AMT ‘37 Chevy Cabriolet

[Dan Hay]

Love the fixes so far. If you can fix the grille to be more accurate, you’ll be my hero! That grille bugs me so much. So much so that the kit I built has a 38 front end on it from the Modelhaus. 

[Stanward VonDiederichs]

On 10/30/2025 at 10:39 AM, NOBLNG said:

I might drop the front end about the same as the rear or may leave it  like this.🤔

 

Is that a clear plastic top they give you? I know what you mean that's a hard decision to drop it or leave it alone 🤔👍👍👍

[meechum68]

Dude...the craftsman ship is off the charts! This is gonna be a show  stopper! Love it man!!

[NOBLNG]

4 hours ago, Dan Hay said:

Love the fixes so far. If you can fix the grille to be more accurate, you’ll be my hero! That grille bugs me so much. So much so that the kit I built has a 38 front end on it from the Modelhaus. 

Thanks Dan. I haven’t even looked closely at the grill yet. Thanks for the heads up on it.

3 hours ago, Stanward VonDiederichs said:

Is that a clear plastic top they give you? I know what you mean that's a hard decision to drop it or leave it alone 🤔👍👍👍

Thanks, Yes, they supply a clear hood also, which I won’t be using. I have raised the rear back up to the original height too.

1 hour ago, meechum68 said:

Dude...the craftsman ship is off the charts! This is gonna be a show  stopper! Love it man!!

Thanks. It certainly won’t be any showstopper.🙄 Hopefully just a little nicer than what AMT produced.

[Straightliner59]

7 hours ago, Stanward VonDiederichs said:

I might drop the front end about the same as the rear or may leave it  like this.🤔

I think it looks fine, like this, but, I'd go for dropping it a little. I'm a "forward rake" kind of guy!🙂

[Stanward VonDiederichs]

14 hours ago, Stanward VonDiederichs said:

Is that a clear plastic top they give you? I know what you mean that's a hard decision to drop it or leave it alone 🤔👍👍👍

The 37 Chevy is one of my favorites. A suggestion you may think about is using a a tight weave like a silk like fabric over the top and if you have black it might look good that way. I still like that 41 Plymouth coupe you did. How did the Mercury coupe turn out what you showed me I liked I remember when that kit came out. The red coupe I really like. 37 and the 41 are too I want to get. I tried making that painting jig you showed me for my Camaro my first black car.👍👍👍

[The Nomad]

I’ve enjoyed following along with your build so far, and have been making notes of the improvements you’ve been making.

I have this kit buried in the stash in the three car “Hot Rods” set (34 Ford /37 Chev/40 Ford) that AMT released in the late ‘90’s.

I had thought about building the 34 Ford 5 Window first at some point but you’ve got me re-thinking that idea. Looking forward to seeing this build completed.

[NOBLNG]

I’ve replaced the side beads with some 0.030” and 0.020”  half round Evergreen.

I had to make the smaller size by scraping it down to half thickness.

It needed a bit of light sanding to get rid of the rough edges. I carefully pulled it through a folded 1500 or 2500 grit sanding pad to smooth them.

Once glued in place with Tamiya thin and the edges smoothed a bit I think it looks better than the original in my eye.🤓

And I re-made the detail at the front edge from some thin Evergreen.

I see the headlight pods are not quite correct. They should have a 2/3 football shape instead of a 1/2 football shape if that makes any sense. I think I will leave them as they are though.😕

Edited Friday at 02:36 AM by NOBLNG

[Kanada Kustoms]

Side trim is looking good... The termination at the front came out particularly nice!

[FoMoCo66]

Looks really good! Did you make your own half round, if so, how, I saw you had in-between those two pieces of metal?

Edited November 6 by FoMoCo66

[customline]

I know how you did it and it's so simple that it's freaking brilliant. 😉

[meechum68]

6 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

I’ve replaced the side beads with some 0.030” and 0.020”  half round Evergreen.

I had to make the smaller size by scraping it down to half thickness.

It needed a bit of light sanding to get rid of the rough edges.

Once glued in place with Tamiya thin and the edges smoothed a bit I think it looks better than the original in my eye.🤓

And I re-made the detail at the front edge from some thin Evergreen.

The engineering you have put into this, and the results are going awesome so far!!! 

[NOBLNG]

7 hours ago, FoMoCo66 said:

Looks really good! Did you make your own half round, if so, how, I saw you had in-between those two pieces of metal?

Yes, 0.030” half round is the smallest that Evergreen or Plastruct make, so I had to make my own smaller bead from 0.020” round. The trick is to scrape it down to size versus trying to cut or slice it. I used two feeler guages as a depth stop to get the thickness uniform.

2 hours ago, customline said:

I know how you did it and it's so simple that it's freaking brilliant. 😉

You know what they say…necessity is the mother of invention.🤓

Edited Friday at 02:46 AM by NOBLNG

[FoMoCo66]

8 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

 

Yes, 0.030” half round is the smallest that Evergreen or Plastruct make, so I had to make my own smaller bead from 0.020” round. The trick is to scrape it down to size versus trying to cut or slice it. I used two feeler guages as a depth stop to get the thickness uniform.

That's brilliant! The little details you can accomplish are outstanding, the hood moldings especially.

[customline]

Told ya 🥴

[NOBLNG]

3 minutes ago, FoMoCo66 said:

That's brilliant! The little details you can accomplish are outstanding, the hood moldings especially.

Thanks! I probably use this one file as much or more than my hobby knives.

[FoMoCo66]

Oh the things I could do with a bigger arsenal of evergreen. If only I had a good hobby shop that sold all the odds and end sizes.

[customline]

4 minutes ago, FoMoCo66 said:

Oh the things I could do with a bigger arsenal of evergreen. If only I had a good hobby shop that sold all the odds and end sizes.

Elliot, I rely on Hobbylinc.com for plastic and metal. And yeah, it helps to have it on hand when it's needed. I keep a fairly large supply covering the sizes that are useful.   It's an investment 🤓

[Straightliner59]

13 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

Once glued in place with Tamiya thin and the edges smoothed a bit I think it looks better than the original in my eye.🤓

It most certainly does! Excellent work, Greg!

[sidcharles]

9 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

Thanks! I probably use this one file as much or more than my hobby knives.

could you share the brand? any files that shape i have found are either part of a 12 piece set for $4.99 or individuals around $66.99 each, so i'm trying to hit some middle ground here. [Grobet doesn't scare me much.]

thanks, 

 

sid

[NOBLNG]

28 minutes ago, sidcharles said:

could you share the brand? any files that shape i have found are either part of a 12 piece set for $4.99 or individuals around $66.99 each, so i'm trying to hit some middle ground here. [Grobet doesn't scare me much.]

thanks, 

 

sid

I can’t recall what brand they were. Trumpeter maybe? I know they were not expensive. I have probably seven or eight sets of files. That particular one is my favourite. I ground the edges to angle away from the cutting face so that it can get up tight to a corner or edge.

Edit: Good (cheap) files can be hit or miss. Even the one above has no teeth on one side of one end.😕

Edited Friday at 01:16 PM by NOBLNG

[Big Messer]

2 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

I can’t recall what brand they were. Trumpeter maybe? I know they were not expensive. I have probably seven or eight sets of files. That particular one is my favourite. I ground the edges to angle away from the cutting face so that it can get up tight to a corner or edge.

I got one from harbor freight.

[NOBLNG]

On 11/4/2025 at 5:47 PM, Dan Hay said:

Love the fixes so far. If you can fix the grille to be more accurate, you’ll be my hero! That grille bugs me so much. So much so that the kit I built has a 38 front end on it from the Modelhaus. 

Thanks Dan. The grill doesn’t look too bad I think.🤔 Some black wash will hopefully help. The problem is that the hood should close down flush behind the grill, not on top of it. I don’t care to get involved with that repair though.🤯 I added a center bar from .040” Evergreen and glued the hood halves together. The magnets I installed earlier this morning probably aren’t even necessary now.

Edited Friday at 05:11 PM by NOBLNG

[NOBLNG]

I wasn’t real happy with the profile of the headlight buckets so a did a little sanding on them. It’s a hugely subtle difference in my eye.

The other thing that needed fixing was the windshield frame. There was no ledge at the top for the glass to sit against.

I filed the bad section flush to the outside of the frame and added some 0.040” half round, sanded it a bit flatter and blended the joints.

I think I have all the major body issues resolved now so I went and shot some primer on it to see where I stand. Thanks for the encouragement and interest fellas!😎

 

Edited Friday at 10:34 PM by NOBLNG

[Kanada Kustoms]

More great details fixed on this model... Looking good in primer!

Edited Friday at 10:38 PM by Kanada Kustoms