'66 Thunderbird Kustom

[customline]

This is bothering me now.  I need to rework these areas for a cleaner look. Not happy yet.

[bisc63]

12 hours ago, customline said:

Hey, how about that lip that sticks out under the grille? Is it me or does it need to be trimmed back?

I could see trimming the center part back to the smaller end level, or possibly extending by blending it outward, if that makes sense. I'll try a quick and dirty image to illustrate my thinking.

Edited June 7, 2023 by bisc63
added info.

[customline]

15 minutes ago, bisc63 said:

I could see trimming the center part back to the smaller end level, or possibly extending by blending it outward, if that makes sense. I'll try a quick and dirty image to illustrate my thinking.

That's got me thinking "bumper".  I have an extensive collection of bumpers. You have just opened Pandora's box, Rusty. The right bumper would be welcome, certainly.  Good work, Thank you, sir! A set of lakes pipes are in order too, by the way. Gotta look for those.....same box ?.

[TarheelRick]

This TBird is coming along very nicely.  That is the problem with customizing, "maybe if I change this" or "would that look better if...".  I am working on a 50 Ford convertible that seems to be nit-picking me to death. Just minor changes become paramount productions.  If you haven't decided on the vinyl roof yet, a suggestion would be to apply a very light skim of putty to fill in the vinyl pattern; it would require much less sanding that trying to remove the vinyl pattern.  I know you have probably caught it, but I noticed in one of you straight-on rear shots there were a couple of small divots above and below the break-line at the right taillight.  Keep those updates coming, I need to inspiration to continue on my '50.

[milo1303s]

Great build love it !! Dislike the wheels How bout the 65 Buick riv spokes or Ansens with the triple whites Radars from the 65 Pontiac Bonneville just a thought .

[customline]

4 hours ago, TarheelRick said:

This TBird is coming along very nicely.  That is the problem with customizing, "maybe if I change this" or "would that look better if...".  I am working on a 50 Ford convertible that seems to be nit-picking me to death. Just minor changes become paramount productions.  If you haven't decided on the vinyl roof yet, a suggestion would be to apply a very light skim of putty to fill in the vinyl pattern; it would require much less sanding that trying to remove the vinyl pattern.  I know you have probably caught it, but I noticed in one of you straight-on rear shots there were a couple of small divots above and below the break-line at the right taillight.  Keep those updates coming, I need to inspiration to continue on my '50.

Thanks, Rick, I keep forgetting about those cute little dimples. You should see my '50 convertible disaster ?

[customline]

3 hours ago, milo1303s said:

Great build love it !! Dislike the wheels How bout the 65 Buick riv spokes or Ansens with the triple whites Radars from the 65 Pontiac Bonneville just a thought .

Great idea, Bob. Thanks! But I'm afraid I don't have that kit in stock. And my birthday has gone by......wait.......FATHER'S DAY! 

[customline]

Update: 

The bumper thing didn't pan out.  I noticed that the "lip" , if viewed from above, matches the shape of the nose (duh...) .  The lip must remain unaltered. The solution to my quandary is to add more Bondo ☺️.  The bottom corners of the grille surround needed re-contouring. Did that and opened the Bondo. The results, I believe are an improvement.  The only question now is weather or not adding parking lights would be a good move. And what about skirts? My wheel/tire situation is unresolved, I'm told.  Thanks for looking ?

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by customline
Added more bs

[bisc63]

There's a certain cleanliness to your front now that's quite nice. Looking at it now, I see a candidate for a classic "pancaking" of the hood to further clean up the front view and enhance the streamlined appearance.

Edited June 8, 2023 by bisc63
typo

[Calb56]

I'm enjoying this process. You're doing great. On building what I'd thought would be a straight forward hot rod has turned out to be an exercise in "didn't pan out"...

[customline]

1 hour ago, bisc63 said:

There's a certain cleanliness to your front now that's quite nice. Looking at it now, I see a candidate for a classic "pancaking" of the hood to further clean up the front view and enhance the streamlined appearance.

 

1 hour ago, Calb56 said:

I'm enjoying this process. You're doing great. On building what I'd thought would be a straight forward hot rod has turned out to be an exercise in "didn't pan out"...

 

It's a process.....? Hang in there, friends...Rusty, I will look at the hoods and listen to what the voices tell me to do. Charlie, it was not intended as a pun. I'm not that clever ?. Thank you both for hangin'.

[espo]

Been following your body mods on this build. I have not offered any suggestions since it seemed as though they were not needed. Your mention of the turn signal lights made me think of something I have seen done on some contemporary customs. I have noticed that some builders of 1:1 cars are using a headlight that has a turn signal built in to the lense. Don't know if that would work in your case, but just a thought. I think that placing the turn signals behind the grill area would detract from that overall design. 

[customline]

1 hour ago, espo said:

Been following your body mods on this build. I have not offered any suggestions since it seemed as though they were not needed. Your mention of the turn signal lights made me think of something I have seen done on some contemporary customs. I have noticed that some builders of 1:1 cars are using a headlight that has a turn signal built in to the lense. Don't know if that would work in your case, but just a thought. I think that placing the turn signals behind the grill area would detract from that overall design. 

Oh they're welcome if not needed, David. A comment or suggestion may not work out in the current context but those ideas add to the overall base of thought for everyone to draw from. If I don't use an idea as presented, I may find something in it and apply it in another project or someone else will. Feel free to empty your bucket!

Actually, Dave, what I had in mind was drilling the pan below the grille opening on each side and inserting a piece of tube for a Frenched-in look but it might detract from the smooth, clean look. I think I will just pretend that they lie behind the grille out of sight. I appreciate your thoughtful input and that goes for everyone. 

[Slotto]

Looking good Jimbo. I'm on the fence about the roof. The a pillars, to me, look a little too long. I like the Impala piece though. That was meant for the back window. I like Rustys illustration for the front bumper

[customline]

11 hours ago, Slotto said:

Looking good Jimbo. I'm on the fence about the roof. The a pillars, to me, look a little too long. I like the Impala piece though. That was meant for the back window. I like Rustys illustration for the front bumper

The custom backlight piece is too short for the T-bird roof. The windshield frame is molded with the body. In a perfect world, the top should be chopped but I wanted to avoid cutting those A-pillars so I "adjusted" the Cs so I could get the backlight more or less centered, top to bottom. The result is a sloped back roof. It's a compromise. The custom backlight piece also needed to be set at an angle I could not give it without a real chop. Compromise. When viewed from the rear, the backlight looks "humped" in the middle. Hey, it's an experiment. The next guy to take this one on will look at mine and say "Oh he'll no" ? . Your assessment is spot on, Steve...and I liked Rusty's idea too. I looked for a bumper that would work (to wrap around the lip - his illustration didn't include a bumper but the look suggested it to me). It's hard to describe my thought process ?.  I got to finish up the body tweeks and as soon as the "smoke from a distant fire" goes away, get another primer coat on it.

I thought about painting this one with Createx iridescent dark blue. Then I watched some videos on you tube...... Nope. Not doing that. 

[customline]

Just a little update. Those L60 15s are a wheel well full. Had to make room in the rear and since I will be making the skirts permanent, it would be nice to have a little clearance. I've been working on the roof seam at the rear deck trying to make it look like it is actually part of the body.  Sprayed the chassis again, this time the RH was around 47%- no blush this time. It's getting there.  I got a few pix. I also put a coat of Tamiya TS45 white pearl on the Chevy yesterday. Heading to Hobby Town today for some Tamiya transparent color yet to be determined. Of course I will check for clearance items. ?

[customline]

Last primer coat to wet-sand then some fine white Tamiya ?. Finished the interior. I'm thinking some shade of purple or orange pearl for the kustom body work. ?.   I dunno. Help me out. Oh...I guess I got the T-Bird bug up my A55. I scored a '62 kit on ebay last week. ? What a nice kit! I keep finding those /ERTL kits in the light gray styrene to be great kits. The 'Bird body is perfect!  ?  not even a trace of a parting line.  Tiny bit of flash on all those engine parts ?, but lots of sharp details throughout.  Couldn't wait to start it.....well...just the engine ?. 

 

[customline]

I couldn't help myself.    Started another one.....   Heh heh ☺️.....

[JollySipper]

4 minutes ago, customline said:

I couldn't help myself.    Started another one.....   Heh heh ☺️.....

The '62 T-Bird is really an excellent kit....... The only 'bad' to note about the '62 is that the dash is too wide. There's a bit of test fitting involved to get the interior to go up into the body. ( I wasn't sure if you knew........ )

[customline]

2 hours ago, JollySipper said:

The '62 T-Bird is really an excellent kit....... The only 'bad' to note about the '62 is that the dash is too wide. There's a bit of test fitting involved to get the interior to go up into the body. ( I wasn't sure if you knew........ )

I did not know that, TJ, thank you very much! That's the sort of thing that raises my BP. Yes, excellent works here. The ERTL influenced kits remind me of Moebius kits. Another one I have in my stash is the '58 Belvedere. Real nice.  So..... what's the work-around for the '62 dash?

[JollySipper]

12 minutes ago, customline said:

So..... what's the work-around for the '62 dash?

You pretty much have to build up the interior in mock-up, then keep removing material from the door panels where the dash spreads them until the interior fits up into the body. It's kind of a pain, but worth it to have such a nice finished product......

[bisc63]

This interior is really shaping up. Beautiful show car appearance.

[customline]

9 hours ago, JollySipper said:

You pretty much have to build up the interior in mock-up, then keep removing material from the door panels where the dash spreads them until the interior fits up into the body. It's kind of a pain, but worth it to have such a nice finished product......

I appreciate the heads-up on that, TJ.   There's justification for checking constantly on how things fit.  I ran into a fit problem on this one involving the engine position interfering with body to chassis fit. It's all good. You just can't let your guard down.

[customline]

8 hours ago, bisc63 said:

This interior is really shaping up. Beautiful show car appearance.

That dash was not fun and I tried to make it look somewhat like it's supposed to. I did discover something useful, though.  I used BMF "black chrome" on the flat area where the glove box resides and as I am rubbing it down I noticed the black coating is rubbing off on the "Thunderbird"......cool huh? You can speed it up with an alcohol dampened swab. Think of the possibilities ?. Thanks for checking in, Rusty.

[customline]

Oh....you forgot about me, dintcha?  Well I'm back. I never know what color I'm going to paint a project until the weather (and the voices?) tell me it's time to paint. Then, I can't remember what color I decided on for whichever car body is getting painted, so I go to the paint drawer and see what's in there and today I found two 1/4oz bottles Testor's purple metallic and a bottle of Boyd's Colors orange pearl. And the rest in in the pictures below. ?

Thanks for lying about remembering. ?

OK, it's a little syrupy  but after it's all together....