1965 Beaumont Wagon conversion

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

I starting on a replica of my real car.    starting to converting a very old, very poor quality AMT 65 chevelle wagon kit into a 1965 Acadian Beaumont Deluxe Station wagon.   The scratch-building and kit bashing is going to get intense so stay tuned!

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

I have scratch built a 65 beaumont grill based off of the revell Z16 kit.  It also works in the AMT wagon with a bit of mods and filler.    

I cut up a z-16 grill,  scratchbuilt all the center section with plastruct and evergreen,   then resin cast multiple copies for future projects.   

I did the same process for a 1967 beaumont grill, to be discussed in another upcoming thread.

i resin cast and modified a GTO dash from some other crappy kit.  All beaumonts use a tempest/gto dashboard in canada.

Edited December 30, 2023 by TheBEAUMONTGURU
typo

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

this AMT wagon kit is so horribly bad im going to use the entire engine bay and chassis pan from the revell 66 wagon and 65 z-16 kits.

I have cut out the rear section and am making it more correct for a station wagon floor and gas tank.  The z-16 rad support is going to work great along with a leftover 66 wagon engine bay

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

Here i am shaping and fitting the resin cast grill.  I made a separate bumper valence panel out of sheet styrene to fill the gap between the grill and bumper

Speaking of bumpers.  the AMT one is BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH so i took a z-16 one and cut off the bumperguards(this is a huge undertaking for anyone that tried it.  each guard is hollow in back, so you basicly have to rebuild the entire bumper and chrome it)

Quite an improvement over the original yellow 1965 mold.

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

the back end of this kit is so badly deformed and incorrectly proportioned i decided to sand off most of the back end and rebuild it from square stock.

Here we see i have filled in the tailgate chrome so i can ad the ACADIAN emblems later.  I have sanded off all the chevelle side trim and built my own profile with 2 sizes of evergreen.   i also have to add the missing rear tailgate glass trim surround

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

Lots of filing,  filling and shaping.  the back end is starting to take shape, i made a new gate handle and added the window trim, i also had to rescribe most of the door and window trim lines as they are so shallow on this body.

this show the comparison to the yellow original kit.  Trust me, mine is way better shaped now!

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

here is my real car that i built from the ground up a number of years ago.  Before and after  note the dent on the top of the front fender.  I managed to salvage the original Danube blue paint.

Edited December 30, 2023 by TheBEAUMONTGURU
typo

[Can-Con]

Nice work. One of my uncles had a '65 2dr hardtop in the '70s. 

What part of Manitoba are you in?

[Bills72sj]

I love what you are doing. I would love to have a kit of a 69 Beaumont.

[Ulf]

13 hours ago, TheBEAUMONTGURU said:

Lots of filing,  filling and shaping.  the back end is starting to take shape, i made a new gate handle and added the window trim, i also had to rescribe most of the door and window trim lines as they are so shallow on this body.

this show the comparison to the yellow original kit.  Trust me, mine is way better shaped now!

I believe you, I work on and off with the El Camino and it has its (same) challenges. Lots of doors and plenty of space for packing appeals to me. 

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

6 hours ago, Bills72sj said:

I love what you are doing. I would love to have a kit of a 69 Beaumont.

someone on this site(i think?) was doing a resin conversion kit front end and taillights for a 69 beaumont.  you might want to do some back-searching.

[Can-Con]

3 hours ago, TheBEAUMONTGURU said:

someone on this site(i think?) was doing a resin conversion kit front end and taillights for a 69 beaumont.  you might want to do some back-searching.

That was me. I did the tail lights almost 20 years ago though and don't have any left. 

The front end came with the MCG photoetch set for the '69 Chevelle/Beaumont but it hasn't been included in the set for years either.

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

thanks Steve.   Are you the one that was making and selling the conversion parts?    One of our winnipeg guys bought a few sets and i have one now.  Still on my list of models to make!

[Duddly01]

The current image of your real car is the same paint saved? Amazing job!

[Can-Con]

2 hours ago, TheBEAUMONTGURU said:

thanks Steve.   Are you the one that was making and selling the conversion parts?    One of our winnipeg guys bought a few sets and i have one now.  Still on my list of models to make!

I just did the tail lights and 1/4 panel caps. The rest came from Model Car Garage , but as I said, they don't do the resin front parts any more. 

I have another one in the works. Been working on it off and on for over 10 years now, I guess. Seeing your work on your wagon has me thinking about getting it back out and finishing it up.

 

Looking at the pics just now reminded me that I did send off a set of the parts to someone who was making a resin conversion kit. They did use my parts as a master for theirs.  Darned if I can remember who it was now though.

 

Just remembered that he was doing the corrected body for the Revell '90 Mustang coupe too. 

Edited December 31, 2023 by Can-Con

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

1 hour ago, Duddly01 said:

The current image of your real car is the same paint saved? Amazing job!

yes about 90% .  only blown in where rust was repaired.

[Scott8950]

Nice job

[Bainford]

Cool project. Nice attention to detail. 

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

got some primer on it and painted finally.   I used the real paint from the real car.  PPG Omni   GM 1965 Danube Blue.  It got a bit orange peely.  will block out some,  but overall its good enough. the modified floor pan worked out good,  just have to paint the frame now.

[dust collectors]

Nice work! It's cool to see the side by side comparison of your improvements vs the original kit. Thank you for sharing.

[Kah puts]

It’s really looking good ? 

[Steve H]

Hi DA, very nice conversion, and awesome to see some  Canadian cars. You have sparked my curiosity, as you mentioned a 67 Beaumont grill for an upcoming project… As I mentioned on one of your other posts, I own a 1:1 67 Beaumont that I will build a model of one day. Great work on this wagon.

Steve

 

[TheBEAUMONTGURU]

Starting in the interior,  cut out the seat and sanded all the patterns off the seats and doors,  making all my own patterns.  Used 2 packages of .040 1/2 round to make all the pleats.

Also scribed the rear cargo panels more correctly,  added the spare tire cover latch. 

also complete redo of AMT's epic failure of the tailgate inside panel.  Not even one thing correct about the model part!

And of course the Dashboard swap to the Beaumont  "Lemans/gto" one. 

Photoshopped up a set of door panel decals that will replicate the embossed pattern unique to a "beaumont custom"

[Steve H]

Those pleats on the seats alone represent a ton of work. Sheesh. Great stuff going on here Dave, enjoying watching your progress. 
 

Steve

[Nazz]

Very interesting project DA.  I will be following this one for sure! I have a '67 I would like to build. Can you tell me what materials  and sizes you used to do your '67 grill? This will probably be the only '65 Beaumont on this forum!

 

Jerry