Alyn Posted July 17, 2011 Posted July 17, 2011 (edited) Almost finished this one last summer, but at the last minute it got put aside for some more pressing tasks. A member of our local KC Slammers club, Russ Johnson, had promised Bill Moore (KKOA) that he would build a replica of Bill's 53 Merc. Russ gathered up a 53 Ford kit and a resin body of a 53 Merc, plus some Dodge spinner hub caps for the project, but became seriously ill and could no longer follow through on the build. I promised to take over the build and finish it. After about a year and a half, Bill finally got the car about two weeks ago. Russ, sadly, passed on last summer. As for the car, the rear section of the resin body was grafted onto the Ford body to get the basic look. The the fender tips were modified to look like Lincoln taillights. The faux scoop bulge was added to the hood and the custom top was almost completely hand made. Skirts and the continental kit are scratch built as well. The color is Model Masters Plumb Crazy Metallic Here's a shot of the 1:1 car: Edited July 17, 2011 by Alyn
Harry P. Posted July 17, 2011 Posted July 17, 2011 Is it finished? The giant hole where the grille should be is kind of... um... obvious.
Alyn Posted July 17, 2011 Author Posted July 17, 2011 Yup, that's the way she sits. The real car has an open grille as well, although the Merc opening is is a bit smaller than the Ford. In hind sight, I wish I would have modified the grille opening to more closely mimic the original.
Alyn Posted July 18, 2011 Author Posted July 18, 2011 Thanks for the props, guys. This is my first tail dragger, so she aint perfect, but I tried to come up with something that would make Bill Moore happy. From what I've been told, he loves it. There's quite a few little things that I'd do different next time, but I'll keep some of them my little secret. On the plus side, I could stare at this car all day. The rear view is as classic as a custom gets. Bill really created the iconic leadsled.
John Teresi Posted July 18, 2011 Posted July 18, 2011 Alyn.......nice job on this as well.......you sure do have a nice style.
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