MrObsessive

This is how they should swing straight outward once they're attached. Note how I have the chassis in place as the chassis will bow the body outward slightly. I had to make allowances in the mounting of the support post for this. Now the next thing is to mount (tape) the door in place so that you can mark off the hinge "holders" for later epoxying. Still need to tighten up those shut lines!........... I made the hinge holders out of U-Channel styrene (Evergreen) that was narrowed a bit to suit the width of the hinges. Notice the pencil marks on the inside of the doors and where I want the hinge holders to be.............I like to mark off where I'll need to build the door jambs on the door so there's no guesswork. Now about those shut lines..............some of you may have seen in the other posting where I like to add plastic around the perimeter of a door or trunk------I did the same here....... Once this was thoroughly dry, I then sanded the contours to shape. This takes time, so I'd work carefully so you don't lose the original contours. Once the door was shaped to my liking........I like to use to the 3x5 card method in determining how much door gap there should be. If the card slips in and out easily without binding, then the gap should be fine. Too much slop, and you'll have that see-through the body look which will detract from the finished product! And here's the door shaped and mostly where I want it appearance wise............some very minor tweaking I'll do around the top corners of the door. Here's how the door appears opened just placed on the hinges............. The door has a slight drooped appearance, but mind you-----the doors aren't fully epoxied on the hinges as of yet. That won't happen till after she's all painted and polished. And now on to the other side! Stay tuned! I also want to add that I really appreciate the kind words and encouragement! It really means alot. I just realized that this is the first really detailed I've started in quite awhile, and it might take some time to remember how I did certain things. I wish I had a computer and digital camera when building that '58 Chevy! It sure would make things easier today!

Sometimes I wish there were simply more hours in the day! Between working 10 hour days, computer stuff, family issues, etc.........I don't seem to have the time I used to when it comes to building models! Nevertheless, I intend for this one to be as detailed as my '58 Impala convertible from years ago. In fact, a bit more so! So sit back, this will be one looooong build! Okay, on with the saga of the opening doors. I was able to finally get the driver's side door hinged and fitted to my liking. I made the second hinge not long after I posted the last time, and got it to nearly match the dimensions of the first one I made. Here's some proof of the pudding! Of course the posts had to be cut down to suit where they'll be placed in the model...........here's how they'll be anchored on to the support post............ Just some simple square rod drilled through to allow the hinge to swing. Now here's the hinges mounted on the support post inside the body now............ And how they should swing straight outward once they're attached. Note how I have the chassis in place as the chassis will bow the body outward slightly. I had to make allowances in the mounting of the support post for this. Now the next thing is to mount (tape) the door in place so that you can mark off the hinge "holders" for later epoxying. Still need to tighten up those shut lines!........... I made the hinge holders out of U-Channel styrene (Evergreen) that was narrowed a bit to suit the width of the hinges. Notice the pencil marks on the inside of the doors and where I want the hinge holders to be.............I like to mark off where I'll need to build the door jambs on the door so there's no guesswork. Stay tuned for more!

Yet another vote for PE..............I would go crazy trying to carve a set of keys out of PE fret!

The model looks good for a beginner! One suggestion I have is to perhaps use a smaller gauge wire for your engine wiring. While it's not bad, it may be a bit oversized for that particular scale. I generally use 30 gauge "Kynar Wire" which can be found on eBay in all sorts of colors, and is better suited for 1/24-25th scale. As far as scratchbulding, I echo what Bob said. I would start off with something simple and small. Starting off with too much can be overwhelming and can lead to frustration which you don't want starting off so soon. As your skills build, build up to more challenging things, but patience is the key word here. Things won't always turn out the way you'd like the first time out. Hope this helps!

Very nice and interesting conversion! If you don't mind, could you tell us which kits you had to use to make this? Don't hold me to this, but down the road I have something similar in mind, but perhaps a different year.

OK, here's my 2¢ on this subject........ While it does bug me when the manufacturers don't get certain things right, I don't get too twisted over it as I can probably fix the error in my own due time when I decide to build a certain kit. Witness my own thread of the building of Revell's '59 Chevy. There are a number of kits out there that I could point out that have some glaring faults to my eyes, but I won't point them out unless someone asks me personally, or there is a topic about said kit on the board. Actually, I like the challenge of fixing something that should have been done right in the first place..........I don't know if that's the masochist in me, or the thrill of getting something looking like the 1:1 as much as possible. After the '59 Chevy, I have a couple in mind that could stand some "fixing"-------I'll cross that bridge when I come to it though.

Yeah, that's another one of those kits that I could tell wasn't quite right the moment I saw the box art. I haven't tried to change this with the kit I have, but some years ago, I won on eBay a started project where someone tried to correct this. What he did is take the old MPC kit of the '67 Charger, and add the rear wheelwells and trunk from the Revell kit. He also changed the C pillars somewhat by using the crown of the roof off the Charger, but making new pillars from sheet plastic. That roof BTW, to my eyes is not as accurate as it could be from Revell, as the rear part of the roof is too flat--------and doesn't have the subtle crown at the top of the backlite that the 1:1 had. If I can dig this started project out of the stash I have over the weekend, I can show you what he did. Of course, I'd have to clean things up a bit if I ever decide to finish what he started. But yeah, the rear end of the Revell Coronet is way too droopy and saggy to represent the 1:1. I suppose one could take their Charger and fix it that way, but you still have that too flat roof to deal with................ Mike as far as I know, no one has ever pointed this out in their reviews but I could be wrong.

Greg I have a couple of the Pro Modeler kits (I built the Daytona one) and IIRC, there were PE parts inside that weren't included in later reissues. I also remember the instructions being a bit more detailed with callouts for colors and whatnot, and maybe some other goodies I can't remember at the moment. The kits are on the third floor of my house, but I'm too tired from working all day to check it out as I'm downstairs! Someone else will have more to say I'm sure..............

Amen to that! I'm a bit tired of the "bubbleback" rear glass that has been a permanent fixture for Corvette styling since then. It would be nice to see something refreshing-----as someone mentioned, a big departure as the '63 was from the '62 and earlier models. They got away from hidden headlights.........now lets go for the rest of the car!

It's time to make the hinge support for the door. This car uses a "gooseneck" type hinge which allow the door to swing towards the outside of the body, as opposed to most cars today using a pivot type hinge which lets the leading edge of the door turn inside the fender. I'm not sure what size plastic I used here as I like to use a lot of scrap leftover stuff from other projects instead of just throwing things out. As I mentioned in another thread on this board, you want to make sure your support is a straight as possible from the sides as well as from the front. Failing to do so will lead to doors either "hitting the curb" when opened, or swinging up in the air like a butterfly! Here is a pic of the hinge support for the driver's side.............. Once this is completely dry, I'll glue the ends very thoroughly with super glue to lock 'em in tight. Now I went ahead and formed hinges.............. These are just some strip brass that are of the appropriate size. I don't have a measurement of the particular swing angle that I need.........a lot of what I do is simple "eyeball engineering". I just test fit and do simple trial and error to get the results I need. Now, it's time to solder a pin to one of the hinges so far............take a look at the following video as I try to demonstrate this. Please forgive the video quality------I'm poor and don't have the latest and greatest video cam for studio like shots. Just a quick vid to give you the basics on soldering something like this. Enjoy! [media=]

Continuing on with the door jambs.......Here are a couple of reference shots I used to try to get close to the look I was after......... I'll admit that I'm not going to add every little crease and curve to the model's door jambs.......but just enough detail to not just have lifeless slabs of plastic to represent such. Here's what I've come up with so far................ One trick I like to do to give me a representation of how smooth my bodywork is going is to paint the surface with some Tamiya Flat Black. That way I can see if there are any pinholes or whatnot, and it washes right off with Windex. Everything looks to be in order so far.............now it's just a matter of cleaning up the finer points and then I get to do this again for the other side! I also get to do door strikers, and some other little fun things you'll just have to stay tuned for! More to come!

Sorry for the long pause in between posts! Between working 10 hour days, and other things going on in life------there's just not enough hours in the day to work on the model, let alone make and compose a post that's coherent and not sound like I've lost it. Just the same, I was able to get some work done on the old girl in the last week or so. In fact I did some work on 'er just this morning..........including a video which is uploading as I type this. I mentioned in a previous post that cutting open the doors made me rather nervous due to that dogleg windshield post just hanging out there with no support. So I figured instead of working on the trunk, why not build up the door jamb on the body so that dogleg is supported and I can breathe a sigh of relief..............for now! Here's where I got started........I like to make my "corners" first before doing anything else, that way I can sand the radii the way I see fit, and add the lip around the perimeter of the door opening as I go along. Some pics to demonstrate! You'll notice also that I did get the side trim dechromed using Easy-Off and attached to the body. It'll be a lot more consistent to BMF this, than to leave it chromed which is a bit unrealistic for 1:1 trim. Actual trim on cars is more of a polished aluminum, than outright chrome. Once I got the corners from the "triangles" I made, then I added the lip using .010 strip styrene....... Now I can add my rounded corners per the 1:1. BTW, most cars have some sort of radius at the corners of the door jambs. I've not seen too many cars that have sharp angles at those corners.........one car that comes to mind that does have corners like that are the Studebaker Hawks of the '50's-early '60's. Good photos are nice to have for whatever car you're trying to replicate. Once those were dry with liquid glue, and then super glue, I can now add my door jamb detail per the 1:1. Stay tuned for more!

I'd love to see honest to goodness straight sixes come back into use! Yeah, yeah I know..............V6's are more efficient, saves space, blah, blah, blah---------but there's something to be said about how much better a straight six looks in an engine bay. Not to mention a straight six to my ears just flat out sounds better. To me a V6 sounds like tearing paper when under full throttle!

Actually, the current Charger does owe a lot of its styling cues to the '99 concept. Still it would have been nice to see that one make it to the streets intact! Thanks to Daimler though it was never to be.

One such place online I can think of is Paintscratch. They specialize in hard to find colors as well, and they can do their paints in a variety of sizes including touch-up bottles. I've used them in the past, and found their paints to be quite nice. MCW's paints are not bad, but I make mistakes in painting at times, and would like to have more on hand than the 2 oz bottles that he gives you. Paintscratch's touch-up bottles aren't thinned so a bottle might do a couple or three cars. I've also found MCW's paint to be a little bit too thinned for my liking, but that's just me. I agree with the others about trading paint though..........it sounds touchy, and the shipping would be more trouble than it's worth for half empty cans.

:lol: Now THAT is funny! There may be a correlation there!

It's nice to see something new from GM that doesn't have that FWD look that I'm tired of. Front wheels too close to the leading edge of the door, and too much front overhang. It's one of the reasons I dislike FWD for larger cars..........the proportions are always too goofy to my eyes. This being RWD is a good thing! This one has some nice proportions and certainly has a "Chevy" look to it. As far as cars from the '60's and '70's with style...........well to me that's a toss-up as I can name a few that I always thought were boring. I can remember LOTS of '50's cars on the road as a little kid in the early '60's so I noticed a contrast to what was already made, and some of the newer shapes coming out in the later '60's into the '70's. Styling is subjective, so not all shapes can be everyone's cup of tea.

OK, next question..............what the heck is it?? Alright never mind............I just saw Harry's link. All I can say is YUCK!!

I think he meant "BMF" Harry!

Thanks Cranky! The '58's paint is a little on the heavy side in hindsight.........It would be a bit lighter if I were building it today. The T-Bird's chassis as well as the Corvette's were patterned after actual cars I had seen. I guess they were a bit "over-restored"?

I've used Easy Off (Yellow Can) in the past for many a stripping session, and sometimes the parts were coated for days with no ill effects to the plastic. Easy Off does contain Lye, so the other product that Art mention should pose no problem as well to plastic. As the others have said------if you're going to use this stuff, MAKE SURE you're wearing rubber gloves! Either that, or very quickly wash your hands with running water if you touch it at all!

One of my favorite detailing things to do..............chassis'! Here are a few of my favorites............ The '58 Chevy does have a working "air" suspension. Those that have seen it can attest to this, and there's a video on my YouTube channel of it working. The '55 T-Bird's rear suspension came from a MAS kit. The Corvette's suspension works as well, but the rear leaf springs were made from strip brass.

I wish that car was kitted in 1/24-25th! Looks more like the DBR2 pictured than the DBR1.........I'd LOVE to see a full detail kit as that's one of my favorite '50's road racers!

Most cars that I have seen have vent windows that are framed. One would have to build a frame around the glass and then embed a pin or something in the frame, and then have that swivel on the outer frame of the vent window structure on the door. Painstaking for sure, and I'm not so sure it would look right in 1/24-1/25 scale. A larger scale it would be no problem. I have a 1/12 Danbury Mint '57 Chevy Convertible with the vent windows that pivot. Of course, the "pins" are molded on to the glass, and these swivel on the vent window door frame. That's one route you can take, but it'd be a heck of thing to mold clear glass with shaped pins and then to have them work like you want.

Cruz, that's another one outta the park! I don't know why your friend wouldn't love this one! Who couldn't fall in love with a super glass like paint job as that??