Foxer

That's pretty amazing. I've never been in any hobby store that didn't carry Evergreen or Plasticstrut sheets and shapes. wow It's not just us model car builders using this stuff. Railroaders use it by the car load in addition to many other hobby branches.

you know, it WAS the Bears

This is looking good ... I can hear Cranky breathing heavy over that body. The weathering is realistic as all heck .. just the right amount in just the right places.

Getting a good photo to work from is the only tough part, Charlie. That door photo is a little small but even that is pretty workable. Photoshop can do some amazing things. If you remember from my GMC van thread the front patterned seat was done from a side angle shot photo. It was a poor photo but I got the idea of the pattern from just a small slice. I ended up printing it on good paper and gluing that on. A decal on white paper may have worked, but this way allowed good texture and easy trimming. Anyway, if you need any Photoshop help I'm happy to do it. Just send the images and I'll drill you for dimensions and everything else I need.

I'm with Peter .. that rear wheel venting just doesn't look good to my eyes. When I first saw it I was surprised the sanctioning body allowed it. I'm not sure why, but maybe just because of the radical look it makes me think so. Anyway, a gorgeous buildup, Brendon!

I love the look of this. All those engine tubes are lovely! I hope you don't mind, Peter ... I had to see the interior more and did a quick Photoshop shadows work-over.

Using styrene and bondo will ramp up your body skills immensely. I'd suggest using .04" thick as that is close to what most kit bodies are. It is also thick enough to give some strength. I'm assuming you cut the body in the middle somewhere. This should give you some basically straight pieces to splice in. You might use some this (.02" or less) "lips" glued to the inside edges to support the new styrene as you splice it all together. Around curved surfaces you can use narrower strips to approximate the curve. The Bondo will smooth and fill everything out. I too would recommend using a 2 part Body Filler to minimize shrinkage (none) and for quicker drying times. Don't try to get the window openings perfect with the styrene added. It's easier to rough it out and go back and cut, file or sand to shape. Even adding thin strips is often needed. This sounds interesting, so be sure to keep us updated. Let us see the in progress photos to see how it all goes.

That engine bay is STUFFED! very cool

This looks like it's going racing. show us more!

Very nice job! This looks more like all the Novas I remember than most of the others I see built.

So far, I haven't seen what people do for the 3rd and 4th hands needed to use this method. I guess you could hold the body in a vice, but you'd need to be pretty careful to not gauge or crack the body when it has a lot of curvature.

no biggie, that's a good policy to follow.

ME TOO! Thanks for the reference photo.

I'm just glad to see someone else building in geological time frame as I do! And, GLAD to see this back on the table, Art!

I like the cars on Car Crazy, but I can't stand to watch him speak.

I'm surprised to see this works, but the 1:1 photo does have regular tires. Most tracked vehicles use cogs for traction with the treads. This DOES look good though! I like the last photos with the large rear tire. BTW, with another big snowstorm this morning, can I borrow this to get my morning MacMuffin?

hmmm .. a one cylinder / 4 carb powered business rod ... naw .. the Count will top that for sure!

Or, considering I've built many Lego models, how the vibrations didn't shake itself apart. Maybe it's the inherent balance of a V8 ... a straight 4-banger would be in pieces waiting to become a rhinoceros or multi-span bridge.

Your spectacular painting makes a smoothed, nothing body look like a champion! Very nice!

VERY nice!

I know most of you are getting almost as sick of this hinge subject as I am, but I swore I would put every trial and tribulation associated with this build in this very long thread! Well, fear not .. the hinges are BACK! All the hinge sockets on the doors were glued finally and received a small dab of epoxy for some extra strength. I was ready to put a primer coat on the doors and gave them a soap and water scrub. As I was drying them, I noticed ... ONE OF THE HINGE TUBES WAS MISSING! Obviously it went down the drain during the cleaning. The only good part of this is it would have come off the first time my daughter opened the door, so I guess I should be thankful for the quality check. So it's back to making and gluing a new socket. (I can get a bit closer, but depth=of-field is dropping off pretty fast as you can see in the range of focus in this photo. ) I also picked up some pins as suggested by Jason for the hings pins to see how they work. The small heads look good and might stay. The packages had only the gage sizes of the pins so I got the smallest. As you can see in the photo below they are smaller than I guessed.. smaller even that the brass rods. These are 17 gauge, .024" diameter. I'll try a larger one with the same head size if I decide to use them. I also got the door interior panels done to match the interior pattern. A .04 square piece was added to the back of each edge and sanded to fit the door curve. They are just laying on the door for this photo and won't be glued until painted.

Low and heavy!!! love it!

I wish all the best for your daughter.

Things have been progressing slowly, somewhat due to the fact the hinges bit me again as two of the hinge pieces came loose and hit the carpet. One was found and the other remade. So, the hinges on the doors are ALL glued and have some epoxy "welding" added for security. After all the troubles I had with the hinges, I'm happy with how they look. They are a bit oversize, but I think are good. BTW, the doors are off a Revell Chevy van .. ie, all the pieces you can see added top and bottom to fit the AMT door openings. I need a GMC logo for the rear and squish molded the front grill logo, as it's the same size. Also did some interior door handles and cranks. I creatively fabricated a hitch for the rear to look like the 1:1 ... at least what you'll see. I had no photos of the underside so I modeled it somewhat as hitch assemblies you can buy. It fits around the rear of the frame and clears the rear bumpers nicely.

I think all those might be too big and noticeable. The 1:1 pins just stop at the ends like a typical door hinge pin. They are barely noticeable so I'll probably just hit one end with some superglue to secure it. Thanks for the suggestions, Charlie .. was interesting considering it.