bisc63

Congrats on your recovery, and welcome back! Happy to see this build continuing. Very cool idea. Not clear if you ever found the wheels you needed, but a beautiful set can be found in the AMT '57 Thunderbird, scale out to 15-inch size, all four same deep dish. Here's a bad flash photo:

Very Thunderbird-ish front end, Chrysler tail.

This is what inspired me:

Better and better! That chassis is junkyard perfect; looks like one you'd see rolled on its side in the ol' salvage yard back when they were junkyards! Loving this build. I got my eye on an extra Moebius '56 to convert as well, but I'm shooting for the '56 New Yorker convertible ( only 921 built ) after seeing one on the web. What a great body style!

Correct! I was assuming Accel or Mallory 7mm wires as a common standard for race cars in the 70s. I think 8mm wasn't common until a decade later, and no serious racer would have been running 6mmm at that time, UNLESS they were the old solid core wires! ( I used to have a set of those hanging in the shed, finally tossed them; solid copper core in translucent red jacket.) Was the Green Elephant a real race car? You might have to do a little research there...

Bite your tongue! I LOVE the old Buicks, as well as the other GM stablemates of the 50s. I'd love to see a modern tooling of a '56 Olds...or Buick...or Pontiac...or Cadillac...or a '55...or a '57...or...

That's what I was thinking!

I love the color too! It has a believable stock appearance to it. I'd kinda like to see one built in this color with simple painted white bumpers and steelies. Nicely done!

Very cool model and story!

Beautiful! Love the realistic finishes, and the color. Very cleanly executed details under the hood put it over the top! Very nicely done; one to be proud of.

That's sharp! Impalas are just cool, no matter how many doors! My dad had a '60 4 door hardtop when I was little.

Very clean build with a gorgeous rich color! Well done.

Very nice build. Like the unexpected color, and the engine bay is especially well done.

Very sleek! Nice color gives it a period-perfect custom vibe. Good job!

Looking really good!

Great looking build. Love the Impalas.

This is a cool conversion. I love projects like this. Good work!

Looking nice! If I may offer a constructive criticism of you chassis bottom, it's a little too consistent in its rust finishes. For example you have the floor metal exactly as rusty as the exhaust, and that is exactly as rusty as the gas tank. In the real world, the floor would have been painted and maybe undercoated as well, so would rust more slowly than the exhaust. Gas tanks are galvanized, and might dull and get dirty, but show little or no rust. You build style is clean and realistic otherwise, and I like it very much!

Cool save, and didn't that paint polish up nicely!? Mike's right, who doesn't appreciate a good 57?

Nicely done! Thanks for posting this very informative and insightful how-to. Tutorials like this make it easier for folks to try something that may have been intimidating before. Step by step procedures, clearly illustrated, make for a good read and incentive to cut some plastic! Very well done.

Something in the .015" - .020" (about .4 - .5mm) should look right.

Very nice. I like the small areas on the aluminum parts that are color keyed to the rest of the bike; nice touch!

Good for you and good for her! She's ready to up her game as a model builder, and you can start showing her the ropes on some advanced techniques as far as filling and smoothing seams, etc. She is ready! Her finishing work is impressive, and her use of color is very good! That had to be SO gratifying as an instructor. Keep up the good work.

A question just occurred to me, and maybe you can educate me a bit! Did they use a specific vehicle to tow in and launch these trolleys, or just tow with whatever was available with a hitch? I'm thinking of something used like a German might have used a Kettenkrad as tow vehicle? Of course I'm referring to land operations, and I recognize that these were probably used mostly as shipped-launched/recovered. (?)

I think most of us as modelers have at one time or another attempted to turn a car into some phantom style "el camino", with varying degrees of success. Some body styles lend themselves to the look, and some are just awkward. These builds of yours work, and they work beautifully. Nice work on both.