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Great looking plow and I like how the wheels and tires look.

I enjoyed watching your Grand Slam build so you know I'll be watching this one as well. You mentioned being unsure about a color. GM offered a one year only color and for Pontiac it was called Iris Mist. With the chrome trim on this body it would really be a standout. Just a thought.

Amazing looking roof conversion and all the other body work. The pontoon body section connecting the front and rear fenders give the body a much longer appearance .This has the look of a stately classic. I agree with the inline 6 cylinder engine. There are any number of induction systems that you could use.

These are all the base 150 body styles.

I look forward to seeing your next build. I have a question about your 2 in 1 Black Widow kit. My question is if you have looked at the body and is it a 150 series or the Bel Air body. The reason is because when this kit was first released they somehow had a mix up and were putting the Bel Air bodies in the kit box in stead of the 150. Revell was good about exchanging these and in many cases they had the retailers return the inter kit for a replacement with the correct body. In my case I contacted Revell and they sent me a 150 body and told me to keep the Bel Air body that was in the kit. .

A lot of splicing and dicing but it sure looks good.

This paint has been fighting you from the start it seems. I know there are those that use and swear by paints that aren't really designed expressly for plastic models, but this is an example of what often happens. Should you have to redo this whole paint job I would encourage you to consider using the more expensive paints designed for models like this. The colors look great and I like how you have done the trim.

If you want or need some gold trim consider Bare-Metal Foil in Gold. You don't often see it on the shelf but it works just like their chrome foil. I have used it on the trim inserts on the Revell '57 Ford wagon and it even shows the pattern molded in this area on the body. The foil is thin and very easy to work with.

I have to agree with everyone on the "New Improved Chrome" foil. This seems to be just like the original foil to me just slightly better shine. I also tried the Ultra Foil and like everyone else it just gave me fits trying to control it and it didn't lay down as well. Might work for a perfectly flat firewall or something but not body trim. As for cutting into the paint when trimming, the hardest part has to be any type of a curve such as around windows as others have said. The hardest part for myself is keeping the proper angle of the blade and of course when you get to some intricate moldings it just gets harder to do. I think if you're getting into the paint this may have to do with the angle of the blade as the natural tendency is to use the point of the blade rather than keeping the lower angle. This can also cause a couple of other issues. Besides the cutting into the paint it becomes easer to cut the foil on the molding its self or wonder off onto the body. bh1701's black '64 Ford is a great example of what can be done.

I have always been disappointed on how these early Promos would curl up in time. The proportions of the body and trim were for the most part very realistic. They could have been used in present time as resin basses if nothing else.

During your spoon testing, you are doing that aren't you ? See if a high metallic silver might not be a consideration for a base coat since you're doing a metallic color anyway. May be that depending on how many coats of the color coat you use this may make no difference at all.

I have used many of the suggested ways to clean resin bodies and parts in the past with only a few problems and one very big disaster that turned the body to mush. What I have started using is just plain old Dawn dish soap. I fill a container with enough water and Dawn to to cover the body and let it soak over night. Then rinse with cool water and let dry. This seems to clean the resin parts completely with no damage. This Riviera looks interesting, where did you get this ??

Great looking replica of this Ford Van. As others have mentioned the size of these decals are such that you almost consider painting the stripes instead. Great looking clean finish overall.

Considering the time when these were done they still look like resent builds. The body modifications all look very smoothly done and the paint still looks perfect. This person was or is a very accomplished builder.

Beautiful looking paint and interior.

Seeing the reflections in the paint finish shows just how good this paint job is'. Black is one of the harder colors to photograph but with the clean chrome trim this really stands out. I like how you detailed the interior and the paint details in the engine bay and the chassis also looks great.

I like the "Radio Dispatched" on the hood. I remember when that was a very big deal. Note the phone number. This was a time when they were getting away from talking to an operator when you placed a phone call and you got to use the dial on the newest technology, the dial phone.

I don't recall ever seeing a roof on a Promo curl up like that. The "Post-crash" idea might be the best idea. Think about how hard it would be to achieve this type of body damage on purpose.

Great looking paint finish and color. The body chrome foil looks very cleanly done. I like the windshield treatment as well.

That is a bright Green alright. I like how you left off the flat colored hood and stripes. The natural body lines look better to me anyway. The interior is nicely detailed as well as the engine bay.

Man, your going to get information overload on this question. There may be as many similar answers as there are members here. For myself I prefer to start with removing problems I can see with out any primer first. I'll deepen body panel lines and trim parts that will get foiled at a later stage of the prep for painting. After correcting everything that I can see I'll sand the body with a very low grit sanding stick. This will show areas that aren't even with the rest of the body. Next I would either rinse the body under water or blow away and dust with an air brush in order to start with the cleanest body possible. I would apply a very light coat of primer and allow to dry. I start my sanding again with a 1500 or higher grit sanding pad and this should give you a better idea of just how smooth the surface is and will expose any high and low spots. Using a lower number sanding material can course scratches that will have to be sanded out and create more work for you. After correcting the high and low spots or any other imperfections that you notice I would give the body one last very thin but uniform coat of primer. The color of the primer used may effect the appearance of your final color coats. This is something that you should practice on say a plastic picnic spoon. I would spray one spoon with the gray primer and another with a white primer if you're going for a light color and red primer if you're going for a color in that range. I would then spray you color of choice on all three spoons and allow to dry. A later spray of clear or flat clear will give you a good idea of how your color will look when finished. Which ever looks best to you will make the color selection for the final primer coat. After the final primer coat I would use as fine of grit sanding pad that you have and go over the body one final time with little or no pressure and let the sanding pad smooth out the surface. Before the first color coat I would recheck your panel lines, use a sharp #11 blade to mark the parting line between the body and any chrome trim you may be foiling later. With a couple coats of paint and clear the parting lines get harder to find when you're foiling the trim. The first couple of coats of color should be light and about 5 to 10 minutes apart. This is an area that many builders take different paths and over time and trial you will find which way works for you, this is only how I do it for myself. After the first color coats have dried you will want to see if you're getting the even coverage you want and if you're getting any finish problems. Should you start to see some orange peal type finish as an example you will want to re sand the surface smooth again and try and correct the way you're spraying. Some of this you may have noticed when you were practicing on the spoons. When you have the finish as smooth as you can get it you can spray a better coverage of body color in a coat or two. Now you need to allow the color finish to dry and over night may not be long enough. With a smooth looking surface you can go on to color sanding if you feel it is needed. This is wear you need to let the sanding pad do the sanding and I would start with a 2000 or higher pad. Starting with a small area and I prefer a small cup of water to dip the sanding pad in to clean it from time to time. You will quickly see if you need to go to a higher number or a lower number depending on how the finish looks. You don't want any scratches but a slight dulling of the surface that you can spray your clear coats over. The smoother you can get the colored surface the less work on the final clear coats. The clear surface should be smooth enough that it would only need a light polishing with some compound and wax. I have tried to just give you some ideas of how I do this. As I mentioned you will hear from many others and they will do somethings different and that's how we all get better by hearing and seeing how others approach the process. There is no right way or wrong way, just the way that works best for you.

I have been watching your build and really enjoy the lengths you go to for the chassis and interior details. The '48 Ford dash especially looks good .

Hi Geoff, Your painting of the emblem is fine. The loss of the chrome detail between the red and white colors may be corrected a couple of ways. One way maybe to take a flat style toothpick and see if you can gently remove any paint from the raised trim. I share your issues with a steady hand anymore, but maybe a slight touch of a Molotow pen could be used on the trim. You have this little '57 looking great.

The "color sanding" is done to get the smoothest finish possible. I also use the sanding pads that rob1957 has mentioned. His post came in as I was typing this. A couple of light finish coats of TS-80 Flat Clear should seal the decal on the hood surface and give you a finish very close to OEM. Decals just standout if applied over a flat painted surface, where as a gloss surface minimizes the decals appearance along the edge and sometimes if the painted surface has an orange peal type finish the decals remain visible even after being painted over with clear or even flat or semi-flat paint. I don't know exactly why I only know from experience in trying to do what you are looking at with this hood. I have seen builds here by others of this very kit , maybe one of them will see this and offer information as to how they did theirs. Please post your build, I would enjoy seeing how it turns out for you.

Great looking Olds. Very nice paint color and finish. Everything looks better with American 5 spoke wheels.