1965 Oldsmobile 442(from an AMT '64 Olds 442) - FINISHED

[crowe-t]

It's been a few weeks since my last update.  I got some more work done.  I painted the exhaust system.  I first painted it with Alsa Easy Chrome.  I then sprayed Alclad Aqua Gloss over the Easy Chrome and sprayed Tamiya Acrylic Clear Yellow over it to give it the color of straw.  The main part of the exhaust in the car is stainless and it turned the color of straw.  I then polished the Tamiya Clear Yellow a bit with Meguiars Scratch-X to blend it in so it doesn't look like candy paint.  The silver parts of the exhaust and the mufflers are painted Alclad Aluminum.  I placed the fuel cell and rear framing on for the pictures.  It all has to be glued in place.

I painted the engine, bell housing and transmission.  The engine is Tamiya Acrylic Gold Leaf with some XF-64 Red Brown added to darken it a bit.  The bell housing is Tamiya Acrylic Flat Red and the Transmission and heads are Alclad White Aluminum with a dark wash over it.

I took some mock up pictures to get an idea how it sits.

Edited November 3, 2022 by crowe-t

[TransAmMike]

Coming along nicely there Michael!!

[espo]

Great attention to the fine details replicating your friend's car. 

[crowe-t]

Mike and David, I appreciate it.  I've been taking my time with it.  This coming week I'll work on the Bare Metal Foil, emblems and start putting it together.

[crowe-t]

I painted the front inner fender wells black and also painted the grill black.  I painted some Tamiya Clear orange on the front turn signal lenses in the front bumper.  I have a Photo Etch piece with OLDSMOBILE lettering that'll be glued in between the headlights as well as a Photo Etch 442 emblem for the grill.  The front grill/bumper is a resin part from Model Car World.  I sent it to Little Motor Kar Company for the chrome plating.  Dale did a great job chroming the resin.

I sprayed Tamiya Gold Leaf on the oil pan and proportioning valve.  Then I followed with a 50/50 mix of Tamiya Clear Yellow and Clear orange sprayed over it for a gold anodized look.  In person they look a bit deeper and a touch more orange than the picture is showing.

The headers are painted with Alsa Easy Chrome over Alclad Aqua Gloss Clear.  The base color is gray primer.  The wheels are painted Alclad Polished Aluminum over Alclad Gloss Black Base.

The anodized fittings and fuel pump were done with Tamiya Clear Red and Clear Blue.  I used Alclad White Aluminum on the intake manifold.

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by crowe-t

[Brutalform]

I don’t know how I missed this. I just love this type of build. You’ve covered every detail that I’ve seen in the pictures. Just goes to show how far you can go with a build like this. Especially on a car you don’t see very often being built.

[slusher]

Really nice detail painting!!

[crowe-t]

Tom and Carl thanks for the nice words.

[TransAmMike]

Good to see your still plugging away at it Michael, looking great!!

[crowe-t]

On 11/15/2022 at 3:45 PM, TransAmMike said:

Good to see your still plugging away at it Michael, looking great!!

Thanks Mike.  I'm still plugging away.  I had to strip the paint off the body.  I'll be painting it this week.  Other than that almost everything else is finished. 

[crowe-t]

Since my last post I got some work done and unfortunately had to strip and re-paint the body.  I had problems polishing the clear.  

The tail light panel is painted with Alsa Easy Chrome.  I sprayed it heavier to look like aluminum.  I painted Tamiya X-27 acrylic clear red in the tail lights and will use the optional custom clear red tail light lenses that came in the '64 442 kit.

The fuel lines are connected to the fuel cell and the battery cables are done.  The battery in my friend's 442 is in the trunk.  The black wire is for the battery.

I made the coiled wire for the micro switch on the steering wheel and added the line lock switch to the shifter.

As I stripped the body I noticed it had started to crack along the driver's side rocker panel.  I added some styrene strips on the back sides to strengthen them.

The body and stripes are painted.  I used MicroScale 1/64" black pinstripe decals along side the wide painted stripes.

I'll be using Duplicolor Perfect Match Protective Clear Coat Finish on this.  I already sprayed some over the stripes to apply the pinstripe decals.

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by crowe-t

[NOBLNG]

It looks great Michael. Nice detailing on the chassis and interior. And those stripes look nice and crisp!?

[crowe-t]

It's been a long while since I posted any updates.  I'm glad to say that this one is finished.  First I want to show progress pictures and a description of the work involved.  I had to strip the body and then strip it again and again... lol  I had every problem I could imagine from bad paint to cracks appearing in the body.  The AMT 1964 body I'm using is from an old kit and the plastic is thin.  After having so many things go wrong I decided to give up on the body and start on a new one.  I picked up another AMT 1964 Oldsmobile 442 kit and started modifying a new body.  This time I reinforced the inside of the fenders, quarter panels, under the windshield cowl... with sheet styrene and straight pins glued in with CA glue.

The hood scoop on the first body's hood was a bit too low so this time I paid better attention to the size and shape.  It's much closer to the real 442's hood scoop.  In the beginning of the Summer I painted the body, sprayed the stripes, applied the small black pinstripe decals alongside the wider black stripes and sprayed the clear.  In all I think between the 2 bodies I gave this one about 6 paint jobs.  I wanted this paint job to be the final one and as it turns out it is.  Hurray!!!

I'll post more progress pictures in another post and then show the finished model.

Edited October 4, 2023 by crowe-t

[crowe-t]

Over the Summer I continued to polish the clear, spray the front inner fender wells(engine bay) black, and spray black under the hood.  After all the polishing I applied the Bare Metal Foil on the trim.

The photo etch hood pins and side body emblems from The Model Car Garage were glued in place.  I also painted the inside of the photo etch 442 emblems.  I attached the rear license plate and the custom front plate to the bumpers.  The license plate numbers are blurred out to protect the innocent. lololol  On this new body I removed the molded in door handles and used the chrome door handles from the Lindberg '67 Oldsmobile 442 kit.

I'll continue the progress pictures in another post due to the amount of pictures.

Edited October 4, 2023 by crowe-t

[crowe-t]

The resin tail light panel I got from MCW didn't have sharp details and the tail lights weren't wide enough so I decided to scratch build a new one.  In the picture with both tail light panels painted the new one I scratch built is on the bottom with the wider tail lights.

I also didn't like the resin wheels I had gotten for this.  I found a set of Weld Drag Lites on E-Bay from one of the Revell/Monogram Pro Stock Kits.  I cut the outer bead locks off the rear wheels and attached the front wheels inner outer rims.  In the Pro Stock kits the front wheels mount on a spindle and there are outer rims for the inner front wheels that are chrome.  They fit perfectly on the rear wheels once the bead locks are cut off.  I did this modification on the rear wheels to make them resemble street car wheels.  I did have to add the small screws around the perimeter that the 1:1 car has.

Edited October 4, 2023 by crowe-t

[crowe-t]

The last change I made was the carb.  The resin carb I had was too large and made the air cleaner sit too high.  I got a resin carb from Fireball Modelworks and added the plumbing as I had on the first one.  The new one is the unpainted one in the picture.  

The interior, chassis and engine were glued in next along with the tail light panel and the wheels/tires.

 

Edited October 4, 2023 by crowe-t

[crowe-t]

Here's some sneak peek pictures of the finished model.  I'm shipping this to my friend so I mounted it in an AMT Display Case so nothing comes in contact with the body.  It's packed in a Pelican case with the hood in a separate box.

Below is the link to the finished pictures in the Gallery section.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/185492-1965-oldsmobile-442-built-from-an-amt-64-olds-442-and-lindberg-67-442/

Thanks for following along with this long build!

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2023 by crowe-t

[bobss396]

Wow, skill level 745... lots of work went into this one.

[crowe-t]

Thanks Bob for the kind words!

[larman]

Wow! Excellent work! 

[Steve H]

Outstanding build Michael !!  Shame that the paint fought you so hard, but the extra time and effort you put in to make it right really shows. You captured your friend’s car perfectly, I’m sure he’ll lose his mind when he gets it.  Very cool project, and the detail work you added is fantastic. Top shelf!! 

Cheers, Steve

[crowe-t]

Thanks Larry and Steve for the compliments!

The paint was fighting me and then the original body started cracking.  Too much handling stripping it and the thin plastic wasn't good.  This one was a bear to paint.  Thankfully I got it to work this last time.  I can do the stripes in my sleep now I've masked and sprayed them so many times.  lol

I'll fix the original body and either build another one like this one or use the AMT '67 Pro Street Chevelle chassis and parts and make a Pro Street version of my friend's car.

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by crowe-t

[Steve H]

4 minutes ago, crowe-t said:

Thanks Larry and Steve for the compliments!

The paint was fighting me and then the original body started cracking.  Too much handling stripping it and the thin plastic wasn't good.  This one was a bear to paint.  Thankfully I got it to work this last time.  I can do the stripes in my sleep now I've masked and sprayed them so many times.  lol

I'll fix the original body and either build another one like this one or use the AMT '66 Pro Street Chevelle chassis and parts and make a Pro Street version of my friend's car.

 

Oh…. A pro street version would be sweet. Take it down into the weeds a bit… No pressure, but that would be cool build.

[crowe-t]

17 minutes ago, Steve H said:

Oh…. A pro street version would be sweet. Take it down into the weeds a bit… No pressure, but that would be cool build.

I'm sort of liking the Pro Street idea instead of building the same thing again.  The AMT '67 Pro Street Chevelle seems like a good donor kit and they are easy to get.  I'd put Weld Drag Lites on and maybe do a blown Olds 455.  Make the same front seats in the interior and the same roll bar so it looks like the same car with the tubbed rear and blower.  Keep the cowl hood scoop but have the blower sticking out through it and go a little lower on the stance.

Edited October 5, 2023 by crowe-t

[crowe-t]

16 minutes ago, Steve H said:

Oh…. A pro street version would be sweet. Take it down into the weeds a bit… No pressure, but that would be cool build.

You did this amazing '67 Chevelle Pro Street build in the link below.  It's one of my favorites.  I'd love to do the same but with the '65 Olds 442 body I have.

https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/154050-67-chevelle-pro-street/page/1/#comment-2763671

Would you suggest the Revell '67 Chevelle Pro Street kit as a donor over the AMT '67 Pro Street kit?

Edited October 5, 2023 by crowe-t