CorvairJim

She's a beauty, Rob! (Now I just want to see in in it's "Under Glass" pictorial with an early 1970's Arizona license plate on the back, or is that pushing too far? )

Time for the next installment of the saga of my 1965 Corvair Corsa annual's restoration/transformation into a Monza: Finally, it's in paint! This is a DupliColor spray job in a close approximation of the actual car's color which, in turn, was a respray in a close approximation to the car's original "Cypress Green". Notice that the model's original "Corsa" badges are long gone by this point in the restoration, replaced by homemade Monza "crosses". In 1965, these emblems were smaller and thicker than the ones used from 1966 through the end of production in 1969, so that's why these don't look like the ones you're familiar with from the AMT reissues of the '69 annual. This shows how my body work turned out. Dark, shiny paint shows everything! From the front 3/4. Notice the 1965 only Corvair emblem on the trunklid. This emblem moved down beside the driver's side headlights from 1966-69. (I promise she'll look better once I've added her chrome and pinstriping... ) Yes, I did say pinstriping. I worked as a pinstriper, going around to car dealers striping their inventories, so my car had to have a pinstripe too. 1:25 scale is too small for me to duplicate the double-line gold pinstripe I laid down on her so I'm making do with a single line. The first attempt at the stripe was a little rough as you can see here, but a little thinner wiped it right off. I was more careful masking it the second time around and it came out a lot better. The top-of-the-line Corvair, the Corsa series, had it's taillight "Cove" panel painted silver to set it apart from the lower line 500 series and Monza cars. I liked the general effect, but I thought gold would work better on my dark green car. I know it looks kind of coppery in this photo, but I used Testor's Gold paint so you know what it actually looks like. Hopefully the photos of the finished model will show the color better. Notice, too, the air exhaust grille below where the bumper will be eventually: I had to modify the panel from it's configuration on the 1969 piece I grafted in because the 1965 (and only the 1965!) had two smaller grilles instead of one full width grille. This was actually easier than I was expecting - it only took about an hour of very careful filing and laying in a couple of small strips of plastic to form the inner edges of the new, smaller outlets.

The pics look great! I like the way you posed it in a puddle to add to the backwoods effect. Great job!

That Imperial looks great, Pali!

Eelco: With the marbled effect, your GTX looks more like a Hot Wheels car than the "Real" Hot Wheels! That looks like the sort of effect they would have used if they'd thought of it!

Seems kinda funny to respond to my own post, but I went to that farmer's market this past Saturday and found that the hobby shop I wanted to stop in at was out of business. Locked up tight, empty floors completely cleaned out including the shelves, and a realtor's "For Lease" sign out front. I hate to see that sort of thing happening, but in today's economy It's happening all too often. Obama has all sorts of sympathy for corporations that are "Too big to fail", but none at all for the little "Mom & Pop" operation and us private citizens. Hey Barack, where's OUR bailout? My wife is still waiting for her Federal Disability to kick in after being permanently injured working for the Federal Government and we're in danger of losing our house as a direct result. We have trouble meeting our bills every month, and have had our phone, water, and electricity turned off at various times over the past year due to not being able to juggle the payments in such a way that every creditor is satisfied all the time. I don't even want to go into how cold it gets in a nearly 100 year old house in the winter when we run out of heating oil and can't afford any more for another week or more... But cuddling can be REAL nice! I guess I shouldn't be buying model supplies when money is so tight, but we don't have cable TV and reception of the new, federally mandated "High Definition" signal in our area, even with the free converter boxes and the antennae we had to buy on our own dime is terrible. We can't afford to go to movies (about $12/ticket around here, matinees about $8), ball games (the cheap seats for our Phillies run in the $40 range), or NASCAR races (starting around $80 at Dover and maybe $60 at Pocono, the two closest tracks), so looked at that way, car models are a bargain as far as keeping myself entertained goes! We do go to minor league ball games occasionally, which are a great sports bargain with tickets and food being much, much cheaper than their big league counterparts... and FREE PARKING!

Time for the next installment in the restoration of my '65 Corvair annual: She's got her first coat of primer over the grafted section, with the putty work close to done. This shot shows how I went about adding the wheel lip molding that AMT somehow forgot abourt when they made the molds for their 1965-'69 Corvairs. It's not hard to do it this way; DEFINITELY easier than scribing in the line! A guide coat for the grafted-in section. Same thing from the other side. This guide coat shows that I still have some work to do on the roof. Seems Junior was a little glue-happy when it came to installing the glass... FINALLY! The final guide coat shows that she's mostly ready for a proper coat of primer... but... ... It seems that when I was scribing the window reveal moldings to make them easier to foil later on, my knife went clear through the plastic in a couple of places, including knocking a chunk out of the air inlet grille entirely! (Look at the left side of the base of the window and you can see the patch I had to make. Yes, there were some choice words in the air then!) (Sorry this one's out of focus. I guess I was trying to get TOO close!) Well, with a lot of finesse I was able to fix the problem. Here the repaired areas are puttied in, and I've installed the engine lid gutter. Also notice how the tail panel has been reconfigured inside to conform to the 1:1 car. I thinned it down to a closer-to-scale thickness and changed the contour to the proper curvature around the license plate pocket and added the inset for the latch.

If you need a new home for the "Kit wires and skinnies" let me know. I think they'd look great on an upcoming "High-End Luxury" concept Corvair model I've been thinking about.

Another day, another set of pics on my Corvair restoration... This shows the top side of the chassis from the "Bomb" on the right and the brand spankin' new part from the reissue on the left. The old part has too many issues to be salvagable, but the new one will take some modification to duplicate the original 1965 unit. AMT modified it over the years to the point that it just won't look "right" to anyone who knows Corvair models... Me, for instance! Left to right: An original 1965-'66 AMT annual Corvair chassis, the modified reissue chassis, and the used-up original from the "Bomb", along with the parts that had been added to it. Same as above, but showing the undersides of the parts. I had to modify the rear frame rail, add the rectangular hole for the optional turbocharger plumbing, and replace the stubby locator nubs up front with screw holes. Here's the interior bucket with the package shelf from the donor in place. The tabs on the back of the part are the hinge retainers for the engine lid. The "Bomb" used the custom wheel from the kit, but this model needs a stock steering wheel. The only correct steering wheel in my parts box had a badly broken rim, so I had to fix that. On the right it the wheel from the donor kit - right diameter, wrong center section... ... Solution: Graft the wheel rim to the spokes of the 1965 wheel. First, I cut the rim carefully from the donor part and removed the partial rim from the '65 part. Then, after smoothing the new rim, I carefully filed reliefs into the faces at the ends of the spokes of the old-style wheel center so that the glue would have the right contour to bond the pieces together. Voila! A new, usable 1965 Corvair steering wheel!

Here's some more shots of my progress on my '65 Corvair restoration: Well whaddaya know! It was maroon under the purple paint! The first dunking in the Simple Green took it down a layer. Let's see what another night in the bath will do... Ah, that's better. Now I can see what I have to work with... ... And what's there ain't pretty! The license plate pocket was hacked out to make room for the "front" of theengine, and the air exhaust grille was mangled in the process. That's a problem, since the 1965 Corvair used a one-year-only style of grille. The reissue is a 1969, so I'll have to modify that for the correct appearance. A comparison between the rear of the donor body and the "Bomb" You can see the difference in the air exhaust grille - it's two small grilles on the '65 and one larger one on the newer body. Now simply cut on the dotted line (Or in this case, the edge of the masking tape!)... ... And this is what you come out with. After adding a pair of thin reinforcement panels inside the engine bay cut to the contours of the quarter panels (to make finishing it easier), I attached the new rear clip. I had the engine lid from the donor kit taped in place during the process to make alignment easier. On the bad side, the finished model won't have the molded-in "1965" in the license plate pocket. On the GOOD side, I'll have a computer-generated copy of the actual license plate the car had on it when I owned it on there instead! I thought I'd throw in a shot of the disassembled interior tonight too. Not too much to work with here, but the basic bucket is salvagable. I'll be replacing the "Corsa" dashboard (only available in the 1965 and '66 annual kits and never reissued) with the 3-gauge unit from the '69 Monza reissue since the 1:1 car was a Monza, not a Corsa. (I already have a project in mind for the Corsa part) The package shelf is M.I.A., but I'll graft the one from the donor kit in later on. The seats obviously came from a different kit - I'll have to dig up a set of correct 1965 Corvair buckets from my spares. Hey, how about that console, complete with a TV? Just what you need in your V-8 powered Corvair drag car, right? Some of this may find it's way to the parts box, but most of it is junk. Two questions: 1) Can anyone identify that engine? And 2) Can anyone USE that engine??? How's this for a bonus? Six, count 'em SIX authentic sixties-vintage AMT 13" whitewalls! (Two pairs had been joined with white glue and painted black to make the car's drag slicks. They came apart easily and cleaned right up! That ring in the middle is the glue that held one set together.) Four of them will be going on this model, and I already have plans for the other two.

As promised, here's the first installment of pictures of my '65 Corvair "Glue Bomb" restoration. And it is a restoration in that not every guy who "Overhauls" a car modifies it. Like I said, this will be as true a replica of my first Corvair as I can build. I had better bodies to start from, but since I'm rebadging it from a Corsa to a Monza I thought I'd save the good ones for Corsa buildups. Anyhow, on to the happy snaps. I'll try to add a few every day until I get caught up to where the project stands. A pretty typical kid-built "Glue Bomb", but... ... Check out the butcher job done to the tail panel to make the big V-8 fit! This shows how rough the chassis was... How about those rear tires - each one is two of the kit tires joined by white glue and the treads painted black! I don't know where that rear subframe came from, and I really don't care. This chassis is headed for the parts box. It will be replaced by one from a parts kit. Yes, the engine and transmission WERE glued to the body!

I like it! Restoring or restifying "Glue Bombs" is just about my favorite aspect of the hobby. I'll just re-post my last entry to the 'old' CBP board so others can see my thinking on the subject: "I'm in! I have to see what I can dig up that I haven't already stripped and disassembled... Now I do have a 1965 AMT Corvair annual that I got started on a while back as a replica of my first Corvair, and I took plenty of "In The Works" shots of it since I was planning on posting a restoration photo album on another website (www.Motortopia.com, a general-interest car guy site. I run a model car group on there. Feel free to look me up oin there - My screen name on Motortopia is CorvairJim too). I had to completely replace the rear 3/4 inches of the body because some dumb-@** kid cut it all to hell to install a big V-8 in it! I cut the piece I needed from a donor body to preserve the rest of the annual body, with it's "1965" plate on the front and it's one-year-only 1965-style trim. I've sourced some parts from a donor reissue kit, mostly the chrome and glass because I don't have an airbrush to redo the chrome with Alclad and I'm too lazy to polish out the glass when I have brand new parts available! The 1965-only interior is being reused with the exception of the instrument panel (the Corsa part from the model was wrong for a replica of my Monza-trim level car). I'm using wheel covers that I got in a seperate deal on eBay. I had to use a donor chassis, but I modified it to replicate the way the chassis was configured for the original 1965 release, so it doesn't look like the reissue part anymore. Of course, if this doesn't fit the guidelines, I can always come up with a "Plan B"... But I'll have to think about it. Whatever the case, the '65 Corvair restoration will continue, and you'll see it "Under Glass" before too long." If you think the '65 Corvair roject is too far along to qualify (even though I have plenty of as yet unposted "In The Works" photos of it), just let me know and I'll dig something out of the many boxes I have of models I built myself back in the 1970's. Hey, that could be a cool sub-category: Rebuilding your own personal "Glue Bomb"!

I just remembered: I'll be going to a farmer's market on Saturday that's right up the road from a decent hobby shop! Hopefully I'll remember to stop in and look for the Hasegawa and/or Humbrol glues. It sounds like one of these would be the way to go.

I feel your pain, my friend. I DEFINITELY feel your pain!

I'm in! I have to see what I can dig up that I haven't already stripped and disassembled... Now I do have a 1965 AMT Corvair annual that I got started on a while back as a replica of my first Corvair, and I took plenty of "In The Works" shots of it since I was planning on posting a restoration photo album on another website (www.Motortopia.com, a general-interest car guy site. I run a model car group on there. Feel free to look me up oin there - My screen name on Motortopia is CorvairJim too). I had to completely replace the rear 3/4 inches of the body because some dumb-@** kid cut it all to hell to install a big V-8 in it! I cut the piece I needed from a donor body to preserve the rest of the annual body, with it's "1965" plate on the front and it's one-year-only 1965-style trim. I've sourced some parts from a donor reissue kit, mostly the chrome and glass because I don't have an airbrush to redo the chrome with Alclad and I'm too lazy to polish out the glass when I have brand new parts available! The 1965-only interior is being reused with the exception of the instrument panel (the Corsa part from the model was wrong for a replica of my Monza-trim level car). I'm using wheel covers that I got in a seperate deal on eBay. I had to use a donor chassis, but I modified it to replicate the way the chassis was configured for the original 1965 release, so it doesn't look like the reissue part anymore. Of course, if this doesn't fit the guidelines, I can always come up with a "Plan B"... But I'll have to think about it. Whatever the case, the '65 Corvair restoration will continue, and you'll see it "Under Glass" before too long.

Thanks for the tip, Aaron. I'll have to look into it. It might be a while before I can do that, because the "Local Hobby Shop" isn't all that local - about 15 miles out of the way. I can get super glue at the chain drug store 1 1/2 blocks from home.

I've taken to drilling the carbs and the heads of the Corvair engines and pinning them together with a piano wire 'stud' and super glue. That usually does the trick. If I do that with the Dodge's headers, I don't think I'll have too much trouble. I've never worked with Humbrol glue, but the same principle should apply with whatever plastic cement you use - More surface area to bond. Super glue needs as smooth and even a mating surface as possible.

I enjoy model restorations/resto-mods even more than building a new kit! I have about a dozen boxes of models I built as a kid back in the 70's so I'm sure I can find something in there to do for a CBP like that. I generally rebuild Corvair annuals I find on eBay, but how many "Average Joes" customize Corvairs? I know plenty of guys who have modified their Corvairs through the club, but they don't seem to turn up at the typical Saturday night Cruise-In.

Hoo boy! I can see we could just be opening a can of worms with this one! There are probably as many opinions on this subject as there are members of this website. From my own point of view, cars look best when the tire's overall diameter is in the neighborhood of where it was when it left the showroom. "Rubber Band" tires are a definite no-no, so I don't like anything more than a typical "+3" setup (where the wheel is 3" larger than stock - i.e.17" rims on a car that originally rolled on 14's) on mosrt cars. Some day I'd like to mount a set of Trans Am GTA black center lace spoke 16's on a 1965-69 Corvair. All Corvair cars had 13's from the factory (the trucks had 14's), but with proper low-profile tires fit just fine without clearance problems. I personally don't like the look of Foose's lazer-cut, ball-milled wheels on cars from before the 1990's. They're just fine on modern Camaros and Mustangs, but please don't put them on 1970's Z-28's and Mach 1's! Worse than that, the way I see it, is the current "Donk" trend. Cars that have been jacked up all around to fit 26" wheels or larger under them just look downright silly to me! And some of the cars they ruin to get that look? There is an '87 Monte Carlo SS Aerocoupe the next town over from me that's been wasted that way. A guy who visits a family a couple of blocks from me occasionally has a '64 Impala 4-door sedan that is currently on the same sort of setup. Up until about a year ago it sat slammed down to the street on gold-tone 13" wire rims! Hey guys: If you want to do that sort of thing to a car, there are plenty of more modern, ordinary cars to bastardize. Find yourself an ex-Police Caprice or Crown Vic if you want to make a passenger car look like a monster truck!

Thanks, Aaron. That's all I need to know. I'll just make sure I have the headers painted well before I get to the point where I'll be installing the drivetrain, and then I'll just go as carefully as I can. I know all about tight drivetrain fits with the number of AMT Corvairs I've built over the years: Those take a ton of finesse to get them in place without knocking parts off!

Aaron: I have to agree with Rob - I love the truck but I'd like to see some better shots of it to be able to better see your work. Let's REALLY see that slick pick 'em up truck of yours! Rob: That ol' Flatbed Ford looks fantastic! Can't wait to see the black 'n' silver flames you mentioned on it. I finally got a start on my "Little Old Lady" Dodge. The interior is close to complete and the body has been cleaned up and it's in primer. I'm trying to figure out the best way to paint it with the multi-piece engine bay sheet metal so that I get the overspray pattern correct. This is only the second Lindberg model I've built (the other being the '61 Impala), and I'm still a little vague on how they engineer them. Does anyone out there know if I can pre-assemble the engine bay sheet metal to the chassis and paint it as a unit before installing the engine/transmission?

... And I like to think I played some small part in his departure. I hope he learned his lesson: If you're gonna take credit for a model, BUILD IT YOURSELF! You talked me into it, Chuck: It's a 1970 GMC 4-door Dually Pro Street.

Does it have to have started out as a truck? I've been thinking of "El Camino" versions of varoius passenger cars that would fit in with this theme if built as rods or customs instead of as stockers. I also have another project that I started several years ago which kinda stalled, so if I can enter one that's already about 1/3 finished I may just go with that instead. (No hints as to what it is - I don't want anyone stealing my thunder with this one! )

You never know what kind of cars some departments might want to press into service for their Police needs. I can see it now: 30 years ago it would have been "Traffic Citations". Nowadays it could be "Vice Versas". And of course the general-purpose "Police Escorts".

I don't know about the other guys, Niko, but my Yenko Stinger is nearly at the final assembly point. I'm working with diymirage (Eelco) on having custom decals made up for both builds I'm doing for this CBP. Once the decals are finalized and sent to me I'll get them on the body, clearcoat it and finish it up. I have the engine for the Corvair Gasser well underway and the body is roughed out. The car's chassis is only in the design stage so far...