Ramfins59

Thank you all very much for your encouraging comments. Steve, I think you're probably right about a Chrysler being a bit too "up town or up scale" for the Cleavers . I'm thinking more like a mainstream Chevy or Ford.

Thanks Al and Don. I've just about finished up the custom resin interior pieces that I got from Ed Fluck for this car. I painted the tuck & rolled portions Lavender and flocked the remaining portions with Violet flocking. I decided to skip putting any purple wire piping on because I think everything looks OK the way it is now. I'm still detailing the dashboard and when I get the entire interior assembled on the floorpan I will post more pictures.

OK. Here's a picture of how the taillights look on this car. I love how the waffle texture on the backside of them shows through. More updates to come as they happen. Thanks for looking in on this.

Carl, no, the pieces that I'm using for the taillights are the shallow, round, red plastic covers from the LED indicator lights on the stove panel that I took apart. They are already the perfect size to fit in the taillight openings on this car. Tom, thanks, but I don't need those lenses as I'm using the ones that I have.

Thank you Ben and Felix, your great comments are really appreciated.

Thanks guys. Thanks for that idea for the taillights Tom. What I'm shooting for though is a more flat taillight lens. I recall that back in the late 50's and early 60's there were "Lee Lenses" that were smooth red taillight lenses made for a variety of cars that were popular items for do-it-yourself customizers. They fit in perfectly with the "bolt-on" customizing that was popular, and relatively cheap, back in the day, which always appealed to me.. They are still making their products. Here's a Link...... http://www.leelenses.com/products/ As soon as I mount the pieces that I'm using on this car I will post some pictures.

Thank you Richard. I'm very close to finishing the interior on this car. I also cut down a custom Tube Grille that will replace the kit's grille. In addition, I found some items in my parts bin to use for custom taillights. About 15 years ago I disassembled a control panel for an old electric stove. I saved 2 small LED light covers made of round, red plastic that have a waffle pattern on the back side. They fit perfectly into the taillight openings on this car and should look really good when I add a chrome finish to the base of the taillight openings.

That really looks great. Love those old Mopars.

Amazing detailing... just blows me away.

Thanks guys. Carl, I'm hoping this one turns out the way I see it in my mind's eye.

Thanks again fellas. No Kevin, I haven't yet taken any "Class Pictures" for the '59 cars as I've only finished 5 cars so far... Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, Imperial & Plymouth. I've still got 9 more to work on in my TO DO pile. I would like to take a group picture for each year of the 1950's when I get all of the cars completed, but I'm thinking that might not happen for awhile as I've still got about 2 dozen cars yet to work on. Maybe I will decide to take pictures of the cars that I have completed for each year. Sounds like it might be a fun thing to do to see all of the cars for each year together. I'll give that some thought.

That's looking like a great choice for your interior Steve.

Fabulous colors Steve. I can't wait to see it with foil. I'm also waiting to see what you'll do with the interior. You're giving me some great inspiration for when I get around to working on the '59 Ford Galaxie promo in my TO DO pile.

Thanks very much guys. Tommy, while some of the promos on EBAY are warped in one way or another, I NEVER go near any of those. I look for pretty much "perfect" cars so I don't have to worry about trying to straighten them out. Grilles, bumpers, taillights and interiors are usually available from Modelhaus. A little TLC, the right colors and the addition of wipers, mirrors antenna's and license plates really brings them to life. Plus, since they're all curbsides you don't have to worry about engine or chassis details.

Thanks guys, I appreciate your encouragement.

Thank you for your kind words guys. Great story Tom. While that newspaper ad didn't lie, I would say that it was, at least, a bit misleading... I'm sure at some point some courageous soul wound up buying the car.

Thank you all very, very much for all of your great and encouraging comments. Steven, I totally agree with you regarding the less popular cars like the old Mopars. '57 Chevys are very cool cars but hardly affordable.unless you get really lucky. Way back when I owned my '59 Dodge Coronet it was a real head-turner. While parts for it were hard to find unlike Chevy parts, they were out there but you had to do a lot of searching. I was able to find quite a few items online at salvage yards out in Arizona. Also, thanks again for "making me" repaint the roof 2-tone as it does look a lot better.

Thanks everyone. Your encouraging words mean a lot. Bill, if you'll note in my sentence right after the pictures, I said that I fixed the crooked rear bumper, but thanks. These old Chrysler promos are hard to come by. I got lucky when I found, and won, this one on EBAY last November.

You "Da Man" Harry. Excellent detail work as usual.

Outstanding work Clifford.

Thanks Andre. Yes, it would have been nice if Revell would have more clearly defined the window trim lines in the mold. I had to keep referring to my Googled reference pictures to be sure I was doing the trim properly.

Nice job Paul, I love all the extra details.

Thank you all very much for the kind comments guys. Peter, I also think that 4-door cars are OK. ... Real "family" cars. I also have one of those DeSotos in my ever-growing TO DO pile of 1950's cars. Charles, I have no intention of letting up on these 1950's cars. I still have so many yet to build.

I painted, polished and foiled this Revell '57 Ford while I was working on the '59 Chrysler. That's one of the reasons why it took me so long to get the Chrysler finished. I sanded the mold lines, nosed, decked and shaved the body, added resin skirts and painted it Tamiya Purple. A couple of coats of Duplicolor clear, some polishing and then the BMF work. Fortunately this car doesn't have the yards of chrome trim like most of the other '50's barges. This car will be a mild custom with 3 bar front spinners on wide whites, a custom tube grille, spots, lakers, custom taillights and a full continental kit. My usual favorite look for 50's style customs. I got a custom resin, tuck and roll interior for this car from Ed Fluck. It is "in the works" with Lavender tuck & roll pleats and Violet flat areas with purple wire piping. I still have to do all of the work and assemblies on the engine and chassis. For now, here's how the body looks...... Thanks for checking in on this new project. Hopefully it won't take too long to get it done.

I finally finished up this car this afternoon. To recap the Workbench thread, this is a Johan promo that I picked up on EBAY last November for a good price. It is painted Duplicolor Sand and Tamiya Red/Brown with Duplicolor clearcoat. The car did not come with an interior so I used a resin '59 Dodge interior from Modelhaus which I painted brown and tan with brown flocked carpet and resin cranks and handles painted chrome silver. The BMF work on this was a bit tedious but it came out OK. I added chrome windshield wipers and a driver side exterior mirror. I still have to add an antenna to the passenger side front fender. Here's how she looks...... I did fix and straighten that rear bumper after taking the pictures. Thanks for looking in on this, As always, all comments are welcomed. Now on to the next one....... soooooo many in the TO DO pile.