It Followed Me Home: '72 Chevelle Street Freak

[Snake45]

This built MPC-bodied '72 Chevelle's wild fade paint job caught my eye at the local Toy & Train show last year. I didn't buy it—probably because I was already spending too much money on other stuff, if I know me—but the next day regretted passing it by. It wasn't there the next month (I forget if that vendor wasn't there, or he just didn't bring it), but it was back the month after that, and I quickly forked over the $10 asking price, thinking, “I can do SOMETHING with this freaky, unloved backbirth.” Here's what the poor thing looked like when I brought it home. Note the left A-pillar.

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I wanted to keep the paint job, which was the whole reason for buying it in first place, but my options were limited by the cutout in the hood specifically shaped for the Crower injector scoop. I could only come up with two ideas: Cover the hood hole with a black or aluminum-colored “Grumpy lump” and make it an early/mid-'70s Modified Production drag car (there's no way a thing like this could have been competitive in a Supercharged Gas class), or finish it as a mid/late '70s “Street Freak” of the kind that Hot Rod and Car Craft used to highlight in those days, between articles on vans, pickups, and “mini-muscle” cars. This was all before monster-tubbed “Pro Streets” hit the scene, y'unnerstand. I went the latter way.

After my standard surgical disassembly with Xacto, thin screwdriver, and choice cuss words, my first order of business was to repair the severely bent (nearly to the point of breaking) left windshield A-pillar, which I accomplished using my trademark “fauxberglass” technique, as described here:

 

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/121962-fauxberglass-for-thin-strong-repairs/

 

That done, I needed to address the finish, which was both ultraglossy AND orange-peeled/dimpled (probably Testor Wet Look Clear). My initial plan was to shoot some more Wet Look Clear on it and rub that out, but decided that there was already way too much paint on the thing as it was (the door lines are barely visible), so I ended up just giving the body a quick polish with Wright's Silver Cream, which somewhat subdued both the “wet look” and the orange peel. Hey, it's still not one of MY paint jobs, but it's a little better than it was, and is now darn close to semi-presentable. It is what it is.

Next up was to drop the rear end a few scale inches, and install some more age/type appropriate wheels and tires. I put AMT Parts Pack slicks on wheels from the MPC/AMT '57 Vette Gasser, an unbuildable kit that's a parts mine for things like this. That simple change made the model look 100% better (IMHO, of course).

From there it was just a matter of laying my normal Snake-fu on the thing: Detailed grille, taillights, parking lights, and so forth, and Silver Sharpie'd all the window trim. Didn't keep clock on it but I probably have somewhere between 10 and 20 hours in it altogether.

 

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You might (or might not) notice that the left side has some sort of “frosting” or “fog” in the paint that I couldn't figure out how to get out or fix. Here's the right side, which doesn't have the “fogginess” of the left:

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[Snake45]

And here it is with the AMT '72 stocker (except wheels from a '70 Camaro) I built a few years ago. Note the differences in the front ends between the AMT and MPC bodies.

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So it's not perfect, but it was a fun, challenging project that resulted in something just barely fit to sit on my shelf. Well, my high school builds shelf, anyway. It seems to fit in nicely with some of the freakish rides I produced “back in the day.” Thanks for looking, and as always, comments are welcome. Have at it!

[Lordmodelbuilder]

I like it! Good that you went back and got it so it could be saved.

[thatz4u]

Snake, nice work, great save, fun restoring the old kits ain't it...Al

[Earl Marischal]

Smart save Snake!

steve

[PARTSMARTY]

Looks cool Snake-I'm with you man-I love restos a lot !!!

[Hmann68]

Sure looks a lot nicer! The street freak thing in the 70's was wild for sure with the  crazy paint jobs fat tires and blowers  sticking out of the hoods! 

[Dann Tier]

Nice save!! -the new tyres and wheels look better in my opinion, and the grill looks way better too!

[Snake45]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

I don't really think of this one as a "save," as the kit is common, cheap, and still available new. And I don't really think of it as a resto, either, because it was in pretty good shape (except for the near-broken A-pillar).

I just laid some Snake-Fu on it, the way I do to diecasts, promos, and snappers, and maybe "repurposed" it a little.

You might remember a couple months ago, I was up in the General section looking for a good word to describe work/projects of this kind. Got several good ideas, but not really any great ones (yet).

Whatever you call it, it was cheap, it was fun, and it wasn't too difficult. It goes in the WIN column.