Help me with a decision, please!!!!!

[FloridaBoy]

First, let me fill you in with just a little background, in a nutshell.......

In the sixties, AMT offered a "Craftsman" series of old and promo models w/o engines and had crude interiors. I bought just one kit, a 59 Ford Galaxie 2dr HT, and I was really into sectioning and customizing then. really into it. I radically sectioned it, but had problems with the interior, and figuring out what to do with the front, so it sat dormant and survived through many moves and transitions in my life.

Then in 94, I was recovering from surgery, and went rummaging through my old projects and found the '59, and completely refurbished it, using a 57 Ford as a donor kit, opened the hood and trunk, used the interior, and fabricated front and rear rolled pans and a custom grille and headlights from a 50 Ford. Then while the primer was drying, I had to go for follow up surgery, and while gone, my wife "did me a favor" and cleaned out the garage, and inadvertently tossed out several of my favorite projects one of which was my 59 Ford.

Although not a cause for our divorce, her unthinking act did prevent me from sorrow when we split, and I have always felt the void since.

Freeze frame to last year. At a swap meet, a vendor had a completely built, original AMT 3in1 59 Galaxie which was in the style we built back then using all of the parts from the kit, scallops, roll bar, racing decals, mfr decals, skirts, spotlights, continental kit, and so on, and not painted. I purchase it and a donor 57 Ford kit in which the body was mangled but every other part was intact.

My original intention was to re-build the project, but really can't bring myself slicing up some history. My options are:

1. Take down the kit, strip it, and turn it into the sectioned, detailed model I originally intended.

2. Leave it the way it is and display it as a sample from history. AFter all I think I built one exactly like this at age 11.

3. Strip it, sand it, remove the clutter, and restore it with a nice paint job and street side factory stock.

4. Same as 3 only mildly customize it.

5. Strip it and repaint it, details from the 57, and make it a factory stock.

I am still leaning to #1, but want to hear your opinion, or other options. Note, it will not be turned into a drag racer.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[Zoom Zoom]

It's your model, bought and paid for. Do to it exactly what YOU want to do with it! I'm pretty sure you know in your heart exactly what you want from that kit.

[BigGary]

Ken,

Here’s my 2 cents. Look carefully at the car and see if you can improve what you did before. Plan each step, consider how to improve it in view of what’s available now, things like photo-etch, Bare Metal Foil, and the much improved engines and wheels we have now. Your experience and thoughtfulness will yield a better model than the old one would have been.

Gary

[James Flowers]

Do what you always wanted too build it . Seems it will always be on your mined if you don't.

[FloridaBoy]

So far, what the #1 plan is to make the '59 a radical custom, which is what I spent the monry originally for. I like the '59 Ford, more than the 57 or 58, and hae an extra 57 ready to donor another '59. I just read a model cars from 2006 where Revell issued a 59 Crestliner with the convertible/hard top and do not like that but the 59 body looks OK.

So, the plan is to hear the input from you guys, meantime searching for that Revell Crestliner to build it stock, and I read the review and will swap out the inner guts with the 57 for that. If the Revell has a one piece body or can be glued and reinforced enough to make a good sectionable one piece body then I will try to preserve the AMT, not cut it, and go custom on the Revell. Did I confuse anyone? I did me.

IF both plans work out, I would end up with a pretty good factory stock '59, and an all out custom '59.

The custom '59 was oringally built and mocked up, which I plan to replicate as follows:

3" section, opening trunk with homebuilt hinges, 57 Ford interior and frame, re-mounted engine to accommodate the lowered body stance, use of Revell parts 427 side oiler motor with fuel injection. I fabricated and kitbashed the fuel injection system with a manifold from the El Camino, and short stacks made from brass ferrules. I probably would make new headlights to be like today's lenses, rear tailights the same using old hubcabs turned inside out for the big round light bezels, and translucent and clear plastic for the lights. Rolled pans front and rear, an interior that is detail painted, steering wheel/column from aftermarket, and topped with a pearl white paint job. That is my dream plan for this......As for wheels I want to go with bigger wheels and low profile tires, with the inner spokes painted white to match the body. The "trim" color will either be dark red or normal blue (floor rugs, dashboard, etc). My newest thing is adding body side moldings after sectioning, and look for a two tone paint line, but still undecided there.

This model will take awhile.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[george 53]

I'm with zoom. You know what your gonna do to it.You just want outside approval.What your looking for is enablers! G'wan! Chop that rascal up! Let it be all it can be!!!It was MEANT to come into your hands for the ultimate acheivement of it's creation!You Go Fla.Boy! I know your gonna do a killer job on it!

Edited November 12, 2008 by george 53

[Eshaver]

Floridia, yer gonna kick yerself in de ass foren the rest yer born daze iffin ya dont go makin dat Hot -Rod Lincon!Now do yerself a favor , get yrself a copy of Henery Gregor Felsons Book, Boy Gets Car. then put on sum Comander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen music, pull out a FRESH ZONA SAW AND WAALA!!!!!!!!!!! INSTANT HOT - ROD LINCON !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now dont be wastin yer time postin a buncha stuf here on de forum untill you got sumthin fer this ELVIS PRESLEY, CHUCK BERRY CMANDE CODY LUVIN DO-WAP OVER DE HIL HIPPY CAN SEE......... GOT DAT?????????Ed Shaver

[John Goschke]

I'd like to see you use your recently acquired AMT kit to build the sectioned car you originally envisioned. It'll be way easier to modify than Revell's '59 Skyliner retractable! However, Revell's kit is a great sources of parts for the AMT kit; including the trim around the rear wheel well (to replace the mess you'll find when you pry the skirts off the AMT '59), nice correct '59 interior that's more detailed than AMT's, plus a decent engine and engine bay.

Be sure to post pix of your progress, whatever you decide to do!

[GOTH KUSTOMS]

OK here's three cents for you, you have the skill, you have the tool's, you have the time, GO FULL BLOWN KUSTOM, CHOPP'D, SECTION'D, SLAMM'D AND CHANNEL'D,,,

[Rick Schmidt]

Who ya should be asking this question is not us, but that 59 Ford. Ask the car if it wants to be the slick mean rip roarin Custom you told it it would be when you bought it. Or does it want to remain the Laughing stock of the display cabinet when all the other cars see it with all that stuff stuck all on it. Go ahead Ask that 59 She'll talk to ya ..... all model cars speak to the builders telling us their dreams

[RodBurNeR]

if it was me i would do what i wanted. slicing history is something to take in one wind and blow with the other. i understand preservation, but it's yours...will it be worth anything when you die? (to you that is) 59 galaxies all the time on ebay under 40bucks and usually about 30 in built condition like you have. will it even survive to another person? will the next person actually cut it up anyways? think about it......

[FloridaBoy]

As an old guy who is getting melancholic at 61, I am going to take a billion pictures of this car before I start to whack it up.

The thoughts going through my mind by leaving in its original state are just history, but my version of history is "I was there" and have other thoughts about when history was most important to me, and that occurs right around the first Pactra Revell contest which Richard Johnson won with the Pegasus (remember it?)

So, after the photo opportunity, lol, I will start it and post progress on fotki.com. You can see my other work as of Monday as I will be posting my project in progress cars. Contests are irrelevenant to me, as one respondent so aptly put, "the car will talk to you" and it does indeed tell you when it is done.

BTW, I just found some pictures of me posing with my absolute favorite car ever customized, Bill Cushenberry's 1940 Ford "Matador" which was fully restored (with my unpaid volunteer help - heck I would have paid Murphy to work on it) and returned to its original condition with some improvements, such as making the hood and trunk liftable, and changing the reel to reel tape recorder to a CD player.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[Eshaver]

Ken , I'm ashamed of you man ! takindg that Reel ta reel out and puttin in a C D hell, what would ELVIS say? I bet he wioldn't say, Thankya, thankya veeeryyy muuuchhha. He would probably smear penut butter all over yer face for doin dat! Now you go put dat tape deck back in dat ride wher it belong !!!!!!!!!!!!

Ed Shaver