1964 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442------update 12/19/11

[MrObsessive]

I decided to order some parts from The Modelhaus..........I didn't want to go through the hassle of mounting parts to be sent out for chroming, so I ordered a set of front and rear bumpers from them, as well as wheelcovers and the rear taillight trim with lenses.

The piece that I got from Porky's fit perfectly, so I was a bit surprised to find out when I got The Modelhaus piece that it was too narrow!

Those of you who are kit historians might be able to help me on this..............Did AMT use different tooling for their promos and kits, thus the differences in the fit of the parts? It could be that The Modelhaus is using promo pieces for their replacements, thus the differences in the fit to the actual kit. Or is it possible that because this is a resin repop, that could be the difference...............?

Anyway, one of the aspects of the kit I didn't like is the whole one piece look of the bumper/grille.

Hmmm............what to do here?? I decided to take a chance and cut up and separate everything to make things more realistic.

Below is the original front end from Porky's Resin.............

Since the bumper from The Modelhaus was already chrome plated, that would save me some work in that area of having to send it out. I then took Porky's piece and separated the headlight/grille bar area, along with the outer trim pieces. These will be painted Alclad Aluminum, and then the headlight areas will be BMF'd to more represent the 1:1.

The lower section of the grille I want to level out a bit more...........I'm considering drilling out the headlights and replacing them with actual lenses for more realism.

The piece on top that was part of this section, I'll epoxy on to the hood during final assembly and then this piece will be BMF'd along with the outer grill pieces. In the 1:1, this center section is part of the hood that lifts up with it according to pics I have.

That's it for now.............any questions ask away!

Edited August 2, 2011 by MrObsessive

[Dr. Cranky]

Looking good, can't wait to see more of it coming together!

[MrObsessive]

Another first for me dealing with resin................I hollowed out the molded in headlights with the intention of replacing them with more realistic lenses..................

I found a suitable set of lenses from a junk Monogram '64 GTO kit..........they fit in the openings well. I may want to deepen them a bit so they're not quite so flush with the headlight openings.

I also have a way to add some chrome behind them instead of covering the back of the lenses with BMF.

Thanks for following along!

[Guest]

When I bought the bumpers for my '65 GTO from Modelhaus,I called Don and asked him if they were from the kit or promo and he told me that most of his bumpers and grilles are indeed from promos. Luckily mine fit perfectly and the best part was no mold lines! When I replace molded in headlights,I use the buckets from a Revell '69 Camaro. Of course they will need to be made smaller for quad headlights,but they work perfect for single headlights.

[my66s55]

Ditto to what Roger said. When ordering from Modelhaus, you have to be aware of this fact. Porky probably used the model to cast from.

[Romell R]

My hat is off to you Bill excellent job so far I'm loving watching you make all the necessary corrections to make it right. I always say "If it ain't done right why bother doing it?"

[MrObsessive]

Okay! Not a big update today, but I'm ever closer to finally painting this thing! I wanted to create some realistic looking headlights........so as in the pic above, you can see where I hollowed out the headlight area.

Since I'll be using headlights from a junk '64 GTO kit, I needed to back them with a reasonable facsimile of something reflective behind them. Since I hated parting out good kits, (you never know when you'll get the urge to build it!) I decided to take the long route and do something to back up those lenses.

I have a bunch of sheets of Squadron's Thermaform which is just what I need to do what I have in mind. Taking one of the GTO's headlight buckets and filling it with epoxy, I made a "buck" of the approximate size that I would need.

Here's a pic of the Thermaform which I hear is now discontinued................

............And here is the epoxy buck from the GTO headlight bucket............

Now I lit up a candle............................

.............And using the old "heat and smash" routine, I came up with this............

I then carefully trimmed around the "bulge" and so far it's fitting in the headlight openings on the resin piece. I did this three more times to complete the set of four. Later on I'll paint the "convex" side of the headlight buckets with Alclad Black, and then go over it again with light mist coats of their "chrome" paint. I might even drill a small hole in the center, which can be then filled with some stretched clear sprue, to represent the tiny bulb that's in every sealed beam headlight.

That should give me the reflectivity I need to make the headlights at least acceptable looking to me. The buckets will be backed with some round rod to have something to rest on, and then additional "bracing" will be added to get it to connect to the engine bay structure.

Stay tuned for more..............

[Dr. Cranky]

Very cool, Bill. I can't wait to see the results in place.

[MrObsessive]

I'm going to attempt something again that I didn't do that well of a job on the last time I tried this. At least I think I could have done better on it.............

Since I can't get PE scripts for the '64, I figure why not foil over them and then rub them as I paint over them. Actually I did this last on my '63 Ford Cougar II build and it wasn't so bad...............but the '49 Merc I did I thought could have been done better.

One of the things that helped is getting myself a jeweler's eye loop for my glasses! As I hit the big 5-0 exactly 2 months from today, I just don't see as well as I did say 10 years ago.

Here's the scripting I did with the lettering on the hood.........................

And with the scripting on the sides.............

One of the discrepancies I see when it comes to the badges, is some of the 442 pics on my hard disc have the Cutlass names on the sides and some don't. I decided to leave the scripting in place if for no other reason, it will test my skill to see if I can get this to come out halfway decent. I did clear over the scripting with Tamiya Clear (acrylic) to minimize any lifting until I get 'er all painted.

Thanks for lookin', and hopefully I can get this thing painted by the end of this weekend!

[butchey]

yes glad yur back was worth the wait .but why paint floorboards copper body green?

[MrObsessive]

Floyd, the underbody is actually red oxide primer. I'm trying to replicate what the car may have looked like as it rolled off the assembly line in 1963-64. The underside of the car has a very slight overspray of the green paint that I'll be painting the body.

Back in those days there were no robots to paint cars-------it was just the regular assembly line guy working in the paint section spraying away, sometimes with no mask!

Thanks for asking!

[Ron Hamilton]

Bill,

Looking good so far.

In 1964, the "442" package was an option on any F85 model, so the Cutlass script would be correct. Model Car Garage has a set of "442" emblems in their 1966 and 1967 Olds sets (That's the way I'm going to go on mine), or you can do a foil casting off of the AMT 1966, or the Lindberg 1967.

By the way, I bought an Optivisor years ago when I got old!!!!

I'm going to attempt something again that I didn't do that well of a job on the last time I tried this. At least I think I could have done better on it.............

Since I can't get PE scripts for the '64, I figure why not foil over them and then rub them as I paint over them. Actually I did this last on my '63 Ford Cougar II build and it wasn't so bad...............but the '49 Merc I did I thought could have been done better.

One of the things that helped is getting myself a jeweler's eye loop for my glasses! As I hit the big 5-0 exactly 2 months from today, I just don't see as well as I did say 10 years ago.

Here's the scripting I did with the lettering on the hood.........................

And with the scripting on the sides.............

One of the discrepancies I see when it comes to the badges, is some of the 442 pics on my hard disc have the Cutlass names on the sides and some don't. I decided to leave the scripting in place if for no other reason, it will test my skill to see if I can get this to come out halfway decent. I did clear over the scripting with Tamiya Clear (acrylic) to minimize any lifting until I get 'er all painted.

Thanks for lookin', and hopefully I can get this thing painted by the end of this weekend!

[MrObsessive]

Hey thanks for the info Ron! Yeah, I was wondering about the 442 badges for it. I've never foil casted before, so this will be a good time to learn! I could spring for the Model Car Garages PE set............but I hate to buy a whole set just for those few emblems,

At least if I can foil cast and mess up, the emblems are still there to try it again.............

[george 53]

Bill, if ya use the foil from a Hershey bar, it's nice and thin, and will copy the detail VERY nicely!! Then just fill the back in with 5 min epoxy, let it harden and Viola! It's easy.

Edited August 11, 2011 by george 53

[MrObsessive]

Bill, if ya use the foil from a Hershey bar, it's nice and thin, and will copy the detail VERY nicely!! Then just fill the back in with 5 min epoxy, let it harden and Viola! It's easy. ;)

Hmmm........then I better get that candy bar tomorrow to eat for my cheat day (Saturday)! I was going to use regular foil, but the foil from a candy bar makes sense.

Thanks George!

Edited August 11, 2011 by MrObsessive

[charlie8575]

When I bought the bumpers for my '65 GTO from Modelhaus,I called Don and asked him if they were from the kit or promo and he told me that most of his bumpers and grilles are indeed from promos. Luckily mine fit perfectly and the best part was no mold lines! When I replace molded in headlights,I use the buckets from a Revell '69 Camaro. Of course they will need to be made smaller for quad headlights,but they work perfect for single headlights.

I'm surprised they'd use two seperate parts for the grilles/bumpers. That makes very little sense to, serving only to increase manufacturing and production costs.

I can understand the simple press-on wheels for the promos versus the more detailed ones for the kits, but the bumper/grille thing makes no sense to me at all.

Charlie Larkin

[Gray Smith]

i've been thinking of picking one of these up for a pro-tour build..thanks for giving us the opportunity to follow along on another of your usual fantastic builds...I'll be checking back in..

Thanks

Gray

[Dominik]

very important and clean steps till yet. I will follow your built.

[MrObsessive]

Thanks much for the compliments so far guys! I haven't given up on it--------had some problems with my airbrush (Crescendo), but I do have the body in primer now and hopefully, I'll get the rest color coated this week.

[Custom Mike]

Bill, I'm waiting very patiently....######, I want to see this baby painted now!

[Sport Suburban]

I'm really enjoying this one. I have two of these in resin a 64 Cutlass coupe and a 64 442 convertible. I have not built either of them yet.

[Nova-ss]

WOW,this is one amazing looking build.I'm blowin away by what you are doing and how you do it.this is going to be a great looking car.I do believe Eric from Porkys resins is still in business.I've bought parts from him recently.if it is the same guy...maybe it isn't.great work,I'm enjoying this how to as I see it.again thank you,Chris

[Danno]

Nice stuff, Bill!

[MrObsessive]

I'm off this weekend for the holiday, so I figure I need to carve out some time and finally get this car primered and color coated! Well, here's the results so far...........I got a boo-boo on the hood that I'm not happy with, so it's soaking in Easy Off Oven Cleaner, and then I'll repaint that hopefully later today.

In a couple pics you'll see, I was able to salvage the scripts by foiling them before any paint. Whether or not I'll be able to get them to show after the color coats will remain to be seen.

Here's how she looks so far.....................enjoy!

More to come!............

Edited September 4, 2011 by MrObsessive

[MrObsessive]

And here's the dark metallic green that it's painted in..................

My only gripe with the paint is that IMO, the metallic flakes are a bit too big for my tastes. But, I'll live with it as is since this will be mostly a shelf model when done, and it's not going to be a show goer.

Next, I'll clearcoat the green with Tamiya water based clear, and then rub out and wax per normal. Then it's on to BMFing the chrome, getting the windows in, bumpers, etc, and perhaps soon call 'er done!

Comments welcome!

Edited September 4, 2011 by MrObsessive