Ramfins59

John this is looking very cool. You're starting to remind me of "the old days" when you and Dave were always thinkin' "outside the box".... Keep on keepin' on man... !!

Thanks very much everyone for all your encouraging comments. I pretty much think that most of the 50's cars look good with a set of skirts. The blue dots are pretty cool too. This was one of my better black paint jobs that polished out nicely. I originally wasn't too thrilled with the red in the engine compartment,but now that it's all assembled it really doesn't look too bad.

This model has been my Nemesis. I started it around 6 years ago. It waited until final assembly time to start fighting me. I couldn't get the front of the body to seat down properly onto the chassis no matter how I tried. Then, as I was fighting with it, things started to come loose and fall off or out. First the front wheels, spindles and tie rod assembly came off. Then the passenger side inner fenderwell fell out. I got so frustrated with it that I put it all back in the box where it has sat for the past 6 or so years. While I had the body for the '58 Eldorado in the paint stripper I needed something to do, so I decided that I was finally going to win the fight with this Chevy. Using a little creative force with a pair of hemostats, some CA glue and zip kicker, I finally got the body to seat properly on the chassis. I put the fenderwell back in and reattached the front wheel assembly. I then proceeded to attach all the chrome pieces and some of the MCG PE pieces from their set for this car. The model still had some fight left in it, because I could not get the front bumper to sit straight no matter how I tried. Overall though, I finally won the fight and got it all together. It's not perfect (slightly crooked front bumper and a couple of glue spots on the top of the passenger side fender) but IT'S FINISHED and it looks good sitting in my display case. Yeah, I know...... It's NOT another 1958 model..!! So I deviated from my "mission" a little. Since I'm not feeling the love for the '58 Vette or the T-Bird kits, maybe this is the start of another year of cars for me to work on. Let's see, I've got the '57 Ford Fairlane and Custom, '57 Chrysler and '57 Vette (Ugh..). The Modelhaus has a LOAD of '57 cars I could build too. Besides, my younger brother was wondering why I didn't want to build the cars from 1957 because that's the year he was born. Maybe I'll do that for ya David...!!! Here are pics of the Chevy, and thanks for looking in on it.

Thanks for the "consoling" words everyone. The paint is stripped and today I will fill in the dips with some bondo. I'll do my best not to "oversand" this time. While the body was in the stripper I pulled out my "Nemesis" model that had given me nothing but trouble, and decided to finally "win the fight" and get it assembled. It is a '57 Chevy model that has sat, almost completed, back in its box, for the past 6 or 7 years. I'll get a thread going on it in Under Glass later today. Anne, you cracked me up with your comment.

Welcome to our mad little plastic world Julian. You'll love it here.

Got mine in today's mail. Only one small tear on the cover and first couple of pages. Lots of west coast area shows.

All I can say is WOW..!!

Yes David and John, I DO hate when stuff like this happens, and it REALLY blows cause I was on a great roll with this model..!! The "joys" of the hobby right..?? The Caddy is sitting in the stripper at the moment. John, I just can't get into working on either the T-Bird or the Vette. For some odd reason neither kit does anything for me. I know they are '58 cars, but I'm just not into them at the moment. Maybe that will change when I'm fully done with the Caddy... I don't know. Maybe I just need a little break since I've been on such a building streak for the past few months. I'll be picking up a '58 Olds resin kit at the NNL East that I pre-ordered from The Modelhaus. I'm sure that will get the juices flowing again, but I won't be starting in on that until probably sometime towards the end of May. I'll be going down to NC from the NNL to visit with Tom V. and his family for a few weeks. Then on May 12th our family is taking my grandson to Disneyworld for his birthday. I'm hoping that he won't be too overwhelmed by it all since he is only turning 2. From there I'll be going back to NC for another visit and then back home to PA. I'm sure that after all that travelling and running around I'll be more than happy to get back to my nice, quiet workbench.

You can use a product called Scalecoat which is safe to use on resin and can be found in well stocked hobby shops.

James, I wholeheartedly and emphatically agree...!!!

A little bit of a setback on this project. I painted the body parts and the paint came out great. However, I noticed that when I sanded off the mold lines on the body,I was a little too aggressive on the tops of the fenders just above the headlights, in front of the fender trim spears. I sanded a bit of a depression into the fenders and it is very noticeable. Both my wife and daughter noticed it, and they feel, as I do, that with all the nice detail work that I put into the interior and the engine compartment, that I should fix it. That means stripping the paint, filling in the dips, sanding it smooth, repriming and repainting... Grrrrrrr..!! U didn't notice it earlier because the plastic is white and I shot it with white primer. Once I hit it with the Gold paint, it stood out like a sore thumb. Ahhh the joys of modeling..!! In the meantime, yesterday I added one more detail of a windshield washer reservoir and line in the engine compartment. Now there's no more room for anything else in there, yet it all still looks neat and clean. I also added Caddy crest decals to the center of the hubcaps and then covered them with clear epoxy. I also added valve stems and sanded the tire treads.

Great pictures Ron. Looked like a great show.

Great articles Casey. Thanks.

Great diorama. All that's missing is the girlfriend in a bikini on a blanket..!!

Thank you David and John. John, I'm glad I can inspire you. If YOU could spend 4 or 5 hours each day at YOUR workbench, you'd probably be like a machine too..!! David, I pulled out the T-Bird kit and I'm not thrilled with the opening doors on it. I think I'll just glue the doors shut as it's a convertible anyway. I misplaced the instructions, but I'm sure I can get the model together without them. I also must have robbed the whitewall tires for another build somewhere along the line so I'll have to search through my stash for replacements. Here I go again with another project. I think I need a vacation... LOL.

Great looking model Tom. Nice job.

Beautiful model Andy, and NICE foil work. Great job.

OK, I'm correcting what I posted above. My daughter woke up as I finished posting, and the warm sun was still shining. I was able to paint the body (YEAY...!!) and it came out great. I'll give it time to gas out and then I'll probably clearcoat it tomorrow. .

Yep. You're definitely out of your mind..!! Great build as usual John. You sir, are amazing.

Thanks a lot Jeff and Ira. I was hoping to be able to get some paint on the body today since it's NOT snowing, but, as fate would have it, today is my daughter's day off, so she of course decides to sleep in...!! She bunks down in the basement where my workshop is. I could go down and "disturb" her, but the considerate part of me (good angel vs. bad angel thing) says leave her alone on her day off..!! Tomorrow into Monday we're supposed to get another storm... I can't win..!!

Great job Blair. Looks very cool and realistic.

Great looking model Harry. I guess this was a ONE HORSEPOWER vehicle...!?!?!?

Thanks Anne. I raise my glass to you too. You'll find out in, oh... say a couple of years... after you've accumulated your "wall of unbuilt models" your box full of aftermarket stuff, the shelf full of paints and primers in every color of the rainbow, your ever-expanding tool collection, and on, and on, and on... that you will never live long enough to build everything. If you turn out like the rest of us, your skills will improve with each model over time (hopefully anyway) and each model will wind up taking you longer to build because you'll want to keep adding more and more details. Plus, just when you think you've bought every model that you want, the manufacturers keep coming out with newer and better ones. It just never ends...

Thanks John. This was my first attempt at trying to do A/C plumbing. I just tried using bits of wire, tubing and hose line to replicate what was shown in some googled pictures that I downloaded. I'd be at a loss doing a lot of detailing if it wasn't for the Internet and reference pics... an invaluable resource... since I'm not a mechanic although I have a general knowledge of older cars, having owned the Dodge. I find that models look so much better with the added detailing of wires, hoses, etc., although it can get tedious and overwhelming at times. If you plan it out in advance, predrill all the mounting holes in the right places, and attach things in the right order, overall, things come out usually looking pretty good. Of course being neat and clean with the glue helps a lot too.

Only a little bit of additional progress today. Mother Nature just won't lighten up and give us a good dry day here for painting. We get some snow showers every day from the Lake effects BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH... The steering wheel & shifter are attached and the entire interior assembly is installed in place. I put a Caddy crest decal from the Revell '49 Merc in the center of the steering wheel. I also used a cowl light from my parts stash to replicate the sensing unit on the dashboard that lowers the headlights when there are oncoming cars. The firewall is attached, a brake line put in, and all hoses are connected. The battery has also been put in place and the cables have been connected. Now I'm sort of in a holding pattern waiting to paint the body pieces. I've got all the chrome pieces cut off the tree, cleaned up and touched up. The grille is blackwashed, the parking and backup lights are detailed and installed, as are the license plates. I drilled out the exhaust tips and put some flat black in the holes. The wheels & tires are all assembled and ready to be attached. If this snow BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH keeps up I may have to start in on another model just to keep busy...LOL. Let's see... should it be the '58 Corvette or the T-Bird..??