LennyB

Rich, sometimes I come up with a good idea ? Thanks DJ, so far so good. That's what my brain kept screaming at me David while I was doing this. Thanks for checking in everyone.?

Thanks Rich, hopefully I can find the engine as it's been rolling around the workbench for weeks now. I have been waiting for HL to put kits on sale again so I can pick up one of those Demon's Stephen. Probably going to use the Duster chassis on it.

That makes it all the more fun.?

This is definitely a project where I make it up as I go along. Decided to start work on the hood scoop which PV took from a '61 T-Bird. Thought I would do the same until I pulled out a hood from an AMT Bird and found that the scoop was a lot longer than expected. You can see a faint pencil mark on the '57 hood showing where the scoop should start and as you can see the scoop is about 25% too long. Thought I would just fabricate the scoop from scratch so I used some tape to make a template of the front of the scoop and transferred that to a flat piece of styrene that I cut to the width of the scoop. I made a bend down the center of the scoop and got ready to cut open the hood for it. I But as I was doing this I thought twice about it and decided to just cut out the opening of the scoop on the front and two sides and then push that section up in the front to form the scoop. I stuck a loose piece of styrene into the mouth to hold it up in position while I glued the sides into the new location. Here I have taped the hood to the body before I got ready to glue the flap into place. This was so the hood would retain it's shape and sit square. I also put a crease down the center of the scoop section as the T-Bird scoop has. After this dried for a bit I ran two pieces of .040 square stock down either side for added strength. I will allow this to dry completely and then shape the opening and the sides of the scoop. PV eliminated the chrome trim on the front edge of the scoop which made this an easier conversion. 'nuff for now, see ya next time.

Made some slow progress on the Duster. After polishing out the body I sprayed the top with some Baer Matte Black Texture paint. I would like to get some pics out in the sun as the paint looks washed out under an incandescent light. Next stop BMF land.

Nice to see the rain has stopped and the sun is out today.

Looks like a nice color combo. ?

I’ve got a number of these in the same boat. Looks like you got enough parts to make a good go at it.

Exactly?

No, I've driven behind one on many an occasion and you just have to be patient.

I got it straight from a Clydesdale.

Firewall looks sharp and that's a great color on the body. If you going for originality however the lower 80% of the firewall should be a satin black Is that the firewall from the kit? Haven't built on of these in decades so I don't remember. Trying to figure out what half of the molded in detail is representing.

David, I think that paint looks quite authentic. The wait was time well spent.

I like the color combo on the interior. Can't wait to see the interior installed so we can see the body color against it. I still haven't decided on an interior color on the Vette I'm building so I'm curious to see how this looks.

Thanks Steve, I appreciate your kind words. I think the headlights and tail lights are next on the list. I'm still on the fence about changing the side trim. Don't want to go and mess that up and ruin all the other work that's gone before. ? David, glad I can provide some fun and entertainment here. I just need this as a stress reliever at the end of the work day. Although with this one I'm not sure if it isn't creating more stress.?

David, we'll call that chrome, scale chrome. When you shrink the chrome molecules it reduces the combined reflective area and the reduction of area takes down the luster a couple of notches on the radial spectrum. 'er ah, something like that.?

I can understand what you mean about the vent wings. I have been stalling on doing the windshield frame on my Vette. If I wrap the whole frame with BMF then what happens when I glue the windshield in place. Will it just pull the foil off? Or do I just molotow the frame and accept that it won't match the rest of the trim.?

Having fun with BMF I see. How are your fingers?

I think you're good, they won't see it from Dearborn.

My feelings exactly when I first saw the real one. Thanks, these little adjustments make such a big difference. Hopefully I can get thru he whole thing without messing something up. If I make it thru this one maybe I need to build an Edsel....

Started working on the door handle-fin combo. The fin on the kit dips down early before reaching the door handle. Whereas the PV fin is more level until it gets to the door handle and then dips down. I sanded the top of the find down flat so I had a relatively level surface front to rear. And a flat surface to glue to. Then I glued a piece of .060 Plastruct triangle on top of the fin. I took the front edge and wrapped it around an X-Acto handle to get the curve. Then this was shaped a bit and the front by the door handle formed into a point. I still need to carve out the depression behind where the door handle goes but I'm going to wait until I have a door handle to do that. It also needs some filler and cleanup but that will wait until I finish the mods. That's enough for now, time for a cookie break. ?

Thanks Bil, it looks like I might actually know what I'm doing?

That wasn't me that was Dave.?

That's the thing about this build. It has a lot of very subtle changes but it doesn't look too far removed from stock.

Looks nice, always love a wagon.