51 Chevy padded top...

[sbk]

Inspired by the Chevys coming out of the Barris shop in the late '40's, I started working on this '51 Chevy convertible during the summer. Back in the '40's, it was all about making the car look more elegant than the what it looked like on the showroom floor, so big bumpers (not smoothed) & grilles was the way to go.

I used '49 Cadillac bumpers & grille from Modelhaus, modifying the ends of the grille to fit the body. I reshaped the nose of the hood as well as the ends at the door line to make the AMT hood look a bit more like the real 1:1. I added the peak down the center of the hood using a piece of wire, blended in with superglue. I sprayed Acryl flat white on the hood to even things out. The AMT windshield opening/ cowl is so screwed up & thick, a lot of work went into fixing all of that, once again adding half round strip to replace the junky stuff. The windshield trim was just recently added & still needs to be sanded down a bit. The headlights are from the AMT '49 Mercury kit since the those from the AMT Chevy kits are too small.

I also modified the rear bumper by adding the wrap around ends from another bumper. Taillights are made from the turn signals pods on the '51 Chevy grille.

The windshield frame was chopped a couple of scale inches, & the basis of the top was the custom Carson top from the Revell '48 Ford kit with quite a few modifications. Since the both the Revell top & the AMT kit beltlines did not have enough curvature around the back end, I rebuilt that portion of the body & beltline with styrene & superglue. The beltline trim was redone using half round styrene strip, all the detail on the top was done with styrene, superglue & filler.

I rebuilt the vent window frames with styrene. The AMT dash sits few scale inches too low in the interior as well as not close enough to the cowl, The gap is obvious in this photo & the previous one, & will take some work to correct.

Edited September 8, 2013 by sbk

[moparfarmer]

Sweet lookin' ride. What do you have in mind for colors? Something bright with a white interior? Wide whites...

[Joker]

Clean bodywork..love the flush fitting skirt and reworked windshield frame.

Thanks for posting Steve and for the links too.

Really enjoy the uncluttered pics.

[Ramfins59]

Great looking custom Steve/ I'm sure that this will be a real beauty like all the others you have done.

[Gluhead]

I smell another slam-dunk, Steve. Nice start.

[Modlbldr]

Simply stunning work. I really admire your level of talent and I try hard to customize to your standard. Keep up the great work and sharing it with all of us.

I'll have to order that grille and bumper from Modelhaus. I can't wait for my 50 Caddy rear bumper to arrive from Don.

Later-

Edited December 21, 2012 by Modlbldr

[tooltas]

Killer kustom steve but why a caddie grill ? a nice 56/57vette grill would be a cool too.

[TooOld]

Beautiful stuff Steve ! Your skills are top notch !

[Albie D]

The custom treatments are very cool. Great idea for the taillights.

[vintagercr]

Looking good!

[thebronze]

Very nice

[GerN]

A really nice, subtle period custom. And a great write-up to go with it.

[george 53]

My first car was a 52 Chevy DeLuxe! There WAS a small 1/4 round molding that went inside the window, all the way around. You may just want to build up the "tray's" where the dash ends meet the interior walls. Maybe you could add thin sheets of .0010 to the upper edge of the dash, till you close the gap to your likeing.

[slusher]

Awsume project, great start...

[MachinistMark]

Gorgeous

[cobraman]

Very cool Steve.

[Deathgoblin]

Very smooth work. Nice Job!

[Duntov]

This is some impressive re-engineering..... hope to see more soon.....

[sbk]

Thanks, everyone!

The color I have planned is burgundy or plum with an off white top & typical 2 tone tuck & roll interior. At least, that's the plan for now.

Thanks, George53, that's pretty much what I plan on doing. But, the whole dash needs to be moved a couple of scale inches towards the base of the windshield so that the face of the dash is in line with the doorline at the A pillars.

[crazyrichard]

ooooeehh thats awsome , cant w8 to see some paint on that

[James2]

I really like what you have done here. Well thought out and flows wells. Now you need one of these PE pieces.

[Custom Mike]

Absolutely beautiful work so far Steve, it looks great as it sits! And the colors you want to use on it sound perfect, I'll definitely be watching!

[58 Impala]

One word,Wow. Great custom work, like the Carson top. Can't wait to see it in paint.

[DrKerry]

Lookin good Steve, I like your style of building!!!!

[Erik Smith]

I can sit and look at that model for awhile, admiring the work so far. Beautiful as is, can't wait to see it progress. I like the custom work that is subtle but very different from the original - the '49 Cadillac bumper and grill look very cool here.