Johan ‘70 Cadillac ElDorado pro touring (low and aggressive)

[NOBLNG]

Hi Steve. Sorry to hear about your recent setbacks. I hope you both heal quickly.

I too like the first set of wheels best. The interior is coming together nicely and….Ooh, I love that green colour!😍 what brand of paint is it?

[ea0863]

THIS is a car George Thorogood would enjoy driving! - - - Bad to the Bone!  

[Steve H]

On 2/14/2023 at 9:39 PM, 89AKurt said:

First time I saw this WIP.  I choose #2 wheels.  I love that your are using a "collectible" Johan kit!

Thanks Kurt, great to hear from you! I’m sure that there are a few purists, or collectors that I’ve ticked off, but I collect to build. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

 

On 2/15/2023 at 11:34 AM, catpack68 said:

I’m enjoying this build.I vote for the 1st set of wheels. It’s going to look killer with the colors you chose for the body and wheels👍

Thanks Scott, I appreciate the feedback. 

On 2/15/2023 at 5:06 PM, bobthehobbyguy said:

My vote is choice 1. Given the green I think the inner rim would look gold. Just a thought.

 

Hi Bob, yes, regardless of wheel choice, they will have black rims, and gold centres. Glad you approve of the colour choices. There is also some modifying to do on the rims. The mock ups are a bit crude, but I want to finalize my wheel choice before I start altering things. Say tuned I will have one more wheel choice tomorrow…

[Steve H]

On 2/15/2023 at 7:18 PM, NOBLNG said:

Hi Steve. Sorry to hear about your recent setbacks. I hope you both heal quickly.

I too like the first set of wheels best. The interior is coming together nicely and….Ooh, I love that green colour!😍 what brand of paint is it?

Helloooooo Greg! I appreciate your well wishes, we are both improving every day thank you. I’m pretty sure it will be wheel one, but I have one more mock to do, hopefully tomorrow. The interior is starting to take shape. The test spoon has a base of Tamiya black, then three light coats of “Automotive Touchup Paint” Vedoro green, then Mr. Hobby super smooth matte clear. Touch up Paint has pretty much every factory colour, and they sell it in spray cans for us non airbrush types… Thanks for checking in. 

 

On 2/15/2023 at 7:23 PM, ea0863 said:

THIS is a car George Thorogood would enjoy driving! - - - Bad to the Bone!  

Haha! Love it, thanks EMRE. 

[bobthehobbyguy]

Definitely a cool project. As far as the purists models are for building how you want to. There are no rules. A unbuilt model is just a blank canvas to work with.

[Steve H]

On 2/17/2023 at 7:20 PM, bobthehobbyguy said:

Definitely a cool project. As far as the purists models are for building how you want to. There are no rules. A unbuilt model is just a blank canvas to work with.

Hi Bob, I couldn’t agree more. That said, I understand why some people collect and preserve the rare kits. Me, I want to build them.

[Steve H]

Took a minute to get back to my hobby desk… Anton’s comment on wheel choice gave me one more idea I hadn’t thought of. One of the many reasons I love being on this forum. So right now, the front runner is definitely wheel number 1.  
I’ll call the new option number 5. With both of theses options the rims will be black, the centre’s will be gold.

#1

#5

The rims will be modified and the centre won’t be as deep offset as in the photos. Wheel 1 is from the Foose 65 Impala, wheel 5 is from the Foose Caddy.

Hoping for another update soon. 
 

Thanks for having a look!

[bobthehobbyguy]

I think wheel choice 5 is even better than 1.

[bobthehobbyguy]

54 minutes ago, Steve H said:

Hi Bob, I couldn’t agree more. That said, I understand why some people collect and preserve the rare kits. Me, I want to build them.

I agree. But to me the goal of preserving kits is so they can be built. And some believe that only certain styles of builds are appropriate. Just saying there is room for both philosophies.

[KWT]

I think I'm gonna have to lean towards 1. Seems to fit the idea better... but that's just me

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Steve!

Wow, impressive progress, bravo! 

I'd vote for wheels number 1. And I'm curious: are the door panels from the Lincoln LSC? They kind of look like them... 

Keep at it!

CT 

[Russell C]

Switching my vote to wheel choice #5.

[Mattilacken]

I like them both. But i would go for #1 😃 It has in my opinion a more agressive look.

[Steve H]

On 2/21/2023 at 8:25 AM, bobthehobbyguy said:

I agree. But to me the goal of preserving kits is so they can be built. And some believe that only certain styles of builds are appropriate. Just saying there is room for both philosophies.

We agree Bob. One step further is to preserve them as a built model on display to enjoy. 
 

 

On 2/21/2023 at 3:57 PM, KWT said:

I think I'm gonna have to lean towards 1. Seems to fit the idea better... but that's just me

Thanks Jeremy, I’m still leaning that way too. Final decision will be made once the body work is complete. 

[Steve H]

23 hours ago, Claude Thibodeau said:

Hi Steve!

Wow, impressive progress, bravo! 

I'd vote for wheels number 1. And I'm curious: are the door panels from the Lincoln LSC? They kind of look like them... 

Keep at it!

CT 

Hello Claude! My progress is always slow, but things are taking shape. Your keen eye is once again correct, those are indeed the door panels from the pro street Lincoln, albeit slightly altered to fit… Thanks for checking in sir, always good to hear from you.

 

 

22 hours ago, Russell C said:

Switching my vote to wheel choice #5.

Thanks Russell, I appreciate you checking back in. As I mentioned above, I’m still leaning towards #1, but #5 is still a contender. 

17 hours ago, Mattilacken said:

I like them both. But i would go for #1 😃 It has in my opinion a more agressive look.

I was wondering which way you would lean. When your last reply mentioned “still looks Caddy” the light bulb in my brain lit up (dimly) and I thought about the Foose Caddy wheels. I agree that #1 looks more aggressive and that is why I am leaning that way. 
 

Thank you all for taking the time to comment, it is always appreciated!

Cheers, Steve

[Steve H]

Time to get into the meat and potatoes of this thing…. bodywork!  With this being a somewhat rare kit, and one that I have been thinking about building for years, I really want to make it unique. I must say, I’m glad it took me several years to get around to building it, as my skills have improved considerably since joining this forum. I’ve learned a ton from all you talented builders, so thanks!  
 

Time to “wide body” this beast!! Okay, don’t panic 😱. There won’t be any flares, I still plan on maintaining the beautiful lines of the body. This is something I have never done before, why not practice on a rare collectable kit!! So here we go…

I sat and looked at this thing a lot before deciding where to make the cuts, and to envision what it will hopefully look like once done. My goal is, that after it’s done, you’ll have to REALLY look close to notice what has been altered.

First I put tape where cut will be. (I later put a strip of aluminum as well for a better guide for the cut) The outermost pen marks are the extent of the cuts.

Before cutting I added a brace on the inside of the body just above where my cut will be. This is mostly to make sure the body maintains its shape, but also for strength while I work on it.

Cuts were made with back of #11 blade. After cuts were complete, I sat the bottom half of the body in hot water to soften it up a bit. I only submerged it to my cut line. Then, VERY carefully, I slowly worked some shims in to get the desired width. Yes…this was very stressful!!

Here you can see why I braced the body inside as wanted to be sure the fenders above the cut retain their shape and don’t dip inwards with the pressure from the shims. The total additional width is 2.75 mm. You will notice the shims  are different from one side to the other, that was to compensate for the difference in the thickness of the body. The plastic on the driver side is almost twice as thick, and that was after I thinned it some!! 
I made some plastic filler pieces for above the cut and very roughly shaped them before attaching them. I wanted to use plastic for strength, and to minimize the amount of putty. The most important thing is to maintain the fender “peak” exactly as it is. It’s such a beautiful part of the car. 

After a round of filing and sanding, I have a coat of putty on it. Not pretty, but a decent starting point…

Here is a before, and after.

I won’t know for sure what it looks like til after a few rounds of “fill sand prime”, but so far happy with it. 
 

Also got some more baby steps on the interior. The speaker box, now has holes for the speakers. I found an amp from a die cast, and decided to add some cooling fins. The cooling fins are tops from some old valve covers. Looks a little rough now, but paint will make it look like something. I also started building a simple roll bar but that is not shown.

I will be tackling widening the front fenders next in a similar matter as the rears, but likely only about 2mm wider for the front, instead of the 2.75mm. 

That’s it for now, as always, thanks for having a look.

[Mattilacken]

Body mods looks good mate! Great work!!

[NOBLNG]

Well done body mods there Steve. Can’t wait to see it in primer.😎

[Steve H]

56 minutes ago, Mattilacken said:

Body mods looks good mate! Great work!!

Thanks Anton, appreciate that.

16 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

Well done body mods there Steve. Can’t wait to see it in primer.😎

Would you settle for partial primer?…. Coming right up.

[Steve H]

No “in progress” shots of the front end work. Partly because it was a little trickier than I thought it was going to be, and partly because it looked like a real mess🤪. There was some anxious moments and few swear words🤬. So front and rear quarters are now widened. Still A LOT of blending to do so that the fenders “flow” better, but I’m happy with the overall look. The peaks of the front fenders still need quite a bit of work, but I wanted to see it primer. I have a fair bit of bodywork still to do on this thing. 

 More soon! 

[SpikeSchumacher]

Wow, Steve. This is coming along nicely 😉

[Mattilacken]

Sweet! If you hadn’t shown that you did them wider I would never hav known! Just seen a more aggressive body! God job!

[Steve H]

1 hour ago, SpikeSchumacher said:

Wow, Steve. This is coming along nicely 😉

Thanks Spike!! Still LOTS to do…

12 minutes ago, Mattilacken said:

Sweet! If you hadn’t shown that you did them wider I would never hav known! Just seen a more aggressive body! God job!

Funny, I was thinking last night as I was sanding away, “It’s going to take more time and more work, to have it look like I haven’t done any work!” 😅 Hopefully it will be worth it in the end. Still need to scratch a subtle rear spoiler, and front splitter. Haven’t made up my mind on the front grill yet, some more trim to shave off… 

 

Thanks for your encouragement Anton!

[Jantrix]

Very good work. I'll be following.

[AmericanMuscleFan]

WOW Steve!!!  What an awesome project and my apologies by the way for being so late to the party.  As others have mentioned, I really enjoy watching you work your magic on this precious Jo-Han kit.  A wise modeler once told me one day that a kit, no matter what its market value, will be even more valuable when finished if it is assembled with care.  I love your vision and I know that we are embarking on a project of great interest that will lead to another success story.  The body is a good canvas, the chosen color is superb and your hands will do the rest, I'm in, my friend! 😉