Toyota Celsior

[Christopher J]

I've always been a fan of Fujimi, Tamiya, and Aoshima kits. Even though a large number of the Fugimi and Aoshima's are only curbsides I like the quality of the molds, fit, and the choices. The owner of Scaledreams had several for sale at an excelent price so I bought four of them. The ones I chose are the Lexus and Toyota VIP or Luxury cars. The real ones are stunning (to me anyway). A luxury car with 20 to 22 inch rims, low profile high grip tires, slightly lowered with varying degrees of camber, leather interior, lots of wood trim, dvd's in the head rest, etc. I've seen a few with large trays for holding bottles of wine and glasses. Some models of the Celsior have side curtains and other luxury amenities. Other versions I've seen have gone toward the Tuner side of things where they are lowered to within 1 or 2 inches of the ground and serious camber in the rear as well as some wild colors.......I went somewhere between the two.

Mocked up on it's wheels after a couple coats of sublime green. I stripped the wheels and painted them the same, but left the seperate lips chrome.

Painting on some brake detail

After getting a black wash....

[Christopher J]

Working on the suspension

The tires and wheels after decals and a black wash to help to give them a lttle depth

After some BMF and suspension adjusting to get the ride heigt I wanted. I need to still set part of the rear bumper, you can just barely see it sticking out. Anyone have pointers on how I can make my BMF a little more smooth? The biggest area I'm having issues is in 90 deg. areas and on the very slim pillars, I just can't seem to get it smooth but on my caddy and impala builds it came out great.

I've got some touch up here to do so excuse the roughness. The paint bled under the tape some. Next times I think I'll liquid mask again as I have better luck with it in tight areas.

The interior. It's since been hit with a dull coat to knock down the shine. I managed to find a set of Locsters Riders, which have been discontinued . The go great in the lowrider build I've been doing, but who says a "homie" can't roll in a RHD foreign ride?

His arm is a bit high so I'm repositioning it....

more to come...........

[Modlbldr]

Looking good. I have always liked the Fujimi and Aoshima selections too. Unfortunately I don't have many of those types of kits. Keep it up.

Later-

[Christopher J]

Some more recent work on the Celsior.

I hit the interior with a dull coat, it looks much better now I also did some more triming to the area where I cut the arm off on the Homie that's driving. The arm was repostioned, gaps filled, and painted. I also started working on the front seat belts, the part that's done is glued to the front seats. I will work on the other section that comes from the B pillar next.

For the headlight bezel I wanted to add something to help it out besides paint so I put some clear blue beads in to simulate bulbs

Gonna start clearcoating and sanding while working on the front seat belts. More to come......

Edited February 28, 2013 by Christopher J

[LacrosseBoss]

the dude adds to this a lot. Can't wait to see the 2nd part of the seatbelts at the first looks awesome. Also liking the clear blue headlights. Lots of little things adding to this build. Great work.

[Christopher J]

Thanks for the compliments. I don't have the front seatbelts done yet, but other than that it's done. Here the last of the work in progress pics. I decided to give polishing another shot. When i tried it on my 64 Impala I rubbed through the clear into the paint. This time I started with a higher grit and less pressure.

Before

After

View of the driver from the right

Rest of the pics will be in the completed section. Thanks for looking.