55 Chevy Sedan from the American Graffiti rollover scene

[alan barton]

I mentioned our club's American Graffiti diorama when I posted my 61 Galaxie police car from the famous "ripped out rear-end" scene. At the same time I was also building a '55 Chevy for the rollover scene.

It took a lot of freeze framing to get all the research information I needed.  Compounding this is the fact that there are three separate cars in the scene.  The drag race with Milner's coupe starts off with the movie "star car".  The car rolling over is a second car simply bodgied up for its short moment of infamy and the final car is actually a 55 hardtop with pieces of painted timber wedged in place to look like a sedan.  It obviously is not the car that is seen rolling over because the front fender, especially the right hand one, is still intact with a working headlight, after supposedly completing a heavy roll over starting on the right hand corner of its nose!

I chose to build the thirds car but as if it was a true sedan, not a hardtop.  I started with a very sad Revell '56 Chevy post sedan that my brother attempted to convert into an Australian Holden about 50 years ago. The conversion was clearly beyond our combined teenaged skill set and it has languished in a box ever since.

It had broken A pillars but amazingly the door sills had never snapped and the chassis and steering was still intact.  You can still see the orange diff and fuel tank that would have been very "on trend" in the early seventies!  The highly detailed nature of these early Revell kits suited the bill perfectly for this model, as it needed to have opening panels and would be perpetually displayed upside down. I call it my "Doesn't Matter" model because, being displayed upside down and having suffered a rollover, I could overlook flaws that would normally stick out like a sore thumb.

Briefly, I cut the ravaged 56 front clip off just in front of the cowl vent and the door hinge mounts, to preserve these details.  I then carefully removed the front clip from an abandoned AMT 55 hardtop that I acquired somewhere and joined the two sections.  The hood scoop is from a Monogram Early Iron series 40 Ford pickup with the details sanded off.  I had an odd scrap of a rear 55 taillight section that I grafted into the LH side and used putty to modify the damaged rh side 56 quarter into a 55.

The engine came from the parts box and as the rollover car was a Powerglide, I fabbed up a simple plastic tranny pan to glue straight onto the "four speed"- doesn't matter!. One door is shown damaged in the movie but the doors on the 56 were perfect and I couldn't bring myself to damage one so modified a rough Revell 57 Nomad door instead. The chromies are tatty ones from my parts box that don't even match but, hey, "doesn't matter"- they got damaged in the rollover!

I also glued thin plastic around the windshield opening to simulate the flange that the rubber grips onto - I do this a lot on my speedway cars as well as it subtly hints at the body being a real steel car.

The final paint was very cheap hardware store black enamel '-"doesn't matter" - which actually looks a lot better in real life than in the photos.  Being a movie car I didn't want it too nice anyway. Rather than use heat to damage the rolled over roof, I made a simple base out of packing foam with a depression in it to accommodate the original roof - who knows, I might want to restore the car one day!

The car has been displayed twice now and will have its final outing in December at our annual hot rod show. It looks the part and best of all, was made almost entirely of otherwise unloved parts.  Definitely a case where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!

Cheers

Alan

[Oldcarfan27]

Looks great. Well, at least it captures the look of the wrecked car anyway.

You should photograph it by the side of a long desolate road, with some smoke coming off of it.

Well done!

[espo]

Great looking Diorama. You really captured the look of the car after the roll over.  

[ChrisR]

Cool!

[PappyD340]

Very nice!

[1959scudetto]

Excellent idea and use of "unloved" parts that you possibly would have discarded. Immediately Bob Falfa's car leaving Paradise Rd. comes to my mind!

[NYLIBUD]

That is cool.??

[carrucha]

Cool build.  Good job replicating the accident damage.

[crazyjim]

That's pretty neat.

[NOBLNG]

Well done there Alan!? That is one of my all time favourite movies.?

[Bills72sj]

Very nice creativity and craftsmanship to accomplish your vision.

[David G.]

Nicely Done!

Isn't it a great feeling to find a use for those old parts box bodies?

David G.

[mustang1989]

That's a great idea and excellent use of parts!!