GrandpaMcGurk

You guys are close but no cigar. Clue.......gotta have a place for those golf clubs.

So there's this "deep pocket" hot rod guy that's a hardcore gear head............he also loves golf, but a loud, flame belching in your face hot rod just wouldn't fit in at the country club....right? So in his mind he sets out to build a " socially acceptable" rod. Let's start with the frame.......... Some parts box bits, plastic strips etc. for the side rails, gas tank, battery box, coil spring buckets and we have the beginning of chassis. '68 Vette front and rear suspension. Long wheelbase huh? Betcha can't guess what the body is going to be.

Trying to adjust to the concept that I've become an old fart that still plays with toys.......rather than watch re-runs of Godzilla vs Mothra.

I'm the Asst. Administrator at Scale Motorcars.......E me explaining what the problem is and we'll square it away.

Yeah, David from one angle it'll look 40ish from another it might remind someone of a Batmobile and so on.......that's what I liked most about the full & radical customs of the 60s & 70's.......there were no rules, builders were able to let their imaginations run wild. As you can see in the photos the hatch sits quite a bit lower than the top of Chevy trunk lid did. I didn't want to run the hump all the way down to the bumper....that really would have looked (at least to me) 40ish, so I stopped it part way down. I've added an inner skin to give myself something stable to build on. Now I can contour the seams and get the overall look flowing.

I started using some of the dissolved plastic filler, keep in mind (if you try this) that the filler is hot and can soften the surrounding plastic causing sags, low spots and all manner of strange things. I clamp everything in position (you can never have enough clamps) as it will take a few days for the plastic to completely gas out and harden before sanding. Yes, I have bonded clamps to a model before...LOL. While I'm waiting I'll start modifying the front inner fender wells, firewall etc. to make up for the sectioning..... they won't fit in the new profile OB.

Thanks Casey, my thinking is the same as yours......the green house (because of the sectioning) looks a bit tall in the saddle at the moment. I will be dropping the lid, probably a bit more in the front than the rear to follow through with the tapered sectioning....in other words a slightly nose down attitude. I can't chop it until the top is back in one piece as I'll have to stretch it some and add a section, it would be very difficult to do if it were in pieces. No worries.........if it looks like Boyd's Chezoom when I'm done....it'll get tossed in the parts box and cannibalized as it won't work for me!

Yeah Glu...I don't know how else to act. If I can't bend, twist, melt and torture the plastic there is no joy in it for me. When I open the box to a new model the first thing I do is throw away the instructions......close the box and put it in the holding tank until it starts talking to me. Yes, I've been known to carry on some rather lengthy conversations with model cars...my wife finds it rather disturbing.

I shot some white primer on it to get a better overall look see.....it's kinda hard to visualize with that contrast between the red and white plastic. I've got some plastic scraps dissolving in solvent, when it softens to the point where I can spread it like a thick paste I'll use it to fill the low spots and seams in the outer shell to keep it as bondo free as possible. From this view it almost looks stock. Still have a lot of shaping to do back here...lots of compound curves.

Here's a few more pics and a brief explaination of how I'm doing it. I had to cut the Jag top in half again to remove more material "measure twice & cut once" never seems to work out for me. I also cut some sections away that weren't conforming to the overall shape I am after. I then shaped and welded in some filler pieces from the inside 

Thank you sir. The more I looked at the first top I had mocked....the more it looked like I'd cut the top off a GTO or Charger or something and stuck it on. Anyway, I wanted it to look like a earlier full custom, you know, the days of Roth, Barris, Starbird etc.

I changed the title of this thread to make it easier to find....for those that are following it. Thanks Shane.....but I have no more skills than you do....maybe just a little more practice, or should I say made more mistakes. Sometimes I'll screw something up several times before I get it right. LOL

Cool!!!!

Not for me.....I'll pass on the scrapple, mountain oysters and chitlins! Scrapple......"Everything but the oink" or made with "everything but the squeal",scrapple is typically made of hog offal, such as the head, heart, liver, and other scraps, which are boiled with any bones attached (often the entire head), to make a broth. Once cooked, bones and fat are discarded, the meat is reserved, and (dry) cornmeal is boiled in the broth to make a mush. The meat, finely minced, is returned to the pot and seasonings, typically sage, thyme, savory, black pepper, and others, are added. The mush is formed into loaves and allowed to cool thoroughly until set. The proportions and seasoning are very much a matter of the region and the cook's taste. A few manufacturers have introduced beef and turkey varieties and color the loaf to retain the traditional coloration derived from the original pork liver base. Home recipes for chicken and turkey scrapple are also available. Chitterlings sometimes spelled chitlins or chittlins are the intestines of a pig, although cows and other animals' intestines are similarly used, that have been prepared as food. In various countries across the world, such food is prepared and eaten either as part of a daily diet, or at special events, holidays or religious festivities. I'm not even going to into what mountain oysters are....trust me...I don't think you want 'em!

(Toothless Zombie Hunter Squad)..........just curious Doc........is it the Zombie Hunters or the Zombies that are toothless? Does this mean I'll have to take out my falsies to hunt zombies? I don't wanna get greased because I was mistaken for a zombie!

Thanks guys.......I'll be opening up the rear hatch and side doors but I want to get all this plastic surgery squared up and permanently fixed before I do much more cutting & wind up with a whole lap full of pieces. I think when I'm done ( just for giggles) I'll post some pics and ask the viewers how many mods they can spot. Brings to mind the comments I hear like "if it doesn't show, why bother?" I've always felt that the best customs were the ones where everything looked like it belonged there........in other words, it wouldn't trouble me at all if a viewer didn't realize the car had been sectioned as long as when they viewed it they walked away thinking it was a cool looking 57.

Here's an update.... The sectioning is complete and rough sanded.....still haven't used any bondo. I'm cutting a section out of the Jag roof to narrow it. I save the cut off pieces to use as filler when I start welding the top on.....they are the same thickness and type of plastic so I won't have any issues fusing them together. I taped the halves together and set it on the Chevy to do some eyeballin'. Here's where I need to take my time and get the Jag top to fit as closely as possible to the Chevy body. A section was cut from the roof and I started to remove a chunk of the trunk. I rough cut the trunk opening undersized so that I have enough material left to nibble away at a little at time.....like the man sez "it's easier to remove material than it is to have to fill in big openings".

The first 50 is the easy part Virgil.......Happy Birthday big guy.

Here's some pics of where I'm headed, as I've said this little squad of hard core rodders and mercenaries banded together to survive and have decided to join Doc's zombie hunter caravan although these guys don't care if it's zombies, aliens or mutants......have gun will travel! I'm thinking we might come across something that at least had some brain functions so the tractor towing the lowboy with the helicopter should look at bit intimating. I'm molding in a new grille to replace the "Pete" billboard. The '57 Caddy is providing armed escort as the stripped down gun ship in tow is vulnerable on the trailer. Anyway, less talk more pics.....

I went back and re-read the guidelines that Doc set down in post one. He had mentioned that it was 'sposed to be a new or recently started build but also said the rules could be bent a tad. I am still doing the Pete 359 and a stripped down Huey on a low boy trailer.......here's where I'd like to bend the rules a little. I'd like to also include my previously built '57 Caddy in tow. Virgil set the theme but my build is going to have a story behind it as well........in short my build isn't taking on the boiler plate, bailing wire and rust approach. Out of the survivors there were a few that were car nut hot rodders, some mercenaries and so on. Well, these guys knowing that the only way to survive zombies and mutants was to band together improvise.

Cool vid, Virgil.

Thanks Virgil, C-cabs have been around longer than I have and my wife says I'm older than dirt......it's just my take on a custom C-cab. It could be a "trailer queen" show car or an attention grabbing street rod.

Nathan, it's my original design constructed from sheet styrene. The frame is from the AMT double "T" kit, I modified the rear kick up to support the back of the body without having the buggy spring cross member causing a hump in the cargo area or changing the ride height.

Lee, I've started laying up some front clips and spare doors for those of you that are planning on building Pro-Mods and need the extra chunks. The way it looks right now I should be able to start laying up the one piece bodies soon.