Cool Hand

Thank you Mike. Thanks Nigel, appreciate your input about the wheels.

Thanks Dennis. Dont usually wet sand or polish my black paint jobs. So for a change I thought id polish with compounds and finish with a wax to see what the results would be. Chucked some painted wheels under it to see how they would look, still cant decide if I go with all black or black centres with chrome lips or all chrome. Decisions decisions....

Thanks Anton and David. Now the paint has fully dried and it has shrunk back the sags are less noticeable. And I cant be bothered fussing over it, so I can live with it. Moving on, got the BMF applied., Done a search to suss out the window trims on this car, and there was so many variations, so I just done it how I wanted it to look.

Thanks, paint will be black like most of my lLowrider builds.

It's all good David, no clearance issues with the tyres. I thinned the arch's for appearance. Guess ive flushed tyres on too many Japanese builds and it's become a habit as I do it on most builds now. A catch up pic from yesterday to show re shaped rails. Actually need to do the opposite and widen the diff . And sorted out the seats and console fittment. They were one piece so... And didnt fit. So separated.

As Roger said dont see many Lowrider 56's built, good to see something different. Looks great with the continental, side skirts and 2 tone . Classic build, nicely done.

Good job re working the tail lights and grille. How could I not like the build, its black. Well done. Look forward to seeing the Silverado.

Painted it the other day, today got to mock it up. Started ten years ago and now that its painted and im happy, could be a possibility that il complete the build finally.

With that fiasco out the way. Got the front sorted. Used the dividers to measure from the existing hole. But when I put the axle in and wheels on to check how it looks, this situation arose. The cross member was lower than the wheels. LOL! Always fun and games when lowering a build down in the weeds. Luckily these types of axle kits are simple enough to work around troubles. So set the short axle locating stubs in position and marked the side of the cross member for flush cut to the frame. Had to sand down excess material on the sides of cross member, then spot super glued it back in place. Also needed to thin the tops of inner fenders for tyre clearance and filled the hole while I was it. . Put the wheels back on and had a look. Much better. To lower the rear, had to notch the frame and gouge a hole as the diff was hitting the floor preventing it to lower further. And re shaped the frame to disappear the ugly notch. Didnt get a pic of after. Il show that later. So after all that messing about finally got the results I wanted. Engine also sitting in a much better position after raising the cross member. And finally Old style axle through the block. Yeah nah, cant have that. Quick rough filled in. And added some 1.6mm styrene rod for a mounting pin in the cross member.

Build session didnt start out to good today, wanted to start out with thinning the wheel arch's before setting to the lowered ride height. But dumb me got carried away when thinning one of the arch's with the drum sander in the dremel micro. Nearly burnt through on the right side rear. But what ever no big deal, just had to fix the situation. So back filled inside with super glue. Once it had cured on the inside, was able sand the damaged on the outside. Re applied some 1500 black to the area to see how it looked, I was happy enough to leave it as is for now and finalize the repair when I prep the body.

Thanks Chaz. Got the stance/ride height roughed in to where im happy now. Check it out in the posts below.

Excellent build as always, certainly has your particular build style all over it. Cant help but think this kit would be a great candidate for a ute conversion.

Drilled some new axles 4mm above the oob lowered position. Much happier with the ride height now.

Was planning to sort out the ride height, but got distracted messing with the engine. Fits good and looks right at home. Chucked on the injection style manifold for giggles, and surprisingly I like how it looks. So that has given me some ideas for the intake possibly.

Done well getting through all the challenges and working in some of your own custom ideas to produce a great looking build.

Well im building the 82, so may as well build this one along side it. This is another kit I got from ole mate Ray. He was lucky to find and get it from a private estate sale in Adelaide. Then I got lucky when he offered it for sale to me when he walked away from the hobby. They certainly dont make kits like this anymore. Would be fun and different to do a custom version as some of those parts have cool features. But il stick with a some what stock look. Such a trip to experience a kit of this era. Got a rough idea of the direction im going with the build pretty much oob. I will use these parts and build the 6cyl as a side piece. And once again il use my favourite wheels. So far ive just cut some 2mm brass rod for axles, and set it in the low holes for a oob mock. But it still needs to be lowered more.

Put in some axles for an oob mock and yep needs to be lowered a bit.

Thanks Roger. I was lucky Ray found the kit for me. Appreciate the suggestion as that would be an excellent idea. But I dont have a 68 El-Camino street machine version in the stash, and it is not an easy kit to find in Australia and I dont do e-bay so that counts that idea out unfortunately. So il just make do with what I have. Thanks Steve. Being an Aussie I like utes, so im a fan of any El-Camino. I built the 68 when I first started in the hobby, and my favourite part was the engine. So I agree with you and Roger both. Just that kit is out of my reach sadly.

Somewhat successful Tamiya TS-14 black paint job. Will see how it looks tomorrow, once it has settled. Much better than yesterday's effort as I over did it on the Nova. Trying to get dialed back in to how I use to paint black as ive been out of practice for too long.

My ole mate Ray got this kit for me back when he was building, unfortunately he gave the hobby away couple years back. So I figured it was long over due to build it and remember the times we shared on forums building model cars. I remember when he shared a pic of the box art. I just laughed, got to love those 80's kits. Supercharged engine got me interested For it's age and from that era, seems like not too bad of kit, bit simple but the detail is there with the few parts there are. Overview of all the kit parts Parts i'l use for the build. As much as I like the supercharged engine, not sure about that. But I am kinda thinking of transplanting a big block from the AMT 69 Chevelle to fill out the engine compartment. Definitely going to use the 69 Chevelle seats and centre console. Have to use my favourite wheels of course. Applied a check of surfacer and done a wheel mock. Got it set up to where I think id like the ride height to be. So the fun begins.

Engine is starting to come together with all the details, the injection and the symmetrical/mirror image turbo's look awesome.

Thanks. The detail oob is there, its just not very crisp. Tried my best to make it look the part by detail painting the main components, pedals, dash, window crank and door handles. Also dug out the steering wheel from the spare parts. Getting there, couldnt resist an after paint mock.

Thanks fella's. Fresh from the can about an hour ago. Tamiya TS-14 Black. But im out of practice and I went too heavy and wet, got a couple sags. Oh well, will see how it looks in a few days. Probably sand out the problem areas and apply another coat.

Great idea, look forward to seeing the transformation.

Always great to see your wip's Eric, you truly are the modern age model car builder who has and uses all the current tech and equipment to produce exceptional builds.