MrObsessive

Ditto on the color choices..........that's a nice contrast! The bumpers look great being tucked in a little closer.

Hi Chris! Welcome aboard! You'll definitely like it here!

Well the trunk length is correct for a '60 Bonneville as they were always longer than the standard Catalinas and Venturas. The quarter panels measure out to what they should be. What's too long is the tulip panel............the area between the rear glass and the trunk. Hey that sounds like a cool idea! Make a "roadster" out of it with twin headrest fairings!

Thanks for all the info guys! I was a little in the dark as far as what was offered between the US, Canada, and Australia. Well, in that case I'll stick to what my original plan was.................Leave it the way it is!

To add to this, I would strongly recommend a dehydrator! Drying on their own you can't expect it to be dry well into the next millenium! About 8 hours or so should do the trick at about 105°......

Jairus does the opposite of what I do.......... I always use their thinner as I've used Isopropyl Alcohol in the past and have had a problem with fisheyes. I can't give you an exact ratio of what I use to mix it with.............I just go with what "looks" and "feels" right. But a 50/50 ratio sounds about right.

No, you're not nuts Bill! In fact, I prefer the '55 Ford over the '55 Chevy! (gasp! HERESY!! ) I think the Ford is a little more cleanly styled, and you don't see as many of them at shows where '55 Chevys are everywhere. Don't ya wish they could change bodystyles that often today, instead of hangin' on to the same ugly styling for years on end (Last Monte Carlo comes to mind ).

That's one of my favorites too Ken! I have two kits like yours, an original '59 buildup, and a body that I got from Okey to be used to fix a certain Plymouth down the road. You're not kidding about the prices on eBay! It's amazing what guys will pay for something with no interior and no engine! Something I've always wondered though, is someone somewhere producing the '59 Dodge kit? It seems like I'm always seeing them on eBay like they're still being made. Or is it just there's an awful lot of them to be sold yet?

Rob, the convertible IMO was accurate as far as the lower body shape was concerned, but Trumpeter really goofed on the hardtop shape. It was too short from a side profile, and when looked at from a top view the sides tapered in, with too much tumblehome of the roof itself. It looked they tried to strike a compromise between the sedan and the hardtop and struck out altogether. Frankly if I were building this one, I would do the same thing--------replace the roof from the Revell '60 Chevy. It's all subjective of course.........some might build it with a "good enough" approach, but not me----especially when I can remember the car (and all '59-60 GM hardtops) all too well as a kid.

Yeah I was thinking that might be the case. Australia was not that big of a market car wise back in those days-------what a great way for Ford to amortize the cost of the tooling!

Yeah Ken, it was what I was working on when I joined the board. Hopefully, there won't be any snags in getting this one totally done. I'm working on the grille today and at least get it in a stage where I can set it aside until I'm ready to have it replated. We'll see about the home run part..............

Yeah, as far as body stampings and interiors go.............but the side trim and grilles were different weren't they? They were renamed too right? Meteor and Rideau (sp?) Or did Ford of Canada go the flashier route for the '56 cars?

Ken for me personally, I'll "enter" a car in a particular show only once. If the car wins (whatever place) I may bring it again, but I'll put a "Do Not Judge" or "Do Not Vote" note by the model. Or if there's a display only section......it'll go there. That way folks don't get in a tizzy about me entering (or winning) the same show a number of times.

Thanks for the link Luis! That's what I was thinking about the RHD Aussie '55 Fairlanes..............They used the gaudier Canadian side trim and grille unlike the cleaner US versions. Those Canadian Meteors were nice, but I'm not that crazy about the side trim. I've already finished the side trim on the one I'm doing though. I think some of those pics may be typos...........calling the '56 body style a '57, or a '55 a '58? And the '59 body style a '61?? I think someone blind can definitely see (feel?) the difference between a '56 and '57..........and a '59 to a '61! Just the same, I think I'll stick to what my original plan was------leave it a LHD car.........I got a lot of work ahead of me anyway!

I know this is probably a long shot...........but does anyone out there have pics of a '55 Ford with right hand drive? Did such a beast exist....ie: was Ford exporting to Australia back then? Would love to have photos of the dash and particularly the engine bay as I need to see how the carb linkage would run for a right hand drive car. Yes, I have some wacky ideas in mind for the '55 I'm building!

Bill, that is an absolute stunner! When I built my Daytona, I missed the slightly rearward wheel placement until it was too late-----and I scratchbuilt my springs based on the kit ones! Yours sits just right and the raised white letter tires are a nice touch.

Aahhhhh!! You just wait and see...............I plan to just go ahead and scratchbuild it. I tried to fit the junker Danbury Mint's trunk trim, but of course it being 1/24-----is just too big. I could maybe cut that down like the grille...........but I don't think it'll look right because of the shape, especially in the center. The Danbury's trim seems a bit heavyhanded to me also. Stay tuned, because I'm going to attempt this in the very near future, since it's part of the bodywork.

Thanks for all the nice words guys! I really appreciate it!

Hey Bro! That looks reeeeeeall familiar! But hmmm................I don't remember taking THAT to P.R. the last time!

Ford did some mixing and matching of rooflines for 1955-56. If you wanted a hardtop in '55, you indeed got the somewhat carryover '54 style roof. These were known then as Crestline(?) Victorias during 1952-'54. Ford introduced the Crown Victoria in '55 which had a lower (about an inch) and sleeker roofline with thinner and more swept back C pillars. Although technically also a hardtop with frameless door glass, it had that basket handle "chrome tiara" which looked neat, but undoubtedly took away from the true nature of a hardtop......ie: no pillar at all. For '56, Ford dropped the round roof '55 style hardtop for the 2 doors, but instead adopted the Crown Vic's roofline for all 2 door hardtops across the board, without the chrome tiara. Ford still offered the round roof style for '56 albeit a pillared coupe and sedan, and the roof crown was flattened by a 1/2 inch or so. Interestingly, Ford wanted to get into the 4 door hardtop market by '56 so they resurrected the '55 2 door round roofline for their '56 4 door hardtops. This must have been expensive for Ford, because this was a one year deal................as the all new '57 Fords were right around the corner. Confused yet? I guess I could have saved myself a lot of work by making this a 4 door hardtop, but I like 2 door hardtops too much I guess and it was unique just the same! I do have a few more '53 Lindberg kits to maybe do a '56 4 door hardtop someday.

That's turnin' out great Dale! I'm still amazed that the gas tank in that one was painted with Alclad! Unreal finish!

Here's a pic of the grille that'll be used-----as you can see, it's waaaay too big for the front end! So far I'm taking a coping saw and starting to hack away at the bumper which is attached as a whole with the grille. This'll take a while.............then I want to cut off the ends of the grille where the parking lights are, carefully file down the grille itself to match the shape of the parking light pods and then reattach them when the fit is correct. After everything is said and done, I'll send the bumpers out (the rear needs modifed too) to be replated. As far as the chassis is concerned, much work needs to be done there too............I cut away the molded in exhausts, and replaced the floorpan, but the chassis floor on the sides needs widened a bit to eliminate a sizeable gap I see when it's attached to the body. I think I may have to totally replace the trunk floor along with the gas tank and spare tire well..............since the trunk will open, I don't like the "upswept" look of the models trunk floor and my earlier efforts to try to fix it weren't good enough according to photos I have of the 1:1 BTW, I already have a color picked out.........the car will eventually be Regency Purple and Snowshoe White with a black and white interior. Stay tuned folks.........this is gonna end up being a looooooooooong thread! If you want to take a look at my earlier and more detailed work on this one...........click here to check it out. Thanks for lookin' so far!

Well after sitting for many months on the table and collecting dust, I've decided to once again tackle the '55 Ford Victoria. For those of you new to the board, I originally started this around a year and a half ago, but was stopped dead in its tracks when I couldn't find a proper grille for it. Not to mention the trunk trim which was common to all Fairlanes for '55. I got a junker '55 Ford Fairlane diecast from Rick Hanmore at NNL East last year, but something about the grille didn't seem right. So I quietly put the project on hold and started to work on something else. I spotted a '55 Ford "Orange Crisp" wagon at a toy show a while back and wondered if the grille would fit-------the price was cheap at only 5 bucks, but much to my chagrin, the grille was too big! It's 1/24 versus the models 1/25. Nevertheless, I got tired of seeing the car collect dust after building a number of models in the interim, so I took a deep breath and begin to draw out where I would need to make cuts to "resize" the grille to make it work and yet look in scale. Here are a few pics of the bodywork involved to make the changes, and also the grille which I've started to hack into just recently................ The basic body shape is pretty much done except for some small changes I may make. One of which is the vent window frames which I think should be a little narrower by a mm or so. BTW, the roof came from the Lindberg '53 Ford, but it had to be stretched, raised, and widened to make it fit on the '56 lower body. 1952-54 Ford hardtops had basically the same roof crowns as the '55 2 door (and '56 4 door hardtops). I scratchbuilt the "checkmarks" on the doors as well as redid the fender side trim. Other body mods will be to make the headlamp door "eyelashes" that were on the Fairlanes-------this will be done with some strip plastic. On the hood I filled in the hood ornament depression, as well as puttied in the scribed lines on the underside to prevent ghosting when it comes time to paint. There's more to come!

That's a nice obscure car that I used to see every once in a great while when I was a kid. I just didn't know what it was! Juha is a master at converting a common kit body into something extraordinary! It looks like he may have started with a '55 Chevy 2 door sedan and just went from there.

I like that Chevy pickup ALOT!! That egg car is too cool!