1960 Dodge Phoenix Convertible

[carbuilder1950]

I'm a bit new here and when I saw the title, I had to dive into your thread and see what's happening.

I have a couple 1960 Polara's unbuilt in my stash, and have been eyeing them lately for my next "Chop job" ?.

I love that this is a WIP and you have shared some great tips and ideas for converting and modifying parts like I enjoy doing.

I read all your posts and will continue to follow along,

GREAT JOB so far?!!!

[TooOld]

23 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Now the fun begins Bob!

This has become my favorite part of revamping an interior is working out the upholstery patterns, etc!

Love what you've done so far!

 

 

 

Steve

Agreed !  Building the foundation is necessary but I'm looking forward to adding the piping and other trim .

[TooOld]

20 hours ago, carbuilder1950 said:

I'm a bit new here and when I saw the title, I had to dive into your thread and see what's happening.

I have a couple 1960 Polara's unbuilt in my stash, and have been eyeing them lately for my next "Chop job" ?.

I love that this is a WIP and you have shared some great tips and ideas for converting and modifying parts like I enjoy doing.

I read all your posts and will continue to follow along,

GREAT JOB so far?!!!

Thanks David !  A couple of Polara's ? Boy I'd like to find just one !

[StevenGuthmiller]

5 minutes ago, TooOld said:

Thanks David !  A couple of Polara's ? Boy I'd like to find just one !

That's "tongue in cheek" for there was no '60 Polara kit.

Unless you have a couple of Modelhaus creations.

 

 

 

Steve

Edited May 30, 2021 by StevenGuthmiller

[TooOld]

55 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

That's "tongue in cheek" for there was no '60 Polara kit.

Unless you have a couple of Modelhaus creations.

 

 

 

Steve

Guess I shouldn't have assumed David meant "resin" , maybe he really meant to say Phoenix instead of Polara . Never was able to get my hands on the Modelhaus resin kit . I did see a knock-off once but the quality was pretty bad so I passed .  The Polara was a great looking car !

[carbuilder1950]

1 hour ago, TooOld said:

Guess I shouldn't have assumed David meant "resin" , maybe he really meant to say Phoenix instead of Polara . Never was able to get my hands on the Modelhaus resin kit . I did see a knock-off once but the quality was pretty bad so I passed .  The Polara was a great looking car !

Yup!! Your so right TooOld. That's the girl. I saw that pic years ago and the ol' girl just grabbed me. Had to have 'er.

Got a pretty nice resin 4 door hardtop wagon version too, but not by Modelhaus. It's a fairly new kit with interior and un-chromed bumpers, so I hounded Ebay for brand new chrome F&R bumpers and '60 Plymouth glass until I got 'um.

Patience and determination paid off.

Isn't that one of the prettiest cars you've ever seen?

The wagon version is really pretty too, and is a nice conversion from the Modelhaus body. Even has separate fender ornaments' and "POLARA" script on the body - Pretty cool.

Needed a little more cleanup than a Modelhaus kit, but she cleaned up nice with a little patience.

Edited May 30, 2021 by carbuilder1950

[TooOld]

Finished up the side panels this morning .  I started last week by drawing the upholstery onto the .020" panels I made earlier .  Lots of trial and error and some compromise to get it to look right .

Then they were cut apart into separate pieces , the edges were beveled , and they were glued onto the kits side panels .  Next some piping was added and the chrome top caps were formed and glued in place .  When I drew the patterns I didn't even consider the top caps , everything should have been lowered to make room .  After it's all painted and in the car hopefully it won't be too noticeable .

I was going to make the window cranks out of some plastic rod but then decided to try using some Bondic , I've had it a month or so and haven't tried it yet !  I found some decent cranks in the '64 Belvedere kit and made some small molds with mold putty .

After filling the molds with Bondic I inserted short lengths of rod into each one and cured them with the Bondic light tool . . . pretty cool !  The rods will mount the cranks into holes that were drilled in the sides .  Each mold has one window crank and one door handle , the door handles will be shortened and a knob added to make the rear window cranks .

Next arm rests were made by shaping some flat strips and adding some rod for piping . .

Here's the finished arm rests with handles added and the finished window cranks .

And the finished  panels with arm rests and cranks installed . They're just inserted into the drilled holes , after paint they'll be glued in place .

Thanks for looking . Now on to the seats !

Edited June 6, 2021 by TooOld

[StevenGuthmiller]

Fabulous Bob!!!

Just goes to show that there are really no limits when it comes to things like this.

If you can scratch build an interior for a '60 Dodge, the sky is the limit!

 

 

 

 

Steve

[OldNYJim]

I love what you did with those window cranks - clever!  

Who makes the mould putty?  

[slusher]

Bob, Terrific job on the door panels my friend…

[Bills72sj]

Your scratch building skills are impressive. I would not even of attempted such an endeavor.

[TooOld]

16 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Fabulous Bob!!!

Just goes to show that there are really no limits when it comes to things like this.

If you can scratch build an interior for a '60 Dodge, the sky is the limit!

 

 

 

 

Steve

Thanks Steve !  Completely new ground for me , definitely a learning curve .

[TooOld]

16 hours ago, CabDriver said:

I love what you did with those window cranks - clever!  

Who makes the mould putty?  

Thanks Jim !  It's "Amazing Mold Putty" by Alumilite , think I bought mine on Amazon .

[TooOld]

3 hours ago, slusher said:

Bob, Terrific job on the door panels my friend…

Thank you Carl !

[TooOld]

3 hours ago, Bills72sj said:

Your scratch building skills are impressive. I would not even of attempted such an endeavor.

Thanks Bill !  Never thought I would either . . . first time for everything !

[David G.]

Impressive kit-bashing and scratch building skills! 

Thank you for taking the time to share your progress.

David G.

[TooOld]

1 hour ago, David G. said:

Impressive kit-bashing and scratch building skills! 

Thank you for taking the time to share your progress.

David G.

Thanks much David !

One small addition to finish of the interior panels , courtesy lamps on either side for the rear seat .  I think they should be further forward on the panel so I'll end up moving them .  I remember us kids sleeping on long trips and those lamps were bright enough to wake us up !

There were no door lock knobs on these cars . The door handle on the arm rest is pushed forward to lock the doors , pulled back to unlock , and pulled back all the way to open the door !

Edited June 7, 2021 by TooOld

[OldNYJim]

3 hours ago, TooOld said:

Thanks Jim !  It's "Amazing Mold Putty" by Alumilite , think I bought mine on Amazon .

Huh!  I never tried that before - I should get some to mess with!  Thanks buddy!

[Dave Darby]

On 6/6/2021 at 8:38 AM, TooOld said:

Finished up the side panels this morning .  I started last week by drawing the upholstery onto the .020" panels I made earlier .  Lots of trial and error and some compromise to get it to look right .

Then they were cut apart into separate pieces , the edges were beveled , and they were glued onto the kits side panels .  Next some piping was added and the chrome top caps were formed and glued in place .  When I drew the patterns I didn't even consider the top caps , everything should have been lowered to make room .  After it's all painted and in the car hopefully it won't be too noticeable .

I was going to make the window cranks out of some plastic rod but then decided to try using some Bondic , I've had it a month or so and haven't tried it yet !  I found some decent cranks in the '64 Belvedere kit and made some small molds with mold putty .

After filling the molds with Bondic I inserted short lengths of rod into each one and cured them with the Bondic light tool . . . pretty cool !  The rods will mount the cranks into holes that were drilled in the sides .  Each mold has one window crank and one door handle , the door handles will be shortened and a knob added to make the rear window cranks .

Next arm rests were made by shaping some flat strips and adding some rod for piping . .

Here's the finished arm rests with handles added and the finished window cranks .

And the finished  panels with arm rests and cranks installed . They're just inserted into the drilled holes , after paint they'll be glued in place .

Thanks for looking . Now on to the seats !

Niiiiice! Where do you get the molding putty?

[TooOld]

4 hours ago, Dave Darby said:

Niiiiice! Where do you get the molding putty?

Thanks Dave !  Think I bought it on Amazon but it's also at Hobby Lobby , Michael's , Ebay , etc . . . 

[gtx6970]

Wow, just WOW

 

Keep it up and if theres any chance of a resin copy of the interior, I would be interested.

I have a builder and part of a 2nd . My plan was make one a vert like this

Edited June 9, 2021 by gtx6970

[TooOld]

Thanks Bill !   I'm doubt it would be up to the expectations of a buyer so no resin copies in the future .

[Dave Darby]

On 6/8/2021 at 3:18 PM, TooOld said:

Thanks Dave !  Think I bought it on Amazon but it's also at Hobby Lobby , Michael's , Ebay , etc . . . 

I feel silly now, since further up the thread (where I apparently didn't look!) you described the product by name. But hank you for the photo. Now I know exactly what to look for. Keep rocking, my friend!

[TooOld]

3 hours ago, Dave Darby said:

I feel silly now, since further up the thread (where I apparently didn't look!) you described the product by name. But hank you for the photo. Now I know exactly what to look for. Keep rocking, my friend!

It's all good Dave , I do the same thing all the time .

[TooOld]

Made a lot of progress on the seats over the weekend but didn't take many photos .  Basically I did the same as with the side panels by making patterns on .005" sheet and cutting them apart into separate pieces .  When glued to the seats they left a nice groove and sharp edges for the piping .  The scale is for sizing the seat decals later .

I used .020" rod for the piping , it's probably too big but the next smaller size I had was .010" and that seemed way to small .  The piping needs to be painted silver and there's no way I could paint that small stuff !   It will all get sanded down slightly before paint so hopefully it will be okay .

I realized why the courtesy lamps I added earlier looked out of place . . . they're supposed to be down on the armrests . Duh .

Lastly I spent some time on my computer creating artwork for the seat decals .  Top is the 1960 Dodge upholstery pattern and the bottom is my artwork .  By transferring the patterns to the artwork I should be able to print some decals that will fit right in place .

Edited June 15, 2021 by TooOld