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

[Tom Geiger]

^{Rich, let me know if you need a front seat. I have a bunch of '51 Chevys in my parts box!}

[Belugawrx]

NICE Rich,....

Where do you get those custom pinstriping sets,....

RMR ... ?

This man is custom custom custom

[Ramfins59]

Tom, yes I DO need a front seat and seat back from the Fleetline kit. I'll PM you my address...... Thanks a lot buddy..!!

Bruce, thanks very much. I honestly don't know which kit's decal sheets the pinstriping decals came from. A lot of my decal sheets are cut up and I keep them in several ziplock bags in a drawer of my workbench. I think that the large one on the trunk came on a sheet of pinstripes that I got from Slixx. The hood stripes are actually 2 decals pieced together. The flames on the sides are pieced together from the Revell '58 Impala's decal sheet.

Yes I do very much enjoy building old school, traditional style Customs. As I said earlier, I haven't built a full-on Custom in quite awhile and this one is fulfilling all my urges and scratching all my itches. Plus, it's still a 50's car and is fitting into my 1950's buildups perfectly. I'm taking my time and trying to get everything neat and right.

[Skip]

Rich, that engine is a jewel. The whole car is going to be a real stunner when finished. You got good taste.

[Ramfins59]

Thank you very much for those kind words Skip. The interior is starting to come together. I'm working on the dashboard and door panels today. Lots of little detailing to do which is really hard on the eyes. I'm thankful for my Optivisor.

[72 Charger]

That body is super slick Rich cant wait to see the rest

[Ramfins59]

Thank you Dave. It's coming along nicely.

[slusher]

Engine looks great Rich...

[Ramfins59]

Thanks a lot Carl, I appreciate it.

[slusher]

Looking forward to the interior Rich, I have picked several tips from your work and pm s

[Ramfins59]

Thanks again Carl. Please feel free to pick up any tips you want, there are no secrets involved here... just some tedious and sometimes time-consuming detailing. It all depends on just how crazy you want to get when working on a model. Since this has been coming along so well so far I'm deciding to put in a little extra effort on details.

[Tom Geiger]

Since this has been coming along so well so far I'm deciding to put in a little extra effort on details.

I live on that slippery slope!

[Ramfins59]

Yeah Tom, it's easy to get carried away isn't it? Thanks again for the front seat, you're a lifesaver!

[blunc]

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.

Hey Rich, if you put a little silver paint on each end of the diode where the wire comes out it will look even more like a real fuel filter.

That is a superb color of blue that came out great!

[Ramfins59]

Thanks for the tip Mike, I'll have to do that.

[johnbuzzed]

Rich, that really looks nice. I gotta see that up close and in-person one day. What I do for the fuel lines at the filter/diode is to slip a short piece of insulation from a small gauge (22 or 24, around there) wire over each end of the conductor and silde it up to the diode itself. This simulates the short piece of rubber hose that connects the hard fittings at the fuel filter to the hard steel fuel lines. Add a little BMF or some PE hose clamps at each end of the insulation. Of course, you need to install the insulation before you do any bending.

[Joker]

slip a short piece of insulation from a small gauge (22 or 24, around there) wire over each end of the conductor and silde it up to the diode itself. This simulates the short piece of rubber hose that connects the hard fittings at the fuel filter to the hard steel fuel lines. Add a little BMF or some PE hose clamps at each end of the insulation. Of course, you need to install the insulation before you do any bending.

Thanks for the tip John.

Simplicity at its best.

Looking at works in progress

and learning new techniques (to me anyway)

is my cup of Joe (Folgers).

[Ramfins59]

Thanks John, I'll remember that tip for the next time I use a diode for a filter. Hope all is well with you & your family.

James, I'm finally using one of your laminated, teardrop shifter knobs on this car (blue and white). It looks great and hopefully tomorrow I'll have the interior finished and assembled so I can post some progress pics..

[Ira]

Great Engine Richard!

[Ramfins59]

Thank you Ira. I'm sure it will look a lot better once the distributor and wires are in place.

[Ramfins59]

Progress reports for today. I got a lot done between yesterday and today.

The BMF work on the body is finished and the glass is installed.

I added some BMF to the molded underhood bracing and also applied some Gray flocking to simulate underhood insulation.

The interior side panels are finished. First I sprayed the top edge with the body color of Duplicolor Royal Blue. I masked that off and sprayed the molded tuck 'n roll area with Model Master Wimbledon White. Then came the BMF trim work on the molded raised areas and the cranks and handles. Finally the rest of the panels were flocked in matching Royal Blue flocking.

The dashboard was first sprayed with the Royal Blue body color, and a small White pinstripe decal was applied to the glove box to match the exterior pinstriping. Then BMF trim was applied. 2 PE pieces were added for ignition and glove box keyholes and the buttons were hit with some chrome silver paint using a sharpened toothpick. Finally BestModelCarParts gauges, clock and radio face were attached with clear enamel and were then covered with clear epoxy for lenses. The steering wheel and column were painted Wimbledon White and the horn ring painted chrome silver. I added a Blue painted round pin head for a necker knob. I was finally able to use one of the Blue & White teardrop shaped shifters that Joker sent to me (Thanks James) and it really looks great.

.

Finally, the rear seat is finished. First I added a bunch of Evergreen half round strips for a tuck 'n roll pattern, sanded everything even and smooth, then sprayed it with Wimbledon White. Once that dried I applied Royal Blue flocking around all the edges. Once that dried I added some Blue wire around the edges of the tuck 'n roll for piping.

There's still plenty left to do on this car. I'm waiting for the flocking to dry on the front seat so I can attach the piping. Then the interior can be assembled. Now that the engine is done it can be attached to the chassis and then the rest of the chassis can be assembled. I can install the headlight assemblies and add red lenses to the taillight bezels.

I can't wait to get back to working on a couple of 50's promos...... there's a LOT less work involved on those.

Thanks for checking out the progress here. All comments are welcomed as usual.

[72 Charger]

Wow Thats looking fantastic Rich the Dash is amazing What glue are you using for flocking?

[slusher]

Man, Rich you can do some serious foil work. Excellent...

[charlie8575]

Looking good. I'll look forward to seeing this in a couple of weeks.

Charlie Larkin

[Ramfins59]

Thanks a lot guys, I appreciate your encouraging words.

Dave, I use slightly watered down Elmer's Glue. I brush a fairly wet coat on the parts and then sprinkle on the flocking through a small strainer. Usually I'll paint the areas to be flocked with a color as close to the color of the flocking as possible before I apply the flocking. That way if the flocking comes out a bit thin in spots the lighter color of the plastic part won't show through.

Edited April 13, 2014 by Ramfins59