Cheap '68 Corvette, Before and After Snake-Fu

[Snake45]

Bought this for $2 at a recent toy show, and the price was about right. Mine doesn't have a maker name on the chassis, but a net search shows them being sold under the names of both Sunshine and Superior. Overall shape is only a little better than the typical Palmer kit of the mid '60s, and actually worse than the notorious "unofficial" AMT 1968 annual. The chromed fender gills give it a particularly toylike look. To add insult to injury, this one is apparently suffering from corrosion under the paint, giving it small bubbles and blisters in some areas. $2 indeed! But you know me, I love a Snake-Fu challenge, especially a CHEAP one. 

Both front fenders had some kind of flaw running about 1/16" down from the tops of the front fender peaks, like a molding seam or something (it doesn't show up in the Before pictures). Since I was going to have to paint those toylike chrome fender gills anyway, I took some time and filed and sanded these flaws out, then masked off the sides of the front fenders, primed them with Walmart Primer White, and shot them with Testor #3 Red (at the same time I was touching up the spoiler on my Mazda RX-7 shown in an earlier post). When that was dry I sanded the tire treads, drilled out the exhausts, painted the grille, rocker panels and front spoiler flat black, Silver Sharpied the windshield and roof trim, and hit the Rally Wheels (which are actually pretty nice) with some Tamiya Flat Aluminum I just found last week. And just like that, I managed to turn a complete POS that would make you wretch uncontrollably at 12 feet into a semi-marginally-barely-presentable model that only causes moderate nausea and occasional gagging at six. Not fit to display in my home, but (just) good enough to put on my shelf at work (where its theft or loss would cause few tears). Might be a good one to let my new grandsons play with in a couple years, too, if they promise to leave my good stuff alone. Two bucks, 3-4 hours (much of which was filing, masking, and painting time), what do you think? 

[Gramps46]

You Sir are a brave man!  Sunshine/Superior have done some strange things with their diecasts but you have done a credible  job with this one.  The rally wheels look oversized or is it just me?

[Snake45]

11 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

You Sir are a brave man!  Sunshine/Superior have done some strange things with their diecasts but you have done a credible  job with this one.  The rally wheels look oversized or is it just me?

Thanks! I now see what you mean about the wheels--they might be a bit too big. Oh well, better that than too small. 

[JJ Deuce]

Are those door handles cast into the door?

[Snake45]

19 minutes ago, JJ Deuce said:

Are those door handles cast into the door?

They're separate chrome pieces, like the fender gills originally were. Of course they look nothing like real '68 Vette door handles.