I put too much work into my builds. And then there are times where no matter how much time and patience I put into them I feel like they didn't turn out like I was hoping. But all the encouragment you all give me, during my builds, keeps my enthusiasm up. I've had some of you ask me about the different technics I use for some of my detailing on my projects, especially my interiors. So I plan to do a rather lengthy write up detailing some of my methods as I work on The interior for Pop's Toy (the 2 door SS) I have been working on it alot the past 2 days and have a lot of it ready to go. I'm pretty sure it's going to take a few posts on my part to get it all in, but if it is helpful and informative for some of you, then it's worth it. Bare with me as I go, I've never been good at typing and I'm what I call, the worlds worst speller, and my speel check doesnt always work on here for some reason lol. I may not get everything posted that I want to post tonight, so what I don't get up tonight, I will try to finish posting tomorrow morning. First let me start by sharing a pic of the tools and materials I will be using for working on the interior of Pop's Toy. It will be a black interior. And I won't be typing out the names of everything in the pic, you'll get the idea of what it's all for as I go along detailing the interior. One of the first things I do before I work on any model is to wash every piece and part of the kit in luke warm water with a little bit of Dawn dish liquid, then rinse them in cean warm water and dry everything off really well. Then I wipe all the parts down real good with 50% rubbing alcohol. Doing this gets any residue left over from the dish soap, and it also make BMF stick much better to bare plastic. I've had very little issues applying BMF after wiping down the plastic with rubbing alcohol first. I would not reccomend it on a painted surface though, It can work like thinner and eat through the paint. But for the purposes of what I'll be doing with the interior, I will be using this process on all the parts first. One of the first things I did was to clean and paint the interior tub Model Master Flat black lacquer. Once it dried, I masked off areas I didnt want flocked and spayed another coat of flat black on it. While the paint was still wet, I dusted it with a coating of black flocking material I had purchased from the Model Car Garage. One it had tacked up, I unmasked it and sat it aside to dry. I'll be continuing with the door panels in the following post so keep checking back.

I know what ya mean about the blobs sometimes Stray. It happens to me as well at times. I use model masters flat and/or gloss clear lacquer as a adhesive on tiny parts sometimes where strength isn't a issue. it dries strong enough to hold photo etched stuff especially and it doesnt leave a blob. But for high strength areas I'm still at the mercy of 2 part 5 minute epoxy or CA glue, I just put it on the area with a tooth pick and try not to appy too much.

Just plain outstanding Harry, I really enjoy looking at your builds. I haven't seen one yet that didn't look as real as any real car picture I've ever seen.

Nice little deuce Phil, if it turns out anywhere near like the pic of the real car, it should be a show stopper.

Looking good so far Tony

Looking good all the way around Tim. I like the color combo with the body and interior. As for your panel lines, In the future, ya might want to do them before ya clear coat, that will keep them from washing out. It's the way I do them anyways. Just a tip if it helps.