1951 Chevrolet Fleetline - Custom - W.I.P.

[Ramfins59]

Thank you all for your kind and encouraging comments.

A little more progress today. A couple of hours of tedious carving and sanding and I finished smoothing the firewall and inner fenders. I also removed the mold lines and ejector pin marks from the radiator.

More tedious carving and sanding and I got the door handles off and I thinned down the vent window posts by about half...... they were way too thick.

I think at this point I'm just about done with working on the body and it's time for primer and then to move on to work on another part of this car.

[Ramfins59]

I don't know Harry. I was originally thinking spinner hubcaps (which are my favorite on a Custom) but now I'm kind of leaning towards Caddy Sombrero caps. As Charlie stated above, the rounded shapes and "bulges" would compliment the roundness and "bulges" of the body of the car. I'll have to mock up some choices before I finally decide on anything.

[Ramfins59]

Well, I've made some decent progress on this car over the past several days. All of the chassis pieces are painted and somewhat detailed but not yet fully assembled.

I painted the chassis side of the floor pans, the firewall and the engine compartment side of the inner fenders in a "speckle" finish by first spraying everything with flat black primer. I then "dusted" them all with gray primer from about 2 feet away, followed by white primer dusted from 2 feet away, followed by a turquoise color dusted from 2 feet away, and finally with the black primer again dusted from 2 feet away. I then brush painted the chassis rails and parts of the firewall with semi-gloss black. The brake system was "upgraded" with a resin dual master cylinder RMCoMD) with brake lines and pin heads for caps. Disc brakes will be going on all around. The gas tank, tie rod and sway bar were painted steel metalizer.

The lower control arms and rear end were painted gloss black. I put in a piece of round wound guitar string for the fuel line from the gas tank into the frame rail. Black wire will also be connecting the brake calipers to the chassis rails. I still haven't mocked up any wheel choices yet as I'm waiting to complete the assembly of all of the chassis components so everything will hopefully sit right when I do that.

Now, on to the BEST part (IMHO)...... the body.

After priming I sanded a few "imperfections" and filled in the lower corners of the grille surround with another drop of CA glue and sanded everything smooth and reprimed. Then the body was sprayed with Duplicolor Navy Blue paint WHICH CAME OUT GREAT...!!! I decided that since this is a Custom that it needed some pinstriping, so I picked through my ziplock bag of assorted decals and decided on a couple for the hood and trunk. Some setting solution helped them lay down really nicely.

Here's the hood

and here's the trunk

That went so well that I thought that some flames on the sides would be cool, but I wanted to stay with the "White" of the pinstriping so I cobbled together some pieces of the White stripe flames from the Revell '58 Impala decal sheet, and this is how that came out

Once all of the decals snuggled down real nice and into the door lines on the sides I gently cut into the recessed door lines with an XActo blade and then ran some more setting solution in the door lines to get all the cut edges of the decals to really snuggle down. When everything was fully dry I sprayed it all with about 5 coats of Duplicolor Clear which also lay down really nicely. There is definitely an advantage to warming up the rattle cans prior to painting. I still plan on going over everything with some Novus 2 polish before I apply the BMF. I will give it all a day or so to gas out first. In the meantime I'll complete the chassis assembly and then start in on the engine and interior.

I'm VERY happy with this so far and I'm hoping that I can get the rest of the assemblies to look as good as the body does right now.

Thanks for checking in on this progress. More will be posted as it happens. Please feel free to post any and all comments.

[Art Laski]

Looking really good, Rich!

[charlie8575]

That's a very nice color for that, Rich- not too far off from the original Trophy Blue- a little brighter, but the same basic shade. I like the pinstripes, too.

Charlie Larkin

[PappyD340]

Rich that looks fantastic, love the pinstripes and the flames too!!

[donb]

The striping is perfect Rich. Looking forward to more!

[Tom Geiger]

Hey Rich! This looks super so far. Pulling up my chair, cracking open a Yuengling...

[Ramfins59]

Thanks very much guys.

Tom G. - What......no popcorn??

[Joker]

[BKcustoms]

The paint turned out great! I really like those flames.

[Ramfins59]

Thanks very much James and Billy.

James, when I get to working on the interior on this I plan on using one of the Blue & White teardrop shifter knobs that you sent to me a while back. It should look perfect in this car.

Billy, I wish I had more of these flame decals and it would be great if they were made in other colors too (Blue, Red, Green, Black, Yellow, Orange).

[slusher]

Man Rich that is a great color and finish. Pin stripping shows up great on the color..

[dragzz]

i really like the paint u did there and the pinstriping looks great keep up the great work

[Jantrix]

In my ultra-humble opinion , this is my favorite work from you Rich. You made some excellent custom decisions and the finish and decals are top notch. I cannot wait to see the finished piece and this kit is a personal favorite. Nice work.

[Ramfins59]

Thank you all very much for all of your great and encouraging comments.

Rob, I haven't built a full Custom in awhile and this one is fulfilling all my "urges" so far. If I can get the rest of the car to look as good as the body does I will be super happy. I normally work on the body last and finish all the other assemblies first. On this one I've completed the body first and I'm hoping that doesn't come back to bite me in the butt..!!

[om617]

This looks really nice ,and i bet it`s going to be as awsome as the 58 Impala "mild custom" i did see pics of before.

[Ramfins59]

Thanks Tommy, I appreciate your kind comments.

[superbike-shaun]

hey rich, are you sure you didnt get any pearl over that blue, man itlooks great!!!!!!! vry nice build ! shaun.s.

[Ramfins59]

Thanks Shaun. No, there's no Pearl shot over the Navy Blue. I actually did think about spraying some White Pearl over it but did not do that. I think it looks pretty cool the way it is.

[Belugawrx]

WoWWWWWWEEEEE

[Duntov]

HOLY COW Rich!!!!

You went from zero to 100+++ MPH with the paint on this one!!!

A real knock out my friend ---

Keep it going!!!

Regards

Bill (Duntov)

[Ramfins59]

Thanks very much Bruce and Bill. As I said earlier, there is definitely an advantage to warming up the paint before spraying as it helps the paint to lay down nice and smooth. I also got lucky in that no dusties landed on the paint before it dried.

It looks even better after I polished it out.

The engine is 95% finished. I'm waiting on an M.A.D. 6 cylinder distributor from a friend so I can install it and connect all the wires. Once the engine is complete I can then complete the chassis assembly.

Yesterday I started working on the interior and discovered that the front seat and seat back are missing..!!! I don't know when, but at some point in time over the years that I've had this kit I must have "borrowed" the front seat for another project. I'm waiting to hear back from a Forum member who might have one to spare. My plans are to make tuck 'n roll front & rear seats using half round Evergreen strips.

I'll post more progress pics once I finish some additional assemblies.

[1 bad55 stan]

That is just Fantastic Rich,i love that paint.

[Ramfins59]

Here's a bit of an update. I have the engine "almost finished" as I'm waiting for an M.A.D. prewired, 6 cylinder distributor to arrive from my friend Tom. I'm borrowing one from him which I will replace when we get to the NNL East Show in a couple of weeks. Once the engine is installed onto the chassis I can complete the entire chassis assembly. In the meantime, here's the deal on the engine assembly so far.

It has an aluminum finned valve cover from Bob Dudek with an MCG aluminum oil filler/breather cap. I added a Radio Shack diode for an inline fuel filter and a smaller gauge wire for the vacuum advance line, I "upgraded" to an alternator (which I pinned to the engine block) instead of the kit's generator and used some PE brackets and bolt heads so it wouldn't just be hanging there. I used some aluminum pulleys that I've been wanting to use along with some really thin adhesive backed black tape for the fan belt. This tape came with one of the pulley sets that I had. I'm happy with the way this engine looks so far and the distributor and wiring should top it off nicely. Here's how it looks so far......

I've also "upgraded" to a 12 Volt battery which will be wired and mounted to the passenger side inner fender. I will also be adding heater hoses once everything is installed in the engine compartment. The driver side inner fender will have an Aaooogah horn attached which will be wired to the firewall. An aluminum Beehive oil filter is mounted to the passenger side of the firewall and hopefully I'll be able to install the lines correctly.

Now I'm finally starting work on the interior. I've had this kit in my stash for years and somewhere along the line I must have used the front seat for another project. I'm waiting to hear back from a Forum member who may have one to spare for me to use. The seats will have tuck 'n roll added with half round Evergreen strips. The dash has been painted the body color and clearcoated, and will be detailed as soon as it is fully dry.

That's it for now. More progress to report as it happens. Thanks for following along. All comments are welcomed and appreciated.