Olde Kustom Tyme -- 1961 Chevy Custom

[Tom Geiger]

I had pulled this beauty down off the shelf to take a few shots of it along with the recent '62 Chevy custom I had acquired. That's when I noticed it was missing a few little things and decided to spend a pleasant hour bringing her back to her former glory.

Up front I noticed two glue spots next to the headlights where a former light must've been. Scrounging through the parts box, I found two little period chrome bullets that fit right into the original builder's intent. The car was also missing the fender top chrome and I was waiting to do a Modelhaus order. Then it hit me, this is a custom, I don't need the real kit parts! So the ones you see here are from the AMT '58 Belvidere kit. I just happened to have one exploded for parts. And they fit right into the build.

The other item that was missing were the dual antennas. I'm pretty sure that's what was where the glue spots on the trunk lid are. So I added a pair from the Monogram '59 Chevy. And yes, the kit's custom instructions do tell the builder to install the stock tail lights OUTSIDE the body for custom tail lights!

And just a shot to show off the new antenna.

And a side view of the car prior to my recent fixes. It is a swoopy kinda thing.

So that's another installment from the Olde Kustom Kollection where we restore and preserve the folk art of our youth. The rules are simple, we'll restore the cars back to the original owner's vision, and never ever improve them past the standards of the day.

Hope you like this one!

[Ramfins59]

Hey Tom, that car reminds me of the "way back time" when we tried to glue every single part that came in the kit to the body. You talk about my basement eventually becoming a 50's car museum.... well you must have a nostalgia model collection that would rival Mr. Gustavson...!!!

[Joker]

Thanks for sharing the JC Whitney/Honest Charlie style customs.

I got one of those grills rolling around in my parts box.

The wheel covers rock tho.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Well, she certainly has a face only her mother could love, but she's seriously cool somehow in spite of it. I too recall the "gotta use every part in the box" build style. Man, that's cool. I wondered what those incredible skirts came from ...i got a couple of sets in with some other stuff recently.

[PappyD340]

Kinda swoopy indeed, was the car brush painted Tom?

[Chuck Most]

Man, those old annuals came with some wacky looking custom accessories!

[Tom Geiger]

Kinda swoopy indeed, was the car brush painted Tom?

Yes, the car is brush painted. Not the greatest, but I wouldn't change a thing! It's so typical of the period.

There were instructions back then to brush paint cars thick, then use Colgate toothpaste to rub it out. I have a few that were done that way and were rubbed nice and smooth. But not this one!

[ToyLvr]

Geez, Tom. And here I thought that my recently acquired JoHan '63 Caddy "custom" was *gaudy*. This one is way out there....

;-)

[Tom Geiger]

Geez, Tom. And here I thought that my recently acquired JoHan '63 Caddy "custom" was *gaudy*. This one is way out there....

;-)

Mike, you haven't see "gaudy" yet! LOL You should see some of the stuff in my collection!