My usual jam is sci-fi models and aircraft, but I'm taking a nice excursion into new territory to build a replica of my father in law's 1965 Chevy El Camino. However, it's a little unusual in that it has a '64 front clip on the '65 body. Until recently I had no reasonable method to build the car since the AMT '64 El Camino has been long out of production and is usually extremely expensive when it can be found. However with the recently retooled and re-released 1964 Malibu SS by AMT, I finally had a path to build it. So, I ordered the '64 Malibu from my local shop, and my mother in law already had a '65 El Camino which she gave to me for the purpose.
At this point, I've hacked the front end off of both bodies, done some judicious filing and sanding and glued them back together. I'm really happy with how well they have melded. In addition to the body surgery, I'm modeling and 3D printing all of the custom details: the Foose wheels, brakes and calipers, custom center console, steering wheels, mirrors, and a few other miscellaneous parts. I also found some bucket seats on Thingiverse that are a reasonably close match to the seats in the car.
The real car:
Doner kits, 1:25 AMT 1964 Malibu SS and 1965 El Camino:
Hack job on the bodies complete:
Front and rear end joined up:
Test fit of the body on the chassis with temporary Pegasus Hobbies IROC wheels and rubber tires:
The Foose Knuckle wheels used on the real car modeled in Fusion 3D:
The first test batch of wheels and seats on the printer build plate, letting excess resin drip off:
Cleaned and cured wheels test fitted, I think they're looking great:
Close up of the front wheel, I'm a little worried about the layer lines since they are going to be painted with Alclad II Chrome, but I'm going to give it a shot with some high fill Mr. Surfacer 500 and a light sanding and see how they come out. Worst case, I've been thinking of getting a second higher resolution printer to minimize any layer lines anyway, so this would be a good excuse .
The real interior:
Custom center console modeled in Fusion:
Brake rotor and caliper Fusion model:
Steering wheel Fusion model:
