MrObsessive

Something I want to add from yesterday............one of the more difficult tasks in getting the body work done is to replicate this underside trunk stamping. Lots of separate pieces that need to be joined together, puttied and hopefully look in scale and realistic enough without being gimmicky. Stay tuned for this one.......... Also, here's a pic of what the door hinges should look like for a '59 Chevy.......... As you can see, these are of the "gooseneck" type which allow the door to swing away from the body. GM used this type of hinging for their doors pretty much through the 1966 model year for the full size models. Some soldering is going to be in order so I got to break out the soldering iron and vice to get to work on this. Of course I'll be posting pics of each step along the way, and if I can get my video cam to cooperate, I may do a quick video of how I soldered the hinges if I can get things set up where the video will be clear.

Lack of vent windows notwithstanding, that looks fantastic!! The color is super, and the whole package is squeaky clean! No way should your friend be disappointed by this! I'd have a hard time letting this one go however if this were mine!

It's occurred to me that this is going to be quite the project due to what I have planned for this '59. Some things I'll let you in on, some others will be "surprises" that you'll just have to wait and see! Over the last few days, I spent some time smoothing out the rear deck and getting the shut lines close to what I want. Some very minor cleanup will still be needed before I get too far, but I'm very happy with the results so far. They say "the proof is in the pudding" so here are some pics of what's been done to this point........ The rear deck and deck lid all sanded out and smoothed over.............. I have yet to add the "lip" that will go around the perimeter of the trunk, and also of course, there are hinges to be made. Take note of the rear window "support" that's there pretty much like the 1:1 due to the lack of a tulip panel. One of the next things I'm going to do is tackle that rear fin trim on the deck lid. It got pretty fouled up when I was trying to cut away the trunk, and now I'm going to replicate it with some strip styrene. Also, you may have noticed that the roof is permanently attached now. I figured since the trunk and rear deck is very close to where I want it, why not affix the roof and add some strength to the body now? As I mentioned above, some minor cleanup will be needed as well to the front vent panel, but I'm liking what I see so far as to me, this is a much better improvement over the kit's original '59 hardtop roofline. For grins, I'm going to include opening doors on this one as well...........I've started on the driver's side door shown in the following pics here........... I gotta tell ya, that thin dogleg is making me quite nervous! I think before I do any more work on the trunk, I'm going to build up the door jamb, to support that dogleg. I hate fixing broken windshield frames as they never seem to come out quite right for me. Also notice the indentations for the chrome in the sides of the body. I'm going to strip the chrome on the side trim and add these in ahead of time as BMF'ing will look more realistic for this type of stainless, and the 1:1 has no "dents" in the door jambs, due to the trim. Well, that's it for now! I hope you folks are liking what you see so far. I have some interesting tricks coming up I think you'll be interested in so stay tuned!

Very nice pics! However, this reinforces why I could never warm up to Fujimi's depiction of that car. The kit body doesn't have the right bulges and curves like the LeMans cars...........instead they just used the flatter body of the '66 Mark II car and tried to pass it off as the '68-'69 LeMans winners.

Very interesting! I do my doors that swing inward a bit differently, but this is a very good tutorial! One suggestion I have though for those that want to attempt this--------make sure your hinge supports are perfectly parallel (straight) from the sides as well as the front. I've seen very nice models that have opening doors, only to have the doors either sagging to "hit the curb" or flying up in the air like a butterfly. Research is paramount when trying this as you mentioned............I've also noticed models that have opening doors, and while done very nicely, the hinges aren't correct for that particular car---------or they don't open "correctly" meaning inward or outward turning doors.

Hey another roof swap! That looks really good, and a nice inexpensive way to get a much wanted '61 Starliner!

Hmmmm, I would still take the AMT over the Aurora version. The whole body seems "off" to me, especially the rear quarter window shape and the rear fenders. It's almost like the folks at Aurora did the body from memory, and not actual blueprints that would yield better proportions.

Being born in '61, I can remember noticing shapes of cars as early as '64 when I was three years old. I didn't know what models they were, but I noticed a distinction between the finny and chromed cars of the '50's/early '60's to the "squarer" shapes of the mid and later '60's. As Bill above mentioned, I also got into Hot Wheels big time when they were intro'd in '68, and by that time the muscle car scene was hot and heavy. I don't want to think about the '70's when Big Boredom began to take a strangle hold on the car industry at that point. Seems as though the designers thought that if they put tape stripes on it, that made the car go faster somehow. Not! Big disappointment as I was in high school at the time, but at least those muscle cars were nice cheap used cars at that point!

That is some EXCELLENT body work you did there Matt! I like to see when builders push the envelope and test their limits. Not to mention some BRAVE work as well as no kit is exactly cheap these days. Keep up the fine work!

I'd also like to get the reissue.......but you guys know that I also have to open up the trunk as well! Only thing is........those hinges for the trunk are mighty tricky! They're not the typical gooseneck hinge, but more of the scissor type seen in 1:1 hoods and such.

Give your thread a chance.............vinyl roofs aren't everyone's forte. Here are a couple I did------the first one is the Johan Turbine Car. Now the vinyl material was already molded on the roof, so it was a matter of getting the right shade without it coming off as looking too gimmicky or shiny. I used Polly Scale's Engine Black in this case, and it went on beautifully! It has just the right sheen for vinyl roofs or leather seats, and can be brushed on with little or no brush strokes or airbrushed. The other one here is the AMT '66 Chevy II which I built back in 1997-98. IIRC, I used Detail Master's vinyl top kit, which is nothing more than heavy masking tape painted black. I think this was my first attempt at a vinyl roof, and in hindsight, the seams are a bit out of scale. After 15 years, the tape is starting to lift as well, so while this is a nice idea------keep in mind that tape of course dries out, and will start to lift in spots, especially if you live in a high humidity area. Hope this helps ya out!

This past week, I spent some time mostly on the trunk area trying to get rid of those annoying sink marks/valleys. I first put some tape around the edges of the fins..........I'm trying to protect that area as much as possible since the chrome trim is molded in. I then primered the body with Plastikote Gray primer, and let dry. Then I added Dynatron Putty-Cote on top and when dry, block sanded the excess away as can be seen here.......... I should have known that I'd run into a SNAFU when I noticed a chip or lifting of the putty from the primer. The putty should bite right into the primer, and of course the primer should bite into the plastic. Well, I forgot to wash the body thoroughly from me handling it, and the putty lifted off the primer, and the primer didn't bite into the plastic as usual. In my zeal, I wanted to get through this particular step, and rushed things just a bit, forgetting the basics-----------the surface has to be squeaky clean in order for things to adhere. That's definite Modeling 101! I took a chance, and block sanded the rear deck anyway with the 225 grit sandpaper, and the balsa wood sanding block, followed by 400 and then 600 grit paper. All the while I scored the trim with the back edge of the exacto blade (lightly!) as I went along.............I want to preserve the trim for future Bare Metal Foiling. Well as those of you who remember the Bob Ross painting shows.....this turned out to be a "happy accident" as I was able to flatten that area, and get rid of those "valleys" on the top of both fins. Kinda hard to see from this angle, but that area is now flattened to my liking. While I was at it, take note of the bar now running across the inside of the rear shelf area. This will be the "anchor" for the trunk hinges since this model lacks a tulip panel per the 1:1. The corners of the rear deck, will be made more symmetrical as I get farther into the build. I figure it's time to start working on the trunk lid. Since I hate cutting up an extra kit just to salvage doors or trunks, I like to make do with what I have. Unfortunately, when you delve into the world of opening doors and such, this can leave you with a big gap that is big enough for a mouse to crawl through! Not acceptable at all! Here's what we're going to do.......add plastic back around the perimeter of the trunk, and then carefully file and sand away until we get the desired "shut lines" that look in scale, and won't take away from the finished product. This is also more economical with the cost of kits running $20-$25 a pop! When trying to tighten up radii on doors or trunks, one of the tricks I use is to cut a small piece of tubing that is close to the radius of the corner that I want to shape. Here's my trusty K&S tubing cutter I've had for years...........it's great for tasks such as this! Below, you'll see the radii I want to use on the corners of the trunk. And here is where they ended up................ You may be wondering why I went to the extra trouble..........well, I've tried using straight plastic in the past, but being plastic has an incredible "memory", the plastic wants to pull away from the corners, and cause trouble in staying put. Why not glue something in place that's already rounded, and save the headache? BTW, my liquid glue of choice is Ambroid Pro Weld. For the rest of the trunk, I used .020 sheet plastic in strips and surrounded it. In fact, I just did this last evening, so it's all ready for sanding and shaping. Well, that's it for now...........hopefully if I'm not too tired and the OT doesn't get in the way too much, I can have another update for you shortly. Thanks for tuning in!

Thanks for the compliment Dan! That's coming along great and you're ahead of me in getting your roof attached. I have some more work on the trunk to do, so hopefully over the weekend that'll get done. Great job on correcting the floor pan as well! I forgot that the '60 had its spare fully in the trunk and Chevy got rid of that spare wheel well by then. Keep up the good work!

Mike the above video from my blog shows how I cut the roof off of the '59. I did pretty much the same with the '60. I would have added this text along with the video, but since the board has been reformatted---------it's not as user friendly to post vids here as it used to be, when you want to add a message to it.

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That Packard Hawk wasn't so bad IMO................ And not too difficult a conversion from AMT's '53 Stude if one is so inclined...........

Well, almost......... I've lost interest in the Olds for the time being. In fact, it was literally on the shelf collecting dust when I decided to take it down and snap a few photos of its status now. Here she is about 80% done....................... This is one model that refuses to cooperate with things I'm trying to correct on it! First there were hood troubles, so I ended up scratchbuilding my own. Not 100% to my liking, but that's it as far as that. Then paint troubles occurring-----glass troubles, etc. There have been threads about kits fighting you the whole way, and this has certainly been one of them. I may try to finish this alongside the Chevy----------or simply leave it for another time. Thanks for asking about it though!

Hmmm........I've not seen that before. I've tried other scribers in the past, and they somehow never seemed to work right for me. I'll certainly check around for that! One can never have too many tools!

I've decided to do opening panels on this one, so one of the first things I want to cut out is the trunk. Now since doing this I've learned that this was easier said than done. My standard mode of operation is to use the BACK EDGE of an Exacto blade to cut body panels out................. I want to cut out the trunk for another reason..............there are some NASTY sink marks/valleys that run the entire length of the fins on the rear deck! It'll be easier for me to cut the trunk away, and not attach the roof at this time to tackle these bad areas. The trick will be to get rid of those valleys, and try to preserve the chrome trim on the sides. If worse comes to worst.......I can always replicate the trim along the fins with some styrene strip, but first I'd like to keep as much as I can. Well, now the fun begins.............as I mentioned above, the back edge of the exacto is what I used to start cutting out the trunk. One needs plenty of patience when doing this. If you want to speed things up, you can always take a dremel tool on the inside of the body and grind away at the plastic around the perimeter of the opening. One trouble spot I ran into was getting to the back end. Due to the complex shape of the rear, and the thickness of the plastic, I came close to swearing to get the exacto blade to make progress in getting the cuts made. I didn't want to use the Dremel too much as I didn't want to risk grinding through to the outside of the bodywork. This is a pic of looking at the body on the inside rear............ Finally I started making progress as the knife was making its way through the outside of the body. I also was cutting on the outside following the chrome trim until the cuts "met". OK..........after about an hour of near cursing, the trunk was finally free! Sorry for the blurry pics at times....I have an older digicam that doesn't do certain closeups as well as I'd like. Here's the trunk.......... The emblem will go by the wayside.........I do have a PE piece that will replace that. One thing I want to point out here. and this is just an observation. Whenever you cut out panels it's a VERY GOOD IDEA to thin out your panels! You're trying to get the panels to open and appear as close to the 1:1 as possible. Taking the time to thin out the panels will go a long way. Another challenge for me will be to make hinges that are a reasonable facsimile to the 1:1. The '59 essentially has no tulip panel as the trunk goes all the way up to the backlite. I think I have a solution to this issue.......but I'll have to play around with some things. Next time, I'll try and have those sink marks puttied up and smoothed out, and get to having the trunk hinged, or at least in the process of making hinges, as well as the inner trunk panel. Thanks for checkin' this out!

I think it's about time I start another project! This has been a somewhat upside-down year for me where I wasn't in the building mood for quite some time. I sure liked looking at everyone's work, and those dozens of kits I have stashed in my house sure keep looking at me everytime I go where they are. Recently I decided to branch out a bit and start my own blog--------kinda like having my own corner in the world to show off what I'm building, and maybe get a bit personal with thoughts about certain kits in the industry and whatnot. The guinea pig for this venture I've decided to be Revell-Monogram's '59 Chevy. A nice kit in its day (still is) but there are some foibles that have bugged me since day one of this kit being intro'd. Chief of which is the too flat roof (to my eyes) that Revell corrected (IMO) with the '60 version. What to do?? Simply swap roofs! Sooooo.............I began to hack away at both and here are the results so far....... First, let me point out what bugged me so about the roof.........here is a shot of the '60..... The windshield header curves in the right places just as I've seen from memory, and according to the bunches of photos I have of the 1:1. Here's a pic of the '59 and it's windshield header............ As you can see, not quite the same as the '60------GM used the exact same rooflines for both model years, and somehow Revell missed the mark on getting this right on the '59, but corrected it for the '60. Now, I'm not here to step on anyone's toes that's built this kit. The examples I've seen are beautiful, especially the recent black on red one that featured a fuel injected motor. Something quite rare for a '59, and it will be the engine I'll eventually use in my version. I have to say that particular thread inspired me to start work on this one! '59 Chevys were all over the roads when I was a kid in the '60's.............you could hardly go a few blocks without seeing at least one version of a '59 (or '60) sometime along the way. So this car has some bit of nostalgic effect for me as well. OK.........here's a pic with the roof totally hacked away.................. And just for grins...............here's a pic of the '60 after it lost it head! http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/wink.png Hmmmm........now what to do with this '60 body. Let's see------I've got Tom Coolidges very nice 2 door sedan roof section to do a Bel AIr.....I also have The Modelhaus' four door flattop roof section to do a four door hardtop Impala...........We'll have to see won't we! http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/tongue.png After the '60's roof was cut away, I sorta dry fitted it onto the '59 to see how well it would fit with a lot of drama..................here's what she looks like........ Not bad at all if I must say so myself! Looks to me more to my view like the 1:1 as far as the roof profile, and with some cleanup and trimming, it'll be good to go. Of course I'll need to add that little roof vent which was exclusive to the '59, among other things, but so far the hard part is done. Thanks for looking and stay tuned! http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/#EMO_DIR#/wink.png

Charlie I may be wrong, but don't some of the latest reissues of MPC's or Monogram's Jeep kits include a pretty accurate AMC V8? Those engines changed very little over the years so they would be a good starting point.

Very good tip as I've done this in the past years ago. Just one caveat...............make sure the paint is THOROUGHLY cured and dry before putting on the Parafilm! Failing to do so will end up having the Parafilm as part of the paint job.............not a good thing!

Ditto that James! That was one age I could NEVER want to repeat again! I don't want to spell things out here...........but a LOT of negative things were going on in family life for me back then. I was that age when I was becoming a senior in high school........I had moved THREE TIMES due to family turmoil and its a wonder I graduated at the end of the school year! Needless to say, I'll be 51 in October and I'm glad to be the age I am now with no regrets!

This one........... A flaw in my body work shows right down the middle of the roof! I know how to fix it, but it would require stripping the roof and or the entire body of paint, and then redoing the body work to get rid of the "ghosting" that occurred in that area. Right now with another project going, I don't have the ambition at the moment-------so it just sits on the shelf collecting dust. Someday though..............

That is one absolutely GORGEOUS Avanti!! :wub: