SMP '58 Impala ala Larry Watson! Interior Done, Final Assembly!

[Ron Hamilton]

John,

All I can say that this one is drop dead gorgeous.

When I was a little tyke, my dad had a '58 Impala Hardtop, Sierra Gold, with the gold interior, 4-Bars, and Foxcraft Skirts. It was a new car at the time, which he traded it in for the Red Bonneville, after he replaced that dreaded Turboglide. I have both an AMT, and a Revell to do the car with. When I was a teenager, a fellow who lived around the block from me had a Black convertible, that he bought from a fellow who lived around the corner. When the first man had it, I was pretty nice, when he kept it clean, and the only customization he did to it was that he dyed the tri tone turquoise/silver/charcoal vinyl inserts in the seats white, and two toned the steering wheel black and white, which looks great with the Black interior, and the White Rag Top. When He sold it, the last owner of the car dyed the inserts black, as the seat inserts were a little dingy. The car got driven right into the ground, and it was towed away with a sick 283 and a blown Powerglide.

 I have yet to do a true Replica Stock '58, as the three that I have built so far has some sort of customization done to it. I like where you are going with this one. It looks similar to the hardtop I did about 20 years ago. It's still in my collection, as it was one of the first models of mine that was featured in a Magazine. It's still on the shelf, needing a little dusting off.

I cannot wait until there is some color on this one.

[ChrisBcritter]

10. Make custom '59 Pontiac Catalina taillights.

Cool period trick! I was wondering if you might do that; one of my neighbors in the mid-'60s had a '58 Bel Air post coupe with those taillights.

[crazyrichard]

looks great !!

[espo]

You have done the moldings and the top mounting perfectly. Great detail on the snaps, besides adding strength to the moldings. In my youth a good friend got his mothers '58 Impala Convertible when she got her new '62 Impala. His car was white with a white top and red interior. We removed the full wheel covers and painted the wheels gloss black and added baby moons with narrow white walls. With the glass packs and slightly heated front springs it was a great cruiser. Your build is bring back fond memories. Keep up the great work.  

[Bob Ellis]

I think  AMT did their tool based on a 1/10 wood model (done by AMT or General motors?)

[John Goschke]

Thanks, guys, for the comments!

I think  AMT did their tool based on a 1/10 wood model (done by AMT or General motors?)

Bob, yes I believe you're correct, though I think it was AMT who did the pattern work. Many years ago I saw the wood pattern model for the AMT '58 Bonneville hardtop for sale at the Carlisle PA auto swap meet. It was in tough shape but still a beautiful piece of work. Wish I'd been able to buy it!

I'm almost certain that the same pattern maker did this '58 Chevy. They are very, very similar in basic shape, proportion, and execution of detail.

[Bob Ellis]

I think the 1/10 was used as master for the pantograph technique. I noticed that the AMT '57 Ford kit from 1963 has many similarities as the 1957 promo. I would guess that the 1/10 master was used more than once.

[Lovefordgalaxie]

WOW, what a awesome job. 

Super great idea on making the little buttons for the top. I'll steal that trick!!!

The only thing I would do different is to keep the car all stock, but that's my personal taste. 

[BobbyG]

Outstanding work on a beautiful classic. Love seeing these old kits resurrected. Masterful as udual, John.

[BobbyG]

Outstanding work on a beautiful classic. Love seeing these old kits resurrected. Masterful as udual, John.

[John Goschke]

Thanks for the kind words, gentlemen!

WOW, what a awesome job. 

Super great idea on making the little buttons for the top. I'll steal that trick!!!

The only thing I would do different is to keep the car all stock, but that's my personal taste. 

Glad you like it, Tulio! My roots are in replica stock, and I like my models, curbside or not, to look realistic and I can get cranky about inaccurate body shapes, but after building replica stock cars and 1/72 British aircraft of WWII in IPMS, it's nice to build customs and hot rods to my own personal taste! I'll leave the stock stuff for you and Steve Guthmiller! Love your work!

[John Goschke]

Improvements to the Original Chassis

Notice I didn't say "Added detail!" No fuel lines or emergency brake cables here! Perhaps I could've used the more detailed chassis from the later Trophy series hardtop for this model, but it felt right to use the original kit part for this project. If for no other reason than the first thing I did on receiving  the model was change the wheels and tires and set the wheelbase and ride height using the original chassis. However, like all the AMT/SMP '58 annual kits, this Chevy's chassis doesn't have any wheel wells, so when the model is viewed from the side, one can look in the front wheel opening and see out the other side. In a three-quarter front view the viewer is able to look into the body and see the interior tub. Because the rear wheel openings are lower the problem is less apparent there, but the view from underneath is even less finished looking. Not a huge deal for a curb-side model, but I didn't relish painting nearly the entire inside of the body flat black before final assembly!

So I made some wheel wells for the front, and some panels to block the view in the rear wheel openings. In each case I made the piece over the frame rail first by tracing the outline of the frame onto some sheet plastic. The front wheel well's arch shape was outline with the wheels in place then the "swept-back" curve was drawn freehand. The piece was cutout and cemented in place with Tenax cement. The little "ears" at the front corners of the chassis were then cutout and cemented in place. I used 1/32" Plastruct ABS plastic for wheel arch itself since it is more flexible than styrene. The piece was a strip about 5/16" wide, cut over-length so I could cement it in place and trim off the excess. It's cemented around the top of the arch and tucked inside the front corner "ear" and at the rear it's bent back and glued in place with cyano on the angled edge of the chassis plate. Once the basic wheel arch was in place a test fit revealed the need for the piece at the rear of the wheel arch to completely block the view inside the body. Tape was used to create a pattern for the piece before it was cut from ABS and cemented in place for final fit adjustments.

The chassis was also too narrow, leaving an approx. 1/8" gap on either side so I added strips of styrene cut from the chassis of another old kit and cemented them in place to fill the gaps.

 

 

[John Goschke]

Tailpipe Extensions

After the chassis work was complete I bent up a pair of tailpipes from styrene rod. The rod was cut somewhat overlong and heated over a candle flame then quickly bent to shape. The fit was refined until the pipes were parallel with rake angle of the car. After the pipes were cut to the final length and the ends drilled out. They were then glued in place temporarily with watch crystal cement. After the cement was dry (overnight) I drilled through the pipes and the chassis. I then removed the pipes and cemented short lengths of thin styrene rod through them to serve as mounting pins. This way the tailpipes can be removed and replaced in the same place every time.

Also shown here is the method I use for replacing the thick splined axles in these early kits in cases where I want to use the original reversible "lowering blocks." A 1/8" o.d. styrene tube cut to length based on the distance between the outside of the axle holes effectively works as a "sleeve," enabling the use of the later standard wire axles.

[John Goschke]

Custom Taillights from a '59 Pontiac Catalina

One of the cars that inspired this build was a semi-custom Impala painted by Larry Watson for Jim Doss that featured '59 Catalina taillights. A clean design that fit well on that very smooth custom!

I made mine using a couple reference photos from the web to create a scale pattern in Adobe Illustrator. The first step was cutting a hole for the inside of the bezel in a piece of sheet styrene, which was then cemented to a backing piece of grey ABS plastic. Then the bezel was shaped out of the laminated pieces using files and sandpaper.

After the bezel was created the lenses were cut and shaped out of some flat transparent red plastic. During the carving process, each piece was checked by laying it on the pattern and the lenses were checked for fit into the bezels.

The bezels were temporarily glued in place on the model for drilling and pinning with styrene rod. After a little further refining these parts will be "plated" with Alclad.

Let me know what you think!

 

[Rider]

This is a great project, with the great engineering. Tail lights looks great.

[peekay]

Yes indeed!

[Ramfins59]

John, those taillights look awesome.

[Rider]

The tail lights look great, as does the entire project so far.

[slusher]

Man, i love the way those tail lights look...

[espo]

Great job on the tail lights. I wouldn't change what you have done here. Years ago when these cars were fairly new some of the other tail light used were anything from Chrysler light setup which looked very much like this but the molding had a sort of chrome wing look on either side. Some used a Mercury tail light that had a triangle look that would run parallel with two sides of the body moldings. Of course a lot of guys just put the '59 Cadillac lamps in and called it done. I think your lamps are much better looking than some of the other options.   

[John Goschke]

Thanks for the comments, guys! Finishing up a paint job for a friend and will be back on this car soon!

Great job on the tail lights. I wouldn't change what you have done here. Years ago when these cars were fairly new some of the other tail light used were anything from Chrysler light setup which looked very much like this but the molding had a sort of chrome wing look on either side. Some used a Mercury tail light that had a triangle look that would run parallel with two sides of the body moldings. Of course a lot of guys just put the '59 Cadillac lamps in and called it done. I think your lamps are much better looking than some of the other options.   

Thanks, Dave Espo! I think the Mopar lights you're thinking of were '59 Plymouth taillights, which had an elliptical shape like the Pontiac lights but had a heavy chrome bezel that wrapped around the side. Another possibility would be '59 Plymouth wagon lights which were smaller.

[espo]

Thanks for the comments, guys! Finishing up a paint job for a friend and will be back on this car soon!

Thanks, Dave Espo! I think the Mopar lights you're thinking of were '59 Plymouth taillights, which had an elliptical shape like the Pontiac lights but had a heavy chrome bezel that wrapped around the side. Another possibility would be '59 Plymouth wagon lights which were smaller.

The Plymouth lights would also look great. The tail lights I had in mind were around 1960 Chrysler lights that were part of the fender fins. They were not the flat elliptical type but more of a curved shape within a chrome surround with a flat mounting surface with the fender. The lights on the Plymouth you show were also used on the fenders of older step side style picks. The paint design on the Plymouth in the picture looks good also.  

[StevenGuthmiller]

The Plymouth lights would also look great. The tail lights I had in mind were around 1960 Chrysler lights that were part of the fender fins. They were not the flat elliptical type but more of a curved shape within a chrome surround with a flat mounting surface with the fender. The lights on the Plymouth you show were also used on the fenders of older step side style picks. The paint design on the Plymouth in the picture looks good also.  

They wouldn't have been anything from Chrysler around 1960.

The Chrysler tail lights from that period were all pretty flamboyant pieces with definitely no flat mounting surface.

 

Steve

 

[espo]

They wouldn't have been anything from Chrysler around 1960.

The Chrysler tail lights from that period were all pretty flamboyant pieces with definitely no flat mounting surface.

 

Steve

 

I looked on Google since I wasn't sure of the year, I know these images look extreme but that is the light I was thinking of. I don't remember them looking that extreme when used and they would use some of the sheet metal from the donor car to mold them into the tail light area. They would use some of the donor sheet metal to make a small body line running forward on the body from the tail lights. It sounds extreme but it actually looked very good and mirrored  the body line from the rear bumper going forward. Enough of all this. Lets see more of your build.      

[John Goschke]

Down to Tijuana for Some Tuck 'n Roll

A lot of guys build customs in Southern California would take their cars to Tijuana for inexpensive, quality upholstery. So I thought I'd modify the original interior of this old kit to reflect that trend and add some eye-appeal to a not-very-detailed part of the model. I marked out the spacing then scribed lines for the "tucks," and carved the "rolls" with a #16 Xacto blade.

 

I also did the usual paint detailing on the chassis. Tamiya Flat Black spray, with Liquitex Glossies black on the suspension with a touch of Aqua on the rear shocks. Engine and trans are One Shot Orange lettering enamel.  Good old Testors Silver on the mufflers, and mixed with Flat Black for the rest of the exhaust.