56 Vic On The Bench Again!

[Tom Kren]

Hey all! so whats going on me just tring to get back to the bench tonight had some time and brought out the AMT 56 Vic I HAVE TO FINISH IT NOW!Question on the door how do i get them to close all the way is there a trick on how to do it They close but not flush with the body please let me know .Oh heres the build so far

[bigphoto]

I too have the same problem and am thinking of some small magnets anyone else have any ideas?

BTW Tom, nice looking Vickie!!!

[MrObsessive]

Tom, to get the doors to close the whole way, you may have to reengineer the hinges a bit.

Test fit the doors/door jambs with the interior (and dash if possible) in place, and place the doors closed on the body. Check to make sure there is enough clearance and no binding of the hinges against what would be the kick panels in the interior, and no jamming against the dashboard.

You might have to shave the radii of the hinges just a bit to make the clearance, or grind in a slight divot in the interior kick panels to let the hinges clear. The dash also may need some trimming a bit to allow the doors to close with the door jamb/hinge in place.

Having built this one a long time ago out of the box, I remember the doors being fussy................I also remember trimming the dogleg below the A pillar a bit to get them to close properly along with the other suggestions I made.

The '55 I'm building right now is based on that '56...................I wanted to avoid drama with the hinges, so I scratchbuilt my own!

Tom, if you're really brave, you can try this technique I did recently on my Turbine Car................it was an article I did with Tim Doty years ago on his website. He gives step by step pics in the article on how he did this to his '56 Ford.

Hope this helps!

Edited December 14, 2007 by MrObsessive

[RyanK]

looking good Tom. What color and paint is that. I love that color!

[mr moto]

I too have the same problem and am thinking of some small magnets anyone else have any ideas?

BTW Tom, nice looking Vickie!!!

I've used magnets to hold things closed or open before. Rather than hijack this discussion, I'll post something about it in Tips and Tricks.

[SteveG]

Hi Tom,

It's nice to see your '56 Vickie back on the bench. I've never been a fan of the plastic hinges in those kits. If it was my build, I would be either;

A; try to make some prototypically correct working hinges and latches.

B; just glue the doors shut.

My reality would be that I would spend a whole bunch of time on plan A .... get really frustrated, give up and then go to plan B

Now you know why I like curbside kits so much.

-Steve

[bobss396]

I always make up my own hinges for the opening door series cars. I've had too many experiences with them hanging up at shows and had one fall off a '58 Chevy. I use brass wire and tubing to attach it inside the fender with epoxy.

Hanging the doors is a 2-step process. First it has to open and close with just the door on, less the interior piece. It shouldn't hang up at all. With the addition of paint and primer, the door will get bigger all around so plan on taking some off the door skin all around. The next step is to make sure that the interior piece doesn't hang up on the opening. I wind up taking some extra material off the bottom and on the latch side.

I make up my own locating blocks for the interior piece or bond a strip across the whole thing so it has some decent surface area for attachment. 5-minute epoxy holds it on nicely and you don't have the hassle of applying it to the perimeter of the interior piece.

Bob

[Irvin Arter Jr.]

Hey Tom, Glue them closed! HaHa!

[Ron Hamilton]

I was working on the Revell '56 Ford Pickup, and I decided to glue th doors shut. The fit was horrible when I sat the doors in their frames. Maybe one day, I'll find this one and finish it to my satisfaction.

[62rebel]

the only out-of-the-box kit i ever did with opening doors that worked A-okay was the Classic Monogram '40 Ford pickup. and although i usually build only 1/25, i love that kit. was extremely disappointed with Monogram when they changed the wheels from Americans (? brand?) to those nondescript CenterLine style wheels. they did NOT look right on a pure '60's street custom truck.

i think ONLY Monogram had decent working hinges, and the shortage of kits with them tells a great deal of how much trouble they are to engineer into a massproduced kit.

[Wildrice]

Thats looks great Tom. What color did you use?

[bigphoto]

the only out-of-the-box kit i ever did with opening doors that worked A-okay was the Classic Monogram '40 Ford pickup. and although i usually build only 1/25, i love that kit. was extremely disappointed with Monogram when they changed the wheels from Americans (? brand?) to those nondescript CenterLine style wheels. they did NOT look right on a pure '60's street custom truck.

i think ONLY Monogram had decent working hinges, and the shortage of kits with them tells a great deal of how much trouble they are to engineer into a massproduced kit.

Just went and looked at my 1964 issue of the 40 p/u and it does not have the Americans either but a very nice set

of Kelsey Hayes wires!!

[Tom Kren]

thanks guys i did a little sanding and got them in they look and work fine.