alan barton Posted June 2 Posted June 2 Originally I had a WIP post somewhere on this forum featuring both this boat and the 56 Crown Squire wagon I am building to tow it. I have tried every search title possible, both within the forum and with Google as recommended in the help section but after two weeks have drawn a blank so I thought I would just create anew post and combine the build and finished photos. Some of you may have seen my build from many years ago of my red 57 Chevy Bel Air towing my 57 Chevy Bel Aqua. Its in Tim Boyds thread about the Chrysler Hydro Vee boat kit in the kit review section. Anyhow, it seemed obvious to me that I should attempt a FoMoCo version of that combo. The project started off with two toys - a roughly 1/28th scale 56 T bird plastic pull-back toy and a maybe 1/32 scale, maybe smaller 'toy cabin cruiser. The smaller sizes makes for a less massive appearance behind the tow car. After all - tis a boat, it can be any size it wants to be. Even so, the hull required splitting and narrowing to suit the size of the top half of the T bird body. I figured it was going to take a LOT of bodywork so I used a soldering iron to weld the two disparate bodies together. Not pretty but very effective! I also cut vee-d slots into the hood so that with the help of some hot water I could bend the fender peaks together at the front. I really wanted to keep that sharp fender line running from stem to stern. Then followed a lot of the monotonous but necessary putty, file, sand, prime, repeat process that this sort of project demands. I don't know how many times I thought it was nearly ready only to find another flaw. My young friend Jackson Bull 3D printed some 56 T-Bird tail lights for me with exhaust ports coming through the centre. Ideally the model would have a marinised Y block under the deck but after all the bodywork I couldn't face opening the deck lid! I then had to seriously cut down the interior so that it would fit back inside, as well as knock up some spacers to hold the dashboard in place along with the windscreen - there was a fair bit of ship-in-the-bottle stuff going on here. I've still got to find a propeller and a rudder but otherwise it is pretty much done. The Tamiya Bright Orange paint and Racing white interior will match the two tone paint on the still-to-be- finished 56 Vicky wagon. The trailer is basically scratch built from Evergreen with 25 T cycle fenders. Cheers Alan 11
Belugawrx Posted June 2 Posted June 2 Cool build Alan ! Is this what your looking for...? You can find your older stuff by scrolling thru your own content under your user info....
espo Posted June 2 Posted June 2 Great job blending the two together. The paint finish and color look great.
alan barton Posted June 3 Author Posted June 3 Thanks everyone for your kind comments, and a special thanks to BelugaWRX for directing me back to my original thread which I will continue to use for the towcar project. Finally, a sneak peak of what I think will be my final car/boat conversion, inspired by an ancient article in Model Car Science around 1964! It is a 1964 Impala grafted to the otherwise ugly hull of the Lindberg Owens Corning boat. The box art made it look like a sleek cabin cruiser but like many things Lindberg, it wasn't that accurate and looked more like a tugboat in the flesh. TIs a long way from getting back onto the bench but for those of you who like car/boats, I'll just leave it here! Cheers Alan 6
TooOld Posted June 3 Posted June 3 Your Thunderboat may have been a lot of work but the results were worth the effort , well done !! And I like the "64 project too , definitely finish that one !
Nosferatu Posted June 3 Posted June 3 Absolutely beautiful! I love cars turned into boats! Keep up the great work! Dave
espo Posted June 3 Posted June 3 15 hours ago, alan barton said: Thanks everyone for your kind comments, and a special thanks to BelugaWRX for directing me back to my original thread which I will continue to use for the towcar project. Finally, a sneak peak of what I think will be my final car/boat conversion, inspired by an ancient article in Model Car Science around 1964! It is a 1964 Impala grafted to the otherwise ugly hull of the Lindberg Owens Corning boat. The box art made it look like a sleek cabin cruiser but like many things Lindberg, it wasn't that accurate and looked more like a tugboat in the flesh. TIs a long way from getting back onto the bench but for those of you who like car/boats, I'll just leave it here! Cheers Alan Your description of the Lindberg kit is being kind. The blend of the Impala and the haul look great. You might Google "Chris Craft Century" boats for ideas that they used in the late fifties for a craft with a sliding roof on a luxury boat they offered.
ea0863 Posted June 13 Posted June 13 Fantastic creativity! I LOVE these mash-ups of car and boat. I remember seeing a 1:1 boat years ago that I thought looked like a '57 Chevy, and liked it so much I photographed it. You have taken this idea though to a whole other level!!!
Bainford Posted June 19 Posted June 19 Really digging the Thunderboat. The boat and car meld together really well, and the result looks great. Very nice work here. Cheers.
alan barton Posted June 20 Author Posted June 20 Thanks everyone, it is nice to know there are a few others out there who appreciate car/boats! Cheers Alan
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