American Graffiti's '58 Impala

[Farmboy]

Took a gamble on trying to recreate this car. Research on the actual car shows chrome removed, some detail shaved and basic street customizing cues like a blacked out grille. Just finished the red. Close inspection of movie footage and actual photos show the red to be a fog, not a solid color so I dialed down the pressure and thinned the paint. I could haved used a smaller tip on the airbrush but I'm happy with the results. The BMF really sets it off in person. Tailights will come from custom parts in AMT's merc. I have 6 caddy lights per the real car. Anyway, here's the body, the tuck and roll interior is next. Comments and observations welcome.

[cobraman]

Looks good from what I can remember of the real car.

[58 Impala]

Nice job so far, I've always wanted to try that build myself. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Nice work, I recall finding this car very appealing, and just very achievable to a late teen early 20 something for the time period.

[slusher]

That looks great so far...

[Chris White]

Real nice paint

[PappyD340]

Real NICE Mike!!

[PowerPlant]

I've been wanting to build that car for a while myself...

Yours looks great so far

Is that the AMT or Revell kit?

[geemoney]

nice!

I always thought it was odd that the car was only 4 years old and ron howards character was giving it to toad to take care of while he was gone!

[Farmboy]

Sorry 'bout that. It's the AMT kit, the 58 Impala Coupe. Thanx for the comments everybody!

[High octane]

It is lookin' real good and American Graffiti is one of my FAVE movies.

[crazyjim]

Very nice and waiting for more.

[cooltoys1]

dangit, broken images, where are the pics!!!

[Dave Van]

I missed a number of details when I did mine.....looks like yours will be more correct....I'll be watching your build!!

Mine is the Revell kit........

[Farmboy]

Nice build Dave. Wish half my builds came out that clean!

['70 Grande]

Your start on this build looks excellent; I'll be watching as it progresses. Doesn't this kit come with separate, opening doors? Did you glue the doors shut and do some work on their door-opening seams? If so, what'd you do; cuz it looks good!

[Farmboy]

Hi Mark. Thanx for the nice words. Yes, the AMT kit has the opening doors. I glued them shut and left the separate interior door 'skins' off tll later. The opening door feature leaves ugly gaps around the door, so when I glued them shut my priority was to make sure the side spear lined up between door/body. When everything dried, I used a Future/talcum powder paste mix to fill the gap around the door (especially the door sills) by pressing it in and smoothing it with my finger. I did that a couple of times letting dry between coats until it looked right to me. I then gave it a shot of primer to seal it before painting. Hope that helps.

[hjracing]

Great build! The paint job is awesome!

[Farmboy]

This is the opening door feature. These door skins fit inside the actual door body. Having glued the doors shut, they had to be installed later. In order to do that the doors skins have to be made the same width as the interior insert, easily accomplished with a razor saw. Here you can see the before and after mod.

...and here is one door glued along the floor pan held to proper width by masking tape till it dries. The drivers door was done after this pic was taken. The complete assembly is inside the body at the moment to ensure the door skins sit flush at the door window sills.

[ImpalaBoy]

The '58 Impala is my favorite car and I finally got around to watching American Graffiti for the first time the other day! The body looks fantastic! How's the rest coming along?