1954 Dodge - - W.I.P.

[Ramfins59]

I know that at the end of my last build I said that my 1959 cars were feeling neglected and were crying out to me. Well, I have a '59 Chrysler New Yorker in progress, waiting for paint to dry. I also have a '59 Lincoln EBAY builtup, paint bomb sitting in paint stripper.

I've been itching to start in on this Dodge kit since I got it also on EBAY. It is a resin kit of a 1954 Dodge Royal. It is a very clean casting and only a minimal amount of cleanup and pinhole filling were necessary. As I said, I got it on EBAY from a guy named Rodger Bartholomew in Sun City, CA. It is supposed to represent the 1954 Indy 500 Pace Car and the kit came with a sheet of the Pace Car decals. However I am not building it as a Pace Car.

In my mind's eye a 1954 Dodge would be a very plain Jane car that would have been owned by an older person. As such, I'm painting the car Gray with a Gray and Black interior and a Black convertible boot.

The kit comes with the body with a continental kit platform molded on, the connie kit wheel in resin with a hole for a hubcap (I'll be using a chromed connie kit wheel cover from Modelhaus), chromed grille and chromed front and rear bumpers. A convertible boot cover, chassis with details molded in, bucket interior with excellent side panel detail, separate front bench seat and dashboard, and vacuum formed glass.

There is no steering wheel, column or pedals, and no wheels and tires, but my parts stash had everything needed for those items.

I love finding unusual subjects like this of 1950's cars for my builds. This one is certainly not a model that you'll see every day. I was debating whether or not to remove the continental kit extension but decided to keep it. Even a plain Jane car needs a little dress up.

Thanks for taking a peek in at this project and I hope you'll enjoy following along as it comes together. Any and all comments are always welcomed.

[Mopar - D]

Rich nice start on your Dodge. I like what your plans are for it.

[Funkster]

Very cool model, don't see them everyday. Most of them where two tone I think.. Yours look very good, nice color.

[Ramfins59]

Thanks guys.

Terry, when I Googled reference pictures for '54 Dodges the two tone ones usually had a white roof with a colored body. This model should qualify with a Gray body and Black convertible down top.

[Edsel-Dan]

Did you remove any Chrome trim??

If this was suppose to be a Pace car, It should have had a chrome stripe

that ran from Windshield frame to Boot cover, Down, Accross, then back up

Yellow car with that area above the chrome black.

I would love to find one

I have the decal sheet already.

[slusher]

Rich you a busy guy putting out the great builds. Very nice plan for this one looking forward to it..

[charlie8575]

Gray fits early '50s Chrysler products, even convertibles.

As does maroon, dark blue, dark green, and I remember a '54 Chrysler Windsor wagon around here that was a copper-brown color, actually looked good.

I'll look forward to seeing this one come together, Rich.

Charlie Larkin

[Ramfins59]

Thanks very much guys.

Daniel, no I did not remove any trim, and yes the pictures I have of the Pace Car do show that extra trim with the black painted area. I guess the guy who cast this body goofed and left it off. I can PM you his address if you'd like to contact him re getting one of these kits.

Charlie, I was actually debating painting this car either Maroon, Dark Blue or Dark Green, but decided on Gray as I thought it was more of a "plain Jane" color.

[Ron Hamilton]

Interesting.

[cobraman]

Nice color choice.

[FASTBACK340]

Loving watch you knock them out Rich. The subjects are so interesting and your making good calls on colors/combos.

[Porscheman]

This is going to be another one of your beautiful builds Rich.

[Ramfins59]

Thank you all for your great, encouraging comments. I hope to be able to post some progress pics soon.

[Ramfins59]

I got a little progress done on this car. I finished up the interior last night. The carpet is flocked black and I added gas & brake pedals because there were none. I painted the seat and door inserts flat black. BMF was applied to the door panel inserts and the cranks and handles were painted chrome silver. The rest of the seats and side panels were flocked in gray. The dashboard was painted gray like the body and given a clearcoat. I applied a speedo gauge decal from the parts stash along with some PE pieces on either side of the speedo for the other gauges, and some PE buttons and some BMF. The steering wheel and column from the parts box were painted semi-gloss black and the horn ring is a round metal ring from a ballpoint pen.

Thanks for following along on this build. Additional updates as they happen.

[slusher]

Real nice interior work Rich. Your so good at detail.

[Newbs99]

That carpet and dash look real. Keep up the good work Richard.

-Newbs99

[Ramfins59]

Thanks very much Carl and Bo, I appreciate it.

[TFchronos]

Very nice interior detailing, shaping up to be another fine car from the 50's.

[Ramfins59]

Thanks Jonathan.

[Mopar - D]

Richard you have this one coming together nicely

[Ramfins59]

Thanks Dan, I'm hoping to have the BMF work on the body done by tomorrow, and if all goes well, maybe final assembly and completion by sometime on Saturday.

[Chromecop]

Cool build, me likes!

[Faust]

Looking good, man!

I like the choice of the "thick" grey paint; it definitely suits the car, and I think your analysis of potential ownership is right on the money. Nice interior work, too!

Keep it up; this is going to be pretty awesome.

[Ramfins59]

Thank you Darryl and Adam.

Adam, the gray paint is Duplicolor Gray primer/sealer with Duplicolor clearcoat.

Today I finished the BMF work. I also installed clear headlight lenses from my parts stash and applied Tamiya clear red to the taillights and white acrylic to the backup lights.

Tomorrow I can hopefully start and finish final assembly. Thanks for following along. Additional progress will be reported as it happens.

[Mike Kucaba]

Nice work and a great find in resin!