71 Olds 442 W30 (replica of my brother in law’s car)

[Dragonhawk1066]

Great looking interior detailing! Gotta love that Revell included the wood grain decals!

[Steve H]

6 hours ago, customline said:

Oh yeah ?....solder..flux core solder? The dimple was there waiting for you to make a dimmer switch, Steve! (I gotta remember that ?)

Hi Jim, I’m not a solder expert, but I suspect you are 100% correct. It seems it was meant to be used specifically for this purpose.??

5 hours ago, Noah H. said:

Beautiful interior detailing.

Thanks Noah, much appreciated. Sure hope it looks good assembled…

[Steve H]

3 hours ago, Dragonhawk1066 said:

Great looking interior detailing! Gotta love that Revell included the wood grain decals!

Hi Craig, yes, the wood grain as you know, is actually pretty decent looking. I had found a wood grain decal that was a close match from another kit, then had another look at the kit decal sheet and realized there was a spare! Thanks for stopping by sir, I will be watching your Impala build, love those 62’s

Cheers, Steve

[Bills72sj]

That interior looks fantastic!

[Steve H]

19 hours ago, Bills72sj said:

That interior looks fantastic!

Thanks Bill!  Hopefully looks good once assembled…

[Steve H]

Some progress on the interior. 
Steering wheel and column are now one piece. Added photo etched keys and tag. I liberated an Olds Rocket logo decal from another kit for the key tag, and the turn signal lever and tilt lever are installed.

All the interior parts are finished now. The dash has the 8 track player now, along with an 8 track ready to insert. Added a random decal on the cassette to give it some interest. Wood grain decals were all trimmed to fit around the radio etc. 5min epoxy was used for the “glass” on the gauges, and radio face. Parking brake release is installed too.

The foil work on the dash looks a little rough in the photos, but actually looks quite good to the naked eye.

Door cards are complete… door lock knobs will get touched up after everything is assembled. The knobs are just round styrene rod that was sanded to shape.

I didn’t love the seat belt material I had on hand, it was a bit wide for scale belts. So… I made some out of a double layer of masking tape, not perfect, but not terrible either. Assembly has started! Finally…

 

That’s it for now, but I think I’ll have it assembled today, so maybe another update later today or tomorrow.

As always, thanks for looking and all comments welcome.

Cheers, Steve

 

[customline]

YES INDEED!  Your interior is awesome. Details well beyond the typical. Well done, old man!

[Steve H]

Haha. “Old man”, I resemble that remark! Well, oldish anyway…  Thanks Jim, this is my best effort to date on an interior.  

[Steve H]

And now the sum of the parts…

All in all, I’m really happy with how it turned out. One thing (there’s many) that I definitely could have improved on was the radio. After “finishing” it, I was doing a dive through my decals  trying to find a decal for the shifter ball, (unsuccessfully) and stumbled across a couple of perfect radio face decals, dang! Anyway, still pleased. 
Cheers, Steve

[Noah H.]

That is quite an impressive interior.

[customline]

I can hear Deep Purple playing "Highway Star" on that 8-track. Well....that bootleg 8-track ?

[Duddly01]

Absolutely beautiful interior detail work!

[Superbird McMonte]

This is a great build and a great kit! 
 

The work you are putting in reminded my of a long stalled project of my 1970 Monte Carlo. I created a nice non-AC heater box.

[Der Bugmeister]

Absolutely stunning work, Steve!  Looks good enough to jump in and start driving...

[Steve H]

On 3/23/2024 at 10:09 PM, Noah H. said:

That is quite an impressive interior.

Thank you Noah, one of my better efforts.

 

On 3/24/2024 at 8:06 AM, customline said:

I can hear Deep Purple playing "Highway Star" on that 8-track. Well....that bootleg 8-track ?

Oh good,it actually works!?? 

On 3/24/2024 at 6:23 PM, Duddly01 said:

Absolutely beautiful interior detail work!

Thank you Donald. After looking at your builds I did VERY BRIEFLY consider LED lights for gauges/interior lights, but I’ll save that for another build. Thanks for having a look. 

22 hours ago, Superbird McMonte said:

This is a great build and a great kit! 
 

The work you are putting in reminded my of a long stalled project of my 1970 Monte Carlo. I created a nice non-AC heater box.

Nice looking heater box Dominick. You have to bring out the “McMonte”, after you finish the “Super bird” ? 

16 hours ago, Der Bugmeister said:

Absolutely stunning work, Steve!  Looks good enough to jump in and start driving...

Thanks Clay! 

 

[Volzfan59]

This replica of your brother in laws car is amazing. Your detailing, everything is a work of art.

 

In real life I'm a Steve H too!

Edited March 26, 2024 by Volzfan59

[Speedpro]

Steve, The interior came out really nice! I'm looking at some of the detailing you did and what will be seen when assembled. To bad some of the neat details (vent pulls, dimmer switch, seat belt retractors) won't be seen, But nice to know they are there. I build in a simular fashion. I do some details just for the self satisfaction. Don't care if they are seen or not. Can't wait to see how you do the bulk head connectors and wires on the firewall for the front wire harnesses in the engine bay. Great work so far! 

[Steve H]

10 hours ago, Volzfan59 said:

This replica of your brother in laws car is amazing. Your detailing, everything is a work of art.

 

In real life I'm a Steve H too!

Haha! Well from one Steve H, to another Steve H, thanks for the compliment. Looks like you are fairly new to the forum, so welcome aboard. Thanks for having a look, and taking the time to comment.

 

10 hours ago, Speedpro said:

Steve, The interior came out really nice! I'm looking at some of the detailing you did and what will be seen when assembled. To bad some of the neat details (vent pulls, dimmer switch, seat belt retractors) won't be seen, But nice to know they are there. I build in a simular fashion. I do some details just for the self satisfaction. Don't care if they are seen or not. Can't wait to see how you do the bulk head connectors and wires on the firewall for the front wire harnesses in the engine bay. Great work so far! 

Thanks Paul. I knew a fair bit would either not be seen, or really hard to see, but like you said, it’s there, and the journey has been fun. Yes… I should have had a hinged, opening driver side door. I’ll probably do that when I get around to doing a replica of my own car.   Oh sheesh, no pressure right?! I will add some wiring under the hood, but I’m not going to get too carried away with it. I appreciate you following along Paul. It means a lot to me to have someone with your talent complimenting my build, I’m humbled, and thank you. 
 

 Here’s, Steve

[Steve H]

I finally got around to gluing the engine and driveshaft into the chassis. Not really a big deal obviously, but it was a satisfying step forward. Couldn’t resist plonking the chassis and interior together to see how the engine looked against the red fenders…

So now, I need to get my act together, and figure out my hood hinges… 

[NOBLNG]

Absolutely beautiful work Steve!? Your attention to detail is second to none. I like the tape for seatbelts idea.

[Bainford]

This is looking great! Some very fine model building going on here. Certainly a worthy tribute to the gorgeous 1:1. 

[Moparman18064]

Outstanding!

[Steve H]

On 3/26/2024 at 7:05 PM, NOBLNG said:

Absolutely beautiful work Steve!? Your attention to detail is second to none. I like the tape for seatbelts idea.

Thanks Greg. Most of the detail work is behind me now, I will add some details under hood once I get there. The tape wasn’t my first choice, but still better than the oversized ribbon material I had on hand. It was quite easy to work with, and I think it looks reasonable. I  used a double thickness of tape, placing two pieces together sticky side to sticky side, then glued them on the seats. I also added a small piece of sheet styrene to the bottom of the photo etch buckle, giving them a slightly more accurate scale thickness.

 

On 3/26/2024 at 7:27 PM, Bainford said:

This is looking great! Some very fine model building going on here. Certainly a worthy tribute to the gorgeous 1:1. 

Thank you Trevor! As mentioned somewhere above, many of the details won’t be seen, but it’s been fun pushing myself a bit to try and have a somewhat accurate replica. 

On 3/26/2024 at 8:03 PM, Moparman18064 said:

Outstanding!

Much appreciated Rich.

[Keef]

WOW!! … just… WOW!!!… the details are absolutely amazing! Everytime I look at the pictures I see something new! I’m gonna just stop building and start sending all my kits to you to build for me!! ???

[Steve H]

On 5/2/2024 at 7:36 PM, Keef said:

WOW!! … just… WOW!!!… the details are absolutely amazing! Everytime I look at the pictures I see something new! I’m gonna just stop building and start sending all my kits to you to build for me!! ???

Hi Keith! Thanks for the kind words. Your builds look awesome to me, I wouldn’t trust myself to build something for you. ?? I finally have some silver on the body, hopefully I will have an update later this weekend… I truly appreciate your enthusiasm. 
Cheers, Steve