espo

I like your idea of building the family car. That body is truly rough looking. The metal chassis may have saved it with it's support through the years. I noticed in the photo with you and your brother what looks like the 348 engine emblem in the grill.

The closest to polishing would be an 800 to 1000 grit sanding pad. this will help show any unseen seems or high spots after priming. Like any paint job it's all in the prep of the body before the color coats or even clear.

It's 3pm and we're in the heat of the day. -2 with a wind chill to -21. Tuesday's high to be 10 and by Wednesday back to 20. We have had the lowest recorded temps for over a week for this area ever. Not bad compared to many others but the longest sustained record low temps for around here. The power company is starting rolling blackouts since the Wind Turbines have frozen up and the blades will not turn. At least it's supposed to get out of the negative temps starting tomorrow. At least it's still snowing.

Beautiful looking finishes on all the surfaces. The shading detail on the engine colors especially. I like the roof treatment since it allows you to see the interior as well. Nice to see the "Dirt Track" tires.

Very clean looking build. All of the trim looks good and I'm going to remember to try this color combination for a future build.

Beautiful looking body color. The carpet effect looks good as well. The engine induction system really stands out and detailed so nicely.

I have used two different methods to cut aluminum tubing. The first is the aluminum miter box with the fine toothed saw. The saw is really designed for plastic but has lasted for years with no operant damage to the saw. The second works well if you're not cutting anything smaller than some exhaust tips. The tool is a very small tubing cutter. as Plowboy mentioned. The only drawback with the cutter is that it usually closes the cut end of the tube. The aluminum can usually be opened back up with a #11 blade leaving it very dull, of a construction nail is what I use since you can also use the nail to flare the end to make a very realistic exhaust tip.

Great looking blast from the past. They didn't call them "Bad Bees" for nothing.

Looks great. I like the way this looks without the black Targa and Bumper trim.

Beautiful looking finishes. Good color combination. You mention this being a big block but the picture makes it appear as a small block. No biggie since the engine does look good as is.

Looks great. The colors were pretty popular on the Chevys of that era. Nice clean looking finish and trim. I was always put off of this kit not because of the subject but the way they designed the roof and side trim. .Liking the subject and seeing how far off the body was just hurt my senses enough not to build one. You made this one look good.

We are seeing some very fine dusty type snow here. Fortunate in that we really don't see much around here as it all goes south or north of us. We started the day around -1 and this is supposed to be the high for the day. Again not normal temps. One of the reasons I mentioned the color combo is that I had some friends that had Chevelle SS396's at that time period and most seemed to go with the load colors and black interiors. Different parts of the country trend in different colors purchased and I like the clean looks of the white with red guts.

Looks just like the picture on the box. Very nice finishes every where you look on this build. Makes me sorry I didn't grab one of these kits.

Man I love these old pictures. Driving one of these old rigs would have been a real workout. not to mention loading all that lumber by hand.

You are correct on the wheel paint finish. Usually what Chevrolet did was to paint the wheels the same color as the main part of the body color. As you moved up to the Impala model with the full wheel covers the wheels become black in color. There were exceptions to every rule back then so this is a generality about the wheel colors. In looking at the mock up of your front suspension I'm wondering if the front and rear springs are switched. In the picture with the front suspension clamped in place the lower control arms don't reach the point on the frame where they would be attached .

I like the real fine chrome window trim look. The B pillar almost disappears with the nice black finish.

This is a great kit. You mention using a Red and White color combination, and Ford would have offered a red and white interior as well as others. With some creative masking you can just paint the interior the way you like and cover with flat or semi gloss paint to look like vinyl. As bisc63 pointed out the headlights are a little out of proportion. Try setting the chrome headlight bucket in place in the fenders without the kits headlight rings and see how this looks. This will be a little shorter than stock but a long way from the bug eye look. The other way around this would be to remove abot 50 % of the backside of the head light rings. The front inner fenders are much better on this kit than the coupe if you're installing wider tires.

Great looking color combination. Hope you don't get stuck in the snow before you can get back in the garage.

Looks like it could have been Flash Gordan's ride. How many remember Flash Gordan space movies from Saturday matinees ??

Keep them coming Casey. Noticed this driver in a coat and tie, I guess image was a little more important back then.

We have two cars with the 3.6 liter engine and they are both great. The latest is an '18 Charger GT with the All Wheel Drive. The performance while not as good as the '10 Charger RT also with All Wheel Drive, is very respectable with the 8 speed auto. trans and the extra 6 to 8 mpg doesn't hurt. As you pointed out the interiors in these cars is very nice place to be.

I'm in the paint the trim last camp. In fact I use the exact method that Erik Smith described. With the final finish without the wax will give you as smooth a surface as possible for the tape to adhere to. I suggest a light gloss clear spray over the masking tape edges before going to the trim color. Sometimes even with the best tape and burnished edges the trim color may creep under the tape in some places. Any body lines or door gaps can offer a way for the paint to get under your tape. Allow the clear to dry for a while before applying your trim color and give the area to be painted a very light sanding with some high # soft sanding pad. The clear paint should block any paint creep. As an extra step, before removing the masking tape use a new #11 blade and lightly go along the edge of the tape before removing it. Pretend you're cutting Bare Metal Foil or lighter. This should prevent the tape from lifting the paint from the trim, remember you have a light base coat of clear and with much paint build up this can sometimes happen.

First the bad part. Tues. we had some snow on the ground and my wife had to go into her office that afternoon. Due to the weather she used the Charger that I normally drive since it has All Wheel drive. On her way home a guy in a 1 Ton pickup slid into the backend destroying the rear bumper cover. She's fine, just upset. Got a call from the dealership that they have the parts needed and we're dropping off the car for repairs on Monday morning. The company that owned the truck that hit her has already said that they don't want to run it through their Insurance and they will pay the dealership directly to fix the car. Not using Insurance is a good thing for both of us since most since Insurance Companies even gig the victim even if you're not at fault and they didn't have to pay a claim. .

Ya the housing boom was my thought as well. I'll have to check out that site as well. I don't remember what the site was but there used to be one one mostly Gas Stations from the past. That was a real interesting look at a time when the "pit" was about the most common way to work on the chassis of a car or truck.

Besides the great looking paint and clean details, the whole thing brings a smile to my face.