1955 Chrysler 300 custom coupe

[Peter Lombardo]

Moebius 1955 Chrysler 300 custom coupe

A few weeks ago, the mail man dropped off my 1970 ‘Cuda and 1956 Chrysler 300B kits, so because of that, I figured it was time to pull out the 1955 Chrysler 300 kit that has been collecting dust for the last 2 years or so. One look at that car and I knew the roof needed to be chopped; headlights Frenched and the rear taillight fixture needed revamping.

The first thing I did was cut the roof down…as the picture shows I cut “pie” shaped wedges out of the opposite sides of the A pillars and then cut out 5 mm latterly out of the C pillar. Using small pliers and my small hair dryer to warm and soften the roof plastic at the C pillar, I carefully spread the pillars outward to help them sit on the fender (they were a little narrower now because I shortened pillar). I pulled the roof down and rearward to the new lower position. Once in place, all the joints were glued and later a little putty was used to smooth out the unions. (Note, all of the joints still need a little attention to fix a few pin holes and rough spots still).

I glued on the headlight surrounds and added putty, next I sanded off the grille opening surrounds and glued in some thin styrene all around to add depth and smoothness to the opening. Later I will add some photo-etched horizontal thin bar grille bars. The hood was hinged to open forward. I opened the doors and made hinges. Using a Dremel sanding drum I thinned down the thickness of the rear edge of the door so that it has a more realistic appearance. I used thin styrene to form the inside edge of the lip stop for the door to sit against when closed. I attached the inner door panel to the door skin once the hinges were glued in and dry. I used plastic blocks to get the right height (depth) for the inner door panel. Once set, I used Bondo to fill the bottom and rear gap between the door and door inner panel. Once the Bondo is set up but still soft, I used a sharp knife to cut the excess Bondo away and make smooth edges on the two sides. Any air bubbles were later filled with Tamiya putty and sanded smooth. I used to make plastic strips to fill these gaps but found it too tedious and time consuming. The Bondo is much quicker and easy to work with as any excess literally peels off before it sets up

.

Next I added a thin piece of styrene to the leading edge of the door to fill a slightly larger gap then I was comfortable with. Once dry it was sanded smooth and a little putty (very little) was applied and later sanded smooth.

Moving to the rear, I made fender skirt inserts for the rear wheel openings. I curved the styrene a little to follow the side fender contour. I glued on the rear taillight fixtures and sanded them smooth to the fender shape. I used some putty to fill in the small gaps and then drilled out the rear area where the taillight will go. I removed the lettering and excess chrome frills at the rear of the chrome side spears and filled the gas filler area.

Lastly, I formed a faux-continental kit section for the rear trunk area. This is “ala-Imperial” looking from a few years later than 1955 and I thought it would look good on the car. I plan on imbedding a license plate recess area in the center of it. I just haven’t decided whether it is too tall or not yet. Sometime when I look at it, it looks fine and other times it looks too high off the rear deck. It is the correct height if it were actually hiding spare tire, but it is strictly for styling purposes, not functionality so the height would not be a concern for anything other than esthetics.

I like the kits wide white wall tires and wire wheels so they will be used. Of course the car will be as low as possible and the color scheme will be designed around baby blue. Richard Zocchi did a great looking chopped 1956 Chrysler Windsor in baby blue with white and very light blue trim and it is stunning, so I may steal the color scheme he did and rework it a bit for this car……I don’t think he will mind if I do.

Edited December 29, 2013 by Peter Lombardo

[slusher]

Real nice body work ..

[PappyD340]

Real nice body work ..

DITTO!!! looking good Peter!!

[doggie427]

X3 ...Great start to another beautiful project Peter !

[o-man]

WOW!!

[hjracing]

Wow! I'm really be impresed whit those custom works! I'll keep an eye on this one!

[cobraman]

Looking great !