'57 Thunderbird - Mild Custom or Prototype?

[Bernard Kron]

Mild Custom? Full Custom? Factory Prototype?

(More pictures below)

The '57 Thunderbird is one of several iconic 50's American cars that I've wanted to customize from the perspective of cleaning up and simplifying the underlying design. Obviously heavily influenced by the Pininfarina Ferraris, I thought I'd do this one from that point of view.

The car is lowered about 3" all around. I removed all the bumpers, fake vents, door handles and trim, straightened the accent line in front of the front door, and integrated the grill into the front end using brass mesh from K&S. The Lucas spots are from my parts box. I added a more aggressive and functional looking hood scoop from the AMT '49 Ford kit. The rear pan is rolled and the taillights are cut down pieces from the AMT '50 Ford kit. For a racing car keynote I used Halibrand 4-hole kidney bean mags of the type seen on the '57 Reventlow Scarabs. I got them a couple of years ago from Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland. They're finished in Aluminum Plate Testors Metalizer and buffed out bright. But for a custom flavor I ran a set of white pinners from Modelhaus.

Exterior paint is Duplicolor Orange Mist Metallic over a gold base for a Kandy Kopper effect sealed with Krylon Crystal Clear acrylic. The interior is done in Duplicolor Wimbledon White and Cayenne Red with Matte Aluminum BMF.

Everything else is from the kit.

Thanx for lookin',

B.

Edited August 19, 2010 by gbk1

[Raul_Perez]

Way too cool, Bernard!!

It's great to see how much your old model building skills are returning with each subsequent build!!

And, the PhotoShop pic is AWESOME!! All it needs is you in the driver's seat!!

I wish that I had the time to learn how to use PhotoShop well enough to something like that with the shadowing and all...

Thanks for sharing,

[Bernard Kron]

...It's great to see how much your old model building skills are returning with each subsequent build!!...

Thanx for the incredibly kind words. The learning curve is still very steep, but I suppose as long as it stays upwardly steep that's a good thing!

For those that may be curious, here's the original March 1956 Hot Rod Magazine cover:

Not much to work with. Who would've imagined a cover feature on a showboat DOHC MG? Sportscars were hot about then, though. But I lucked out with the "Wringing Out the '56 Ford" headline! The added headlines are all from real articles inside. I had this idea that somebody from the HRM staff might have stumbled on this car at Xmas time out in Palm Springs, being driven by a Ford exec, and snapped a few pics, then got FoMoCo's permission to run this teaser article. Maybe it got built in the Stroppe shop using some prototype '57 fenders - pretty doubtful stuff but fun to think about...

Edited August 19, 2010 by gbk1

[sobpinstriping]

awsome, i love it

[W-409]

This is awesome looking model, great work on it! Paintjob looks very good and all custom bodywork is made very nicely, you can't see any mistakes there! Engine detailing is very good too, and interior is very great! It would be very cool to be in model car show, USA of course, here in Finland we have less models, wich are very cool too, but here are lots of pro-modelers!

[crazyjim]

Very good looking build. I love the color.

[curt raitz]

B) Very, Very Nice Bernard! B)

I concur with Mr. Perez...ya need to photoshop a picture of you behind the wheel.

c'ya

Edited August 20, 2010 by curt raitz

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx a lot guys. I'm glad you all dig it!

...I'm curious why you chose blue for the engine?...

Ford Blue, don'tcha know... Actually I don't know for sure. I was tired of doing red or gold engines and the bottle said "Ford Engine Blue".

[Dennis Lacy]

Your 'Bird turned out really neat, Bernard! I wasn't sure what to think when I saw the initial bodywork photos but now with the paint, grill and lights it all came together nicely. Thinking more about the tires, I think the white ones were the best choice especially with the paint color. The red and white interior offsets the paint really well too.

Good work, B!

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx Dennis! I know this isn't your type of build, and most of the time it's not mine.... It's got fenders! Sure soaks up a lotta paint!