Project Silk Purse,,,, The Corvan

[Psychographic]

I've wanted to build a Corvair van since I got back into modeling and thought the only way I would be able to do it would be to totally scratch build one. While reading a thread about an upcoming release of a Corvair someone posted a pic of the van in resin. After a PM to the person who posted the pic, I was armed with enough info to track the caster down and purchase one. I knew going in that it was a very rough casting, but I wasn't expecting it to be so bad, but I'm determined to make something out of this that actually resembles a Corvair van.

Here's what I started with,,,,,,,,,,

You can see how distorted the body is in these pics. it sags at the back of the front door and the front corner sticks out pretty far. Not only that, but the driver side is about 1/8" longer than the passenger side!

A very distorted windshield opening.

Nice straight drip rail.

The back has a bow to it where the van is flat across the back, plus check out the panels for the taillights.

Edited December 12, 2014 by Psychographic

[Psychographic]

The first thing I wanted to tackle was the dip in the driver side.

I looked down the coves and saw 2 places that could be addressed. I marked them and started with the first cut at the back of the door, I wound up taking a wedge cut of a little over 1/16" at the bottom to nothing at the drip rail. Looking down the coves again, I decided I could get away with just the one cut and sanding the rest to get it straight.

Next up, pull that corner in. Once again a wedge cut was made. The piece laying on the desk broke off from being so thin after sanding the body to take the waves out of it.

After gluing it back together it tucks in nicely.

At this point I realized it would be easier to sand off details like the gas cap, drip rail and wheel lips, and add them back once the body is straight. I also want a panel van, not to mention that looking at those jagged window cuts was driving me crazy. I put some tape over them to get an idea of how it will look. you can see I've also started to reshape the nose of the van.

Edited December 17, 2014 by Psychographic

[Psychographic]

As the body was getting very thin in spots, I sanded the inside to take the gloss off the resin, taped the windows off on the outside and poured another coat of resin on the inside.

Here it is with the filled windows and more sanding.

Next up was taking the bow out of the back. The back was thick enough to sand it flat from the windows down. To pull the window area in, I cut it just below them and took a triangle shape out of the roof. I noticed one corner stuck out, so another wedge cut was made like I did on the front.

After gluing it back together and a lot more sanding it started looking much better.

The back needed to be built up a bit, so I made a dam out of masking tape and poured a little resin into it. Here's is what was left after the tape was removed.

And after some more sanding.

Edited December 21, 2014 by Psychographic

[Psychographic]

As I was trying to figure out the best way to deal with the taillight panels, I decided to work on the nose. Again a dam was built and resin poured.

Oops, not enough resin.

After a second pour and some sanding the front was taking shape.

[Psychographic]

Some more sanding and shaping.

I made a transparent image of a real van and sized it to fit over the model. I'd say I'm getting there. I also thought the front of the van's roof was too low when actually the it's the back that is too high.

Edited December 12, 2014 by Psychographic

[Psychographic]

I figured the easiest way to do the taillight details was to cut them out of the body, then make one side out of styrene and cast a pair. I just hoped they would be "Square" enough to just flip one over to use on the other side.

The parts I made to cast.

Checking the fit.

The cast parts.

Not perfect, but as close as I think I can get them.

Before and after.

Edited December 20, 2014 by Psychographic

[Psychographic]

It looks like I can cast a 65 Chevy bumper then shorten it for front and rear bumpers.

Next up, the windshield area.

I started by sanding the lump out of the front, reshaped it a bit and heated the body with hot water and pushed it over to the driver side a bit.

I then made a buck for the windshield by flattening some Magic Sculp and shoving it into the opening.

After some sanding.

[Psychographic]

At this point I need this thing to be all one color as it becomes impossible to see any flaws with the different shades of resin. You can also see I squared up the top of the body where the drip rail goes.

After a couple of coats of primer.

I guess when I heated the body to shove the windshield posts over, I put a dip in the roof.

Filling and sanding got it back into shape.

I dug out some 13" wheels and tires, then made a quick frame out of popsicle sticks to get an idea if I'm going in the right direction.

Edited December 12, 2014 by Psychographic

[bobthehobbyguy]

You've done an amazing job getting this into shape. Looking forward to seeing more.

[Psychographic]

Making a grille.

The buck for the grille. I'll wrap this with Magic Sculp and shape it.

The parts for the bar.

I cast a section from the 65 Chevy P.U. for the back of the grille. then glued it to the outer ring.

[Psychographic]

A member here who I can't remember ( the site crash lost my PMs) was kind enough to send me a set of 59 El Camino headlights for the project. Whoever you are, I apologize for forgetting who you are, but thank you!

After stripping the chrome and clear, I added a turn signal lens to the bottom and will cast a pair.

And now we're caught up to when the site lost all of the posts recently.

I'm out of primer and I can't find the cup that measures the silicone activator for my resin molds, so I'm stalled until I can get to the store.

Edited December 12, 2014 by Psychographic

[customsrus]

I was hoping to see this after the lost post ordeal. Glad to see you are still working on it.

[hjracing]

Awesome job!

[bobthehobbyguy]

Headlights and grill are nice work. Thanks for taking the time to repost this.

[Psychographic]

Thank you guys. It took a couple of days to find the patience to get all the pics back up.

Would the person who posted the pics of their red Greenbriar please PM me, thanks.

Edited December 14, 2014 by Psychographic

[Chuck Most]

Thank you guys. It took a couple of days to find the patience to get all the pics back up.

Would the person who posted the pics of their red Greenbriar please PM me, thanks.

I believe it was this fellow

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showuser=4084

[Psychographic]

I believe it was this fellow

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showuser=4084

Thanks Chuck.

The top of the windshield opening looked a bit off to me, I need to remove a little along each edge. If you look close, you can see the pencil marks where it needs to be sanded.

After the second round of filler, I sanded it with 240, 360, and finally with 1000.

It's almost to another point that has me scared, I don't look forward to scribing the doors back in. I really REALLY suck at scribing on stryrene, I find resin and body filler even harder. Anyone got any tips or suggestions?

Edited December 14, 2014 by Psychographic

[Chuck Most]

For the straight lines, I like to use a saw instead of a scriber- for me, that's the best way to get a good, straight line. For the rest, or areas where using a saw wouldn't be practical, it's a straight edge and the back of a #11 blade.

[Psychographic]

I wanted to see how far I've come, I tried to get both pics at the same angle for a comparison.

The transparent red is the original. I lined them up by the coves in the side. The red image should be just a tiny bit larger, but you can see how much of it has been reshaped.

Edited December 14, 2014 by Psychographic

[bobthehobbyguy]

Well done. What an improvement. Looking forward to more.

[Psychographic]

I ground out an the area between what will be the back windows. I think I went a little too deep at the top, I guess that's why bondo was created!

Then I drilled a hole in each corner inside of what will be the corner of the window opening. Then I played connect the dots with a small circular saw blade in the Dremel.

As I said, I am reall lousy at scribing something from scratch. I got the back doors done and somewaht straight, but I made a huge mess out of the side doors. I used the original lines for size and tried to straighten them. This didn't go well. I filled it all back in and as luck would have it, I think the doors would have been too narrow. So at least I caught a mistake, even if it was the hard way.

I think one of the problems is this resin is full of pinholes, so you can't get a smooth scrape with any tool. As soon as you hit a pinhole the scriber or blade digs in and stops or it goes off to the side.

If it wasn't for the fact that I would like to cast this body, I'd just cut all the doors open.

I'm making a guide tool and I hope once it dries, I can find a good way to clamp it to the body and make some decent lines.

[Psychographic]

The back windows just need a little more sanding and they'll be done.

[bobthehobbyguy]

For doing the side doors you could drill through the top and bottom of the guide, locate the the line to be scribed , then drill into the body for pins. Guide won't move.. once done the hole in body could be filled.

[blazefox]

Wow amazing work

[Ray J]

You do some Beautiful work, I'll be watching this one.