revell '50 olds rescue

[charliechaindrive]

I got bored and decided to redo the first model that I built a few months ago. It's a revell '50olds, and I had originally did a very poor roof chop on it, and it didn't turn out very well.

So I jumped in head first. I separated the body from the chassis and I marked out where I should be chopping as if I was doing a full scale car, I found an old rod&custom magazine that had info on chopping a '51 merc, so I just followed that. I wasn't able to save the door posts, so I just cut them out and sanded what was left of them away.

So then I had a butchered olds

From here I did some mocking up and trimming to get the profile how I wanted it, and I began cementing it in place.

Then I got out my can of bondo, I use actual automotive bondo because it's easy to get because my dad does a lot of auto body work, and I'm used to working with it.

I kind of put on more than I needed, but it wasn't much of a chore to sand off.

And there's the first coat sanded smooth.

Second coat on, sanded flush everywhere and cleaned with tac cloth. Then I took it out and shot it in testors enamel bright red. It's drying right now.

The next thing I'm planning on doing is reworking the interior, lowering the rear axle a bit, and swapping the chrome rims for the steelies that were optional in the kit.

Charlie

[Bad Bowtie]

Curious to see how this turns out. Nice work so far!

[charliechaindrive]

Today I wet sanded the first coat of paint on the body, I kind of used this coat as a primer layer to fill in the small imperfections. Next I wanted to work on the interior and lowering the suspension more.

Here's everything broke down, kind of an inventory.

I put the body on the chassis to see what the stance was like with the mild lowering mod of clipping the shocks out flat and gluing the axle down almost to the floor. It looked pretty good, but I wanted to be lower.

So I Z-d the frame. I clipped the frame rails and I cut the interior bucket in half at the corresponding place where the frame was split

I trimmed the rear piece of the interior to get it to fit as deep into the body as possible. After some trimming, and persuasion, I got the stance that I was looking for.

Then I split the rims and I got the steelies out.

I'm unsure of what color to paint this thing, I'm leaning toward a mild patina or maybe a dark blue or a 50s dirt track paint scheme. If all else fails, it'll look good in a simple red outside and two tone white and black interior.

I also have started practising with BMF, which I've actually been using regular tin-foil. I brush a little cement onto the trim, and press the foil onto the glue with a cue-tip. It turns out okay, not as good of a shine as actual BMF but it'll pass my spec better than silver painted trim.

Charlie.

Edited September 30, 2014 by charliechaindrive

[charliechaindrive]

I had some extra time on my hands, so I got the final coat of paint on the body

And then I got to working on the foil work.

The foil went on OK, the only problem I had was on the big curved fender piece. It's good enough for me though. Then I shot some clear on, and it's really shining up good.

I didn't want to have a plain black interior, so I decided to tape off sections of the seats and door skins and shoot them gloss white.

And I'm beyond pleased with the results.

I didn't take any pictures, but I mixed up some paint to kind of match the Oldsmobile engine green. I need to get my air brush going to do the engine correctly, and I'm thinking about buying a pre- wired distributor from modelhaus. I also need to make a new rear window, and to figure out a color for the rims. I'm thinking about black, but I'm also considering going with a second unique color that I'd need to find yet.

I might just find another engine to build up and stick in here, I'll post a wanted add.

Charlie

[Draggon]

I like the profile of the new chop!

[charliechaindrive]

Split up and repainted the engine, I did mix up some paint that matches olds engine green but I can't find my airbrush. So I just opted to paint it body color

One problem though, I lost the water pump assembly/basically the whole front half of the engine.

I need to locate a new one somehow, or maybe I'll just look into transplanting a whole different engine into the olds that would be a period correct swap, like something a backyard mechanic would score for cheap and stuff in to replace his blown original motor.

[charliechaindrive]

Found the water pump assembly, and I wired the engine.

Got it into the frame, and I'm currently waiting for the rear axle to dry in position so I can put the body onto the frame.

I know it looks bad. But it's not a very well built model to begin with, and I'll probably end up re-redoing it in the future. I'll probably have to buy a second '50olds kit though.

Edited October 19, 2014 by charliechaindrive