espo

Great looking paint job. Nice clean looking build.

I was very surprised to see this appear this morning as I'm finishing a BRE 510 that I bought at a swap meet a few years ago. I have really enjoyed this build with only one real big issue. Mine is the 1973 kit and if any of you have ever tried working with 45 year old decals then you know what I mean. I'd soak the decal and wipe the brown funk off of the paper and the top side of the decal. The hard part was getting what looks like brown mud out from under the decal. I would double the decal back over its self and use a paint brush to remove what I could and then flip it the other way to get the rest. The decals have stayed together with no problems there but they don't want to lay down flat. The larger door numbers want to look like crape paper. I have used Solvaset and that seems to soften them enough that they start to lay down and as they dried they are turning out pretty well. I have sprayed clear over the whole body mostly to protect the decals but there is still a visible edge showing. Not to hurt any ones feelings but I only paid $9 for it still in the plastic wrap.

Very interesting hodge-podge of parts and left overs. The exposed engine area really makes the front tire look like something off of a much larger vehicle. I like your creative engine and turbo setup. I sometimes wish I had your creative mind after looking at some of your builds.

Another beautiful '48. I like the interior treatment with the diamonds. Well detailed chassis and the pin striping is something that just looks right on a custom like this.

Beautiful looking build. I like how you put a little burn in on the exhaust headers and have the driver's window half way down. Little details like this really add to the realism of the model.

Amazing looking, especially the bed and the boom parts. Very realistic in everyway. The "sling" even looks functional.

Nice looking chassis. I like the rear coil springs you made for this.

I think you did a great job with this build. You got the stance and a nice paint job and the body proportions mentioned by others while correct should not be a distraction from your build. You mentioned the door and trunk lines seeming to dark to you. While it might be risky at this point, but if you wanted to tone down the color you could take some of the body color and thin it way down to where you can just notice the yellow color and then try painting the shut lines and wipe away any excess. As Steve mentioned I also think the body trim moldings start going wrong on the door and are way to high by the time they get to the front fender. This could have been changed, but it depends on how comfortable you are doing that. I wouldn't let any of this worry you since it is a great looking build and you should be proud to have it on your shelf.

Looks dead on as the Road Runner was a base base car with the 383 and 4-speed as standard. No frills and all go. You captured the look perfectly.

Great fabrication work on this build. I really like the dash. Have you considered what engine you are going to use ? I like your idea of a shinny Street Rod.

That is one of the many reissues of this kit. Somewhere along the line the wheels and tires were added. When first issued years ago with a '32 Roadster also based off of this tooling, they both had the stock skinnies and wire wheels with the option of some standard steel wheels and I think some slicks. The muffler and partial tail pipe cast in the frame was for the stock engine. I don't remember which was a Model B with a 4 cyl. but I think it was the model you have. The other had the base Flat Head engine and had an optional overhead V8. Again I'm not sure which was which. Those two kits were a really big deal when they came out and the '30's and '40's era kits started becoming very popular after there issue.

Amazing Its so realistic looking, hard to think its a model.

On kit tires I use Tamiya Semi Gloss as it gives the appearance of a lightly Armor all'd tire. The Flat Clear also works well. I mask the tire tread to protect the scuffed tread appearance.

Well I see you got moved to the truck section. I like your visors and I don't recall seeing that done before. Consider your idea "stolen" on my next build. You mentioned wanting to see the exhaust system on my Suburban build. Since you're now in the truck section just drop down to the Under Glass section and look for Family Suburban and I have posted a shot of the chassis and the engine is wired but lots of luck finding the plug wires. Someone else questioned if anyone replacing the plug wires on a 1:1 in the same as OEM, I have the scar tissue on my hands to prove that it was how it was done way back when.

Nice high visibility color. I like the bumpers and steps you added.

Your mention of building a 4 door as that was the most common in your area. I think that was true for most. My father bought a new '56 210 4 door with the 6 cylinder and a 3 speed. No radio and black wall tires. My father was beyond frugal and thought of an automobile with less interest than any other home appliance. The 150 model in the 2 door or 4 door models were fairly common in the '50's for economic reasons at the time. There was always the Bel Airs around, but the 210 and 150 were more common. I would like to see you maybe get a Resin 4 door and make it like the more common edition of the time.

Great looking build. I also would like to see more views. You mentioned the performance level of these cars and you are correct. In the late '60's and early '70's I would attend races at the Orange County Raceway in Southern California before they turned into a shopping mall. There were several Stage 2 cars and they would almost always take their class wins. One guy raced a convertible that put him in another class but he was also almost unbeatable. I used to work with a guy that had a Stage 1 and it was nothing to mess with.

I like the stance and the color and interior combination. With the lighter colors the monochromatic look works. I have owned and driven several El Caminos in the past and one of them was a '66 but with a bench seat and standard drive train. I sure miss these little trucks as they were the best of both worlds. I think your build looks great.

This looks like one of the early AMT '32's. I kike the big "Meats" all the way around, like a road racer.

The foil job looks good and makes the model POP. Dark colored models never seem to show as well in photos as they do in person. What color did you use ?? I think mid to dark blues look almost as good as a black on a model.

Great looking engine and chassis.

I like the flak roof treatment also. That would put the model in a '60's era if you want to go that way. The early '60's is when I remember seeing this done. That treatment has evolved thru the years and different segments of the car hobby have used off and on ever since. The only cars I have seen in the last several years have been in the Low Ridder segment, it is usually used as part of the elaborate paint schemes. The Rock A Billy movement usually has a flake roof and either flat black or some other flat body color. To my eye at this point it reminds me of more of a mid to late '50's daily driver that might have a Metallic or Candy painted roof. In the mid '60's it was popular to paint the body a Pearl color and the roof in a Candy going into Metal Flake depending on the wealth of the owner. You might want to do some Google searches to find the look you like. The overall look of your build at this point brings back fond memories, but I don't want to tell you how to build your '53.

Thank you for sharing your photos. Looks like a great show and swap meet. I always enjoy seeing what others are building.

Kind of a wild paint combination for such a stately looking car, but then it is a Kustom after all. I like the stance and the very clean overall look of your build.

Good paint job on the engine, but you might want to rethink the routing of the plug wires. In the OEM application the plug wires would go from the distributer to a bracket on the back side of the heads and then run forward under and behind the exhaust manifolds. The sad part of wiring a Chevy V8 as your first try is that the plug wires are almost invisible unless viewed from underneath. In the real world it was a pain in the rear to put plug wires on such an engine and many would do it the way you are showing. To prevent the plug wires from getting burnt on the exhaust manifold they would use some universal brackets that would keep the plug wires somewhat off of the manifolds. This may be your best bet at this point since it look like everything is glued at this point. You could use the bottom edge of the valve covers as a mounting point for the brackets just as they did. A plan B would be if you have exhaust manifolds from say one of the Revell Nova small block kits. These have the manifolds that Chevy used in later years on passenger cars where the ports of the exhaust manifolds turned down and then exited to the rear and the plug wires were then routed just as you have already done. This is a great kit but one area you will want to pay attention to is the exhaust and the manifolds. The exhaust pipes are a little fiddly. But the biggest issue is if you retaining the kits manifolds as cast in the kit since the manifold almost sits on the frame and tying any type of custom exhaust to those manifolds you must keep that little kink that you see coming off the manifold to the exhaust pipes. If you should replace the exhaust manifolds from another kit and they exit toward the rear you will need to shorten and reshape the kits exhaust to meet the different manifolds. Please don't let anything I have said discourage you from your build. I just finished the Suburban that shares the chassis and suspension with this kit and I had to make my own complete exhaust system to get what I wanted.