MrObsessive

Now lets move on to the glass. I've already heard it mentioned that some are not happy about the way the glass is in the kit. Personally, I like the way Moebius has gone about modeling the glass, as that is the way glass mounts on the 1:1. They mount on the outside------not the inside which can lead to an unrealistic, "tunneled" look which annoys me. Sooooo..............I cracked open the plastic to see for myself what the hubbub was all about. Well sure enough, the glass doesn't fit as well out of the box as well as it could. Follow along with me as I've fixed the glass on my example, and once again, some time and patience will be needed to make this look the way it should as well. As you can see, there's just too much of a gap if one were to put the glass in as is............. Nope.............this just won't do........... The first thing I recommend is to carefully sand around the perimeter of the glass with some 600 grit sandpaper. I didn't do this in this pic here, but if you're of shaky hands and a bit nervous, I STRONGLY ADVISE covering up the glass with masking tape or Parafilm to ward off scratches. Next, you'll need to slightly enlarge the opening of the windshield..............once again I used 600 grit sandpaper to deepen the channels of the glass. This is a Riffler File. It comes in mighty handy to file in those tight spots that always seem to turn up when building something. I got a whole set of them from MicroMark.com and they're worth the cost of getting them. IMO, one can never have "enough" tools. I used the riffler file to get in the corners of the Pontiac's wraparound windshield. I want the glass to literally just fall in, and not fight setting still when it comes time to epoxy it. The bottom or base of the windshield needs to be filed down slightly as well. BTW, what I'm doing here more than likely will need to be done to the backlite as well. I want to file down the chrome trim that is molded in on the glass. When I did an initial test fitting, the trim seemed like it sat up a bit too high from the roof. I wanted to knock the height of it down just a little. This here is once again where covering the glass is an absolute MUST! HEY! Now that looks MUCH better! Nary a gap is showing, and it rests in the opening without me fighting it! Looks good from this side too..........with final painting and foiling, this windshield should so say 1961! One hint I found in placing the glass in on my example is to put the leading edge of the windshield in first, with the rest to follow. On mine, the glass literally "pops" into place. I want to add that once again, I like to treat each part as a kit. Getting things to fit right is no exception, and it's another reason why I stress that a lot of your bodywork and such should be done first before moving on to painting. Nothing's more frustrating to me to have everything all painted up an pretty, only to find out that things such as glass, interior, etc, don't fit without a lot of hassle. OK, those are my tips and tricks for this one for now. If there's any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! Thanks for lookin'!

Normally, when a brand new tooling of a kit is released, if it tickles my fancy, I'll buy it, "grok" it, and then it goes back in the box to be built Lord knows when. When Moebius announced the '61 Pontiac Ventura a while back, I knew I would have to get one for two reasons............I've always LOVED this car and there's never been a kit of it, and it's a "birth year" car and everyone should have a number of birth year cars in their collection! A week or so ago when I saw a number of them offered on the 'Bay, I jumped at the chance and ordered one. I groked the kit like I usually do-------a number of times in fact, as I was VERY impressed by what I was seeing and the way the parts were done. It was just as nice if not nicer than the final test shot I got to see and hold up close and personal at last year's NNL East. Well, there were some things I got very curious about. For instance, how were those wheels going to turn out since they were the focus of much attention as the test shots were being reviewed here on the board? After looking over the wheels and after seeing an example being built here on the board, I decided to see for myself. First I must say, my review here is in no way a slam at Moebius or at anyone that's building this kit. This is just my own view of things and what I'm going to do here is probably not everyone's cup of tea. I'm a little more passionate about this car than others (well there are some others ), so what I do here I can understand not all can or want to do this to their model. OK.....On with what I found........... This won't be a full build, but just some "adjustments" I'll be doing to the wheels and glass of the kit, as these are the areas that are jumping out at me as far as potential building difficulties. Let's start with the wheels.........here are the primary tools that I'm using to fix the eight lug wheels that come in the kit. An Exacto blade and a steel "point" that was homemade by me, and fitted into a pin vise. One observation I'm making of the wheels is the drum portion is sitting "too far back" in the rim, if one is to put together the wheels as they are out of the box. Also of note is the instructions (drawing) in the kit are not quite right. Moebius shows that the wheels-----the brake drums in particular are to go from the outside of the rim, when actually they should go from the inside. Mistakes happen on the cutting room floor, but this is something to keep in mind when looking over the instructions. As you can see pictured here, the drum should be sticking out a scooch further than what's seen here. You can also see where I started to score around the drum to "break free" the lug nuts from the rim. OK! It took a bit, but you can see here where the lug nut portion of the rim is broken free. My objective here is to thin down this section so that when you place the drum inside this section, it'll be further out into the rim, and more like the 1:1's that feature these wheels. I ran this section back and forth on a metal sanding board that I have to thin the flanges out a bit. The results.............. Here are the parts laid out before I began to piece everything back together. I did take some 600 grit sandpaper, and thinned out the "fins" on the brake drum ever so slightly. They could have stood to be a bit thinner when molded, but I can understand the molding process and how the manufacturer would not want these to be but so thin due to the fragility of these fins. Here is the brake drum placed back inside the lug nuts section........... Here is the beauty ring placed inside the rim. Later on when I get around to building this fully, I'll add a couple plastic .005" steps or stops inside the rims as a positive location for the beauty rings. And here they are with everything placed back together.............. Note how the brake drum is further out from the rim than it was before. Further detail painting of the whole works should enhance the niceness of these wheels even more! Now mounted in the tire. I have to give Moebius a lot of credit in making these wheels the way they did. These eight lugs have been done by other kit makers before, but not to the degree that's been done by Moebius. Manufacturing compromises have to be made to ease the process, but I'm of the mind that each part of a model kit has to be treated as a kit in itself. These wheels are no exception and the extra time and care taken to make them appear correct will be highly worth it. Now if you'll stay tuned, I'll be addressing the glass on the kit............namely the windshield.

Oooooooh! I can hardly wait!!

You're welcome Mark! The backlite is clear stencil sheet, which was also intended for the front. The front glass kept popping out repeatedly because I had to reeeallllly flex the body to get the chassis in. In hindsight, if I had put the firewall in place first and not to the chassis, I wouldn't have had to flex the body so much to get everything to fit. But...........I wanted the brake lines from the master cylinder to attach somewhere, and that's the only way I could achieve that. So I ended up using the kit glass for the front as I was tired of fighting with it. It's not too bad visual wise---------I've seen MUCH, MUCH worse glass in some kits. Clear stencil sheet is my go-to choice when it comes to replacing kit glass. Some of the kits' glass is so severely distorted as far as viewing it from the outside, that it's a HUGE turnoff for me. It's one of the reasons I stopped working on the '59 Chevy for so long. I refused to finish it with that terribly distorted front and rear glass. Now that I got a vacuform machine, I made my own on that one and that's another hurdle that's been jumped thankfully.

Alright! I just got home not long ago, and I picked up at our club meeting the Deora! I've cracked open the kit, and I'm VERY IMPRESSED by what I see! Those tires are some of the nicest I've seen come from Round 2! I also give kudos to them for including what looks to be nice color pics of what the truck looks like today. The "regular" and tinted glass for the kit are nice pluses, and everything seems to be molded well for what is quite old tooling. Looking through the kit, the center console is conspicuous by its absence------although I don't think the original issue ever included this. Hmmmm............now to figure out how to tackle that opening lower door and support "beam" down the road.

Mike thanks for the compliment! I'll have to see what kind of clearance I have with the doors after everything's all painted and such. If things are kinda tight, I'll just BMF those. No, the PE fret doesn't include door sill plates. The roof pillars on all of GM's 1959-60 offerings are one of those "signature" things that set them apart. No one else was copying them (Ford did have similar A pillars for '59, but still distinguishable), and when I first seen this kit, it just didn't look "right" to me. As I mentioned, Revell fixed it for the '60........almost as if they knew they made a mistake, but never quite owned up to saying "Whoops! We gotta fix this!" I had to add the extra C pillar trim on its leading edge. The roof pillars appear too "thin" without it, and on the 1:1, this is where the quarter windows roll up into.

Not much to add at this point-----as some of you might have noticed in other threads, I put a barrier coat on the body first and foremost to minimize any surprises with the later coats of primer and color. My barrier coat of choice as of late is BIN Zinsser sealer that comes in the regular can. Not the spray can as that to me is not as good as me mixing up the contents, and spraying it myself. Here's the can if you've not seen it before........ Here are a couple pics of the body with the sealer on......... I waited a couple days and just this morning, put on a few light coats of Plastikote Gray Sandable Primer that I decanted and airbrushed on. Now I'll wait a couple more days, and more than likely she'll get the color coats ('59 Chevy Roman Red) this Sunday. The other body panels were barriered and primered as well, just wanted to give you folks an idea of how things are going. After the color coats I'll let things sit for a week or two, and then rub out and polish up the whole works. Thanks for staying tuned..........I'm glad that I'm at least finally at this point-----this build actually started in 2012!

This is just my own personal preference as I've seen some bad things happen to nice kits, but I would advise putting some kind of barrier coat on your body before you put on any paint. This is just extra insurance against the paint attacking the plastic, and while some may poo-poo the idea, I'm just saying that plastics differ between companies-------some nice and tough, some not so much. My choice of a barrier coat would be either Future Floor Wax (Pledge with Future Shine) or BIN Zinsser sealer. I tend toward the latter lately as Future can be rather touchy (runny) when trying to airbrush it, the BIN goes on smoothly as I just put a few coats on my '59 Impala build the other day. My way of thinking as with all the builds I do is to treat each step or build as a kit in itself------this would include painting. Patience is a definite virtue here, and taking your time and working carefully usually yields good results. Just a thought..........

Another one to consider for possible use is AMT's '51 Chevy which was strictly a straight six. Once again, some work would have to be done to update it to a later '70's Chevy inline six.

Jim, I'm not sure how much you want to spend, but I ran across this on MicroMark's site. Might be worth a look.

IIRC, that one is an overhead cam six that was exclusive to Pontiac. Still, it's a straight six and it wouldn't be too terribly difficult to make it into a 250 if all else fails.

I'm not that familiar with Chevy sixes, but which six was in the AMT '60 Chevy pickup? Weren't they all pretty much externally the same?

Dave from what I can gather from my basic German, it's going to be a plastic kit. I want to see THIS make it over here! Now this is a LONG LOST kit! I sure wish, hope it's molded in white, but I suspect it'll be in the color you see here. The eBay examples can get way outta sight price wise, and it'll be nice to get one at a "reasonable" price again.

I use to see these from to time here in Central PA back in the late '80's/early '90's. I don't remember hearing anything really bad about them, 'cept I used to cringe at seeing the name on the car. The first time I saw one I thought "No, that is NOT a LeMans!!" Having SEEN plenty of the real Pontiac LeMans out of the '60's and '70's growing up, this just didn't cut it. I've always hated how they'll take the name of what was a good and memorable car, and stick it on any 'ol thing.

I want to pick one of these up too Tim! I have one of the '80's reissues from MPC, and unfortunately, the roof has a bit of warp to it. Hopefully, at this weekend's club meeting the fellow that usually has all the latest kits (I want another '61 Pontiac too), will have the Deora. And yes, IMO those tires should make that a killer build!

Ahhhh, so I was partially there with my suggestion! Make your border pretty much as the pic that Bill posted. That's the first I've seen that up close, and that's a very good reference shot!

I want to add that the main reason I do this with kits as of late........I don't trust the plastics that the model companies (particularly Revell) use as of late. The plastics have a "soft feel and look" to them that wasn't present years ago. Since I like to use the actual colors of whatever car I'm doing, which can mean the harsher lacquers and acrylic enamels, using BIN IMO is good insurance against those paints crazing the plastic. One could also use Future Floor Wax (Pledge with Future Shine), but then you have to deal with the Future being mighty runny when it comes out your airbrush. This to me is a lot more predictable, and so far has saved me a lot of grief.

Just to show that I've not had any problems with the BIN doing crazy things with color coats------here's the Dodge Viper that was undercoated with BIN, then primer, then color coated Viper Red which was mixed for me by a local paint jobber. Some guys have put primer on first then the BIN, but the BIN will adhere to bare plastic as I've not seen any "pulling away" from the body of the Impala.

Ammonia or alcohol will thin it out. I also recommend using an old airbrush to spray it with if you have one. I have a "nice" one that I use for painting bodies------and then there's my old Badger Crescendo that I use to spray the BIN.

This is the can I'm using Mike..........I've not had any problems with it. You'll have to mix it up in the can, but it cleans up easily with ammonia.

Richard, one thing that might help is to possibly (and carefully) build up some kind of "border" for the glass to rest on. When I make windshields for my models, that's basically what I do-------give the glass some kind of positive location for the glass to rest on, or fit into. Here's a pic of Johan's Chrysler Turbine Car I was building years ago. The glass was so scratchy and distorted that there was no way I wanted to use it. I ended up using clear stencil sheet and I reinforced the pillars to hold the glass. Since your glass is already molded, you can move your strips of plastic closer to the edges of your A pillars. Of course, they don't have to be as thick as what I used here (.040" half round), and you could perhaps paint them to represent weatherstripping. Hope this helps..........I have this kit and yes, the glass does seem like it's too small for the opening. That was one of the brainstorms I thought of if I ever had to build it-------or simply toss the kit glass and make my own.

I may be the holdout on this as street rods aren't my thing, but I actually LIKE cycle fenders on rods! In fact, if I ever get the ambition to build a street rod, it would indeed have cycle fenders on it. IMO, just looks more "complete" to me.

I know of no resin of the Pontiac, but MCW once offered the two door version of that roofline as a '61 Chevy (Biscayne maybe?). That roof wouldn't be terribly difficult to make-------getting the right sweep of the rear glass and the height of the rear part of the roof would be the toughest thing, and of course making the posts. In the 1:1 world, those are a rare sight indeed as that was a one year deal. '62's had a totally different sedan roofline as GM didn't stick with design themes long in those days.

Well y'all know how I build..............nice and slow! Nevertheless, I did manage to get this one done a bit ago. Maybe next year I can have at least two under my belt! You can expect to see this at least finished in '16............... The '59's body has been sealed with a few coats of BIN Zinsser sealer, next will be primer. After all this work on the body, I want no surprises when it comes time to color coat.