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FIXING EXNER'S MISTAKES! by Jonathan "Jon / paraphrenic" Anderson 12/17/09 INTRODUCTION: Being a die hard Chrysler fan, I like to think of what would've happened had they absorbed GMC for the 1961 design cycle. OK... Well at lease consider if GMC's design team got bent and defected! Chrysler put out some fascinating designs this year, displaying some of the last truly over styled full-size offerings. So it's no surprise their Plymouth got lost in this and was voted by many as the 'Ugliest Car of '61'. Its design is easily misunderstood as there's a lot wrong with its key elements, disrupting its overall beauty. I'm going to borrow a little from GMC and see how things improve! 1. I bought a built-up '61 Plymouth Fury annual on eBay from Johan's one and only production run of this fairly rare curbside classic ('Modelhaus' has them in resin). As well, I grabbed an Impala & Bel Air and a vintage AMT CUSTOM-COMPETITION GRILLES & BUMPERS parts pack (also found in the BLUE PRINTER re-release with a bunch of engines). With everything I needed, it was now time to determine what needed to be changed! (click thumbnail to enlarge) 2. STYLING CRITIQUE - FRONT END: The trim and sheet metal sweep around to the leading edge and down into the dual lamps beautifully. It's like good taste just did it's first cycle of steroids. One of the stand alone good features on this car. The restrained hood allows the quarter panels to lead the way. Definitely a good move. The grill is a bit of an open expanse with good texture. Not bad but not brilliant. The front bumper is far too massive and dominates what's pleasing and offers little stylistically, though the ribs in the middle have their own appreciable look. (click thumbnail to enlarge) 3. STYLING CRITIQUE - PROFILE: I used to hate this roof. I have since come to appreciate it's character and actually have a few builds on the go where I think it works just fine. But I still don't think it works on this particular car. These old Chrysler windshields sometimes remind me of an ordinary windshield that got hungry and began eating up the surrounding real estate. And the roof itself makes this car remind me of a tired insect. The slow slope to the rear lacks energy and inspiration for a body style like this. Most of all, there's a natural style/character line flowing clear through this car screaming for uninterrupted trim. The door handles, angular hatched pattern and inserts shroud its graceful, simple flow. (click thumbnail to enlarge) 4. STYLING CRITIQUE - TAILLIGHTS: What kind of joke were these taillights? I mean I could find a custom application to use them where they'd look cool but on this car they look like add-ons rather than an integrated design element. They look like silver rockets from the adult bookstore. I can only imagine what the designers were thinking (or laughing at what they were getting away with?). (click thumbnail to enlarge) 5. STYLING CRITIQUE - REAR END: The rear suffers similarly to the '58 Edsel. There's all this blank space for taillights but the designers had other ideas. The parking lights look stranded and the sorry attempt at filling one side with script is, well... sorry. The interruption in the trim to run up the deck creates an unnecessary break and is a big distraction. The abbreviated quasi-fin is simply intrusive but the impression in the deck lid alone could be a pleasing element. The rear bumper is plain massive with no redeeming qualities on this car in a design sense and the dip in it carried over in the adjacent plastic under the licence plate recess is an unnecessary interruption to what could have been a nice continuous line from one side of the car to the other. The rear looks like a complete after thought or an amalgam of conflicting egos. NOTE: Something to keep in mind... Without ripping on your favorite cars, how are you going to know what you want to change? So a critique no matter how opinionated or harsh is essential to really understanding why you're making the choices you are... This is my harshest critique of a car but it's also my favorite car of all time. I wanted to tear it apart constructively so I could make the perfect custom in my eyes! Now lets see how we can get this '61 Plymouth working better... 6. I blew up photos from books and mags on a copier, taped them to my window with a blank sheet over top and started tracing and modifying. They're not brilliant but working out ideas is what it's all about. I've tried to address all my previous criticisms in this sketch. From a purely custom point of view (while keeping with the GMC theme), I've never seen Caddy Dagmars on a '60s ride and they are one of the few things I could get to work and feel completely satisfied with on this hard to restyle car. From a practical angle, they will protrude far enough to be functional as bumpers but most of all they strengthen the character of the car and look pretty awesome. So... Lets bring this car to life! (click thumbnail to enlarge) 7. The kit disassembled easily enough and is indeed complete. Over all I find the one piece body to be a very good scale reproduction with very good proportions and symmetry (the best and most accurate part of this kit). I knew the trim was roughly painted along with the interior before receiving it. No problem right? Not exactly. (click thumbnails to enlarge) 8. The car itself was supposed to be in excellent plus condition. The original builder hit the trim and interior bucket with some hot paint (not the dash or chassis-thank goodness!) as they are pitted with craters not clearly visible in the sellers photos (or in their glowing description). When buying a kit with paint on it, sight unseen, in this case off eBay, it never hurts to ask if any of the paint has reacted with the plastic. I paid a lot more than I would have for this kit had I known. The trim is ultimately going to be replaced so not a real problem on that one but the interior bucket had to be almost entirely redone. Work that can slow down the momentum of a project (if not ruin a good part of the fun! That is if you weren't planning it into your build...). (click thumbnail to enlarge) 9. Initially the Lindberg '61 Impala was to be the bubble top donor but I was unsatisfied with the fact that part of the vent windows is integrated into the front windshield. So I picked up an AMT/ERTL '62 Bel Air that nicely addresses that problem. When compared, the Impala/Bel Air roofs have an inspired flow, suggestion of performance and great style next to the sleepy Plymouth roof. Their HOOD:TRUNK ratio is also in better proportion. (click thumbnail to enlarge) 10. Also, the Impala's windshield and backlight insert into the window openings creating a thick band of distortion in the glass' perimeter. Not ideal. (click thumbnail to enlarge) 11. The Bel Air's glass fits flush and has little distortion. You can see a scratch from the factory I'll have to polish out. (click thumbnail to enlarge) 12. Here's a side by side of the C pillars. Surprisingly there's quite a bit of difference. The Impala (left) being more chunky compared to the Bel Air which is more slender and graceful. My reference photos show the Bel Air to be a more faithful, prototypically correct depiction of it's 1:1 counter part and it simply looks better. (click thumbnail to enlarge) 13. This is the clincher. The Bel Air (left) and Plymouth (center) have an uncanny resemblance at the cowl and tulip panel. The tops of their roofs are fairly close in dimensions as well, just sitting in different places. The impala roof (right) is narrower and the cowl is really inaccurate. As well the tulip panel would be a whole other adventure to make fit. NOTE: As I understand it (and to their credit), Lindberg addressed the cowl on their '61 Impala kit. Even with that correction made though, I still think the roof on the '62 Bel Air would be the better choice. (click thumbnails to enlarge) 14. So here we are... No matter how much it costs you for the kit(s), a custom is only a custom because you cut it up. NOTE: the Plymouth's plastic is very old and brittle requiring extra care at every step. I find all my old kits brittle like this but the Johan ones are particularly bad in this respect. 15. The point of no return... NOTE: This photo clearly displays the distinctive blisters on the sides of the front fenders (first clearly seen like this in 1953). They're another bold element but in my opinion must stay as they have a lot to do with the car saying 'Plymouth'! 16. On the Bel Air, I carefully scribed my center lines on the cowl and tulip panel then highlighted them with a fine tip Sharpie. I marked off the roof with Letraline along the side trim, far forward of the cowl and far back from the tulip panel. This leaves me lots of latitude to determine the best joint later. NOTE: The REMOVE tabs between the roof and window sills offer invaluable structural support and will remain in until final body prep. 17. Make sure that center line is there if your saw is in there. It's also very important your cuts are straight. Crooked ones can deceive your vision and perception when lining things up and judging by eye... Which will inevitably be necessary! 18. I cut the side panels parallel to the edges of the cowl and did a comparison to see what I was in for. They are an almost exact match. NOTE: There is a tiny dot in front of the middle washer blade nob that corresponds with the center line marked on the Plymouth body. Essential stuff for accuracy. 19. The arch of the tulip panels were also a very close match. Whoo Hoo! NOTE: Again, observe that those center lines are there and clearly marked... I can't stress how essential they are! 20. I determined in the end, cutting approx. 3/16" down from the Bel Air's lower side window trim and cutting the panels at the cowl's edges straight across would be ideal for mating the roof to the body. I've also left the Bel Air's hood support attached to act as a joining lip. Here you can see the Plymouth's cowl has been removed and correspondingly the sides of the body have been cut back to accommodate the final shape of the new roof. After test fitting, the hood looked just a hair too long. 1 1/2 scale inches (1/16") came out and everything proportioned nicely. NOTE: Not something in my initial sketch but a great improvement! Also, you'll notice, I've removed all that rotten trim. |
21. Here's the roof fitted into the body. Notice the drop of the Bel Air's body panels on each side. In the end you wind up with a bit of a mismatch on the sides but the roof is still supported by it's angled side joints, perpendicular with the adjacent body panels. It's a strong mating surface that will simply need to be further reinforced and filled later. Now only a slight overlap at the trunk needed to be addressed to finish the job. 22. The hood support on the Bel Air's cowl needed its height brought down a bit in a few spots to line its cowl up with the height of the Plymouth's hood... but other than that they fit exceptionally well together. The roof is just sitting there in this photo only needing to be picked up to be removed. 23. Here the roof is fully integrated into the Plymouth's body giving us a good idea of our basic design. I've also dropped the suspension down, completely removed all the emblems & trim, the taillight plugs have been filed smooth (will show how that was done later) and the remaining area has been contoured with a round file. With a little primer, this roof body combo will look factory. This roof has amazing stock proportions. Over all I'm extremely happy with it's fit except for one thing... 24. The unanticipated shortening of the hood meant the trunk and tulip panel now lined up in a slightly different place than planned. I initially decided to use the Plymouth's trunk panel line as my joint to avoid future signs of bodywork. If I did it again I would choose to go forward of the panel line, leaving it intact as I wound up with a couple of interfering panel lines that have to be filled then re-scribe over a critical joint (creating a potential weak spot if not properly reinforced). 25. THE FIX: I cut out the remnants of the Bel Air trunk. Then filled the remaining gab with a strip of .040 x .040 Evergreen strip and super glue. With a little filing things will be back on track. 26. I've added a .040 support lip where the trunk and tulip panel meet to keep the roof in its proper position while working. Once the roof is permanently joined to the body, I'll reinforce the heck out of the joints around its entire perimeter as there is lots of room to do this without interfering with the interior. This will only serve to help keep things solid and secure when all the finishing work begins. Using Testors Liquid Cement, I also added .020 x .020 plastic strips to hold the windows in place (there is nothing to help locate the back light so in the rear it is essential). Shrinkage of the joints is not really an issue here (as they in essence create a corner) and the Testors Liquid Cement gives far more time for positioning (I replaced my side trim with the same glue). 27. The last time the roof will be separate from the body... I took a moment to scribe/re-scribe my trim lines on the exterior of the '62 Bel Air roof. I used the back of a #11 Exacto blade and the end of a razor saw. Some of the panel lines are very soft on it and will be non-existent under just a few coats of paint. I had to work from good reference photos as there is a fair bit of additional scribing required to get it to resemble its 1:1 counter part. Also, the Bel Air's door lines have also been filled in with bits of styrene and super glue and the tulip filler piece has received its final shaping before joining the two. NOTE: Although present in many subsequent photos, the roof wont actually be attached until all other custom modifications are finished. If attached at this stage, its joint could be compromised during the remaining work. 28. Skipping ahead to take the roof to completion for this section of the build... Sheet plastic was layered into the discrepancy between the height of the roof and the deck lid (something that was fine tuned before joining. I wound up dropping the rear of the rood a little for that just right look!). The sheet plastic was then sanded with a variety of files to get the right contour. As well, the new trunk panel line has been scribed. 29. A similar process has been carried out up front - of filling with layers of plastic sheet then filing away. The cowl seams have also been filled for a cleaner more custom look! The new hood panel line has also been done. If you look closely, you'll see I had to add a filler piece to part of the hood... As I screwed up part of my panel line (most things can be fixed...)! And all that trim was hand filed into a triangle from 0.040 x 0.040 strip styrene... No quick task but there was some slight but funny bends in the trim that wouldn't facilitated using triangular styrene strip! 30. Skipping far ahead for a moment so we can get a sense of what the finished roof looks like, compare it with our lead photo and feel a sense of progress. With a nice clean trim line from front to back and some new Cadillac rolling stock on some white walls and we're stylin'! 31. Well here we are again... Back at the stock front! Time to get this looking more like our drawing and less like a '61 sales disaster... 32. I started by cutting off the lower half of the bumper then excavated the center. 33. Here it is, stripped of chrome and turned on its face. The remaining front edge of the bumper has been marked for cutting just behind its interior wall. This will facilitate the removal of each headlight (as the bumper extends past them, hindering access to their lower portions). NOTE: Always cover unrelated parts with masking tape for their protection while working around them. One slip creates so much more work than a project requires and really slows down your enthusiasm. 34. With the front of the remaining bumper removed, I was able to easily access the lower portion of the headlights. I carefully scored the separation crease between the bezel and neighboring plastic with an Exacto knife. This way if anything cracks or crumbling occurs during the separation process, the bezel's lower edge has already been separated and will most likely remain intact. The neighboring bezel has been covered in masking tape, again to protect its surface as it will be re-plated and preservation is key. 35. I then flipped over the assembly and scored the surrounding plastic with my knife blade then turned the blade over and used the back edge to remove little slivers of plastic until the bezel came free. This is tedious work. Be patient, it pays off. The bezels fortunately came off with a little more plastic than a little less. The adjacent plastic that lost a bit of material can easily be repaired as it's being integrated into the body... On the other hand the bezels can't! 36. All our ducks are in a row. The bezels will need their backside cleaned up (more on that later) but are otherwise good to go. And we now have a grill assembly that's ready for some serious work! 37. A little before and after in one picture. I separated the grill from the adjacent body panels approximately where the Dagmars will go. It's now leaning forward on its face with a couple of .040 styrene donuts added to clearly fix its location on the mounting posts. It can now be used as my reference point, matching my other work to it. Some . 060 filler pieces have been glued in to fill the missing headlight mounting surface. The left side has been shaped and the surrounding plastic has had it's face brought back the amount of the filler piece then was attached to its backside. A segment of .250 x .180 rectangular rod was then glued to its bottom to begin building up material to be shaped later. The right side pieces are awaiting their turn to be shaped and fit. NOTE: the excess superglue on the unshaped headlight filler piece (right side) was added after joining - as body filler. I find it keeps pinholes from sowing up in the joint during the priming stage. 38. The Dagmar portion of the actual PARTS PACK bumpers looks pretty good (they're not perfectly symmetrical though but it's not super obvious). The rest isn't as accurate as I'd like but for what I'm doing here, the ends need to be removed so it's all good. The ends of the PARTS PACK Pontiac bumpers (not pictured) were removed from their hosts as well to be combined with the Dagmars in the next step. 39. The Dagmar's hollow interior needed some Evergreen .030 plastic and some shaping to match up with the Pontiac ends. The two pieces were then connected with an overlapping joint of about 1/8". Fairly strong. There was very little tolerance in the joint. The hardest part was pressing the small parts together firmly once super glued. I had to redo these several times. They are critical parts that will be plated later so near perfect construction is paramount. Now for some filing and shaping! 40. Here's our shaped Dagmar. That low tolerance joint gave excellent results. Worth the effort and fumbling repeats to get it right. It will need a little modification when fitted to the grill but it looks good... Just what this car needs! 41. After a quick test fit, I found out the Dagmar assemblies needed a lot of modification. The Pontiac bumper portions were far too long and would of been dragging on the asphalt. So I sanded the entire Dagmar Assembly down from the back until the Pontiac portions were in line with what I needed. They were then attached to .060 sheet plastic to get some of their depth back. A piece of .080 sheet plastic (foreground) needed to be employed as well to get the Dagmars out to a practical distance. This was one of those cases where I could simply have glued the Dagmar to a sheet of plastic and built up the rest with thick sheet but sometimes you don't learn that until you've got there. Too many seams on these pieces for my liking but I'll get it shipshape the best I can and see how it looks when it's back from the platers. NOTE: I could of skipped the previous two photos but included them just for the value of how to create a part like that in case someone wants to give it a try. It also illustrates how you can do a fair bit of careful, delicate work, just to realize your calculations were off and most of that work will not be usable. But as we all know and accept (or come to learn and accept), there is some figuring and redoing in customizing/kustomizing that is part of the process... 42. From the back of the grill, you can see the .080 sheet plastic has been bonded to the excavated area where the second Dagmar will reside. 43. The mounting platform has been roughly shaped to allow the grill assembly to be installed during the addition of the final Dagmar, facilitating precise placement. The holes in the Dagmar and the mounting platform offer excess glue another avenue to flow out of the joint for better bonding. I like to use a lot of glue and allow it to ooze out of every part of the joint. Keeps the pinholes to a minimum. I just cut the excess away later or hit it with a file. NOTE: The black reference mark on the mounting plate acted as a guide (placed there during a test fitting). It helped but I've began to use temporary plastic guides, glued into place then removed after the particular piece has found its exact spot. I mounted these parts with super glue but in hind sight, I think epoxy would of been a better choice for the additional set up time it offers. *I've read many modelers write about how if you think you have enough glue, it's probably too much! I'm quite the opposite when it comes to the construction stage (around delicate engraving and for final assembly it is a different matter - there less is more). I like excess and clean it up later... Of course one doesn't want to go crazy with the glue but it is the side I err on... Particularly for custom work!. 44. And here's the basic design roughed in... Things are looking symmetrical and it's much easier to see how to get to our finished product! 45. With the second Dagmar installed and shaped it was onto the bumperette receivers (that will ultimately hold aluminum bumpers - not covered in this how-to or done yet for that matter). Several pieces of plastic stock have been added to build up a large chunk to carve from (the purple lines highlight the different pieces used). Notice holes have been drilled into the headlight mounting surfaces to receive registration pins (covered later). Also the grill has been cleared of all detail, filled with sheet plastic and extended to broaden length and arch. It was initially protected by tape as I worked, as I had considered retaining the stock shape and detail (even going as far as creating a lower pan for it - that just didn't look right!). But ultimately realized it was simply too short to go with the new proportions of the front end and would have to have a new surface scratch built. 46. Since the PARTS PACK Dagmars where larger than the undersized ones in my concept sketch, I wound up creating receivers that resemble a '60 Imperial style front bumper. Their curve was created to mimic the curve on the leading edge of the front fenders. I'm very happy with them and feel they are more successful and consistent with the restyling of the car than those in my concept sketch. NOTE: Purple ink was used to highlight the area to be removed. 47. Notice how the receiver will wrap right around the side of the car. A small portion of the front fender bottom has been removed, bringing it up to integrate better with the receivers new side profile/bumper height. 48. Here's the finished receiver... Nice match to the fender tops and well integrated into the front end... It's working nicely with the car's existing lines and improving its overall look! 49. In this side shot, the wrap around portion has been cut out. A backing of sheet styrene will be added to complete that portion of the receiver. It's really starting to match the concept sketch now... 50. Each headlight bezel was planed on a milling file (used for sharpening mower blades and gives a very fine surface) then a piece of 1/8" tubing is attached to their back with Testors Liquid Cement. These tubes will act as registration pins that will line up with the holes I drilled in the headlight mounting surfaces earlier. 51. It looks like a couple of saber tooth chompers on one angry cat! This car is definitely coming to life... But we have a long way to go and this mock up is the inspiration and motivation to see us through! 52. I liked the new slope of the grill surface created earlier but it was far too long. It's going to be a long grill regardless but I took some off the bottom off to keep things in proportion. This photo was taken prior to the trim being shaped into a triangle. I tried several times to bend the .040 x .040 rod around that tight bend but when I hit it with Testors Liquid Cement, it cracked every time (I have yet to try epoxy for this sort of thing - but these tight curves put a lot of stress on square rod - even if it held at first, it could split over time). The solution was pretty simple in the end. Some .040 sheet cut roughly to shape (outlined in purple on the left) was butted up against the square rod and super glued (if I used Testors Liquid Cement, the butt joint would eventually shrink and show a seam on my trim - it may not be a real problem but one I'd like to avoid all the same). On the right side, the piece has already been shaped to match the square cross section of the adjacent rod and just awaits final shaping into triangular trim along with the rest of the square rod. 53. The same process used above to create the tight curves on the body's trim was used to create a frame around the perimeter of the grill. Super glue was employed for this frame as there are but joints that I don't want to shrink over time and reveal themselves. 54. Now the grill is really taking shape! The top of the frame has been added with super glue joints (no shrinkage that way... I don't want any seams showing up in my plating down the road!). .060 x .020 styrene strips were then laid in to the grill cavity to create it's waterfall style face. I started by finding the center of the grill, then placing a strip on each side of it, gapped by a .020 x .020 strip (highlighted with a yellow highlighter for the photo). Once the two strips on either side of center were established and secure, I worked out each side till they were full, gapping each strip as I went. I perform this kind of work with Testors Liquid Cement. I would find it impossible to use anything else. Slight shrinkage of the joints at the top and bottom where each strip meets the boarder around the grill will be very minor if even noticeable. And the set up time, along with the evaporative qualities of Testors Liquid Cement, I couldn't imagine using any other type of glue (brand isn't an issue here though... Any solvent based glue for styrene will work the same, I just happen to use that particular brand). Each strip was placed on with extra overhang (like the one left of the yellow spacer) that was ultimately trimmed to a uniform length (like those on the right). When the whole grill is done, a .030 sheet will be glued to the bottom of the grill to finish of the boarder, enclosing all the grill bars into one neat package. 55. One photo I forgot to take during construction was of the completed grill when it was first finished. So I just took a photo of it recently and this is what the nice white plastic looks like after sitting for 3 or so years... Patiently waiting for me to finish the interior! It will need to be sanded, then polished - bringing back that lovely white color - before being sent out for plating. Something I will be learning for the first time as this piece will be one of many to go out on my first frame full of parts to be plated! Always something to teach and always something to learn! At the end of the day, the grill cavity was a hard space to fill. The final product is a bit expansive but all and all, I'm very pleased with it. Perhaps a Plymouth logo like the one on the original grill will finish it off... Will wait and see when it nears completion! 56. Here we are... Back again at the stock rear end! I tried a few sketches of it but nothing really came together. All I knew was I wanted a blade bumper that went right across the rear, uninterrupted. So beyond that, I basically tried to achieve a profile to match the sketch and the rest came together as I went... Enjoy! 57. First thing I needed to do was dispense with those scale sex toys they call taillight assemblies... 58. With the taillight assemblies removed, two holes were left on each side that needed to be filled. I drilled them out and super glued in 1/8" Evergreen plugs. Use all successive drill bits between the size of the hole and where you need to get, to avoid a crack. How do I know it will crack? I jumped a bit and cracked it! 59. After a quick test fit, the '61 impala rear pan was a perfect choice to mate up with the Plymouth body. But in order to get our pan back far enough so it can curve back out again (see concept sketch), we'll need to add a filler piece to create something strong and secure to glue it to. The natural recess, that (fortunately for me) is present in the original molding, provides a perfect surface to attach a filler piece to. 60. I shaped and super glued a piece of .060 plastic sheet into the recess that will now provide a rock solid foundation to build on. 61. After some eyeballing, I marked the Impala's pan and began cutting it down to size. 62. The pan was too narrow so I cut it in half and began attaching the halves to the foundation created earlier (that has now been filed down to match the height of the adjacent body panel it was attached too). NOTE: The piece of plastic in the gap isn't permanent, it was just put in to provide a locating bridge between the two halves, making sure their back edges are in the same place and at the same height during installation. 63. Here the two halves have been mounted symmetrically on the foundation piece, just back from the original body molding. The license plate recess in the Impala pan will provide an excellent place to add a filler piece that will add a lot of strength to the split pan. 64. A good portion of the front side of our naturally molded recess (that we installed our filler piece in earlier) has been removed, creating the upper portion of our bumper recess. The filler piece installed in the previous steps, now exposed, acts as the new foundation/backing of our receiver. An additional filler piece has been added under the licence plate recess to fill the dip. Also, you'll notice the gaps in the lower pan have been filled creating a nice smooth surface to refine. But it's leading edge is know too far back, creating no depth at all for the lower edge of the recess. In the next step we'll address building that out to match the top edge. 65 and/or 66 (alternative). With the license plate area raised (by carving out and reshaping the top area with an Exacto knife) and the filler piece from the previous picture now shaped, there is now a clean uninterrupted line across the back of the car... Not huge changes but ones that make a huge difference. Next... I needed to build out the top edge of the lower pan. I found that 5/16" styrene tube had the same curve as the pan did... So I cut two strips from it and laminated them to the pan, bringing its edge out past the top of the receiver (leaving me a bit of extra plastic to file down to true both edges). The left side has had it's surface trued with the top edge and it's gap cut open to 1/8". As opposed to the right that has been left untouched for comparison in this photo. Both sides will need further cutting and filing to yield a refined finished product. NOTE: Using pieces of large tubing to conform to shallow compound curves is very useful. Since it is already gradually curved in one direction, it takes little manipulating to get it to conform to a slight curve in the opposing direction such as around the compound curved corner of the '61 Impala pan in the case of this build. For the taillights, I decided to go with a six pack of '61 Impala lamps. Now the surface between the trunk and bumper is at about a 20˚ degree angle and their is very little of it that is not slightly curved. As a result, the tail lamps can neither fit in this space nor sit flat. So .030 sheet plastic was shaped over a file and Exacto knife handle then super glued into place (I actually really had to manipulate these pieces). The left side has been filed into a flat, vertical surface, filling the curved space and creating adequate surface area to attach the lamps to. Three holes have been drilled to receive the lamps for that side while the right side is awaiting the same treatment. NOTE: The bumper receivers have all been created to be 1/8" wide to accommodate the aluminum bar stock I got from the hardware store to make bumpers out of. (Again... not covered in this How-to!). 67. A test fit of the Impala tail lamps shows things are shaping up to be a big improvement. At this point, I took an Exacto and scribed around each lamp to clearly mark their locations to use as a guide for shaping mounts. NOTE: in order to get the mounting surface horizontal and trued, I had to file down the plastic on either side of the license plate recess. It will need to be replaced later after final shaping of the taillight mounting surfaces. *With all the modifications that have taken place or are to come, a lot of the original plastic has or will become very thin so a variety of reinforcements (not shown in the photos and not seen on the finished build) have been fitted inside the body around the back end to provide extra strength and structural rigidity. Make it strong where no one will see it. It does nothing to the aesthetics and does plenty to keep a crack or break from happening down the finish line. 68. Here's the rear end in all its unprimed glory. The body trim has yet to be shaped in this photo but the plastic on either side of the license plate recess has been replace and the mounts for each taillight have been carved back to the original plastic using an Exacto and files. The lower edge of the recess has also been shaped into a nice lip that is better illustrated in the next photo. Over all, a pretty clean and integrated rear end... Far beyond what they shoved out the door in 1961! 69. Last but not least... A close-up of the profile of the rear showing how the receiver and lower lip on the rear pan nicely match our sketch. The only real difference from the sketch (other than the unshaped trim) is the presence of the taillight mounts... NOTE: The corners didn't leave a lot of room for contouring and I ultimately had to reinforce and in the case of this side, rebuild a portion. CONCLUSION: The biggest challenges on this build were attaching the roof with super glue... With such a tight joint with four sides, I would choose epoxy next time for the set up time. And the Dagmars and bumperettes (as mentioned in the body of the article) had to be rethought slightly to accommodate the reality of the model's dimensions and the actual size of the parts (that weren't accounted for in my drawing). Other than that... I'm really happy with the ultimate redesign and think it's a huge improvement. As (mentioned earlier) it's my favorite car... Just need to find a nice 1:1 convertible (due to its unibody construction - the hardtop relies on its roof for structural rigidity) and get that Chevy roof on there! If you don't have the money to live all your Kustom dreams in 1:1... You can most likely afford to live a good part of them in scale! Well that's the way I do it! Thanks for reading folks... P.S. I don't have a Dremel or rotary tool... It's all done by hand! For more great step by step kustomizing and updates on this project, join today! |
