1958 Thunderbird

[Harold]

Well, after five years of sporadic work, this one is finally finished (could this be one of the signs of the apocalypse?). This is the '02 reissue of the venerable old Monogram kit (the one that returned all the custom pieces back to the box). Hmmm, where to start.....this is an old tool that could use some TLC back at the Revell tool shop. I was disappointed that the first weekend of work on this thing involved rescribing all the panel lines (trunk, boot cover, fender caps, skirts and headlight bezels), not to mention the sink marks in the doors and the front fenders immediately behind the wheel openings. After that, it was actually smooth sailing (for the most part). The color is Dupli-Color Dark Green Mica, topped with several coats of Dupli-Color clear (wet-sanded between coats). The interior is box stock (except for flocking) and is painted Tamiya Light Sand spray with accents a custom mixed dark green applied with a brush. I used several reference sources to do the two toning in a stock pattern, but with non-stock colors. The clutch was removed and the shift lever was bent upward to get it in park, since I swapped trannies. The engine is the stock block with the three carb intake from the kit. The valve covers and air cleaner were pirated from AMT's '62 'Bird. Since it's not stock, I decided to go with Ford Blue (Dupli-Color again) for the engine. The exhaust manifolds are from AMT's '69 Galaxie, and the trans is the automatic from the Revell T-Bolt. The front suspensin was assembled as per the instructions, and after drilling out the molded in pivot points on the upper and lower A-arms with a #61 bit, I cut out the spindles and made new ones from t-shaped sections of sprue which were then drilled out top and bottom and attached with pieces of straight pins. Although there's no tie rod, having poseable steering makes for more interesting pics. Finally, I reamed out the headlight locations with a #11 blade, inserted four headlight lenses in a convex orientation, foiled them and added four clear lenses. I now have headlights with some depth to them. The tonneau is modified with the headrests removed, drilled out and reinstalled with brass rod and aluminum sleeves. Okay, so I wasn't working on it constantly (this is the third engine thats been under the hood-I had considered an SOHC 427, but nixed it as too over the top for this car, four or five wheel and tire combos, well, you get the idea). The wheels and tires are from the Motor City issue of the Revell '69 Shelby Mustang.

[Harry P.]

Well, at least nobody will ever accuse you of rushing things...

Looks cool. Nice job!

[Peter Lombardo]

Interesting long term project there. This is something that you just don't see every day, a dark green T-Bird. Can't say I can recall seeing one before. Nice build. The headrests look sharp on the car.