MrObsessive

Very, very well done! And yes, it DOES look like a kit! Excellent bodywork, and one would never know this was a conversion unless you told 'em.

Well, with the humidity taking a breather here in the area for the time being, I thought it would be good to try to get some painting in today. I got the body and its other parts in primer now. My primer of choice is Plastikote Sandable Primer T-235 which is all but impossible to get locally anymore. I get my cans off eBay or Amazon lately in that I hate traipsing all over creation to have to find it. What I like best about it is that it airbrushes beautifully, dries fast, and sands down very well. Since there's an opening hood and trunk I needed to paint the inside areas first. I'll lay the trunk in its opening so that it and the hood can be all color coated at the same time. I'll need to tape the headlight doors somewhere on the body as well so they can be painted too. Metallic colors can be a bit tricky as you want the metallic flakes to be in a uniform direction on the body. I like to spray in a criss-cross pattern so that the flakes are uniform across the entire body and not in splotches or patches. Same as I did for the trunk..............The flakes are still a little bit big for my tastes, but this'll do. When it comes time for final clearcoating, I may tint the clear somewhat to blunt the metallic flakes. Tamiya Clear X-22 is my clear of choice as if I happen to mess up, Windex or some other ammonia based liquid will take it right off without hurting the paint. As with anything, I do everything in stages. I'll let this sit for at least a day or so, then I'll semi-attach everything and get it all color coated at once. A couple weeks may go by and then I'll clear coat the whole works. Then when the whole works is dry, it'll get wet sanded and rubbed out. In the meantime while the paint is drying thoroughly, I may start on the bodywork of my next WIP. More than likely, this next WIP will take me through the end of the year and beyond. LOTS will be involved with that one............I want to make sure the body lines are as close to the 1:1 as possible. Thanks for lookin' folks!

For Easy Off, simply spray it on and let it do its thing! Duplicolor should come off with no problem. If you have any kind of plastic tub with a lid that would be good as the fumes can be a bit obnoxious. I usually let it sit overnight and by the next day, in the sink I'll scrub up the body with a toothbrush under running water, and the paint goes right with it. I strongly advise however using rubber gloves as Easy Off can be not so kind to your hands! Hope this helps! Edit: BTW, if you use Easy Off, be sure to use the yellow can and not that "Fume Free" stuff. I've tried that in the past and it's absolutely worthless!

I'm not that familiar with Simple Green as I use Easy Off Oven Cleaner (Yellow Can) to strip any paint jobs. Others here who might have used it can give you a better answer, but I can tell you whatever stripper you use, it's going to take the paint clean down to the plastic. I don't remember what primer you used, but it didn't etch the plastic and any stripper should take it off. I've not heard of Simple Green weakening the plastic (perhaps resin yes), but once again others would know more than I.

That's a tough call Jerry as ultimately it's your model. If it were me, and I wasn't happy with how a paint job came out, I'd strip everything down to bare plastic and start over-----but that's just me. It's one of the reasons I don't buy hobby paints per se for body colors. I do mess up from time to time, and nothing's more frustrating than botching up a paint job, then much to your chagrin you've run out of paint! I have mine mixed locally at a automotive paint shop, and there's more than enough for me to use for those times when things don't go right. Sanding it down might be more troublesome than not.........you'd have to deal with the overlaying paint playing nice with whatever paint's on the surface, and then there's the matter of paint consistency. Is the surface the same type as the rest of the car? Those will be your call to make.............. BTW, I found a pic of the type of vinyl roof that you're trying to make for '69 Camaros. Every '69 I've ever seen with the factory vinyl roof treatment had the "halo" type that was offered, although there might be a few rare ones with the standard type vinyl roof. GM also offered this on a couple other models (Olds Toronado comes to mind), and they were a very nice touch to a 1:1 car. As I mentioned, you can see where the seams are as well for the roof, and you'd also have to make the chrome trim that separates the vinyl roof paint work, As I mentioned some .010 x .020 Evergreen plastic strip would be ideal to make this. HTH!

That's a thought Mike, and not a bad idea at all.

Just a couple observations Jerry.......Most if not all vinyl roofs have some kind of overlapping seams somewhere on the roof of the vehicle running front to back. This can be duplicated with some .010 Evergreen strip that can be sanded down on the one side where the two pieces overlap. I hadn't noticed it before you painted the roof, so it might be a little late to add that. An internet search for the '69's would turn up a few pics on how it looks for this car. Particular for this car is the "halo" vinyl roof trim that it has.........kinda tricky to get the chrome done on it! Also, in the case of the chrome trim, a Sharpie is OK as far as it goes, but I might have still used some masking tape (generic or Tamiya tape) to try and keep as close to the original trim as possible. Just the same, you're still new at this and something to keep in mind for your next WIP.

Steve, I've not seen it in this tight of a gradient of ribbing.......................... Unless I've missed the smallest size possible, I've never seen it made in this tight of spacing. I guess I COULD carve it in with an Exacto, but then for it to be symmetrical all the way through would be the tricky part.

LOL! We had a teacher that I swear did that in my senior year of high school. We always wondered why his nose was red, and well that's more than likely what he was doing!

I believe that's a Tesla? Fisker's are a bit bigger and IMO a bit flashier. Tesla's are becoming more and more seen in my neck of the woods. BEAUTIFUL cars!

I keep going back and looking at this, and it's the COLOR and PAINT that keep me looking! EXCELLENT paint work, and like everyone else has said, the color is gorgeous! These were VERY common on the streets here in the states back in the '70's and '80's and are prized collector's items now. Back in 1980, I spotted a '70 with a 454 (?) on a used car dealers lot, and wanted it badly. I drove it, but if it weren't for the high insurance (I was 19 at the time), it might have been mine. They wanted only $4500 for it, and that was a STEAL back then. Now that same car can be $40,000+ and that's not for the pristine examples.

Any of you folks out there know what to use to replace the ribbing on body panels? Think '59 Mercury, '65 Pontiac, the upper roof moulding on a '58 Plymouth. I have tons of plastic stock, but none of the ribbed sheets I've got have a tight enough spacing to replace the ribbing that's on those cars. Any kind of special tool that I don't know about that could carve in that ribbing? Been doing some roof mods on the '65 Bonneville, and it's among one of my future projects down the road. And yes, I fixed that incorrect driver's side roof profile. I thought about opening doors on this, but in order to get the shut lines tight enough, at least the trailing edge of the doors would need that ribbing replaced. Thoughts anyone?

I've used Future as a barrier for plastic in the past, and while it works well for that, airbrushing it can be tricky as it's quite runny! You have to work fast, and it's good to keep a paint brush or something nearby as it likes to run and pool in corners and such.

I jumped over to YouTube and found this tutorial on BMF by Dr. Cranky who posts here occasionally. I think you'll like it!

I strongly advise practicing on a junk body or something since BMF is new to you Jerry. BMF really brings out the realism for models, but it can be a challenge for newbies, and I advise using a new Exacto blade strictly for use with BMF, as it works best with new blades. If the blade is the slightest bit dull, it'll tear the foil and can make a mess on the body. Hope this helps!

Norm has no website (never has) and the email link that was given by Michael is best for him. Norm will get back to you. I've known him for many years, and I see him on a regular basis at the CPMCC meetings (York, PA), and the MAMA club meetings in MD. In fact, there's a MAMA club meeting next weekend (the 18th) at the Greenbelt Community Center in Greenbelt, MD. I don't know where you are in PA, but I'm in South Central PA (Steelton, outside of Harrisburg), and it's about an hour and a half drive for me. His stuff is top notch, and definitely worth getting! OK, I see you're in the Luzerne County area. That's a bit of a drive for you as I used to live up in that area once upon a time. Nevertheless, Norm will get in touch with you if you dropped him a line. He's a bit busy these days (as are a lot of resin casters), but his items are well worth the wait.

I've never actually sat down and counted up hours............I have a job I go to everyday to do that! Just the same, I take my time with whatever needs to be done----be it a few months or in the case of my '59 Impala, nearly four years! Counting hours like I mentioned would amount to doing a job, and that's the last thing I want to think about when I'm done for the day. Come to think of it, I do remember years ago trying to keep a log of how much time I spent on a particular car (I don't remember the model anymore), but I soon lost track and became disinterested due to it being like well---------------work.

You're certainly welcome! IMO, a better idea than a bookmark would be to save this thread's pages on your hard disc. You can either right click on the page and do a "Save As" (if you're using Chrome), or go into the file menu in whatever browser you're using and save the pages as web page. Bookmarks are nice, but if the site ever decides to take a dump for whatever reason, the thread could be lost and not retrievable. Yeah, that's one of many fixes in store for that '58 Plymouth if I ever get around to it. Roofline, rear fenders, side trim, trunk, and even the engine, although what I'd like to do is the very rare fuelie setup that came on those '58's. I've got some decent engine shots of the manifold and fuel injection hardware. What I don't have is any of the scripts that would be displayed on the car showing it was indeed fuel injected. If there's any I'd like for Moebius to definitely take a close look at, it would be the '68 Dodge Coronets! The tooling is long gone from MPC it seems, and I don't expect Moebius to do any Chargers or Road Runners as they've been kitted to death. Johan's Road Runner models while pricey are still somewhat plentiful, and of course we have AMT's version as imperfect as it is.

How did I miss this one?? Absolutely gorgeous Yuri! Interesting enough, all this talk of AMT's Bonneville lately made me check out eBay. I just snagged one (Prestige Kit) for a VERY reasonable price! I like what you did to the headlights...........makes that beautiful front end that much more beautiful!

Now that is a real compliment! I appreciate that! I know there are some out there that are rolling their eyes at this (thus the way I worded the title), but for those of us that have certain cars etched into our minds, some of us out here in the lunatic fringe can't help but to fix something we know is incorrect. Especially if we have the skills to do so, why not? I can remember as a kid when this car was new, and I can certainly remember the parking lots in high school (late '70's) were littered with these things. It seemed they were everywhere, and you couldn't go far without at least tripping over any '68-'70 B-body Mopar. Another one that I'm definitely passionate about if you don't know already is AMT's '58 Plymouth. While it can be built as a nice shelf model, I can't get past the incorrect proportions on that one either, and I'm not talking about just the trim that needs straightened out. My Dad owned one of these when I was a wee one, so whenever I see one I think of him as he's been gone almost three years now. It reminds me of when he was much younger (in the mid 1960's) and he really liked this car. A '60 Valiant would eventually steal his heart, but it's the '58 that I have to sit down sometime and really make right for my collection. I get that some don't care about making changes.........that's OK! This is only for my benefit and if it helps someone else who'd like to tackle something like this down the road------all the better!

They are quite thin (as in almost non existent). Opening doors would be one of the working features agenda for this one, and I'd have to make new ones. There's no way I could salvage what little bit is there. That's one of the things I ruined when I tried this same conversion on the GTX convertible back in '96.

I also want to mention that one of the reasons I wanted to show this tutorial, is that a lot of guys and gals out there may have the same skills that I do, but may not want to shell out what can be big bucks for one of those Johan originals. They're getting fewer and fewer to find at a "reasonable" price and for the cost of your research, time and patience, this is a much cheaper alternative.

Thanks for the compliments all-----especially Harry and Jon! Jon, the side that Harry showed is not quite done yet, as there are a few tweaks here and there that I'd like to do. No hurry for me right now as this is not going to be a WIP as of yet-----might be a while before it takes front and center on my work table. And yes as I mentioned, those fender eyebrows need to be defined a bit further. They are there, just not sharp enough to my liking. On the side that Harry showed, I have yet to fix the rear quarter crease line that runs from the trailing edge of the rear wheel well, to the tail of the body. It still looks too swept up to my eyes, and I think that's where I had stopped when I was reshaping this a couple years ago. Hmmm.......I never gave a close look at Monogram's '69 Super Bee. I have a busted up built-up of this one and I'll have to take a good look! Yeah, that Revell '67 Coronet is another one that bugs me to no end, about as much as this one. I would go about fixing it a whole 'nuther way though. I'd whack the roof (A pillars, cowl and all) and trunk off the "bent" Coronet body and put it on the '67 Charger's lower body. Kinda what I did with my '59 Impala when that desperately needed a roof job. As you mentioned, one could graft in the wheel wells from the Coronet. A lot of work, but when you're passionate about a certain car, I look at it as a labor of love. Not to mention that the roof on both the Coronet and the GTX are not quite right to me as well. They're both waaaaay to flat in the rear, and don't have the subtle curves on the upper sides of the backlite per the 1:1. I have a fix for that too, but it would be too much to go into this post here! If it wasn't for my next WIP that I already have planned out, the RR would definitely be on the must do list. The next car on my agenda after I finish the BMW will require almost as much bodywork to make it right----maybe more so. Let's just say I hope I don't get "stung" by biting off more than I can chew!

John, that rear window is going to be a bear to replace! When I get around to building this fully, I'll have to either vacuform a new one, or somehow bend acetate to conform to those curves. It looks to be a somewhat flat area, so at least the acetate will only have to bend one way. Unlike the '59 Chevy where I had no choice but to vacuform the glass on that as there were just too many compound curves getting in the way. The hard part to me is out of the way at least--------getting that rear half to conform a lot more to the 1:1 instead of the pinched/squashed look it had. What is it with AMT not getting the rear half of Chryco cars correct?? As you know this afflicts a certain other car that's been beat to death here on the board. I've got a fix for that one to, but haven't had the time or ambition to tackle that one-----------------yet!

OK, I'm done with dinner and laundry, so I figure I better try and hurry up and find that old Johan body and post up a few pics before the storms hit. I already got an alert over my phone for counties Southwest of me, so they're on the way! Granted my Johan is a '69, but the body is essentially the same. The old Johan IMO is still the standard to go by when it comes to accurate B-Body Mopars! What they lacked in chassis detail they certainly made up for it with their body shapes. I have to admit that my copying the Johan body contours came out pretty good! One change I'll make down the road when this becomes a full WIP is define the fender "eyebrows" a bit sharper. They're OK as far as it goes on the body, but could stand to be a bit more defined. Rear shot..... I am going to tweak the rear part of the roof eventually oh so slightly. It has a boxed off appearance to it, and I'd like to round the contours off just a scooch.