'50 Ford Covertible Mild Custom

[Bernard Kron]

'50 Ford Convertible Candy Cherry Mild Custom -

Lowered, shaved and chopped with a Carson top but with stock bumpers and grill.

(More pictures below)

This is for this year's NNL West, one of the themes for which is Decade Cars, i.e. cars whose dates end in zero. I thought I'd build this '50 Ford convertible from an AMT kit Raul Perez had sent me earlier this year. With other builds to finish for the NNL I wanted to keep it very simple with a minimum of bodywork and mainly a custom interior. Unfortunately I got pretty hung up on the paint job so it probably wasn't the ultra-quick build I thought it would be.

I've always liked the look of the '50 Ford shoeboxe's grill with its massive chrome wraparound so mainly I just cleaned up the side trim some, shaved the trunk lid and doors and (courtesy of an awesome parts swap with Dave Zinn) used the chopped windshield and a resin copy of the original kit Carson top that Dave sent me. Thanx Dave, this build would have been impossible without these key parts!

The interior is pale gold and white tuck and roll made from styrene sheet with seats from the AMT '53 Studebaker kit and a center console from the AMT '49 Merc kit.

The chassis and Caddy V8 are from an unfinished build of the AMT '49 Ford coupe I had started. The front is lowered about 3 scale inches with the kit's standard alternate front axle position. I lowered the rear end the same amount using scratch built lowering blocks so that it would sit fairly flat. The white walls and Caddy hubcaps are from the Revell Merc kit.

Paint started with Duplicolor white primer followed by a Duplicolor Gold base coat and two coats of Duplicolor Cherry Red Metallic and then two coats of Krylon Crystal Clear gloss acrylic. The top is finished in Duplicolor Wimbledon White with a coat of Testors Dull Cote over the top.

Everything else is from the kit.

The w.i.p. can be found here: http://www.modelcars...=0&#entry265757

Thanx for lookin',

B.

Edited February 16, 2010 by gbk1

[Bernard Kron]

And here are some detail shots:

[Janne Herajärvi]

Very nice! That color looks right for it

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx Hertsi! I was surprised that the Duplicolor Metallic was transparent enough to allow the gold base to show through. The trick is to use a minimum of the final color coat so that the metallic part doesn't build up enough to hide the undercoat. I also make sure to use a white primer to ensure the gold is real bright, too. Then the clear coats take care of the shine! BTW, I lightly color sand every coat including the primer. It's worth it to get a proper gloss!

Edited February 10, 2010 by gbk1

[crazyjim]

Very pretty. Good luck at the show.

[Raul_Perez]

Very nice build, Bernard!! The colors look GREAT together!!

Now I'll have something to sit my '50 shoebox convertible next to!!

Hey, Curt, do you have one of these finished?

Later,

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx for the kind words, guys! It felt good to finally get off a successfully deep and glossy paint job, especially here in our cold and damp Pacific Northwest winter. I preheated everything: paint, bodywork, even ran the dehydrator for a while in advance so it would be nice and dry and toasty. And color sanded every coat! Amazingly, all the paranoia paid off!

As you'll no doubt have noticed from the pics, the actual color is hard to photograph. Probably the best representation is in the first three pictures.

...Now I'll have something to sit my '50 shoebox convertible next to!!...

Yeah, and if I recall correctly yours is a full custom with one of the AMT molded nose pieces. Should be quite a contrast.

Now if I can just get the Ed Fluck III chopped and sectioned '40 Coupe done we could have another pairing, this time Old Skool vs. Modern!

[RodneyBad]

WOW!!

Stunning Paint..

Great looking Ford.

Excellent work..

[bestdetailer]

love it i love 50 fords

[Raul_Perez]

...Yeah, and if I recall correctly yours is a full custom with one of the AMT molded nose pieces. Should be quite a contrast...

No...you're thinking of the blue '49 coupe/hardtop with the Mustang SVT engine and interior.

I was thinking of this one...mostly stock with the SBF engine, drivetrain, tires and wheels from the Revell '32 Ford coupe.

Later,

[Bernard Kron]

No...you're thinking of the blue '49 coupe/hardtop with the Mustang SVT engine and interior.

No, actually I was mis-remembering this one. For some reason I thought it had a molded quad headlight nose... Still, it defiinitely qualifies as Modern vs. Old Skool!

[Raul_Perez]

No, actually I was mis-remembering this one. For some reason I thought it had a molded quad headlight nose... Still, it defiinitely qualifies as Modern vs. Old Skool!

Oh yeah...you're thinking of the metallic rose colored convertible with the same nose as the blue one that I haven't finished...I forgot all about that one (since it got put back in the box...).

Maybe that one will have to find it's way north to get finished!

Later,