W-409

Well this year started out very good as I finished this Oldsmobile already in January. It's built as a Mild Custom from Revell Stock '50 Olds kit with some minor modifications. I'm still pretty happy how it turned out. Then... Oh yeah, that Oldsmobile was my only completed model in 2015! I really have to do better next year. Though one of the reasons why I didn't finish more stuff is that I restored this '60 Impala in winter/spring 2015: ...And then I rebuilt my new Daily Driver, a Chevy S10 in the autumn. Maybe these two projects slowed me down a bit with these models... Still I should have finished at least two, but it's too late now. To be honest I'm pretty happy with the Olds, and that's what counts I believe as I prefer looking at few decent quality models on my shelf rather than a big bunch of glue bombs. Now I need to get back on the bench though to actually build something...

Great work on this one Gene! Looks very nice and clean build, and it shows how good a Box Stock build can look when it's done well. Excellent color choice and a nice paint job too. I've always liked combination of Red & Gold so the colors couldn't be much better. Black and White interior fits perfectly to the look as well...Great job!

Yes, it would be a great idea and very useful when searching for a specific part. I'd say Go For It! I believe that there would be many more modelers who found it useful than only the ones who have posted in this thread...A list like that would be a great thing.

After a lot of putty & sanding I thought the rear end looks good enough to be sprayed with primer. I glued the axle from one end to a plastic stick so I could spray it easily from all over. After a couple of primer coats I still see some spots that need a bit of fixing, but overall it looks decent. I'll put some more filler on it tomorrow and hopefully when I've sanded that smooth I can continue mocking up the rear end with some leaf springs.

This is really sad news indeed. I didn't know Chuck personally, but as I've heard his decals were top notch and actually he had some decals I needed for future projects. R.I.P. Chuck.

I've wanted to build an old Modified Production car for a long time, but I never got into it as I have too many unfinished projects already... You did a fantastic job on this one though. Very nice paint and decal work, I think this has the correct look and feel to be a Vintage Drag Car. Thanks for posting, excellent work!

Very nice work as always Tyrone! I really like how a '69 Nova looks with steel wheels and Dog Dish hubcaps. Great color choice and those tires look very good too with those Good Year texts on them. Sharp detailing as always. Very nice job.

Very good news! That '80 Volare and that Pinto Wagon are definitely must have kits. Volare will look very good as a Stock Eliminator car but it could be turned into a neat Street Machine too. Pinto is a good starting point for a Doorslammer Drag Car so I think I'll gotta buy that too. That Sunbeam Tiger sounds interesting too. I think I'll gotta get one of them as well, I see a Gasser in my future...

Very nice work! This kit definitely requires some work to make it better...I started mine and I was going for a fast & simple, stressless summer project in 2014 and guess what? It's still in progress! You did a great job with this. I like how those colors fit together and good looking paint job too. BMF looks very goo too especially if it's really your first attempt. Great work overall, you did a great work.

I saw this Buick Electra Convertible today here in Finland at shop parking lot. I wonder how good a Convertible car like that is on the winter though...

I like restoring old Glue Bombs as well and actually I have lots of them in progress/waiting for rebuilding currently. It's true that taking them apart is not easy sometimes and finding missing parts might be a problem and yes, they require more work than when starting with a new kit... But it's rewarding when it's done. Plus that it's the only way to get my hands on some of those rare kits and it's not that big deal if I screw up.

No, I don't know who made it, I found it in Google last year when I was searching for a Hot Rod Christmas Card to post on Finnish Model Car Forum. It's very good looking photo though. Those Drag Race pics are very cool too!

I understand that, I visited in California about a month ago and most of the cars I saw there were 2 door models and four door cars were not seen that often. Here in Finland almost all US cars were 4D models as only few two door models were imported here originally and if one wanted to import an American Car him/herself, the taxes were huge. Then law changed in about '85 or something like that when the taxes on old cars lowered radically, and then it was much cheaper to import old cars from the USA in here. Before that, a bit more rare models like '59 Cadillac for example were VERY rare in here. Nowadays I can say that we have lots of those '59 Cadillacs and other rare models in here and they can be seen often in Cruising Nights. Same time, 2 door cars and Hardtops and Convertibles etc became more common as you could see them very rarely in here before that. We still have lots of 4D cars in here, but I'd say 2D cars are more common in Cruise Nights etc. I haven't seen many of these Chevy IIs as two door models, though. Yep it's true that the 2D model looks much better and that 4D Sedan has that old Taxi-look even if it was nice otherwise. It will need some careful measuring and cutting, but I believe it can be done. My friend just did the same modifications to his '66 Olds Cutlass and it turned out very nice. http://tapahtumakuvia.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Tapahtumat 2014/Summer Nationals 19.-20.7.2014/Friday/DSCN5774.JPG?img=smaller

Nah, it's not ! I think the 2D Sedan looks so much better than this Four Door model. Plus that there are already enough 4D Chevy IIs around here and since mine won't have a backseat or anything, the rear doors would be worthless anyway.

Here's one:

Thanks Nick and Bill! It's a lot of work so when I can start building, I need to stay busy with it. Bill, it's true that it's a lot of work to convert it into 2D Sedan. I think it's a neat challenge for myself as it's a bit trickier than the relatively large rust repair I did on '60 Impala last winter. I will have to buy two more front doors for 4D Chevy II and then out of those doors and the front doors I have I'll make the doors that are a bit longer and match original 2D Sedan doors. I'm not quite sure how window mechanisms etc will be done, but these 4D to 2D conversions have been done often here in Finland in the '80s when most of the US cars we had were 4D models, so I will have to ask some tips from them. I think I get it figured out and it will look pretty good, but it's a lot of work for sure. Here are a couple better pictures in daylight:

Thanks! Let's see about the pics, if I remember it when I start building, I might post some pics in that 1:1 Car Picture section. Yep it was already here in Finland. I'm pretty sure this has been imported here in '62 when it was new and used as a Taxi. These Chevy IIs, Darts and Valiants were pretty commonly used as Taxis here in Finland and after that many of them have been Hot Rodded in one way or another.

I just bought this '62 Chevy II project. It's a lot of work, but that's just what I wanted and it doesn't look too rusty. I will need to convert it from 4D Sedan into 2D Sedan though. I can't start working on it right now, but the work is going to be started in autumn 2016 and it should be on the road again in summer 2017. Here are two crappy cell phone pics. I'll gotta take some better shots tomorrow when we move it to our other garage waiting for building to start.

This AMT Boss Nova just arrived yesterday. It's unstarted otherwise, but body has been painted with red that has very heavy Metal Flake in it. It looks good but unfortunately I have to strip the paint as I'll be converting this into a normal street car.

I like it! Nice job with that tricky paint job and decal work looks very good too. Especially those tire decals look excellent... Did you spray any flat clear over them? Good looking build overall!

Thanks Brad and Gene, I appreciate it! Yes, these are very cool cars. Whenever I get this one finished, I have to move on to continue my other Fiat Altered (Fiat 500) and then I can display these together. That will take some time though... And on those pictures I just wanted to cover the mess I have on my workbench so I started looking for somekind of background for the pics. That Mooneyes decal sheet was the first one that I found as I just bought it from Mooneyes' shop a couple of weeks ago.

You don't see many of these built so it's nice to see one done this well. That color is not for me, but it fits surprisingly well on this car, especially with those blue areas. Good work with the engine, too.

This is an interesting project as I just bought the same kit. Frame is looking very good so far. Keep it coming.

I added valve stems to the wheels. They were made from MIG welding wire that I just painted flat black, cut to correct length and glued to the little holes I drilled on wheels with super glue. Inner wheels & rear brakes came with the kit, but on front I had to dig proper inner wheels from my parts box and then I used kit's center parts that attach to front axle. Then I decided to put it on four wheels. Rear axle was glued on place first and it fit very nicely on place. Then I just simply glued all four wheels on their places. While I was in this point, I decided to try how engine and body fit on place. Engine fit fine, but looks like I'll need to do minor modifications to firewall to make it fit properly with that new clutch cover.

This is an interesting project, Duel is one of my favorite movies too. I've even thought of attempting to build these things sometimes, but it's a lot of work and I've never got into it. Interesting to see how yours will turn out, the start looks very good. Especially I'm interested in that Valiant... Looks like Duster front end fits pretty nicely on place, but doing that 4 Door conversion is a lot of work. And how are you going to do the rear end... Is there a kit source you can use for that or do you have to modify that rear end to look like '70?