Snake45

Good choice. IMHO, two of the most influential body styles of the last half of the 20th Century were the '53 Stude and the '63 Riviera.

Got the white plastic body of the '65 Ford glue bomb I'm working on polished out. Now I just need to paint it white on the inside after the washout water dries. Got the interior basic color painted yesterday. Finished the chassis and wheel/tire rework last week, so I should be able to wrap this one up this week.

OMG, I spent most of my "Wonder Years" crouched down in the back of a '59 Bel Air 4DS exactly that color, with a lime-green roof and deck. My folks didn't replace that car until 1968 (with a new Sequoia Green Impala--they went from their ugliest car ever to their best car ever in one jump). My vote would have to go to the C2 Corvette. If you limit me to a specific year, I'll take 1967. No pics necessary--we all know what they look like.

Agree completely. I do this quite often--twice in the last week, in fact. I cut strips of masking tape and wrap them around the rim until the wheel is a snug press-fit into the tire. It might only take one or two wraps, or five or six. It's a low-class but easy, cheap, practical, and invisible fix. And it's completely reversible if you someday decide you'd like to change out either the wheels or the tires.

Different and therefore interesting, and also extremely well executed! Model on!

Improvise! Adapt! Overcome! THAT's the kinda fighting spirit I was talkin' about! (Just to quote two completely different Clint Eastwood movies.)

I have never blown up, set fire to, shot, flung against the wall, stomped on, or otherwise deliberately destroyed any model in over six decades of building.

Post of the thread! Well done, Steve! I'll add this: I've discovered that every paint job is a law unto itself. It can be affected by a dozen or more factors, some of which you can control, some of which you can't. With experience, you'll develop a "base line" method that works for you but I'm not afraid to tweak my basic procedure one way or another to get the result I want. One thing that helps is to work backwards, mentally. What is the final result you want? Now, what are the steps you'll need to take to get from here to there?

And, at least as important, selection of a thinner that facilitates flow-out under the ambient conditions.

The last sheet of BMF I bought was like that--probably the last sheet of it I'll EVER buy. A complete waste of $8, or however much it was.

I was going to call bull on this, and then I remembered that the two worst cases of brittle plastic I've ever seen were both metallic. Both dark metallic blue, in fact! One was Monogram and one was AMT. Neither had been stripped, though--neither had ever been painted. I can't recall ever stripping a metallic-plastic body, so I don't have any data at all on that. Hmmmmm....

Uh, a respectful burial?

First thing you need to do is forget you ever heard the word "wax."

My uncle drove a Checker after getting tired of nine replacement differentials in a brand new '68 or '69 Plymouth. Not sure what year it was, maybe a '70? It was dark green and I remember it had side marker lights on it. Engine was a SBC and runs in my mind it was marked 327. I think they had that car for close to 20 years, ran like a top.

Interesting. I think when I build my own "Fireball custom," I'll try to find some sort of windshield about the right width ('69 Camaro? I've bought several just for parts), and cut/carve a mounting slot of some sort.

My local mall bookstore didn't have it yet Saturday, though they did have some other new magazines.

Glad to see you did away with the interior divider. What are you going to do for/about a windshield?

Yeah. Some kits are worth a serious effort, and some kits are mainly for fun.

Or shorten the body to a cab, and make it a flatbed/stake truck. That could be cool in its own way!

I've got at least two JoHan promos that were factory painted. I've also seen painted AMT promos. I wouldn't rule out paint.

Mounting the front bumper upside down is an interesting customizing trick. Model on!

If the kit has clear headlight lenses, the two best things you can do is install them straight and right-side up, and install them with a non-fogging glue (such as white glue). Oh, and if the headlight has a plastic "stem," like many Monogram kits, hit the back of that stem with white paint to avoid the toylike googly-eye look. This has made a HUGE difference in the appearance of many of my diecasts.

You should be very proud of it. I don't think the Chevelle would have been a better starting point, especially if you started with the Revell kit, which has a poorly shaped roof. If I were to try this, I think I'd start with the '66 Skylark. That's a VERY rare kit but the dirt-track version isn't that uncommon. The wheel openings are different between '65 and '66 so having to scratchbuild those wouldn't be that big a deal. I'd cut off the roof and replace it with one from the '65 GTO, then put the "hips" of the rear fenders/quarters on a slimming diet. The custom taillight treatment in the original '66 kit is right in the ballpark of the '65 Skylark rear end, if you could come up with one. The front bumper would have to be modified. The whole front and rear ends wouldn't be quite right, as the '65 body is more "upright" and less rakish than the '66, but it would be close enough for me. But I know me, I doubt I'd ever get it finished, so, oh well. You DID get it done, and in remarkably little time, too, considering the effort required. Again, RESPECT to you, sir!

Very nice, very clean build! Well done and model on!

Since I'll probably never get my Mini Exotics Mirage built, this might be the next best thing. Wonder what the price on it will be?