1959 Chevy Impala----Just a tease! 4/9/16

[Codi]

Really appreciate the info on the materials used, detail and pics you've provided Bill. That windshield looks great to say the least and on such a classic car.  The gaps are stellar. Might have to get one of those sometime in the future.  Cheers, Tim

[Bob Ellis]

That 64 Olds Cutlass was nice. Did it ever get finished? I noticed it had a different chassis.

[MrObsessive]

That 64 Olds Cutlass was nice. Did it ever get finished? I noticed it had a different chassis.

No, never did finish that one. After a coupla three warped hoods including the one I had made, I put that one away for awhile. Something I learned with resin despite the fact that it's pretty much etch proof from hot paints-------you have to paint both sides. I painted only the one side, and I believe this is what caused the hood to "curl" due to the hot solvents in the paint. They were quite thin as they were cast, which would make sense in that they were repops of the original.

I've since found an original hood off the 'Bay, and maybe down the road I'll get back to that one. Yeah, I used the chassis out of the AMT '66 kit which makes a world of difference detail wise.

[John Goschke]

Excellent work on the windows, Bill!  Congratulations on resolving that issue!

[Ron Hamilton]

That is some great work Bill.

[peekay]

Excellent work and I have to admire your tenacity: too often my solution to such problems is either to put up with it or build some other kit.

[Len Woodruff]

Nice Bill.

[sbk]

 

One technique I'd like to try and I've got junk pieces I could try this on------tint the glass on the inside using Future Floor Wax and some blue/green food coloring. This would give a nice subtle tint that was fairly common on cars out of the '50's.

That's it for now!

Very, very nice!

I've airbrushed Juha's Hubrol window tint formula with good results, just in case the Future/food coloring route doesn't work.

Edited November 10, 2015 by sbk

[doggie427]

Tremendous work Bill.

[Mike Chernecki]

One technique I'd like to try and I've got junk pieces I could try this on------tint the glass on the inside using Future Floor Wax and some blue/green food coloring. This would give a nice subtle tint that was fairly common on cars out of the '50's

Looking good! Have you tried finding clear plastic with a slight green tint? I have seen pet bottles with a light green tint ( I am not talking about the dark green ginger ale bottles) and have seen overhead projector slides with the same tint. The plastic is clear but at an angle it looks green, similar to old jars used for canning. 

[MrObsessive]

Very, very nice!

I've airbrushed Juha's Hubrol window tint formula with good results, just in case the Future/food coloring route doesn't work.

Hmmm.........I didn't know Humbrol made such a thing! I'll have to check that out.

Looking good! Have you tried finding clear plastic with a slight green tint? I have seen pet bottles with a light green tint ( I am not talking about the dark green ginger ale bottles) and have seen overhead projector slides with the same tint. The plastic is clear but at an angle it looks green, similar to old jars used for canning. 

I'll check around for that also Mike. I'm going to try a couple other plastics for the windows. Right now what I have is OK-----but if I can mold them to be just a bit clearer, that's all the better. Still, what I've molded is a LOT better optically than what was in the kit.

[sbk]

Bill, Juha wrote a 2 part article in the other magazine that showed what I'm talking about, maybe in 2000 or 2001? He uses Humbrol green & blue metallic enamel, but only uses the clear top portion, none of the metallic particles. Then, he mixes parts of those in with clear & thinner, & brushes it on clear sheet.

[MrObsessive]

Progress is being made on this albeit a bit slow at times. I finally got the interior done for the most part, just some minor touch ups to do, and then the daunting task of how to organize the sequence of how everything is to go in. Since the body is somewhat fragile (due to those thin pillars), I want to make taking the interior in and out of the body with the least number of attempts as possible. So, I've been making mental notes as I go along as to how things will get attached, and in what order.

Here are a few pics to see what's been done................

Finally got the front seat all put back together after cutting it apart to better detail it. The rear seat I may have to put back in the car in sections. The seat back I may attach in the car after it's painted and polished, then the seat portion I may attach onto the floorpan itself.

I put on another coat of embossing powder for the carpeting to give it a bit more "depth". It would have been nice if Revell could have modeled the car's seats a bit more "cushiony" and not so flat, but no matter............they look fine as is.

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The door panels.....I don't know about some of you guys out there, but I've had one heck of a time getting the BMF to stick! I'm sorry, but BMF has declined in quality in the last number of years (I had the same problem on my '67 Mustang build), and I ended up having to use "Formula 500" white glue to get the BMF to stay put on some sections. I'm about to resort to using plain 'ol cheap aluminum foil for future builds as I'm tired of spending upwards of $10 for sheets that don't stick well.

Just the same, originally I was going to do roll up windows on this build, but after the model got bogged down with the front and rear glass difficulties, I decided to forego that during the body work progress, thus you see the molded in door panels window cranks simply painted as opposed to the rear ones with resin pieces. They have yet to be painted and epoxied in.

The dash didn't give me too many fits except for the gauge faces which came from this fellow  here.

His gauges aren't bad at all, but could stand to have a bit stronger resolution. In his defense, this looks to be an older set as his latest gauges seem to be clearer where you can read the numbers (using a magnifying glass of course). The out of scale horn ring was cut off and replaced with chrome bead wire which you can get at the craft store. I wrapped the wire around a handle which was of like diameter, then cut the circumference in half and epoxied it where I needed it. It makes things look a little better and not so out of scale. Note the PE keys and emblems which are on the Model Car Garage PE set for '59 Chevy's. To give the dash a more positive location to rest on in the body, I'll be adding a cross support from side to side to have the underside of the dash rest on that, and to eliminate any gap troubles once the glass is set in.

That's it for now. Next I'll be giving the body a thorough going over in getting it ready for paint. This will include making another magnet "catch" for the passenger door, cleaning up any foibles, and hopefully within the next week or two, get it all painted and polished out.

Thanks for looking!

 

Edited December 6, 2015 by MrObsessive

[Greg Pugh]

Amazing work as usual Bill!

[MrObsessive]

Not much to add at this point-----as some of you might have noticed in other threads, I put a barrier coat on the body first and foremost to minimize any surprises with the later coats of primer and color. My barrier coat of choice as of late is BIN Zinsser sealer that comes in the regular can. Not the spray can as that to me is not as good as me mixing up the contents, and spraying it myself.

Here's the can if you've not seen it before........

Here are a couple pics of the body with the sealer on.........

I waited a couple days and just this morning, put on a few light coats of Plastikote Gray Sandable Primer that I decanted and airbrushed on.

Now I'll wait a couple more days, and more than likely she'll get the color coats ('59 Chevy Roman Red) this Sunday. The other body panels were barriered and primered as well, just wanted to give you folks an idea of how things are going. 

After the color coats I'll let things sit for a week or two, and then rub out and polish up the whole works.

Thanks for staying tuned..........I'm glad that I'm at least finally at this point-----this build actually started in 2012!

[crazyrichard]

whouw stunning .. and the primered body looks uber crisp !!

[SfanGoch]

Looks fantastic, Bil! Roman Red is the perfect choice.

[59 Impala]

Lookin great Bill.  I had a 1:1 Impala that was Roman Red.  I loved that car.  Unfortunately I was drafted and had to leave it to get destroyed by one of my brothers when I was 12000 miles away.  Oh well, that's the way the old ball bounces I guess.  He at least put the 348 in a 60 Impala.  I love your build.

[blunc]

I really enjoy being able to see your WIP photos and observe the build features and techniques.

all the hinge assemblies look fantastic, the reshaping of the pillars makes a big difference in the appearance of this body style.

the door jams are some of the best I've seen.

will you be using BMF for the door sill plates or aluminum shim stock, or are those pieces included in the photo etch set?

[MrObsessive]

 

will you be using BMF for the door sill plates or aluminum shim stock, or are those pieces included in the photo etch set?

Mike thanks for the compliment! I'll have to see what kind of clearance I have with the doors after everything's all painted and such. If things are kinda tight, I'll just BMF those. No, the PE fret doesn't include door sill plates.

The roof pillars on all of GM's 1959-60 offerings are one of those "signature" things that set them apart. No one else was copying them (Ford did have similar A pillars for '59, but still distinguishable), and when I first seen this kit, it just didn't look "right" to me. As I mentioned, Revell fixed it for the '60........almost as if they knew they made a mistake, but never quite owned up to saying "Whoops! We gotta fix this!" 

I had to add the extra C pillar trim on its leading edge. The roof pillars appear too "thin" without it, and on the 1:1, this is where the quarter windows roll up into.

 

Edited January 2, 2016 by MrObsessive

[JTRACING]

That interior is excellent! Nice attention to detail 

[charlie8575]

I never would've thought to use BIN for a sealer for plastic.

I'll be curious to see how it works.

Charlie Larkin

[W-409]

Oh yeah great to see an update here! That body looks excellent in primer and Roman Red is a beautiful color so I can't wait to see how this looks when painted. Keep the updates coming.

[MrObsessive]

Well as I promised myself, I did get this painted this morning. Paint turned out very well with no issues------the next thing is I'll let this sit for a week or two, then comes wet sanding with the polishing cloths, and rubbing it all out with Meguiar's Car Cleaner Wax and a chamois cloth.

I gotta say I'm glad this part is over as painting is not always the most fun thing for me. 

This will be my next build I'll be working on while the paint on the Chevy is drying. Tamiya's 1990 BMW 850i which was an eBay rescue I picked up a while back. It had a cracked windshield pillar which I've since fixed, and will need a total block sanding to get rid of the waves and ripples I can see in the plastic.

I want to do something a bit more modern, and to get away from the fins and chrome for a spell. This'll be mostly box-stock but I'm going to cut away the quarter window glass that's molded in as a whole to show off the true hardtop look this car has. 

Thanks for checkin' in!

[DumpyDan]

Wow, outstanding work and detailing