1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham

[Andy Oldenburg]

It did give me a heavy chuckle to read about some of your own experiences with this kit. I am not the only victim😄. It seems to have a bad reputation... hmmmm, how come🤔😂

So I´m just about finished with the engine now. The pulley wheels, alternator and the power steering pump are all connected to the block with brass pins. They can take a rough handling and pull from the belts without bending off.

Before I attached the belts I fabricated a mount for the alternator and added micro hex nuts. The parts received a bit of patina.

Belts and fan attached...

The body is spayed with a blue base coat. This gives an approximate impression of the body color. This model will end up with a metallic blue finish. The surface is smoothend with 6000 grit and ready for the final paint job.

It was time to take care of the bonnet. I wanted to try something new about the hinges. Until now I have always been bending them out of 1mm brass wire and connecting them to the kit parts with 3mm styrene tubing. for this bonnet I tried out 0.5mm brass rod in a 1mm brass tubing. I think I will stick to 1mm hinges for doors, since they have to stay in shape and should not sag. But the bonnet has no weight to hold. And the much thinner rods look much more elegant. So this is the hinge glued to the inside of the engine bay.

And tipped open looks quite fine to me. I will file off excess epoxy glue and spray the rods blue. The hood will receive a silencing mat at the end.

My fingers are itching to start with the final paint job, but my instinct is telling me to take care of the undercarriage first. I do want to prevent messing the body by mistake while working the undercarriage.

I will not be satisfied with the kit parts for the front and rear suspension. They look more like they fit to Fred Flintstones vehicle. But I was able to work the front part and add some details for more realism. After cutting away enough to match it to the engine, I found the right spot for later assembly and prepared the part with pins. This will also make the final connection to the frame bomb proof.

Next I added the details with styrene sheet and tubes and 0.4mm wire. Spray painted in dark grey and touching up with patina.

The kit rear axle and differential just don´t look correct to me. I found a axle in my boxes and fabricated the missing parts with styrene profiles. In the back you can see the red kit axle....

Next I added a few details and patina. The undercarriage isn´t deep enough for shock absorbers, so I had to fake it with short stumps. But this is a big improvement from the kit setup.

Now the undercarriage has its final color. I must wait with the exhaust system until the engine and the suspension system are attached. I haven´t decided yet to paint the body next or finish the interior first.🤔

Thanks for watching!

 

 

[Kah puts]

Thanks for taking us along for the ride 👍

[Bills72sj]

I have contemplated buying this kit because I like the lines of the design. My Dad owned a 58 Eldorado Brougham with the stainless steel top when he was in his early 20's. He said it was the biggest "Divorcee Magnet" he ever owned.

[H.A.K]

This all looks great sofare.

[Dan Hay]

I didn't realize until now that you only opened up one side on the doors. Good idea, keeps the body more rigid and you really only need to open up one side for display. Looking good so far!

[peteski]

On 12/3/2023 at 11:05 AM, Andy Oldenburg said:

Before I attached the belts I fabricated a mount for the alternator and added micro hex nuts. The parts received a bit of patina.

That is not an alternator.  It's a generator.  I don't know if alternators were used on any cars of that vintage.  I know "picky, picky, picky".

But seriously that is a very interesting project (not one I would attempt).  It is looking pretty darn good so far.

[Bainford]

Nice work, Andy. I love seeing these ancient kits wrestled to the ground by skilled builders. 

[junkyardjeff]

I was given this kit due to the way it is,not sure if I will ever build it and might have to be really bored to start on it.

[milo1303s]

Nice !!

[Andy Oldenburg]

Thanks everyone for your kind response! I´ve been wrestling with Covid for a week and couldn´t make any progress. Hope to get into my shop this afternoon. More to come soon.

@ peteski Peter: I´m grateful for every science because I am not a mechanic. Thanks!🤙 I check that a generator produces DC, whereas an alternator goes AC. I just have to learn how to make the difference😄. I guess it has to do with the production year and I have noticed that they look different🤔

Best wishes to all of you!

[slusher]

I truly hope you get to feeling better soon!

[Steve H]

Hi Andy, hope you feel better soon. Still dealing with some lingering Covid symptoms myself, I wish you a speedy recovery. 
As for this build…. good grief man, what a challenging project. I almost bought one of these kits years ago, glad I didn’t, as I had no idea how difficult it would be to build. Love all the work you are doing to improve the kit, well done.

 

 

 

[Andy Oldenburg]

Thanks for the get well wishes! Day by day I´m moving on! But Covid is a bit..

@Steve - Your not the only one in this thread asking himself it this kit is worth the money and effort. Well, for historical reasons it might make sense trying this oldie. The actual issue is not it´s straits, it isn´t a hard to build kit. But that the molding and fitting quality is so bad despite the low number of parts. One can approach it with an attitude of "got that one done", but now it turned into a fulfilling challenge for me. What the heck, I will throw as much as I can at it. It´s just another kit.

I have sprayed the body with the final color. I did a lot of paper and canvas art during the last decades and my favorite airbrush paint is definitely Schmincke AERO COLOR. It is fine enough to pass though a 0.15 mm nozzle, but still has a dense pigmentation and high opacity. It is easy to mix, especially in small amounts, and I cherish the brilliance when mixing the paint with the metallic fluid. In my case I wanted a bright untramarine and added a 50% part of metallic fluid. With the metallic fluid you must use a bigger nozzle though. I best choice is a DeVilbiss Sprite Major. It´s a double action with 0.25mm nozzle and a bigger paint cup. I prefer 40 - 50 psi air pressure.

The surface is flat, so of course it needs a clear coat. I prefer AK gloss varnish. This first coat will be smoothend with grit 6000 later for the final sealing.

On an old image I saw that the Brougham could be ordered with a record player on / in the middle arm rest. So why not try that? Here are the parts for the record player fabricated from styrene and a piece of wire.

I will skip the intermediate steps for the interior and just show the door panels and the bench, with record player.

Another very exiting luxury accessory was a "bar" for the glove compartment. I started this detail by cutting the compartment lid open first.

Then fitting the lid to the dash in the open mode before moving on to the dashboard details.

Of course this kit contains no decals. The gauges and the speed meter are images from the net reduced in size and printed on glossy photo paper, the same with the radio. The trim rings are 0.4mm silver plated wire. The chrome is Molotow pen applied with a hair brush.

Now comes the bar... My best wish was getting VERY tiny tubes for 6 shot cups. Alas, the smallest I could get a hand on would make for say, 4 slightly bigger cups. These are set on a small tray covered with BMF. I will get the dashboard finished in the next step.

Thanks for watching!

[dragcarz]

I just came across this and I’m sure I would never have started it, and I’ve tackled some rather challenging builds. Great work! Such an improvement on this antique kit.

[peteski]

On 12/10/2023 at 7:21 AM, Andy Oldenburg said:

@ peteski Peter: I´m grateful for every science because I am not a mechanic. Thanks!🤙 I check that a generator produces DC, whereas an alternator goes AC. I just have to learn how to make the difference😄. I guess it has to do with the production year and I have noticed that they look different🤔

Best wishes to all of you!

Andy, sorry to hear about your health issues, and I'm glad you are feeling better. Nice to see you making progress on the model again.

I'm also glad that you took my comment as educational (as intended by me).  To further explain, yes generators produce DC voltage while alternators internally produce a multi-phase AC voltage, but they also contain a "diode pack" rectifier which converts the AC voltage to DC which then is output to the electrical circuitry in the car.  Alternators replaced generators because they are lighter than generators, and they are also more efficient, producing more power (amperage) than generators did.  Visually alternators are shorter than generators, and they are also have larger diameter than generators.

Here's an example.  Alternator on the right.

Edited December 13, 2023 by peteski

[Andy Oldenburg]

Getting the paint job done always feels like a big step to me. Usually I don´t work on the "big groups" engine, body, interior and undercarriage parallel, but since the body and undercarriage on this kit are one piece, I had to adapt my building logistics. It seems I´m working on every corner of this kit at the same time.

After applying the BMF the body received a final coat of AK gloss varnish and a soft polish. There isn´t that much chrome trim on the Brogham, but it does ad up to big areas. Here before the sealing....

And after...

The undercarriage is just about finished too, except for the wheels. Which will be attached almost last.

The rear axle with little left to do.

Front and rear axles finished before the engine gets connected.

Getting the engine into the bay was a bit messy. It sure was a good decision that I used pins to hold the front suspension in place. Since nothing of this is OOB but more or less scrap, it took some grinding and filing until the engine and the radiator fit snug and were low enough in the bay to let the bonnet close. After getting the engine secured I cut and attached the engine mounts and glued the drive.

The front bumper was i bit too crude for my choice. I opened the grill and replaced it with a sheet metal grid structure. Here the step by step. First I cut a large area open and then grinded as much as possible with a micro drill. Next step was filing removing the last bit with diamond files and sanding up to grit 1200.

The chrome is Molotow applied with a soft brush. In the meantime I have removed the vents and painted the bumper tips flat anthracite.

The headlights are getting customized with "lenses". I grinded off the lights and applied headlights by Scale Production.

The engine bay still looks a bit empty.

Here are the parts that will enhance the bay: brake booster, battery, coil, relays. All hand made from scratch with styrene, wire and thin sheet metal. As you can see, I like to use pins for these parts. It makes them secure right from the start and I can´t pull them off again by mistake while connecting the lines.

The dashboard is finished too.

For the interior I want some sun visors and of course the missing rear view mirror. The mirror is 1mm sheet styrene connected to a 1mm aluminum wire, which I flattened after bending the curve. Chrome is again Molotow. The visors are 0.5mm styrene and fixed in different positions for a bit a realness and will be sprayed cream white.

Thanks for watching!

[espo]

Amazing detailing and add on features.

 

[Curt]

Beautiful work, Andreas!

[junkyardjeff]

Looking good.

[Dan Hay]

Shaping up to be the best build of this kit ever!

[slusher]

Great detailing and progress!

[KWT]

Definitely look good!

[dino246gt]

Wow, you've really done this kit an honor!

I mean from a simple toy-like thing into a fully detailed and show winning model, sweet!

[NOBLNG]

Fantastic details you’ve added Andy, and it is looking mighty fine!👍 The original car deserves this sort of tribute.

[CA Whitecloud]

Your work is incredible and an inspiration!