'39 Chevy revamp.

[customline]

A bit of progress. Engine mostly assembled, ladder bars painted with attached shocks, slicks sanded, a little more bondo work done, flip nose work progressing. I'll explain the nose work...sheet stock added to both sides of fender mating area- the body side is flush; this will more or less make up for the ker. Magnets will be hidden behind the .020 material. On the nose side the .030 sheet is recessed enough to accommodate the magnets that will be set there. The nose will be held closed by the magnets. When the hinge is finally set, the nose will be positioned closed. The hidden magnets will be located and glued according to the positioning of the nose magnets that are glued beforehand. Don't worry,  I've done this before ?...

[customline]

Mini-update: flip-nose progress. Glued hood to fenders and taped assembly in place. Fabbed hinge from aluminum tube and brass wire and glued nose side in place.  Added heavy members to eventually support nose. Glued magnets on nose side of fender and aligned for body side magnets which were allowed to mate themselves in glue (that's as clear as I can make it ?) That's it for now . ? Note: pictures are not in the order they were originally inserted for whatever reason ?lop

[customline]

 just more pix? mocked up loosely.

[espo]

Great looking fab work on the frontend. I think the inline 6 looks great as well. 

[customline]

 

On 1/15/2022 at 11:34 AM, espo said:

Great looking fab work on the frontend. I think the inline 6 looks great as well. 

Thanks, David, I did a little more today. Scratched a steering box and such, got primer on body work. Got to get a complete chassis up on rubber so I can further the flip nose hinge placement and then paint it. Much to do....lots of refining . By the way, that steering box is not Legos. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by customline

[bisc63]

This is progressing nicely. I like your methodical approach, and willingness to risk getting it wrong before you get it right! Fun build here.

Edited January 19, 2022 by bisc63

[customline]

On 1/18/2022 at 9:16 PM, bisc63 said:

This is progressing nicely. I like your methodical approach, and willingness to risk getting it wrong before you get it right! Fun build here.

Thanks, Rusty, I appreciate your interest. It's going slow because I keep dropping stuff on the floor but I will get there. I have 2 other cars I'm working on.  One is almost ready for paint ,the other one is close to being deemed "FINISHED". My next project will be a "rust- bucket" and my mental capacity is pretty much spoken for. ?

[customline]

Today's work involved some body work  on the nose and RF fender and fastening the nose hinge to the frame. Not much but better than nothing 

[customline]

Update: Thanks to lobo2me (Steve) for putting me on to Plastruct diamond plate, HO scale, sheet styrene. It's perfect for this application. I think it adds another dimension of realism and detail. I love it!. 

All I have for this update is the interior construction. The original "tub" had a jump seat molded in and that had to be removed and replaced with sheet stock. Then I went crazy with my new favorite scratch-building material. Sprayed it with rare and precious Model Master Aluminum Plate (buffing) Metalizer. I don't know what I'll do when I run out of it. ?.  I installed the bomber seats that I borrowed from my new '30 coupe kit and added the modified roll bar from a Revell '68 Dart kit. The rest is just fabbed up stuff, nothing fancy. The dash still needs some details and then I have more body work to do. Thanks for looking ?!

[TransAmMike]

Lotta great work there Jim. Seeing that hot rod Chevy Stovebolt gives me an idea for an old '53 Corvette kit I have laying around tha tI've been wanting to de as a gasser.  Now I just need the engine.   Cool build?

[Dave72]

Very cool looking build Jim! I really like straight six and gasser look! You are a talented fella! Fab work looks great! Nice job so far.

[customline]

16 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

Lotta great work there Jim. Seeing that hot rod Chevy Stovebolt gives me an idea for an old '53 Corvette kit I have laying around tha tI've been wanting to de as a gasser.  Now I just need the engine.   Cool build?

 

16 hours ago, Dave72 said:

Very cool looking build Jim! I really like straight six and gasser look! You are a talented fella! Fab work looks great! Nice job so far.

Thanks for your interest! You should know that the ideas for this build are not mine alone. Y'all helped! (That way, if it goes belly-up, I won't feel so bad ?.) 

 

[Dave72]

3 hours ago, customline said:

 

Thanks for your interest! You should know that the ideas for this build are not mine alone. Y'all helped! (That way, if it goes belly-up, I won't feel so bad ?.) 

 

I take the same approach from time to time! Lol!

[Supernurd]

Very nice work!!

[customline]

As you know, the tail lights on a '39 Chevy look like an afterthought. That situation needed to be addressed. All I could think of was this. Ta Daaah....'59  Corvette tail lights!  A little Bondo was used to match the contour of the body to that of the light bezel. Also, I added back the drip rails. Further work will  be needed on both areas. Stay tuned ?

[bisc63]

"Vette taillights are a real nice solution. Never understood the '39's design there; a swing and a miss!

[customline]

11 hours ago, bisc63 said:

"Vette taillights are a real nice solution. Never understood the '39's design there; a swing and a miss!

Yup. It seems GM was not taking any chances with new styling trends. ? 

I'm not alone in this particular tail light swap. 

Edited February 22, 2022 by customline

[customline]

Nope. 86 the 'Vette tail light. Not gonna work. It was a great idea but I couldn't make it look right. Bummer. It's getting either '41 Plymouth units or some other nondescript things I picked out of my chrome junk. It's gonna work, though, trust me...?

Today I painted the upper shell (for the second time ?) with Duplicolor (see below) and this time I will be covering that with Krylon gloss clear, out of necessity, and again after decal placement. Gotta do it all before the green dust flies because I paint out in nature ?. I'm getting there, but it's not easy these days ?. Thanks for looking.

Still some decisions to take.....stand by....

[bisc63]

Lookin' good in silver! Almost has a bare metal look. Shame about the tail lights.

[customline]

5 hours ago, bisc63 said:

Lookin' good in silver! Almost has a bare metal look. Shame about the tail lights.

Thanks, Rusty, I went that way because of the decal situation. The paint was certainly cheap enough!  It had to be a light color so I could use clear paper. Even after a second run-through, I worry. In the sun it's pretty glittery and it might help brighten the decal colors.. not sure which ones to use but I gave myself options. 

[espo]

The red lettering should stand out the best against the bright silver color. The body sure looks nice and smooth. One taillight that comes to mind is the '49,'50 Ford from AMT. The part comes chromed, and you would have to paint some clear red is all. They are sort of oblong shaped with a chrome molding and a flat mating surface to the body. I would sand the back side of the housing, so it sits closer to the body. A lot of guys used to run the '49 Pontiac round lights on 1:1's. There are many other possibilities depending on what you have in your parts boxes.  

[customline]

2 hours ago, espo said:

The red lettering should stand out the best against the bright silver color. The body sure looks nice and smooth. One taillight that comes to mind is the '49,'50 Ford from AMT. The part comes chromed, and you would have to paint some clear red is all. They are sort of oblong shaped with a chrome molding and a flat mating surface to the body. I would sand the back side of the housing, so it sits closer to the body. A lot of guys used to run the '49 Pontiac round lights on 1:1's. There are many other possibilities depending on what you have in your parts boxes.  

I agree with you on the red lettering, Dave, it's my "gut" choice. I jumped the gun on the chassis color and it's too late to go back and do something else. That yellow engine and frame would, in a perfect world, go better with green. The silver is pretty neutral so purple or magenta or whatever would work with it. But that yellow.....I dunno. ? I really need to plan better. This build was a departure from my usual thought processes and kind of an experiment. You all have helped with it and it was a way to get out of my rut. But the yellow was all me. ? I don't know what I was thinking (maybe it was the booze ?)  my glass is covered no matter what I decide. I have all the colors of the rainbow in acetate (a gasser gotta have colored glass!)

[espo]

16 hours ago, customline said:

I agree with you on the red lettering, Dave, it's my "gut" choice. I jumped the gun on the chassis color and it's too late to go back and do something else. That yellow engine and frame would, in a perfect world, go better with green. The silver is pretty neutral so purple or magenta or whatever would work with it. But that yellow.....I dunno. ? I really need to plan better. This build was a departure from my usual thought processes and kind of an experiment. You all have helped with it and it was a way to get out of my rut. But the yellow was all me. ? I don't know what I was thinking (maybe it was the booze ?)  my glass is covered no matter what I decide. I have all the colors of the rainbow in acetate (a gasser gotta have colored glass!)

I wouldn't beat your self up over the yellow frame. While I might not have done that thinking in advance, looking at the frame and the engine colors together I kind of like the contrast between the body color and the chassis. I think if you get to many colors going on it becomes jarring to the eye. The more I look at this it really looks planed and goes together well.  

[customline]

2 hours ago, espo said:

I wouldn't beat your self up over the yellow frame. While I might not have done that thinking in advance, looking at the frame and the engine colors together I kind of like the contrast between the body color and the chassis. I think if you get to many colors going on it becomes jarring to the eye. The more I look at this it really looks planed and goes together well.  

Well, thanks for talking me off the ledge, Dave. ?  There was a time when the body would be painted yellow as well as the rest. I had a bad experience with my home-made decals and it gave me second thoughts about yellow messing with decals printed on clear paper. White or silver or a very light gold shouldn't be a problem. The can of Tamiya white pearl I currently posess (and was saving for a special build)  might have made it to this project had I not started the '66 Riv. I've had that can sitting on the shelf for 2+ years and the Riv will get that paint job. So the red- headed step-child got the $2.00 can of Duplicolor I scored from Ollie's a few weeks ago. ?. I tested one of my decals on the silver and there won't be a problem regardless of what color decals I apply. I wish I hadn't used that one though. I only made 1 set of each type . Today the sun is shining and it's 64...gotta go clear the body! 

[Jantrix]

I'm just catching up on this. A lot of just terrific work. Very impressive.