MrObsessive

While not as bad as others on this thread when first received, looks can be deceiving! It wasn't till it was time to take this thing apart did I run into some issues. Namely the glass was toast and the chassis IMO was simply UNUSABLE! Sooooo..........after some thorough stripping of the paint and correcting some body gaffes, I came up with this...... As far as I can remember, in my over 40 years of building, this is the first time I do believe I've restored a glue bomb. If you want to take a look at the whole WIP, you can click here.

My late Uncle was one that knew ALL things Corvair! I swear he owned just about every Corvair model that Chevrolet made at one time or another except maybe the convertibles. Never, ever complained about the handling of the car, or the quirky things that could happen to them such as the notorious "fan belt throwing" that they were known for. He was one of those kinds of guys that could fix literally anything and he still had a Corvair when he died back in '09. It was a '66 Monza in excellent shape and I don't know what became of the car. None of my cousins have it so my Aunt must have sold it. I have an unpainted but built '66 Monza in my collection. One of these days when I'm in another restoration mood, I want to redo that one in the color of his car. I've always like Corvairs........they're another one of those cars (along with older Chryslers) that I can close my eyes and tell when one is starting up. VERY distinctive sound they have!

OK, this looks like a make I'm VERY, VERY familiar with. Yet, it's not what I think it is!

Oh I almost forgot to mention..............earlier I said something about using "Critter Clay" as a buck for making the glass. Well, scratch that. There's waaaay too much shrinkage for it to be any use and the way I did this pretty much works for me in the future. Thanks goodness I'm not a prolific builder! I couldn't deal with the distorted glass on a regular basis! Drives me CRAZY! ?

OK..........posted too soon earlier. Hit the Ctrl/Enter keys by accident and needed to add more. FINALLY! After numerous tries in doing the glass, I was able to get copies that I liked so here they are. It would have been MUCH easier if the glass existed already and I could do molds off of that. But..........since this car was never done before I had to make my own bucks as you saw previously and go from there. On a side note..........I have no extra time to build like a lot of you guys might have due to the virus and its aftermath. Where I work is considered an "essential business" and I'm working my hours as normal (third shift). Just the same, that may change in the coming days so I'm not ruling anything out. Here's the result of what I was able to do with my vacuforming machine. BTW, I should warn those that are looking into getting one of these that PATIENCE is a definite must here. With both the front and rear glass combined, I'd say it was a total of a dozen tries till I got what I wanted. Still not 100% perfect, but MUCH better than fighting with stiff clear stencil sheet like the last time and to my eyes the rear glass is better shaped with those compound curves. Here we go.................. I might tint the glass that '50's bluish-green which was popular back in those days. That'll depend on how well I can get the glass in after a number of test fittings without scratching things up such as the tint. Now it's on to the dash which I wrecked as I mentioned before. After that's done, it's on to base primer/barrier coats, then the color coats which can be set aside for a bit till I figure out what I want to work on next. Thanks for keeping up with this!

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Ditto on that '57 Caddy! I never cared for that gen of Taurus..........just TOO round for my tastes as if Ford was scared at the time to put some creases and edges on it. Yes, it would probably be more reliable, but when you look as good as that Caddy, such things can be overlooked! BTW, that year of Cadillac is another one of those "early cars" I can remember seeing when I first knew what a car was. So there's some nostalgia in it for me too.

Justin, I have to agree with you on the subject matter of what young folks want to build. I've talked models with young guys I work with and yup.........the subject ultimately turns to the Gundam kits as was mentioned. So young people ARE building, they just don't get passionate about the cars we can remember as kids. I've said this a number of times and time will bear this out to be true...........there WILL come a point where there will be very few of us left that will remember '57 Chevy's and '69 Camaros. That's a definite reality we will face someday. Time marches on and there's always something down the pike to supplant what once was.

Yeah, I caught wind of that earlier...............oh well. Looks like I'll be saving a few vacation days as I always take off a couple to go to the show. Hopefully I can get there in September!

OK..............My screen being what it is, it seemed rather "squashed".

The side vents are what had me doing a double take, but also the car seemed more "compact". I didn't know about the shorter wheelbase they had. I knew it was some sort of Jensen, but not the Interceptor. I had to look up this one to get the exact model name. I'd still like to see a model of one!

Kurt, that is absolutely FANTASTIC! The car ain't so bad either! Seriously, you did a bang up job on what's not that detailed of a kit, but your added items really make this one a KNOCKOUT! Come to think of it, it's been MANY years since I built a Ferrari and this gives me some inspiration. I just happen to have this kit.........hmmm...........

Absolutely Beautiful Job!! REALLY like the color because it's sooooo.........'50's! I got one of these as a restorable rebuilder many years ago, but I've never done anything with it. It really deserves to be redone as you never see these on the contest or NNL tables and originals are that much harder to find anymore. Congrats on a job VERY well done!

Hee-Hee! I'd be older still! I don't think I'll be around even that long! Either which way, one never knows about tomorrow!

BTW, I just found out that ALL schools are closed here in PA for the next two weeks. I know on my job the machine I run is effectively shut down, as the material it uses comes from China and we can't get it due to the factory over there running at only 50% of the employees working. This is getting VERY interesting!

I'm glad I checked out this thread! I didn't know that and I was planning on going. I'm wondering now about NNL East for next month? Anyone know what's happening with that? Tom?

Not long ago I was at a car show which had its share of muscle cars from the '60's and '70's, '50's classics and your modern day muscle such as Chargers and Challengers, Mustangs and Camaros. What was getting the MOST attention and had a crowd around it?? A late '70's Ford Fairmont! I saw lots of young folks around it as they more than likely never seen one but the curiosity factor was with them big time on that one. I kinda scratched my head over that as that was one car I was never crazy about, but I did like the stylish Futura which always reminded me of a 3/4 scale T-Bird. As has been said, one never knows what will be collectible and "wanted" and what won't. I'm sure in the early '60's folks thought the '55-'57 Chevy's would never be worth anything more than they were. There were just so many of them as they were as common as grass. Now we've seen where prices have gone with those where even your more mundane four door sedans can fetch a pretty penny. It'll be interesting come next decade what will be the hot item as far as cars are concerned. I remember those! You NEVER see those here in the states anymore! Unfortunately, I think the dreaded tinworm claimed many of them as I can't remember the last time I've seen one going down the road. FAST little car especially with that V6 and if one can be had, I don't think they'd be that expensive as you said.

I can't help but notice when I've gone to car shows in the last several years, I do see less and less '50's cars and more of the '70's to '80's cars. Time marches on and before you know it, the '00's cars (yes they'll be collectible) will be showing up.

Having once owned the 1:1 of these (390, 4spd) I'll FOREVER love this car! One of my favorites I've ever owned, and one you can still buy at a "reasonable" price compared to the same vintage high perf Camaro or Mustang. Beautiful model of this rare beast and a very nice color for it!

You'd have to do some slicing and dicing, but I think any of the '63-'64 Chevy's would get you a good base to start with. Similar profile, but you'd have to add the creases in the C pillars and flatten the crease that's over the roof somewhat in the middle. Can't think of anything else right now.

I had to do a double take on this one too! I think I got the exact year narrowed down but the model itself IS tricky. BTW, I do LOVE the looks of this car! Too bad there's not a full detail kit of it. At least none I've ever seen.

Wow! This is the first I've seen this...............very cool! I'm feeling kinda old now as I can remember when this show came on as original episodes as a little kid. I thought I read somewhere that the original pilot of the show was a bit on the serious side and then they later decided to make a comedy out of it for the regular series. Some of the characters weren't the same actors from pilot to series either. Different Ginger IIRC and maybe a couple others. Very neat job and yes, the B&W pic suits that first season very well!

Some years ago Don Holthaus gave me some material that was quite in scale. It was similar to umbrella material, but it was very thinly rubber backed. The problem comes in as to how to attach the material to the brass frame (which I did most of mine in) and then fashioning a rear window. Getting the window to attach to the material would be another challenge on top of that. Again, it HAS to look neat and tidy and then it would need to hold up over time as no doubt the top would be raised up and down quite frequently at a show for instance. Even the 1/12 scale ones I have mostly have the tops folded and in their wells covered. The 1/12 '57 Chevy convertible I have for example already has wear spots in the top material from exposure. Perhaps it's mostly due to age though.........I've had it since 2005!

Bruce just to let you know, I'm going to be saving all of the pages of this thread as it'll be great reference for me as time goes on in getting mine together. Thanks for sharing!

OK, call me crazy, but I did go ahead and spring for this one! Since I'm going to be limited for space as to where to stack all of those boxes (24 month subscription), I will build this as parts come in so I'm not overwhelmed. The young lady told me that I should receive the first two issues by the middle of next month. I can set some space aside on my work table so that I can have room for my other ongoing WIP. Stay tuned......... Sigh...........as if I didn't have ENOUGH to build already, but this is too nice to let slip out of my reach!