alan barton

Thanks everyone for the support. Seems like anyone who wants to build a 60 Elky now has at least three ways to consider! I am in awe of Randy's precision grafting of the Bad Actor fins to the Revell body - that is a work of art! I too have a Bad Actor body from my childhood but unfortunately back then I cut open the tailgate and then lost it so it won't give me much of an advantage! Instead, I am going to use it as a donor roof on the left over AMT 59 body to produce a 59 Sedan Delivery - waste not, want not! I was originally going to do it with the Revell 60 body but ended up buying a Jimmy Flintstone resin body instead so I should eventually end up with a coupe, a sedan delivery and an El Camino version of both the 59 and the 60. I am really more of a hot rod guy but these two cars have captured my imagination since I was very young. Bob, I like your graft of the bed to the 60 better than what I did. You removed about half the width of the fin and then fitted it to the sixty. I only cut about a mm away form the bed rail and then filed the excess back to the bed rail. I realise now that this has the effect of making the bed rail somewhat thicker than it should be. I can fix it but your way would have been easier. I have also decided to go with the Impala fuel tank. This Elky is going to be a tow car and we don't want to be stopping at every servo on the way to Bonneville, now do we? I'm also not going to put that big medallion in the centre of the tailgate. I'm guessing it is a remnant from the window winder on a station wagon. I think it will be a lot cleaner without it. My Elky will be getting the mild custom treatment, possibly a tube grille, possibly side pipes so a little decking of the tailgate will fit in nicely. Also I am tackling something most of you would never have to bother with. For the last 25 years or so I have been making all my models right hand drive. I have been making all rods RHD since I was a kid but they are usually pretty easy. "Late model" cars are more complex but I enjoy the challenge. I don't think I ever do two the same way. THe biggest trap is that dashboards that appear to be symetrical and full of straight, parallel lines often aren't. When you swap pieces from sides to side it often comes out looking very irregular and getting it looking right is the challenge. I tried something different on the 60 dash. I first laid tape along the outside edge of the instrument cluster to determine the easiest, straightest cut. I then transferred that angle, with tape, to the inside of the glovebox custer. That way, when I swap the two pieces side for side, the cuts should match up reasonably.

While I was waiting for the tailgate piece to dry, I though I would tackle the chassis. The Impala floor and the rear kickup interferes with the floor of the El Camino bed so I sawed off the offending section of the chassis. I then trimmed off the edges of the removed section until it fitted back in the hole that remained. It won't be totally authentic but I think when you turn the model over it will be pretty convincing. I also removed the spare tyre hump, filled the gap with flat styrene and added ribs made out of #142 Evergreen styrene strip. Theses are a little chunky at the moment but I will sand them down when they are dry. I didn't know about the El Camino fuel tank until I read Bob's post but thinking about it I should probably have had a look at the AMT 59 chassis, eh? I'm not sure if I want to go to that much work so here's the back story - I wanted more fuel capacity so I swapped out the El Camino tank for an Impala tank. Believable?

Thanks for that, Bob, I just went and read both your threads and they are going to be a huge help. I know I have already made a few errors, some that I have fixed and some that I am going to have to think about! I might even have to cheat on a few things - I am not bound to a full replica as your superb model was. We'll see how we go. I changed my mind about how I was going to tackle the tailgate. I grabbed the custom tailgate from the AMT kit and carefully sawed off the top section as you can see here. With about an hour's worth of sanding, filing and cutting I ended up with the piece you see here. Now if you are a master craftsman, please look away now! What with scraping the back of the blue piece down to a taper and trying to fit a curve to a straight angle, lets just say it is not as finessed as I might like. Still, that's why they invented putty. The main thing is I got it to fit and the top edge is lined up with the bed. Before I glued it in place I grabbed my razor saw and continued my earlier cuts up through the trunk lid - I didn't want to risk damaging the blue part of the tailgate by cutting later on

Using the 59 bed as a guide, I made some vertical cuts through the Impala body and down towards the bumper area. I didn't want to sever anything at this stage so I stopped short. I then glued the trimmed Impala trunk lid in place and inserted thin strips of styrene in the gaps to assist with filling. Finally, I glued a strip of styrene across the gap between the fins to start working up a new tailgate. Looking back at the station wagon tailgate, I realised that the "V" between the fins is shaped quite differently to the trunk lid to get it to meat the top edge of the tailgate at a steeper angle.

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I didn't get a photo of this but basically I had to sever the bed from the back of the cab and slide it rearwards. Would have been a heck of a lot easier if I had noticed it before gluing everything else solid! Anyhow, This let me slide the bed right back to the rear of the car. It stopped a bit early so I took a fresh X acto to the inside of the taillight area, removing as much thickness as I could without going through. I kept holding it up to the light to check on my progress. I then took a few measurements and sliced off the end of the Impala trunk lid to get a start on my tailgate - this would prove to be not as easy as it looks! As you can see from the photo below, the lid is much wider than the tailgate opening. I have an original Crafstman 60 Chevy wagon so I looked to that for help but it wasn't much good either - the tailgate join would have passed straight through a taillight if I had copied AMT!

I'm just getting back into this project that I started a few years ago and then put to one side while getting a bunch of hot rods finished. I've always had a soft spot for El Caminos and although I am sure there are resin conversions available, I always prefer styrene when I can so I thought I would give it a go. I started by removing the entire roof off a Revell low rider impala that I picked up cheap in a damaged box at a local hobby shop. I then removed the entire roof and bed from an AMT 59 El Camino. It didnt take a lot of massaging to get the two lined up but as you can see from this photo, I missed something. The 59 bed is considerably shorter than the Impala quarters so it doesn't reach all the way to the back and the wheel arches don't align with the body.

Sorry, mate, that was 22 years ago! NNL 1996, remember? There is a similar coloured Valiant to go with it somewhere in your basement.. I found them on my 27th trip through the vendors hall and came and got you off the front desk. I do remember that it was cheap and the vendor didn't think very highly of them. That was an amazing weekend! Cheers Alan

C'mon, Tom, you're holding out on us! Show them the Val with the floating roof! So about the Coronet. Back in 2013 my wife and I travelled to the USA to visit New York and the north east in general, a part of the states that I really hadn't visited much on previous trips. My wife and I never do the resort hotel/guided coach tour deal, we always grab a car and hit the back roads and make a point of stopping at every antique mall we see. I have a decent sized toy hot rod collection as well as my model collection back home so there is always something to find although I must admit, models are fairly rare and the ones you do find are usually common and not that desirable. None the less I have found diamonds amongst the stones that have returned down under with me. So a week out of New Jersey and a planned visit to Tom's I spot this thing on the back of a shelf in a funny little place somewhere in Pennsylvania if I recall correctly. At first I thought someone had stuck a model in a bowl on the shelf but when I investigated I find the bowl is actually a mold made of wax into which the Coronet, complete with Ramcharger stripes,is embedded. The price escapes me but rest assured it was cheap - probably under $10. I was going to leave it behind - I mainly collect hot rods, dirt track racers and early drag and salt racers - but it kept nagging at me. My wife was encouraging me to get it and then it suddenly occurred to me - we're going to Tom's! Old kit, Mopar, weird - it ticked all Tom's boxes so we grabbed it. It now rests amongst a collection in Tom's house that can only make you smile! It would seem that the melting point of wax is not enough to damage styrene so the kit is probably restorable underneath the slime but I know Tom won't - he would rather have a hand cut off! Not sure if the original builder was trying to replicate a crash at a dragstrip but he must have got some serious air to land at such a steep angle! Certainly a very adventurous undertaking for back in the day and I can't say I've ever seen it done before. Cheers Alan

These look great Rob! One of the few Marlins I have ever seen built. When I was a kid there was one here in Perth, in red and black, and I used to love seeing it appear near the city. I'd love to see what Chip or Troy would do with one. I always thought the back was so exciting while the front was a bit pedestrian. Love these for all the care you have given them and look forward to extending yourself on the others in your stash. Cheers Alan

This really captures the look. Love the colour too! This style was also popular in Australia back then - all it's missing is a set of slapper bars! Cheers Alan

Yep, she's a roughie alright but swapping out the wheels and tyres and headlights for something more appropriate, mixed in with some adult modelling skills, can produce a reasonable job. Love the colour you've chosen, Craig.

Finally, one that had a big impact on my life. As a fifteen year old, I belonged to the local hot rod club and had my heart set on building a hot rod. This was the car I wanted. Problem was, the AMT 29 Model A roadster wasn't available in Perth but the Monogram Boss A Bone pickup was, so I got that instead and fabricated the rear quarters from cardboard and Bondo. It is brushpainted in Humbrol red. By the time I was 27 I had built my dream car and 34 years later I am still driving it. It even ran a half hod for the first few years. See, dreams do come true! Cheers Alan

Hey Tom, that green 57 Fairlane with the custom front and rear end extensions was my first ever 1/25th scale kit. Sadly it didn't survive the passage of time but I still ave the seats, the front extension and a few other bits and pieces. That really brought back memories. The next one is an AMT 50 Ford convert built by my brother Rob. We were ahead of our time back in the early seventies - this one has a complete late model MPC Pontiac floorpan and frame! Interior is in red and gold velvet purchased from a drapery. Paint is pale blue Humbrol applied by brush. Spray cans were only available at one shop in Perth and they were the same price as a new release kit! Brush paint it would be on our budget!

I built this 49 Merc around 1971 or 72. It is brush painted Humbrol Maroon. I recently gave it a bit of a polish with Tamiya rubbing compound and the gloss is amazing! I am tempted to block sand the whole body and polish it to a mirror finish but then it wouldn't be the car I proudly built way back then. The Pegasus wheels and tyres are recent additions - I built it with the white walls and mags from a Don Edmunds supermod but reclaimed then years later for another build.

Also built by Richard was the Drag Hag. Again, the body is made from Cardboard and Bondo It used parts from an Airfix 1/32 scale MGB. About ten years ago I realised what a gem it really was and managed to find a re-issued MGB kit and replace the missing parts. Otherwise it is as he built it.

What an amazing thread. I hope it turns out to be one of those huge threads that continues forever. That Gravel Girtie is one of the most original designs I've ever seen on a roadster. And the heavily chopped white coupe is so raw it is like a piece of art work rather than a model. Can you just imagine the pride the builder would have felt when he finished it? Here's a few from my collection. The first one was built by my cousin Richard in the mid sixties. The body is made of heavy cardboard and Bondo. I think it used Aurora 22 T rear fenders and radiator and a Little T roof. When I got it , a lot of pieces were missing so I made a dropped (just a little!) axle from sprue bent over the gas stove. I added the Pontiac grille from a 50 Ford kit and the Wankel rotary from a then new MPC 73 Vega. I also used two SweeTee turtle decks to fill the gap between the fenders and pair of bucket seats from a toy XKE Jag . Never did work out how to get a steering wheel in there. I spent days trying to produce the smoothest glossy black finish, brush painted with Humbrol No 12 enamel. Trust me it is about as smooth as the bark on a gum tree!

I photographed this Man-A - Fre manifold in the swap meet area of the Bakersfield Hot Rod Reunion in 2014. I figured it would be a handy reference point one of these days - looks like today is it! Hope it helps you guys in your discussions. Cheers Alan

I'm no Photoshop guy, but looking at the side views, maybe flattening out the top of the door window opening would add a bit of sleekness (is that a word?) to your design. You clinical surgery on the section job is sensational - you have certainly raised the bar as far as that goes! Cheers Alan

That was a very brave conversion to tackle. I wouldn't have thought the 32 panels would lend themselves to the Model A anywhere near as well as this. As if that wasn't enough, you do a truly amazing engine detail job that looks totally convincing, plus what seems to be a perfect match for the original Model A colours. While I'm sure you can think of ways to improve it, it sounds like everyone here would be happy to have it on their own shelf. Cheers Alan

I keep the really cool old AMT , Revell and Monogram boxes with nice artwork but for all the rest, I cut them down and store them in plastic sleeves in lever arch files. Takes very little time or space to organise and it can be great fun to go back and revisit old kits from your youth. Now, at the risk of sounding like a reformed alcoholic, here is how I store my parts. I have passed this idea on to many of my model making friends and it has been working for me for over forty years - I have found no need to change it! And in case you are wondering, I am not a neat freak - quite the opposite. The difference between me and a complete slob is that while I am good at making a mess, I recognise the need to clean up from time to time and my system has worked for me for a long time. Surrounding my model bench I have two sets of pigeon holes holding approximately 180 small flat boxes that used to hold photographic paper - I used to teach photography in a former life. At the back of my bench are five of those plastic nut and bolt tray cabinets that you get at a hardware store. You need to find some form of container that you can obtain lots of, in a consistent size and cheaply. Avoid round containers (jars, cans etc) like the plaque - they waste space obscenely! So, you start your modelling hobby and you take one of these boxes and you write on it "tyres" (OK, tires for you guys!). When that box fills up as it surely will, you get a second box and label it "Racing Tyres" . The first box gets relabelled "Street tyres" and you then sort your tyre stash into the two boxes accordingly. Some time later your Racing Tyre box fills. So you get a third box and call it "Drag Racing tyres" and the other becomes "Circuit racing tyres"'. Split the contents of the Racing tyre box into the two new boxes. When the Drag racing tyre box fills up, split it into Goodyear slicks and M&H slicks. You get the idea. There is one overwhelmingly simple, fundamental rule to all of this: "Never duplicate, always split!" The benefits of this system? Well, when I am looking to start a new model, or maybe restore an old one, there is no need to sort through thousands of parts - you just go directly to the box describing the part you are looking for. Secondly, when I am cleaning up my benchtop, I can do it in less than an hour - no wasted time thinking "Where will I put this?" You just put it in the fenders skirts box or the fuel injection box or whatever it may be. Obviously this works mostly for the smaller parts - I still have old kit boxes with old bodies, chassis and interior tubs. Finally, this system is inflation proof. As your collection grows, there is no need to start over - you just keeping splitting boxes. OK, I have filled more than one box with those horrible AMT Goodyear Rally GTs but that probably is just telling me it's time to get rid of some! Here's some photos to explain what I am on about. I might be sounding a bit evangelical right now but it works well for me!

You've got some great proportions there, Glen. Now I know what to do with my spare Speedwagon body! The colour is a great match to a woody body. All in all a very believable street rod. Would I be correct in guessing you used the Revell Buttera 34 coupe fenders to rework the Willys units? Cheers Alan

George, the Buttera coupes are very small compared to an AMT 1/25th scale or Monogram 1/24th scale coupe. This is because Revell chose to use a Buttera Model T sedan tubular frame to base the model on. As a result the coupe is considerably scaled down to suit the Model T wheelbase and track measurements. It can build into a really nice looking model but it will never be an accurate rendition of a 34 coupe. The model below was built by an entrant in last year's Super Model Car Sunday event here in Perth. He did an excellent job but as you can see the proportions are not what you would expect - the hood is particularly short as is the grille. Cheers Alan

I got the chance to look at one of these at a club meeting recently. Beautiful kit of a not so beautiful car. If I was to rod it, I would seriously consider separating the front fenders from the body and sliding them forward to be at least level with the grille. It would help get rid of the anteater look. Cheers Ala

No worries Craig, that is exactly how I felt when I started gathering my collection! I found a bunch at the Toledo Toy Fair back in 1996 while I was living in Canada for the year and then set about finding the rest of them. I have three brothers and as kids we had Snap Draggin, Shiftin Drifter, Scat Cat as well as a bunch of Lindberg and Pyro rods. Hey, they were cheap and often all we could find over here in Western Australia. I still have a Hot Surfer to rebuild from a Hot Dogger (I think), a Ram Rod that has taken extensive restoration owing to the first builder misaligning the body panels and the Chevy pickup to restore from a gluebomb. I have also started a major rebuild on a rough Scat Cat (I actually had to fabricate an entire missing quarter panel!) which will be a track nosed salt lake roadster, to be towed by the Chevy. Tonight I will see if I can post some photos of my completed Scat Cat, Moody Monster, and the Buick and Tee for Two ( the one posted above was given to me by a friend over thirty years ago - after building my own I returned it to him for nostalgia stake as it was a childhood build of his.) And Mike Cassidy, I'm a bit busy with some other projects at the moment but when I get the chance I will flick through my Car Crafts and see if I can find the articles detailing the cars for you. If you have any other questions about Aurora rods, be sure to ask. Michael Smith, yes that is a great book and a big help to identifying all the Aurora's - I'm lucky to have an earlier one in my library. Cheers Alan