1965 Rambler American WIP for a friend

[Ramfins59]

A friend that I went to High School with back in the early 60's has a 1:1 '65 Rambler American that he wants to have a model of to display with his car at car shows and cruise nights. Mike lives in Nanuet, NY and we used to build models together way back when. He hasn't built models in a very long time and I offered to build a model for him. He was able to score a Promo on EBAY that was in good shape, and he ordered a replacement grille and bumpers from The Modelhaus (my recommendation) and also a set of resin wheels which closely resemble the wheels on his car. He also ordered the matching paint for his car and had all this shipped to me here in western PA. Following is a picture of his car...

First of all, after disassembling the Promo I had to remove the wheels and axles and the gear for the non-existent friction motor from the chassis. This left a hole in the bottom of the molded in engine (picture follows)

I filled in the hole with sheet plastic and sanded it all smooth and primed it with Duplicolor dark gray primer...

Then I detail painted the chassis...

Additional details and pictures to follow......

[Ramfins59]

Here's a larger picture of the 1: 1 car (the thumnail pics above don't really allow you to see things clearly).

and the chassis with the hole...

the chassis primed...

and the chassis detail painted...

More to follow......

[Bartster]

This looks like fun. I love these cars & will be following along. Bart

[Ramfins59]

While my friend's car is a '65 Rambler, the grille is a '64. He painted the grille and the headlight surrounds black. In the center of the grille he mounted a French bicycle helmet emblem upside down (so the colors are red, white and blue instead of blue, white and red). T replicate this I painted the grille and the headlight surrounds flat black and I cut a small piece of strip plastic which I painted the front third clear red and the back third clear blue, and then glued it to the center of the grille... (Mike has this red, white and blue thing going on in various parts of his car to go with the Rambler "American" theme...) I also glued in clear headlight lenses with chrome backing as I thought that looked better than just the chromed headlights on the Modelhaus piece. (My picture is upside down... the emblem is actually red, white and blue....!!!)

Edited December 12, 2012 by Ramfins59

[Ramfins59]

Next I detailed the resin wheels he sent by painting them with aluminum metalizer then painting the inserts brown, as he did his wheels, and then tried to do the red, white and blue details as best I could, as he did on his wheels. Then I mounted the wheels in a set of radial tires from my parts stash. I sanded the treads a bit for "realism"...

[Ramfins59]

Mike removed the lower grille from his car as he said that cleaned up the look of the front of the car. After stripping the paint from the body I also removed the lower grille from the Promo and filled in the resulting hole with Bondo and sanded it smooth and then primed the body.......

Lower grille removed...

Lower grille hole filled with Bondo...

Body in primer...

[Ramfins59]

Next came the hard work... the interior... Mike's car is a hardtop and the Promo interior was for a convertible, with the convertible bow pockets molded in. Mike said not to worry about the interior not being correct for his car, and to just paint it.

Well, I told Mike that if I was going to make a proper replica of his car then I was going to try to do it right... Soooooo..... I proceeded to scribe with the back of my X-Acto knife and use my trusty saw to cut off the side panels of the interior bucket and correct the problems.... NOTE: I had NEVER attempted to do anything like this on an interior bucket before...!!!!!! Pictures follow......

The interior bucket before any cuts were made...

After cutting off the side panels...

After filling in the holes from the convertible bow pockets with sheet plastic and widening the rear seat with sheet plastic...

[Ramfins59]

Then I sanded and smoothed everything and added strip plastic for side panel chrome trim later, and also a center detail panel on the side pieces. The holes are for the resin door handles and window cranks from ReplMinCoMd to be installed later.

After sanding and cleanup, I flocked the carpets in brown, painted the seats dark brown with tan inserts and attached seat belts and head rests...

I can't detail the side panels yet as the body color paint only arrived by UPS today, and I have to spray the upper door sills first. The weather here has not been paint friendly for the past few days (rainy or snow flurries) so I'm hoping tomorrow will be a good, dry day. Then I can mask the body for painting the white top first, and the upper door panels body color. Once all that dries I can mask the roof and paint the rest of the body, and then detail the interior side panels.

Further updates to follow as work progresses. Thanks for watching...

Edited December 12, 2012 by Ramfins59

[jeffs396]

Great work so far Rich!

Cool project, not something you see everyday

Your friend will LOVE it!

[Ramfins59]

Thanks Bart and Jeff.

Following is a picture of the model's dashboard. Mike put a Tach in the center A/C vent panel under his dash, and also mounted an accessory gauge panel under that and an accessory fuel gauge next to it. I did the best I could to replicate all that with paint, pieces from my parts box, gauge decals (not accurate but from outside the model it shouldn't be too noticeable) and some PE and metal pieces...

Like I said above, I'm hoping to be able to get some paint on this puppy tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Edited December 12, 2012 by Ramfins59

[Harry P.]

Nice work on converting the convertible interior!

[GeeBee]

Very nice work, looking forward to seeing it finished, I bet your friend is going to be over the moon with it ...

[slusher]

Really nice work Rich, you have added lots of detail...

[Dirkpitt289]

Nice work all around but I especially like the work on the dash with the gauges and the AC vent grills

[Tony T]

Very nicely done!

[Ramfins59]

Thank you all very much for the kind words and encouragement. I've been sending my friend email pictures of each day's progress and he was especially pleased with the interior and dashboard... all he could say was "WOW...!!!"

It really wasn't hard work, just time consuming. Although, all in all I really haven't spent a LOT of time on this project. I received everything by UPS from my friend back on November 27th. Today the sun is shining here so I'll definitely be able to get the body painted. I figure it should be done in about a couple of weeks at the latest. Additional pictures will follow as the work progresses. Thanks again for looking and commenting.

[Modlbldr]

You're doing a great job on this build. It is looking fantastic. I love his car. What a great color!

Later-

[Ramfins59]

Thanks Tom. The matching paint that my friend ordered and had shipped to me is a color called Corral Cordovan. I was able to paint the upper door/side panel sills that color today, as the weather here finally cooperated. I also sprayed the roof Duplicolor Arctic White. I'm letting the paint dry and gas out for a day or so before I unmask the body and then mask off the roof to paint the lower body. Tomorrow I plan on unmasking the side panels and detailing them while the roof continues to dry. No pictures until the paint is dry enough for me to handle everything. More will follow. Thanks again.

[Erik Smith]

That is looking great. I will add to the "great work on the interior" crowd - that looks like a lot of work and it turned out nice.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Cool. Haven't seen one of these little guys in a while. Nice work.

[Ramfins59]

Thanks very much Bill and Erik for the encouragement. Yes Erik it was a lot of work, especially since it was my first attempt at doing something like this on an interior bucket.... it was a little bit of trial and error as I went along but it turned out looking pretty good in the end.

[Bartster]

Coming along nicely. Very good job on the back seat & side panels ! The dash must've taken a lot of patience ! Looking forward to the next installment. BART

[Duntov]

Richard:

Great job on the curb-side.... your work is proof positive that you can build a great model with a very basic kit.....

Regards Bill (Duntov)

[XJ6]

Very nice project you have going on there

[Gluhead]

Very cool project, Rich. Nice job on that tub re-work.