1977 Volare Messenger Car - Under Glass 1-27-14

[Tom Geiger]

Here's something I started eons ago. I had gotten a Volare junker from a buddy of mine back when they were worth less than $5. I had been interested in beaters and weathering from my friendship with Joe Cavorley. I had found a Floquil / Polly S weathering colors set, and needed something to play with. This body represents that, my very first attempt at weathering, probably around 1990.

Originally I wasn't planning on building a model, I was just learning and practicing the skills of denting and weathering a model. Friends liked the results and encouraged me to build it. I decided to go Light Commercial and do a period messenger's car. This car would have been 13 years old then, and reasonable that it would be in service. And I gave it 13 years worth of New York City abuse.

The lettering on it is from a dry rub sheet as we needed to do back then. The brand was Better Letter, so I used their logo off the top of the sheet as our fictitious messenger service. That's a rag for a gas cap and I lost the rear side light. I opened only the back edge of the door, as if it was ajar. And I gave the hood that bad hinge bend that we saw on a lot of cars of that era. This car resurfaces on my work bench every few year. The work you see above, is from the initial session.

It came out of the box a few years later, I believe this was in 2007. I decided to cut out the console and add a bench seat like most Volares were sold. I went through a couple of failed attempts at making a bench seat. So it was back in the box, until Revell came out with the '66 Chevelle wagon. I grabbed the bench seat from that kit and successfully modified it to be what I wanted. I also noticed the interior tub had no sidewall detail so I made that from Evergreen. I carved the arm rests from a toothpick. The window winder is resin from Norm Veber. And it went back in the box again!

I got back to it in 2012 and added interior details.

And I love creating little details from nothing! And that's about as far as I got on this outing!

This post is a replacement to the thread that was lost in the board server incident. The car is out of the box again, so next post will be current progress!

Edited January 27, 2015 by Tom Geiger

[Belugawrx]

There it is...

I like what your doing with this oneTom

Very cool detailing

Cheers

[microwheel]

Nice work Tom Love the detail work and weathering

[Tom Geiger]

I was a bit worn out on my Trabant postal van project, so I pulled the Volare project down off the unfinished project shelf one more time. I remembered that I got the original kit from my friend Todd Koncsol who died this past year, so I decided to buckle down and finish it!

Within short order I had the interior finished. I was stoked! Previously all I had done was mock ups and now it's done. The mail tray on the back seat is a G Scale product that actually is an exact replica of the hard plastic mail trays that USPS used in that era.. I have a few in my garage, left over from bulk mailings I did back then. The mailing tube was made from the remains of a golf tee I had tossed in my scrap box after making rat rod headlights. It was already white and had a company logo on it. I just cleaned up the ends and gave them red caps. Never throw away anything! I made the rest of the mail. Can you see the over flowing ashtray?

The kit didn't have any pedals so I stole a pair from my parts box. I also added the shifter and blinker. I can't fault them for not having a column shifter since it was console mounted.

Next step was to figure out what stopped me the first time! I was modeling this without a grill and you'd see the inner structure, which of course wasn't there at all on the kit. The top bracket was from the AMT '58 Plymouth, and you can see my mock up of the bracket. It's significantly improved now, I take these photos as I build so I can see my issues.

Now I'm under the hood. I had the Lindberg '64 Dodge / Plymouth kit's slant six already painted, so I went directly to assembly. You can see why my models take a long time! I pin everything! This will allow for a very solid build, and I won't have to worry about the manifolds coming off as I man handle it getting the exhaust in place later on.

A funny thing is that when I pulled this down from the shelf last week, my initial plan was to glue the engine in place so you could see it from below and glue the hood shut. But you know how these things go... now I'm working on detailing out the engine bay.

[VW93]

Great interior details. I know you are still fine tuning it but I have a suggestion.

I see you cut the top of the rear seat to simulate it splitting from age and being in the sun. My suggestion is to darken the cotton a bit to simulate dried out foam from being in the sun. Most foam, even when the covers aren't split, turn a yellowish color with age.

I wish I had your talent!!!

[Tom Geiger]

Thanks Frank. I will do that! I think I need to darken the top of the seat back a bit too.

You are too kind! I'm not all that talented, most of what I do is just simple stuff that I learned from modelers in my club and on the boards!

[Danno]

Kewl!

[Hopsing]

Very cool! Love the details! MORE!!

[mustang1989]

I'm watching. This weathering and aging is da bomb!ok,ok....a blast to watch!

[Tom Geiger]

Here's some under the hood progress. I took a bunch of photos more to see the issues I don't see with my naked eye, than to post so please bear with me. My first impression on finishing up this ancient project was to glue the hood shut. Research photos I have show huge amounts of wires and plumbing under the hood of a 1977 Volare. Then I stopped to think maybe I'd try to duplicate some of that.

Part of the sparseness of the engine bay was that the top of the firewall was just flat plastic. I couldn't create the actual pieces that should be there so I went with the 'something is better than nothing' and the piece you see in there is actually cut from the side of one of my wife's throw away razors. You can see some of the pink showing through, I need to give it a better coat of flat black. I like to fiddle with small shapes, so I made a coolant bottle from scrap in my junk box. Same with the charcoal canister in the front corner of the bay. I'm not adding every single wire and hose, just filling up as much bare space as I can without over doing it.

Another view, I see I need to do some more detail painting on the battery. You can see the charcoal canister better in this shot. It has three hoses. I goes back to the fuel tank so that just dead ends out of sight. The other two go to a round piece that sits up next to the valve cover. The two battery cables will also dead end out of sight.

I am pleased with the way everything in front of the radiator wall came out. There was nothing there before at all. The top bracket came from the AMT '58 Plymouth and I made the lower bracket. And I added a horn from my parts box.

Here's my reference shot. This car is actually a Dodge Aspen. On the Volare, the directional is next to the headlight so we won't see that area. We will see from the horn over to the left. I haven't added A/C to my car so I don't need the condenser. But the horn and bracket will be visible.

I am currently working on the engine wiring and hoses. I should be able to get the engine in the bay this weekend. Once that's in place, I'll make an exhaust system. I'm not doing much detail on the chassis. Onward!

[Foxer]

Love this one. definatly needs to be finished!

[1 bad55 stan]

Your doing some excellent work here!Keep at it i want to see more...

[mustang1989]

Keep it coming Tom! What a show!

[Tom Geiger]

Thanks guys! That's the motivation I need to get 'er done!

I have to go to a neighborhood holiday thing tonight, and same for my model club tomorrow... maybe get back to the bench on Sunday!

[Danno]

Looks gooder and gooder, Tom!

[bobthehobbyguy]

Nice work. Cool project.

[wrecker388]

I love this thing! Sweet project!

[LouO]

Nice. Luv the interior, maybe a few emply can of soda rolling around on the passenger side floor? (just an idea)
Great details!

[charlie8575]

Very nice, Tom. I'll look forward to seeing that in April.

Charlie Larkin

[1972coronet]

Tom , I'm loving your "battered buildup" of the old F-Body coupe !

This has to be the first time I've seen any-one add a 'Charcoal Cannister' to their build (1972 & later emissions piece) ! Very cool !

I feel that I need to bring attention to the interior ; it looks great , but it's missing some-thing ... the required-by-New York Backlite Defogger !

Here's a reference to its requirement by N.Y. ; look for sales code G01 in the right column :

http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/images/dealerships/DealershipDataBook/1977/77-Volare_0017.jpg

[Tom Geiger]

The engine compartment is nearly done. It may look done, but the photos were taken to see things that I haven't seen with my own eye. And I see a bunch of stuff that I need to touch up. The speckles across everything is plastic dust from sanding some elements to fit, the will all get vacuumed up. I still need to weather much of it.

Some will ask why I went to so much trouble to get this much detail under the hood of a frickin Volare. I had the reference shots of engine bays on 1:1 cars, and as you know 1970s cars had a lot of plumbing under the hood! And I don't see folks modeling much of it, and the bay would look pretty sparse. So I just wanted to see how much of it I could do. It was a pain trying to get a lot of this in scale, and to fit in there. The other day I was working on my 1:1 Dodge Caravan and had trouble getting my hands into places, and I just had to laugh. If the 1:1 is so tight, of course I'd have those same issues on a model!

Some things just didn't go together in scale. The slant six from the Lindberg 64 Dodge, fit in there like it belonged, even the fan landed right where it should. But then things like the master cylinder collided with the air cleaner, making me lose power brakes, and the coil was right where the stiffening bar had to be. So several things were done several times. There is supposed to be a filter element on the valve cover, with the hose going off that to the air cleaner. After making three of these, I gave up for now. I also had fits with wire and hoses that just wouldn't bend in scale.

Right now I'm sitting back reviewing the photos, so feel free to critique and point out errors. I'd rather now than when the car is done!

My final steps are to fit the major assemblies together. I've had the chassis in the body and the engine bay looks awesome there. My only issue right now is that the interior and chassis won't marry up due to changes done in the assembly. I'm doing that sand and fit phase, thus the white dust in the photos. Once I get everything into the body right, I'll need to figure out the exhaust and drive shaft, then do the final stage weathering.

I'm hoping to finish up before the new year!

[blunc]

well....since you asked...

the seam which is on the top tank of the radiator is not actually present on radiators.

The rest of the engine bay is looking real good to me.

[Jeremy Jon]

Nice work Tom, looking great! The engine stands out due to being so clean in comparison to the engine bay, are you going to wash that also for effect? I like using brown in wash mix also, for 'grime' effect. Great work, looking forward t o seeing more!

[Danno]

Outstanding, Tom!

A couple of good critiques here, too. I agree, the engine looks way too clean!

[mustang1989]

The engine compartment is nearly done. It may look done, but the photos were taken to see things that I haven't seen with my own eye. And I see a bunch of stuff that I need to touch up. The speckles across everything is plastic dust from sanding some elements to fit, the will all get vacuumed up. I still need to weather much of it.

Some will ask why I went to so much trouble to get this much detail under the hood of a frickin Volare. I had the reference shots of engine bays on 1:1 cars, and as you know 1970s cars had a lot of plumbing under the hood! And I don't see folks modeling much of it, and the bay would look pretty sparse. So I just wanted to see how much of it I could do. It was a pain trying to get a lot of this in scale, and to fit in there. The other day I was working on my 1:1 Dodge Caravan and had trouble getting my hands into places, and I just had to laugh. If the 1:1 is so tight, of course I'd have those same issues on a model!

Some things just didn't go together in scale. The slant six from the Lindberg 64 Dodge, fit in there like it belonged, even the fan landed right where it should. But then things like the master cylinder collided with the air cleaner, making me lose power brakes, and the coil was right where the stiffening bar had to be. So several things were done several times. There is supposed to be a filter element on the valve cover, with the hose going off that to the air cleaner. After making three of these, I gave up for now. I also had fits with wire and hoses that just wouldn't bend in scale.

Right now I'm sitting back reviewing the photos, so feel free to critique and point out errors. I'd rather now than when the car is done!

Man this is first rate here Tom. I think I know where you are coming from with the picture taking. If I want to see all of my flaws and then some all I have to do is take a dang macro picture and all kinds of stuff pops out. I'm learning to take pictures, clean it all up and take some more pictures and then post them like a lot of folks already do here.

As far as being asked why you are detailing a Volare, don't worry about that. This is some of the finest modeling I've seen. We all like the Camaros, Mustangs, Chargers, Vettes and all that stuff but something out of the ordinary like this breaks the pattern up a bit. Especially with the creativity/imagination shown here. Keep doing what you're doing and model on dude! You're making modelers proud here!