Don Nicholson '61 Impala OS/S.

[Speedfreak]

Looking good Niko. That frame is excellent. Did you use a brush on the gloss?

[W-409]

Thanks Dave and Gene, I appreciate it!

Gene - Yep I used a brush on the gloss black. I don't think I could mask those flat black areas away so that I could paint the glossy parts with a spray can since chassis has so many shapes that my maskings would leak from somewhere for sure...

[Speedfreak]

I hear you on the masking thing Niko, looks like you did a fine job with the brush. I hate using a brush now though, I'll go to almost any lengths not to use one, but , sometimes I still do.

[W-409]

I understand that very well, it's not always easy to lay a good paint job with a brush. I still use brushes pretty much, though. Usually only body and then chassis plate are painted with spray cans and pretty much everything else is painted with a brush. Sometimes my engines and even interiors are painted with spray cans though.

Maybe the reason why I use brush so much is that it takes a lot of time and effort to mount the parts for painting and then they need always Primer etc when painting with spray cans...

[slusher]

Niko, man i have been missing some of the work on this project. Great work on the interior. Really nice brush painting on the chassis...

[RAMBENNA]

nice work so far

[Jmaracing]

Looks great!!!!!!

[10thumbs]

Hi Niko,

Good that you're back to the bench with this model. Enough goofing off now, get on with it! LOL.

Good too that you know how to move a brush, that makes it very cool.

Michael

[W-409]

Well, it's been a long time since this build has seen the bench, but I want to say a late Thank You to Carl, Cliff, Joe and Michael. The kind words are highly appreciated!

While it's a bit cold outside (something like -8 Fahrenheits now) I'm unable to shoot a second color coat on my Ford Thunderbolt or clear coat my '55 Chevy Gasser, so I decided to take this one back on the bench to do something.

Next step was to figure out the stance. On my previous mock up, front end was too low so that had to be fixed first. I cut short pieces of plastic rod and drilled a proper size hole to mount them to the spindles. A Same size hole was drilled to the inner wheels too, so now the front suspension is in the highest possible place with the original kit spindles.

Next I had to do the same thing to that rear axle. The problem was that I couldn't drill correct size holes to the axle, because the axle is glued together from two halves and when I tried to drill a hole in there, those two halves just came apart. So, my rear inner wheels had bigger axle hole in them than the axle itself, so as a solution, I installed that plastic rod on my motor tool and filed the other end smaller so that it fits inside the rear axle, while still the other end is a tight fit to the inner wheels.

And now when I was able to mount wheels and tires properly on place, I decided to do a mock up to see if more adjustments are needed. On rear, everything except the wheels and tires are stock and I think that the ride height on rear is pretty good. Front end is a lot better than on my previous mock up too, and I think it's actually pretty close to what the real car was.

(That last pic was borrowed from George Klass' site.)

[W-409]

When surfing in the internet I found a picture of Dyno Don sitting on the driver's seat of this Impala. It's the only picture where the interior can be seen a little, and looks like I guessed the seat colors correctly! That's some good news, as I originally just guessed that "they might have been this way"... This also shows the dash and steering wheel colors, so now I don't have to guess that either when I get the dash from paint stripping.

The real car had Chrome Reverses on front and regular silver Steel Wheels on rear. So I painted the front wheels with "Chrome Silver" and rears with regular silver spray paint. The front wheels could be just a bit brighter, but that's the best I could do for now. Next up is some detail painting and minor black washing to make the wheels look good.

Most of the chassis components were painted so I decided to install front and rear suspensions on place. The fitment was really good on both and gluing them on correctly was easy.

I added a short piece of brake line to the rear end too. The rest will be done later, but this had to be done before installing the axle on place. It's made out of thin copper wire, the fitting that connects that rubber part of brake line between the chassis floor and rear axle and that regular brake line together was scratchbuilt from styrene rod.

 

[W-409]

One thing I never liked on this Lindberg body is that the lower rear window chrome trim is missing. Well, rest of the chrome trims are not perfect either, but this would have been impossible to foil smoothly as there was no chrome trim molded at all.

So the only choice was to add that chrome trim in there. Luckily I had some styrene rod in proper size that I just glued in there. Now I'll let the glue dry a bit and then smooth it out with some putty. Now I should have no problems foiling this one.

[W-409]

Here's a minor update on the Impala. Those lower body panels (Whatever they're in English.... Valance Panels?) were glued on place to both front and rear. It wasn't a major surprise that the fitment wasn't very good so something had to be done to make them fit better before painting. Those panels were a bit too wide to fit perfectly to the body, so first I roughly removed most of the excess material with a hobby knife. Then I sanded them a bit smoother and so that they match the body shapes a bit better. This operation was done on both ends.

Here is the rear body panel before doing anything...

Smoothing it out and correcting the fitment...

Then I applied some putty to smooth out the glue joints and that rear window lower trim I did earlier. In this picture you can also see my new decal sheet that just arrived. I bought it for the cauge decals as the ones from my kit's original decal sheet got destroyed when I removed paint from that dash a few days ago.

 

[Mooneyzs]

Nice work Nikoi... This is looking good. I love the contrast on the chassis. keep up the great work

[W-409]

Thanks Chris, I appreciate it coming from a Master like you!

Here's a little update, I've done a bit of progress with the tires and wheels. Those separate molded in plastic white walls looked too much like plastic when they weren't painted, so I shot a few coats of Tamiya white spray paint on them. Now they look a lot better and they're not too bright white. For the wheels I also painted bolts and nuts with grey and wheel centers semi gloss black. I added a bit of black wash to the wheels to give some depth and I think they look decent.

[Brutalform]

I like how this is coming along. This is getting me in the mood to start my 61. About those wheels, they are beautiful. Does your friend that casts these, sell them? Does he have a website? Id be interested in about 3 sets.

[W-409]

Thanks Tom! There are never enough X-Frame Chevrolets so I'd say get to it!

Unfortunately he is not selling that much those resin parts, once I asked if he'd consider selling a few to the States but he didn't want to do that... You see the business is very small and it's done as a hobby between real work, other life and own modeling projects. He is a nice guy and his resin parts and kits are top notch quality. I'm sorry to say that I can't help you with these wheels.

 

[Brutalform]

That's cool. I totally understand. Actually I forgot you are outside the states. But thank you anyway. Continue with this beautiful build.

[W-409]

Well, after nearly eight years, this thing is finally back from the dead (time flies, right? ). My main focus will still be on the '71 Pinto Funny Car that I'm working on, but whenever that's drying, I'll continue the Impala.

I tried to restore the photos on this thread as they got messed up when Photobucket ruined itself. But, it looks like I'm unable to edit my old posts, so unfortunately can't do anything about that.

The reason why this build got boxed years ago can be seen in these pictures. The engine assembly has started, but the carburetors are incorrect, the real car had Carters.

 

Well, now I found a pair of 3D-printed Carters from my parts box, they should be at least closer to correct carbs on a car like this. I don't know who made them, but they look pretty good test fitted to the engine.

 

I was also able to do some actual work on this one. Chassis is now on four wheels, so I glued wheels and wheel backs to the tires and installed them on place. Looks good and the stance is just what I wanted.

 

[Brutalform]

I was almost positive you have done this build before, and now I see this thread was from a while ago. See, Niko, your 409 Nicholson build is etched in my mind forever. All kidding aside though, can’t wait to see more. 

[Old Buckaroo]

Love the chassis and wheels - looks really sharp. Glad to see this one back to the surface !

I remember this build way back when I was a regular poster before a long vacation of lousy to no internet. Seeing this makes me happy ! And photo bucket screwed up a lot of valuable information and tutorials on many modeling forums. 😞

[W-409]

Haha, thanks Tom and Sean, I appreciate the kind words! This is one of the projects that I'd really like to finish. I have a soft spot for X-Frame Chevrolets and also for old Junior Stock / Super Stock cars.

Next I did a little work on the interior. Old paint was stripped off from the dashboard and after some prepping I was able to airbrush some primer on it. It's Alclad's Grey Primer & Microfiller.

Because of the two tone interior, steering wheel will be two-tone. It's a part that I want to paint by brush so I don't have to do tedious masking job that would be needed if painting it with an airbrush. So I had to pick a paint that I can use by brush and that can also be airbrushed on. I'm mostly using Revell and Humbrol enamels so I thought Revell's #34 red might be the best option. I airbrushed the dashboard with it after thinning it somewhere around 40-50% and it turned out great. Now I can use the same paint for steering wheel and steering column by brush so the shade of red will be the same.

 

Then I mocked up the engine. Looks like the AMT engine fits pretty well to Lindberg engine bay. The other reason for my mock up was headers. I found one picture of the engine on 1:1 scale car and it had fenderwell headers produced by Jerry Jardine. No kit that I know of has anything similar as far as headers go, so I had to make them myself. Basically the only real challenge with them was to clear the steering shaft, which is why I wanted to do this mock up.

The first step was to build header flanges from sheet styrene.

The actual headers were built from Plastruct .060" round styrene rod which I heated carefully with a candle in order to do the bends. I've found out this is the easiest way to create custom headers, as I've never been able to build them succesfully from solder. The headers might not be 100% similar to the ones on real car, but they are at least pretty close.

I they're not quite done yet however, I will need to fabricate collectors for them and do a bit of cleanup and smooth out a couple of glue joints before painting them. But, the basic work with the header tubes is done.

 

And here is a test fit with engine and steering shaft on place. It's a tight fit, but everything fits on place without touching each other.

 

Obviously, I will still need to cut pieces of inner fenders away to make them clear the headers.

[R. Thorne]

Sweet headers.  One of my least favorite things to do.  What did you paint the carbs with?  I like the TS30 for afb’s.

[W-409]

Thanks Ron! I actually think building headers is fun. I've scratchbuilt Fenderwell headers for several builds during the last ten years or so.

Carburetors are painted with Revell 91 silver, and on top of that there's a light coat of Humbrol Clear Orange mixed with dirty thinner that I use to clean up my brushes with. It's kind of like dry-brushing the gold color and giving it a subtle black wash at the same time.

[W-409]

Interior work was up next. I clearcoated the dashboard with Mipa 2-part clear coat shot via airbrush. It's the same stuff that I've used for 1:1 cars when dealing with metallic colors.

I had to sand mold lines off from the steering wheel before painting. I also drilled the holes deeper on the spokes. Made a big difference, like seen on the first picture. Then the steering wheel was painted with Revell Enamels, except for the silver, which is Tamiya Acryl (X-11, Chrome Silver).

Some details were also added to the dashboard. Originally, there were no switches for headlights or wipers on left hand side of the steering column, so I drilled small holes to the dash and made the switches out of a correct sized styrene rod painted silver. Two different silver paints were used for the dash, cauge decals are from the kit, but speedometer decal had to be narrowed pretty much to make it fit properly. After that I added some black wash to bring out details, such as the heater adjusting levers and to the panel lines of the glovebox.

Steering column was brush painted with Revell #30 red just like I did with the steering wheel. Tachometer is also from the kit, but I had to clean up some mold flash from that. So, it was re-chromed with Molotow and kit-supplied cauge decal was installed. I also added a tachometer cable even though it's almost impossible to see when this is installed on place.

Interior floor was done with black flocking earlier. After that I shot a couple of light coats of flat clear on top of the flocking to keep the small bits of flocking on the floor where they should be. Seats, center console and shifter were installed and seat belts were done.

Here is the finished dashboard with steering wheel and steering column installed.

And then door panels and dashboard were installed on place so now I can call the interior finished.

 

[Old Buckaroo]

Love the interior work , its looking really Sharp !