'65 Corvette Survivor Resto/Rescue

[Snake45]

Bought this built Monogram '65 Corvette at the toy show last month for $3 (actually, $3 for both the Vettes in the pic). It seems to be a first-issue (no emblems, molded in black) from the '80s. Dirty and in need of repair, it looked like a good candidate for some simple Snake-Fu. A baggie stuffed into the interior turned out to contain the missing rear bumpers and rocker panels. Kewl!

 

Cracked it down, washed the body in soapy water, and gave the unknown red paint a light polish with Wright's Silver Cream on a damp cloth. This went pretty smoothly and brought out a decent though not spectacular shine.

The rest was all 1st Degree Snake-Fu: black wash on the grille and alloy wheels, Silver Sharpie on the window trim, sand the tire treads. Also cleaned some flash from the edges of the wheel rims. Cleaned the interior up with soapy water. Nailed it all back together. Total time spent, maybe somewhere in the 3-4 hour range.

Certainly not my finest Covette model, but it now displays very well on my 1/24 diecast shelf with other Corvettes (it's more at home there than with other 1/25 kits). WELL worth the $3 and few hours in fun alone! Thanks for looking, and as always, comments welcome.

[cobraman]

Quite an improvement.

[Dragonhawk1066]

Not bad at all, especially for minimal monetary and time investments. It's amazing what the right kind of attention can do to improve some things.

[Hmann68]

Very nice! Good clean up ?

[Sixties Sam]

Looks good! It's nice to see survivors restored and saved.

Sam

[christian-w]

Sometimes it has to be a small restoration in between. I like those work too. Your C2 turned out nice and I like the "old" look. It looks like it can tell stories of it's road life.

[spencer1984]

Nice recovery, you always do an awesome job with these "barn finds."

[Chromecop]

Good job , nice to give the life back to an old kit like that!

 

[Gramps46]

Very well done.  Based  upon your description, molded in black, no emblems, and the wheels and tires,  I'd say it is the Monogram '65 Vette Street Machine, copyright 1986.  I have one sitting right here.  Always wondered about the dropped front end though, guess that was part of the "Street" look.

[espo]

Nice save on these two Vettes. 

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, espo said:

Nice save on these two Vettes. 

I didn't save the yellow one, and probably won't. There is a LOT of excess glue around the window trim, which is almost certainly impossible to fix.  I'll probably end up breaking it up for parts. 

[NOBLNG]

Nice save! It could also be this kit maybe?

[Snake45]

Might be. I never put it together that those are two different kits. Could those be the same plastic? Is that Revell really 1/25, or is it really 1/24? (I know the Monogram is 1/24 because some time back I investigated swapping the Monogram fender vents into the Revell '67 body and found that they'd be way too big.)

[BeakDoc]

Diggin’ the Snake-Fu on that ‘vette!

[RAMBENNA]

nice save, looks great

[TooOld]

Nice find and save , that's a nice addition to any shelf ! 

[NOBLNG]

12 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Might be. I never put it together that those are two different kits. Could those be the same plastic? Is that Revell really 1/25, or is it really 1/24? (I know the Monogram is 1/24 because some time back I investigated swapping the Monogram fender vents into the Revell '67 body and found that they'd be way too big.)

Just checked and it is definitely 1/24th, it measures 7-1/8” overall.

[slusher]

Another super nice save from your snake pit, friend!!

[PappyD340]

52 minutes ago, slusher said:

Another super nice save from your snake pit, friend!!

I agree!