It’s Boyd Month! Building the full-detail Coddington Alumacoupe

[OldNYJim]

I’m not sure how many people follow the Hot Rods By Boyd social media, but August was Mr Coddington’s birthday month and every year they celebrate and remember him with various cool digs into their archive and podcasts and stuff like that…so I figured this would be a good time to build one of his more iconic builds - the Alumacoupe:

It was somewhat controversial at the time, largely due to its mid-mounted 4cylinder Mitsubishi power, but I think it stood the test of time really well.  It was actually originally intended to be a roadster, or at last have a removable hardtop…

…but I think the lines are just fine with it as a coupe.  I’ll be building this one just as Boyd intended, no tweaks or changes.  

Here’s the kit - the slightly lesser known Full-Detail version by Testor’s…plus I found some original Boyd branded paint that hopefully is still good:

The build sequence is a little weird on this kit - much more like a Tamiya or Fujimi kit than a Revell or AMT build - no frame, suspension and axle mount right to the body, and just the upper portion of the engine.

First up, assembling the body halves, and a little Bondo to get the seam perfect and fix a couple of little sink marks:

I can’t quite figure out (yet) if this car ran a full belly pan - I think it probably did, so I’ll scribe some panel lines in there to suggest that.

Big Testor’s logo and copyright info to fix inside the roof:

Plus some little ejector pin and sink marks inside the hood and deck-lid:

The fit of the roof in particular is REALLY vague so I’ll need to engineer something to aid in final assembly, and the trunk lid fit is a little rough…but we’ll get to that bridge when we get to it.  At least the instructions give you some sage advice to keep you calm and level-headed:

Tomorrow’s project will be getting the body panels to fit together good enough for a mock-up, and then, weirdly, the first thing the kit has you build is the front-trunk inners…

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[TopherMcGinnis]

He was quite the Visionary. I enjoyed his builds.

[Mattilacken]

That has always been a beautiful car. Definitely one of his best work according to me. Will follow your build.

[Quiet Eric]

I loved this ere of hot rodding when I was a kid. I've got a "full detail" Aluma Coupe and CheZoom to build myself.

[Silvercreeker]

Love the statement about patience!

[meechum68]

Cadzilla, all time favorite build of his. Still such a sleek car.