53 Hudson Kustom

[Mr. Metallic]

Really digging the wedge section and the way things are flowing. Not sure about your headlight idea yet, but I'm definitely following.

[Kanada Kustoms]

First some miscellaneous stuff:

Had to fill some holes:

Had to fill the panel seams between the fenders and the lower valance. I used a square file and filed a groove into plastic then glued on some .030 square strip. A little filing and the seam is gone: 

Onto the good stuff:

I started extending the trim forward. I really didn't know how I was going to do it so I documented each step the best I could as I went.

I started by gluing on a piece of .010 sheet in the rough shape of what I though would work. There's a bit of sheet metal above the trim that needed to be carried forward. The .010 sheet was the same thickness so I glued it on as a base for my trim work:

I roughed out with marker what I thought would look good:

I decided to do what I knew had to be done first. I made a little jig the depth of the sheet metal bead, above the trim, out of some .040 square stock.

I used the jig to mark where I'd be cutting by moving it a bit at a time around the wheel well and marking with a knife. Then I joined my marks and cut away what I didn't need:

Here the piece has been cut. I have roughed in the end. As mentioned before, I didn't know how I was going to do this, so it's just roughed in to approximately what I thought I'd need:

The trim is roughly .030 deep. So I applied a piece of .030 sheet to build up the lower trim element:

Here I've rough shaped the .030 sheet I added and have added a piece of square .040 strip for a blade to match the rear of the trim:

I had cut my lower trim element to narrow and had to add plastic to the top and bottom (not shown in the pictures). Then I shaped everything and carved out a blade.

I had originally planned to make the trim terminate at the bottom of the front grill surround, but when I tried it, it didn't look right. When I tried it above like this, I liked it so that's why it's like it is:

Another shot of the lower element shaped and how it works with the front grill surround:

The last element needed was to extend the actual trim to the new lower trim element. I did this by shaping a piece of .030 sheet as close as I could to what I needed finished. It was fiddly, but I did this by cutting the wheel well shape on the bottom, then using another one of those jigs to cut the thickness of the trim around the piece:

Here is the shaped piece of .030 sheet glued in place that the trim will be shaped out of:

Another shot that better illustrates how the new trim will flow and work and the separation between the sheet metal and trim:

Thanks for looking!

 

Edited Saturday at 11:38 AM by Kanada Kustoms

[Kanada Kustoms]

And the trim finished on the passenger's side.

Here everything has been shaped. I used another of those jigs I made out of .040 square stock to scribe the center of the trim then used a file to create a 1/4 round profile on each side of the scribed line:

From above. I like how the new trim works and how it curves down the front of the wheel well before the trim element terminates it. It works nicely with the new front end treatment:

I may have to reduce the lower trim elements thickness a bit. I'm gonna look at what I have so far for a few days and decide:

The new trim flows well with the modified front end and grill surround:

And a profile shot favoring the front end showing how the trim works overall with the car and front end:

And a profile shot. The trim ties all the work together and makes it look purposeful. Now to reproduce this on the other side!

Thanks for looking!

 

Edited Saturday at 10:33 AM by Kanada Kustoms

[Quiet Eric]

This is looking really good. I think the front fender treatment works extremely well on this car, much better than it does on a Buick Sedanette.

Edited Saturday at 12:48 PM by Quiet Eric

[Chuckyg1]

Really neat stuff going on.  I like the design of the grill/bumper assembly, but to my eye it  makes the front end look too "heavy".

[WayfromSmoke]

Awesome build so far I love these old cars

[Kanada Kustoms]

A few pictures of doing the other side trim modification:

I've shaped the .010 sheet and added a .030 sheet to build up for the terminating element:

Here I've added the .040 square piece for the blade, and cut the .030 piece to rough length:

And here it is all shaped. I had to go back and forth from side to side, adjusting both as I went to get them to match. Also on this side, I had cut it to what I thought was the right size, but was too small and had to add plastic and reshape. But it turned out ok in the end:

It'll look much better when it's buried under paint and bare metal foil, matching the grill and bumper for color:

Thanks for looking!

 

Edited Sunday at 03:48 PM by Kanada Kustoms

[SpikeSchumacher]

Jon, the work you are doing on this is outstanding, and inspirational!

[customline]

Jon, what are you using to sculpt the various mods such as the above trim elements? 

[Kanada Kustoms]

25 minutes ago, customline said:

Jon, what are you using to sculpt the various mods such as the above trim elements? 

I use an xacto knife with a #11 blade,  an Olfa utility knife and a variety of jeweller’s files (square, round, half round and flat profiles… and sometimes the triangle profile).

Edited Sunday at 05:23 PM by Kanada Kustoms

[Rattlecan Dan]

Some (a lot) of nice (hard) work going into this build. Going to be nice (Great).

[Speedpro]

I find it interesting that you book ended the trim. Now that it's done, it really works well. The side view of the car is killer. I may have left the little horizontal wing off at the front to differentiate it from the rear, but still resembling each other. Just my opinion. Some great Ideas happening here, Jon!

[customline]

1 hour ago, Kanada Kustoms said:

I use an xacto knife with a #11 blade,  an Olfa utility knife and a variety of jeweller’s files (square, round, half round and flat profiles… and sometimes the triangle profile).

 That's some pretty amazing work, Jon. 

.

[Kanada Kustoms]

Thanks for the great words guys…. Glad you’re enjoying the build!

Edited Sunday at 11:35 PM by Kanada Kustoms

[Spex84]

Neat idea with the trim mod! The zig-zag negative space it sets up with the grille/indicator light surround is pretty cool. Takes an otherwise heavy area and makes it dynamic!

[Kanada Kustoms]

Re-posting these first 4 photos so you can see the grill come together in sequence:

The grill had an angled indent in the back of the grill center. It needed to be filled:

I filled the grill indent with three layers of .020 sheet:

I shaped those sheets then trued the back of the grill bar and glued it to a piece of .118 sheet to build it out:

Here it is awaiting shaping:

And the new photos...

Here's the grill with all the filler sheets on the back shaped to its contours:

I started trial fitting the grill and shaping the ends. But it turned out it didn't sit forward enough in the grill cavity:

So I added a piece of .040 sheet the back (you can see the seam in the picture), shaped it, and cut the sides way back to work with the grill opening and surround:

And here's the grill fitted up to the car:

There wasn't much surface area to glue the grill bar to on the grill surround as it's thin and fairly flimsy. I may have to come up with additional supports to secure the grill:

3/4 angle showing how everything is working together.

I gotta be honest, I've been staring at this thing for a while as I've been building it and am having trouble looking at it objectively to determine if I like the mods like the trim extensions and grill. Wish I could get it in primer but the weather has turned too cold here. 

I think I need some time away from it. Since the body mods are done, I'll start working on fitting the chassis, lowering it and fitting the interior. That should be a good distraction:

It was a fine line of where to place the grill so it sits out just enough to work with the grill surround, but not to close to the bumper guard:

You can see in this shot and the last one, that the grill center sits proud on its ends but behind the grill surround in the center. I split the difference to make it work:

As always... Thanks for looking!

[MeatMan]

Wonderful custom work!

[Bullybeef]

Just Popped in to have a look around, impressive stuff I’ll follow along as see if I can learn some new tricks to stuff up my sleeves😊