anybody here ever section and/or chop a 51 chevy fleetline?

[jeffdeoranut]

looking for wip of above

[Mark]

Sectioning should be no tougher than most other cars, but you'll have to pay attention to where you make the cuts on the quarter panels so the bulges line up.  Chopping the Fleetline will be tough: first decide how to cut it.  Do you want to flatten the roof, or just sink the rear section with the trunk lid down into the body?  Lots of choices to make: make the decisions before picking up the tools.

[jeffdeoranut]

3 hours ago, Mark said:

Sectioning should be no tougher than most other cars, but you'll have to pay attention to where you make the cuts on the quarter panels so the bulges line up.  Chopping the Fleetline will be tough: first decide how to cut it.  Do you want to flatten the roof, or just sink the rear section with the trunk lid down into the body?  Lots of choices to make: make the decisions before picking up the tools.

yeah, i got a junk body to cut up first...

[von Zipper]

Google : Brad Masterson - 1951 Chevy

then maybe dig a little deeper on the subject to find pictures or videos of how/when Brad Masterson and Bill Hines built it.

[Casey]

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Sectioning is a lot easier on a model than on a real car, because of the thickness of the plastic. For the most part, all you have to do on a model is remove a strip of material, glue everything back together, and file to shape.

4 hours ago, von Zipper said:

Google : Brad Masterson - 1951 Chevy

then maybe dig a little deeper on the subject to find pictures or videos of how/when Brad Masterson and Bill Hines built it.

For the top-chop, this is excellent advice. Masterson's method avoids all the horrible messes people usually make with widening or lengthening the roof, and cutting up the decklid. The finished product flows very well.

Here's the article about how he does these cars in Hot Rod. Follow through all 30 photos, do what Mr. Masterson does.

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/0903rc-1950-chevy-chopped-top/

[ChrisBcritter]

First thing I thought of was the Polynesian, the famous sectioned '49 Olds hardtop. Check out how the cuts were made; they should work on the Chevy:

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

10 hours ago, ChrisBcritter said:

First thing I thought of was the Polynesian, the famous sectioned '49 Olds hardtop. Check out how the cuts were made; they should work on the Chevy...

That's a great article, pretty much the definitive resource for this body style.

But all those different cuts are entirely unnecessary on a plastic model.

They're necessary on thin steel sheetmetal so the cut lines will line up well, to minimize shrinking, stretching, and hammer work in general.

As I noted above, because of the thickness of plastic model bodies, all that's usually required is to take a straight section out of the body, glue it back together, and file to finished shape.

 

 

[sbk]

I've chopped a couple, but never sectioned one. I have a step by step of the chop along with other things during the building process on my FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Steve-Boutte-Kustoms-136565936448460/photos/?tab=album&album_id=148890918549295

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 7/2/2019 at 10:06 PM, jeffdeoranut said:

looking for wip of above

^^^ sbk is one of the best around. If you're not familiar with his work, now's the time to change that.

Edited July 11, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy