'51 Chevy Fastback Mild Custom

[Bernard Kron]

I’ve been working on this for the past few weeks. It’s an AMT ’51 Chevy fastback coupe done as a mid-50’s mild custom. The body was completely nosed, decked and shaved, then new simplified accent trim was added to the sides above the front and rear wheel openings. The trim was made from thin triangular Plastruct styrene stock and will be foiled. The skirts are the stock Chevy units from the kit, extended to match the lower edge of the rear fender using quarter round styrene stock. The headlights are fully frenched and lidded using the stock kit headlight buckets with styrene stock added for the lid extensions. The grille is the stock kit piece with the center bar removed and a ’54 Pontiac center inserted. It still needs some work to get it properly lined up. The front bumpers have been shaved and custom bullets from the AMT ’53 Ford Pickup kit added. The rear bumper will be the kit custom piece to go with the kit roll pan I installed. The front end has been lowered using the kit lowering assembly and lowering blocks added at the rear to even out the rake. The undercarriage is finished in Duplicolor Wimbledon White with the chassis finished in the same color as the body, Tamiya TS-54 Light Blue Metallic Pearl. The front fender liners and firewall will be Wimbledon White, with the kit modified 6-banger finished with a gold block and head, Wimbledon white valve cover, and quite a bit of chrome bright work. The interior will be a custom tuck ‘n’ roll and promises to be the most tedious and difficult part of the project. Tires will be AMT whitewalls and I’m planning on using mid-50’s style bullet-center wheel covers.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Bernard Kron

[bpletcher55]

thats a good start BERNARD ,will be a cool custom ,

[Matt T.]

Nice!

[Marcelspeed]

Beautiful work. that interior is shaping up nicely, great paint job.

[TFchronos]

Very nice work!

[Ramfins59]

That is looking very good so far Bernard. I'm hoping you have better luck than I did in getting the inner fenders, firewall, interior and chassis assembly up into the body. I'll be watching.

[slusher]

Beautiful paint and body finish. I like the two tone chassis and im interested in learning more about tuck and roll interior..

[unclescott58]

Love the color.

Scott

[Bernard Kron]

Not for the squeamish! This is truly embarrassing. As I was writing my post for the start of this w.i.p. I had left my work lamps on, the Chevy’s body raised close to one of them to get the right lighting and photo angle. After posting I went back into my work room to find this!!!!:

There’s just enough damage to the right fender to mean the body is toast as well as the hood. So stupid of me! I’m too disheartened to tackle the whole thing a second time right now, so I’ll move on to another project and get back to this with a second kit, perhaps later this year.

Thanks for the kind comments. Sorry for the false alarm!
B.

[fitforbattle]

Such a shame. Worst thing imaginable. When you've got the motivation for a build and it gets wrecked... Makes one want to poke one self in the eye with a fork.

You could make it a wreck... Build it like it's been in an accident.

Either way, I hope and believe you'll bounce back.

Cheers!

[Ramfins59]

Awwww man..... That's a bummer. Like you said, hopefully you'll be able to try again with another kit down the road a bit.

[fitforbattle]

Came to mind... Perfect for trying some new weathering.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Wow Bernard! That's a kick in the.....you know what! This kind of thing is always my nightmare. After lovingly massaging a build for many hours, something like this happens. Oh well, I guess we have to move on. What a bummer!! Steve

[Belugawrx]

Dude,....

I feel your pain

Put it under a halogen light in the display case...... DOH!

Silk purse from a sow's ear??

Cheers

[blunc]

time to migrate to LED lighting.

my condolences on your unfortunate event.

[Danno]

That's too bad, Bernard. Wasn't meant to be, I guess.

[Skip]

Ugh! My first though was, "Bernard's building wrecked Custom diorama..." Then I read the reason behind the carnage, that's too bad looked like you had a lot of work into the body already. Besides, your dents on that hood are just too overdone, they just look unnatural, stick to what you do best Cool Period Correct Rods & Customs. Seriously that really stinks bad!

[slusher]

So sorry to hear and see. Please start over when your up to it...

[dino246gt]

I've only done that once! Strange thing is, it was also on a '51 Chev fastback! LEDs are the way to light your workbench now, as they do not give off any heat!

[W-409]

After reading your first post I was going to write that this will turn out fantastic! Body looked very good and I liked the color a lot. You're doing exactly the same upholstering on the seat as I'm doing, only differences are that my kit is a regular Coupe, not a Fastback and I'm doing the upholstering in a much harder way...

But it's sad to see what happened for the body. I hope you can get back to this with another body really soon...It looks so good! I must remember to shut the light from my bench always when I leave so that same thing won't happen to me, too.

[unclescott58]

Not for the squeamish! This is truly embarrassing. As I was writing my post for the start of this w.i.p. I had left my work lamps on, the Chevys body raised close to one of them to get the right lighting and photo angle. After posting I went back into my work room to find this!!!!:

Theres just enough damage to the right fender to mean the body is toast as well as the hood. So stupid of me! Im too disheartened to tackle the whole thing a second time right now, so Ill move on to another project and get back to this with a second kit, perhaps later this year.

Thank

Shame to see what happened. I was looking forward to watching this build. Hopefully you'll start again sometime soon.

Scott

Edited July 2, 2014 by unclescott58

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll get back to this in a few months once I'm over the initial shock of my major screw up. In the meantime I'm in the middle of a Therapy Build that I started 3 days ago and hope to finish within the next 2. A simple Deuce roadster, just what I need about now.

Here's a teaser:

[59 Buick]

Can you straighten the fender and lose the hood to build a gasser? Look great with sponsor decals and a V8 with hilborn set up.

Just a thought so as not to waste a nice paint job.

[unclescott58]

The Deuce is looking good too. Look forward to seeing this finished too. You do good work Bernard.

Scott

[misterNNL]

OUCH!!That's gonna take a lot putty to fill in!