1977 Chevette - The Rest of the Story! 12/10/2014

[1 bad55 stan]

great build!

[slusher]

Super nice build Tom. Did some of the Chevettes come with the chrome outside mirrors....?

[Tom Geiger]

Super nice build Tom. Did some of the Chevettes come with the chrome outside mirrors....?

Carl, I have seen them with a small chrome mirror. I was working with the 1976 Chevette brochure and the body color sport mirror was on most of the cars, with the chrome one on the cheapest Scooter model. I also see a lot of chrome mirrors on later model ones, especially on the 4 door sedans. The car I've replicated looks a lot like the top one above.

[rustybill1960]

Awesome little build Tom

Thank you for shaing

Later

Russ

[charlie8575]

Looks great, Tom.

Charlie Larkin

[TFchronos]

Very nicely done!

[Robberbaron]

Nice job, Tom! That brings back memories of seeing those little green Chevettes tooling around. They didn't seem to make too many in that color, but when you saw one, boy did it stand out!

[Tom Geiger]

And here's the rest of the story.

This project inspiration was a conversation my wife's sister and I had last Christmas as we worked together in the kitchen. She told me that she was recently telling her friends the story of her first car, and how I helped her go car shopping when she was 17. Her fondness for the car got me thinking it would make a cool model project.

You all followed along on the build, and the completion photos above. And we pick up there...

I had placed the Chevette in my show case for safekeeping. It had been to a few model club meetings and the Liars Challenge in November. We went to my sister-in-law's house for Thanksgiving. My wife usually takes a passive role in my hobby, but she was excited, "Are you bringing Mary's car?" She asked a couple of times, including making sure it was in the car when we left our house.

I decided to leave it in the car when we got to her house. It was hectic as everyone was arriving and we got settled in. I decided to present it right after dinner, when we all still were sitting around the table. I pulled it out of the box and put it on the table in front of her. She instantly recognized it, with a "Oh My God! That's my car!" She immediately wanted it and shared the story of her first car with her 15 year old twins, who grasped the significance and the work into the project. It got passed around the table and the original story of how we bought it and how it served her well for 10 years was told.

The next day my wife and I got this text:

"Hey. Just wanted to say a huge thank you for all you brought yesterday. And a greater thanks to Tommy for the best gift ever... my very own model of my very first car! This one's getting it's very own shadow box!! Thanks so much for this awesome memory!! Such a throwback... such great memories! Love it! Big hugs! XO"

And that makes it all worth it!

Edited December 10, 2014 by Tom Geiger

[microwheel]

Nice story Tom, and a great build. There are so many reasons why we all love this hobby so much, and this is just one of them.

[mikemodeler]

Great story Tom and an even better ending! I did something similar for my oldest brother a few years ago. He bought a used 65 Coronet when he returned from the Air Force in 1967 and I remembered him taking me for rides in it when I was little (we are 17 years apart in age). His expression and re-telling of the story of how he bought and enjoyed that car was well worth it.

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Fantastic that it had such an impact on her. Thanks for the share.

[MsDano85gt]

I too did that once to an old pen pal friend of mine from Texas i did as close as possible replica of her 65 chevrolet truck she drove for some time, needless to say we caught up again she says she still has the model replica I built at her parents house under safe keeping

[LongRoofNut]

It's the story that really makes our little parts of history come alive.

[1972coronet]

Dusting off this seven year old topic / thread here ; I love how your modified promo came out, and more so the story behind it !

I recently purchased the MPC annual of the 1977 Chevette ; perfect , unbuilt condition. I had it when it was new ( I was 7 years old... it didn't survive past 1979 ) . Opening that box brought back so many great memories of when I bought that '77 annual at Hinshaw's Department Store (an expensive , upper-middle class store which is long defunct) .

I'd forgotten just how many cool extras were in this kit ! A table , chair , bench , tent , two figures, tool box , etc. , etc. ! 

I'm planning a stone stock build , including those crummy plastic tyres (which will be painted with Tamiya Black Rubber in aerosol ) . The tool box will hide one of the ejector pin marques ; the other marque is faint enough that embossing powder will hide it. 

In my quest to find images of the engine --stock 1.6 litre-- I' having devil of a time finding even one. I'm fairly certain that it's GM Corporate Blue with a semi gloss black air cleaner ; but , the cam covers are the moving target : are they aluminium ? Painted ?