Don Nicholson '61 Impala OS/S.

[Brutalform]

I’m pretty new to clearing over decals also. I only did one car, a 68 Chevelle. I plan on clearing a next gen nascar when I’m done with the decals. Mr Hobby Gloss UV Cut is what I used over Tamiya lacquers. Perhaps a bit of water remained under the decal? 

[W-409]

Water under the decal came to my mind as well, even though I let the decals dry for a couple of days before clear coating. I have always cleared over decals, it gives them kind of a "painted on-look" compared to them looking just like, well, decals. With the spray paints, I've never had an issue with it.

The issue with me being here in Finland, is that buying supplies is a lot trickier and more expensive. That's one reason I wanted to use the Mipa clear coat that I have leftovers from my latest 1:1 scale painting project.

[gtx6970]

I clear coat all 99% of the builds I do.

It helps to protect and keeps them in place down the road 

 

Ive used Testors enamels, Tamiya lacquers , as well as Upohl, and Duplicolor Urethane clears all sprayed right out of the can with no issues to date ( knocks on wood ) 

[GoatGuy]

Looks great Niko! Love the colors.

[W-409]

Thanks Guys!

I also clear coat all of my builds, doesn't matter if it's a solid paint or metallic, or if it does or doesn't have decals, I clear coat anyway. Because all paints and clear coats polish a little different, then I can polish all of my builds the same way, knowing that it'll work the way I want.

 

The body is now finally polished (minus the hood, which will still need to be polished, but there's still plenty of time for that). It was a lot of work, mainly because my polishing cloths are starting to be pretty worn out. I got this one done, but for the next one I'll need to shop new ones. The clear polished out ok. Not flawless, but I think I can live with it. Next task will be BMF for chrome trim.

 

[Belugawrx]

Looking good Niko!!

Just a little heads up..while doing Dan Gurney's '61, I found that the bottom line detail in front of the doors is actually a body line not the bottom of the chrome trim...

 

I had to go back in and trim out that little sliver....just FYI

 

 

[TransAmMike]

1 hour ago, Belugawrx said:

Looking good Niko!!

Just a little heads up..while doing Dan Gurney's '61, I found that the bottom line detail in front of the doors is actually a body line not the bottom of the chrome trim...

 

I had to go back in and trim out that little sliver....just FYI

 

 

Well that's certainly a little known detail.  Who wudda thunk?😂

[W-409]

Thank You!

Bruce, you're right, and that's what makes the side trim pretty tricky to foil nicely. Especially with a body that has an extra coat of clear, like this one.

 

Well, today I got the chrome trim done with BMF. Window trim was easy, but the side trim wasn't. While the end result is not perfect, I'm pretty happy how it turned out. Tomorrow I'll need to paint the body from underside and start thinking about installing windows for it.

 

[Belugawrx]

Very nice !

[W-409]

Thanks Bruce!

Since the latest pictures, I've got a lot of things done with this thing. First I painted inside of the body with flat black, except the headliner that was painted red. Then I installed windows. Fitment of kit's windows was pretty good, but the kit didn't come with side windows. Usually, especially with a Hardtop, I like to keep the side windows down, but in this case as the class markings are on side windows, and the Optional Super Stock class is kind of rare to see anywhere because it was pretty short-lived class, I definitely wanted to make side windows for this as well. They were cut from sheet plastic, window frame is BMF and I hand-painted class markings with a small brush, to represent white shoe polish that they used on the 1:1 car.

Also, inner fenders were painted gloss black. Here the body is ready to be installed on chassis.

 

Firewall had some molded in wires that I painted black.

After installing the firewall, I was able to modify steering shaft to fit with my new, corrected generator placement. I made one U-joint to the steering shaft, which is covered inside a black rubber boot, after this the steering shaft fits properly on place and the U-joint was easy to fabricate, as it is "hidden" under the rubber boot. Brake master cylinder was also installed and the last piece of brake line was fabricated.

 

And here the body and chassis are glued together. A couple of things made this step a little tricky. First, the kit wants you to glue firewall to the body before installing body and chassis together. I couldn't do that, as I had to be able to connect cluth linkage together before installing the body. Also, modifying the steering shaft was a lot easier now that the body wasn't installed yet. So while installing the body, I had to temporarily remove the heater box from firewall and re-glue it back on place after body had been installed.

Another issue was radiator wall / radiator / fan shroud. The kit wants you to glue that to the chassis before installing the body. The problem was, I glued front valance panel to the body before paint, so to be able to install the chassis, I had to trim the front ends of both frame rails away. Now there was no place where to mount the radiator wall on the frame. After some fiddling, I was able to install radiator wall on place after the body and chassis were together.

It looks like it's close to being done, but there's still tons of little details to do.

 

[gtx6970]

Looking REAL good 

 

 

[W-409]

Thanks Bill, much appreciated!

 

The final assembly went smoothly and this thing is now finally Finished! Check it out here:

Thanks to everyone who has been following along or posting comments, I really appreciate that. Now, on to the next one.

[rv1963]

Nice work on that engine compartment and the foil work on the body is so neat and clean well done.

[W-409]

Thanks Robert, I appreciate the kind words.

[Kenmojr]

Nice work on this Chevy...