FenderMender

This is a 2015 Castline 1/24 scale diecast (Chevrolet Turbo-Fire V8 60 YEARS) of a 1957 Chevy Bel-Air that was saved a few years ago at a thrift store. It was missing its grille, back bumper, door handles, back lights, headlights, all wheels and tires, windshield wipers, tailfin trim, side mirrors and hood trim pieces. Adding some scratch built parts here and there along with some custom wheels and a grille from the plastic models' parts bin makes it appear as complete and a somewhat radical custom car. The basic lines are all there for a '57 Chevy and it HAD to be made "road worthy".

Thanks to all. Yes, the song is cool indeed. You can tell the author really was crazy about a Mercury.

I cannot take any credit for the background as the buildings and shrubs ARE the real things! The models are perched on a platform in the street that is high enough so that I can stand upright and take the pictures. All I have to worry about is a careless driver not looking where they are going and fail to see the platform curbside.

Mercury Police Car #54 is from a MPC "Super Snap" 1/25 scale kit. Was a little leery about this kit being too simple and maybe not in scale, but after getting started on it and using up the custom parts included in the kit, I kinda like it, especially the tall antenna! It's a Mercury, man.* *("Mercury Blues" is a song written by K. C. Douglas and Robert Geddins, and first recorded by K.C. Douglas in 1948. The song, originally titled "Mercury Boogie," pays homage to the American automobile marque, which ended production in 2010. The song has been covered among others by the Steve Miller Band in 1967 at The Monterey International Pop Festival and David Lindley and Ry Cooder.)

Background story to the Cadillac Escalade: I bought this 1:24 scale Jada Just Trucks 2002 Cadillac Escalade EXT model for a dollar at a Goodwill store. The model was essentially a shell with a dashboard without a steering wheel, no interior or seats, no engine or engine bay, no tailgate and no chassis! It sat on a shelf for a year all the while I had hoped some spare Escalade parts might surface somewhere. This never happened, so I decided to challenge myself to construct a chassis, interior, engine bay with an engine and a functioning tailgate. My order for getting the Escalade back on the road consisted of, first, making a chassis and putting wheels on it. The initial cardboard template turned into the final chassis with some plastic credit card stock added along the way at key stress points. Many measurements, trial and error fittings and alterations were done to make certain that the wheels aligned properly with the wheel wells, that the wheels rolled, that a cool stance was achieved, and that the chassis lined up accurately with the screw holes on the body shell. Second, interior work began by making a steering wheel. Then one bucket seat from my very limited parts bin was mounted to a scratch-built plinth. With no rear seat (planned or to be used) as an obstruction, it was easy to carpet the entire floor. My idea for this Cadillac truck was it was to be a single working man's "dream truck" that goes both ways: a roomy work truck and a WIP competition show truck with air suspension. LOL. Third, the engine bay was built onto the chassis and a 2005 Pontiac GTO Ram Air pan engine was installed. The engine, side mirrors and interior foot pedals are from a 1:24 scale Welly 2005 Pontiac GTO custom. Wrapping up the project included forming a tailgate from a small piece of sheet aluminum, covering black cardboard with brushed metallic tape for a reversible tonneau cover, adding a lower rear clip below the tailgate and applying a fifty-plus-years-old license plate decal, "Night Prowlers". This is the final version of the 1:24 scale Jada Just Trucks 2002 Cadillac Escalade EXT with a scratch-built custom chassis, custom interior and custom 2005 Pontiac GTO Ram Air engine.

GO TO the following post for current and upcoming older models that I will be posting pictures of: FenderMender's "1960s Models from the Past" Postings

Did you notice that the stylized Thunderbird has the green 1958 Buick's grille? Just loved changing up parts back in the day to come up with custom features on cars one would never suspect. Will be posting some models that have parts on them that I cannot even remember what they are from. LOL

Crazy wild 1958 Buick convertible

As promised, here are a few hot rods and customs made in the 1960s. 1936 Ford Stylized Thunderbird? Barris-inspired 1958 Buick 1932 Ford "Tiger" 1929 Ford truck picture share Another T-bucket 1932 Ford with rumble seat and dirty interior upload png

Let me begin by saying that most of my former photos had appeared on various posts here and there in the past. However, when the photo hosting site went under, so did all those photos. I will start from scratch now with new photos. Below is a recent post that was done. I will follow up shortly with a collection of the really "old" ones as they are today and how they essentially looked back in the day. These are all original 1960s-issued kit models that I had inherited from friends back in the early 1960s as glue bombs. Finally, after all these years, got around to getting them up and running. First up is an Aurora 1/32 scale 1962 Corvette. What a wreck. It needed wheels, tires, axles, windshield, steering wheel, gear shift lever none of which are from the kit. The interior was glued solidly to the body so it couldn't be detached for detailing thoroughly. Wheels and rubber tires are from a discarded transformer-type car from the scrap yard. It is at least on four wheels and tires! The 1/24 scale AMT 1932 Ford coupe has the originally-applied flames, but I painted the upper firewall red for continuity. Seat was painted gray and gray carpeting installed. The engine was glued in solidly as well as one header, making for painting a real chore. The 60+ years tires were soaked in glycerine to try and soften them up to mount on the rims and the spoke wheels-they were so brittle some spokes did break. Radiator hose is elastic cord. The AMT 1960 F-100 pickup was missing its entire engine and its fender skirts were glued in solidly along with the tonneau cover. The original AMT 1960 Ford F-100 pickup kit contained a trailer which was painted Sage to match the Ford pickup truck. The originally-applied decals, "The Smasher", on the sides were saved. Custom taillights and license plate ala Maisto. The 1961 Ford Ranchero had plenty of glue showered all over it. With a lot of sanding and prep work, it cleaned up quite well. By reusing its roof top custom part from the original kit to hide tremendous glue pits on its roof top, adding lakes pipes, spotlights, and a homemade reversible tonneau cover, this gave it a real vintage custom look. The wheels and tires are from a 1/24 scale Maisto lowrider model. Paint color is Cinnamon. The AMT 1965 Pontiac GTO had its engine glued in solidly, but was already somewhat painted correctly. Windshield was glued in solidly too and could not be removed. A piece of the windshield frame was glued solidly to the top as well. All these pieces couldn't be removed without extensive damage. The whole interior was painted in an epoxy black paint and took a few months to remove in a harsh paint remover solution. I opted to not attach the hardtop so as to run the model as a convertible sometimes. A couple of plastic 1:24 scale Edsels from the early 1960s that had been modified some. Recently I decided to update them a little more, but still preserve the original intentions from the past endeavors. The 1961 Ford Thunderbird is an old AMT plastic promo kit car that needed much work. The busted windshield and partially missing passenger-side support post nearly caused me to forget the project and leave the parts in the parts bin. However, with after detailing the interior and repairing the windshield post as best I could, it looked okay enough to lower it as much as possible (all wheels do turn] and apply some finishing touches. Stay tuned here for photos of hot rods and customized models from the early 1960s. Thanks for looking...

Thanks! It survived as I pay close attention to ALL my models, especially those older ones. I have quite a few and am willing to post up pictures if folks would be interested in seeing them. Majority of them were done in the early 1960s!!!

Built in the early 1960s, the result of a collaboration between my older brother and me, this plastic AMT 3in1 kit of a 1932 Ford was a real joy to construct. Both of us thought the "futuristic" rear end of a 1959 Chevrolet would look pretty darn cool molded to the hot rod's rear end. The fins remain the same through the years. LOL

Built in the early 1960s, the result of a collaboration between my older brother and me, this plastic AMT 3in1 kit of a 1932 Ford was a real joy to construct. Both of us thought the "futuristic" rear end of a 1959 Chevrolet would look pretty darn cool molded to the hot rod's rear end. The fins remain the same through the years. LOL

Trio of PT Cruisers Representing a drag version, a comtemporary version and an older-school version. These 1:24 scalers were fun to imagine and to modify. Wonder what the "Flowmaster" would do in the 1000 feet track now?

This Testors Hot Metal 1:18 scale model kit of a 1965 Shelby GT-350 Mustang fastback was built about twenty years ago. At the time I didn't detail the engine any or add carpet and paint to the interior. Considering its age though, the car still looks quite impressive. Trunk, hood and both doors open. I really like the treatment of the side windows partially rolled down and the nice chrome side exhaust tips.

Three Tridents Of all the 1:18 scale models that are in my collection, these three older made-in-Italy Bburagos are among my all-time favorites. Maybe it is because they are older models and are quite well executed models of an automobile that was not allowed into the US at the time, 1998. Even today, the Maserati 3200 GT is just cool looking for its age. By adding black trim around the windows and more detailing to the engine bays, these three pose well for the camera. I left the blue version with stock rims; on the red version, I colored the spokes gold and on the silver version, the spokes were painted black. (It is very interesting to note that the Maserati 3200 GT was the world’s first car with LED taillights. The tail-lights were arranged in the shape of a boomerang, with the outer layer serving as the brake light and the inner layer as the directional indicators.) Thanks for looking... upload pictures online upload an image

Very cool! Cannot go wrong with a chopped top and a blower up front.

All three models are roughly 1/24 scale or thereabout. The 1961 Ford Thunderbird is an old AMT plastic promo kit car that needed much work. The busted windshield and partially missing passenger-side support post nearly caused me to forget the project and leave the parts in the parts bin. However, with after detailing the interior and repairing the windshield post as best I could, it looked okay enough to lower it as much as possible (all wheels do turn] and apply some finishing touches. The diecast Maisto Ford Explorer was just detailed some more after having been acquired years ago as one of the six models in the Maisto Custom Car Club Series (2 Camaros, 2 Mustangs, 2 Explorers) circa 1998. I had detailed it some way back when, but upgraged some mor with gold door handles, gold roof racks and chassis detailing. The Maisto 2014 Ford Mustang GT Street Racer is an older release by Maisto that they took liberties with in styling. I bought this loose at retail for a pittance. With some detailing in black to the side scoops, side ground effects and other body lines, it sharpened it up some. Details were added to the engine, the interior and the chassis. I filled the two screw holes on the chassis for more realism as well. Thanks for looking.... picture upload sites imagehost

An older 1/24 scale Maisto 1965 Chevrolet Malibu SS that was taken from storage to see what upgrades it might need. Realized that the only thing it needed was a painted engine on the chassis underside. Carpet was added previously to the trunk and other minor detailing had been done. Really like the interior with the dash mounted tach, the floor mats, the heavy duty gear shifter and the beefy rear slicks!

This 1/24 scale diecast 1966 Dodge Charger by Classic Metal Works (2001) was bought in kit form about two decades ago. I recently got it out of storage to see what modifications I might do to it, if need be. During my inspection what really struck me as curious are two things: 1) did Classic Metal Works produce this mold themselves or was the mold from another company, such as Ertl Authentics? 2) but the most perplexing and amusing as well is what was embossed on the chassis: "DaimlerChtyslel Corp". Was the misspelling of Chrysler on purpose for licensing avoidance or just Chinese ignorance of spelling or a mis-translation of verbal communication from the producer? Whatever the case it is weird. The model is quite substantial and detailed. However, I do remember, when building it, that to get the front wheels to move the steering wheel, that proved to be impractical by way of design, so the front wheels are non-poseable. I left everything as is on the car to date. It is a cool rendition of an early Hemi Charger.

Four 1/25 scale Maisto 1950 Chevy 3100 pickup trucks. The two red ones, one stock and the other with white walls, are older versions with movable front wheels; whereas the current newer orange version has straight metal axles and was lowered as much as humanly possible (all wheels roll with nothing scraping the ground). The yellow lifted version is older, too, with straight metal axles also. Lowering the orange version took a great amount of effort and force to achieve and I would not want to repeat the process. It was a royal pia to do and a strong grown adult would have the same experience as the wheels are pressed on AND super glued to the metal axles. Severing the axles in two wasn't a viable option as one would still have to remove the axles from the wheels and come up with replacement axles to boot. Plus the chassis would be in danger of damage as well when cutting the axles in twos. The procedure might warrant a tutorial in the future for those thinking about doing this. Thanks for looking and reading the rant. LOL

Thanks. I'll try this. Will let you know how it works with the Chevy 3100 wheels. SEE my newest post "1/25 scale Maisto 1950 Chevrolet 3100s- tall, medium, stock and low"

February 2024 Hello Richard, I'm in the same boat as you, but with a new 1/24 Maisto Chevrolet 3100 pickup that I want to lower radically, but, like you, one wheel on one axle turns easily but won't move outward any. I have considered the heat method but the soldering iron would be awfully close to the chassis and would probably distort it . Looking for any alternative other than hacking the axles in two. Thanks for any tips.

2020 Corvette Stingray by Maisto in 1/24 scale just out of the shop. The interior was fully carpeted. The frunk lid and the rear engine "hood" were freed from their rivets and were detailed accordingly. The frunk compartment was scratch-built and carpeted. Ironically, the last two components to be installed, the rear taillights, were extremely difficult to seat properly and took an inordinate amount of time and physical pressure (psi) to get them in properly. The last two photos show the frunk and engine "hood" riveted on another 1/24 scale Maisto 2020 Corvette Stingray. This version is a pre-assembled Maisto Special Edition version while the white version above is a Maisto Assembly Line kit model. You would think this Assembly Line version in white would not have the frunk and engine "hood" riveted shut like the Special Edition model. Both have the panels riveted shut.

This vintage SMP model of a 1961 Corvette convertible was in my "junk" model collection. Its badly painted body was intact, the interior was partially finished but the chassis had been cut into two pieces and a 1/2 inch section removed and gone forever. The engine is not from the kit, the wheels were ruined from a heavy application of glue which had totally distorted them. Other lost parts had to be substituted or scratch built. Carpeting was added to the interior and trunk. Body was stripped of black paint and repainted a matte white. Considering where it came from, it is fortunate that all the wheels roll and that it is now finally complete after a month's work.