The first, but small update.

I have not found the exact path I want to follow, but I made with photoshop a course idea of what I have in mind. I left the color white, as I am not sure what colors to use just yet.

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This is the original picture as found on the interweb

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And so far my version, I put the body lower to the ground, added a sideskirt and filled that panel, but I don’t like it, so I will keep a seam there, I removed most moldings and that will give it a nice shaved look.

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Basically all the parts that I am going to use, now the clean up starts…sigh…

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A better picture of the engine parts.

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The fender skirts are in place, now I have to shape them better.

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And a little friend came with our christmas tree and said hi!

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I finally have some pictures ready of my progress, most work is with the body and it will take many more hours to get some paint on it, in the meanwhile I worked a bit on the engine and on the interior:

My little friend again

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The kit stock fenderwing

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And the same thing, but shaped with a file.

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The hood with a halve shaved off emblem.

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I finished one side here sanding off the chromework.

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This needs to be adressed too, there is some major heat-shrink to be seen in the wing, which need to be filled.

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I used the chrome bits as a filler for the body, makes things a bit more easier.

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These bits and pieces will be either replaced or modified, but certainly not used as they are.

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And the first coats of paints. Working with batches does have a lot of advantages.

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And so we start on building the engine

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The tranny got 2 coats of silver and gun, otherwise the red is to overwhelming.

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I added some sparkplug wire and testfitted the whole thing

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Made 8 holes in the firewall, these will be used for the ignition wires, to give it a nice custom look

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Just like this

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The interior tub was then dryfitted, since I wanted to clean the enginebay also a bit.

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I made a template on some styreen

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And glued it into place.

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For the wheelarches I used my tool to make a joining piece of styreen

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Which should look like this on styreen

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And like this when glued in place.

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I continued on the interior, and sanded the tuck’n’roll seats

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And sprayed in in Beige

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The color is hard to see though

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I also shot a few parts in the contrasting color, it is California Sage from Zero, but it has a completely different look to it.

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And the body received some primer as well

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A little bit better view on the color

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And masking starts again

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Adding the second color

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Which gives me this result

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Well, I finally managed to get the paint on the car, and it was a huge pain in the ass!

A couple of weeks back, I worked on the interior, adding some BMF to all the handles and trim, this shows the handles done.

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Put the speaker in the rear-seat

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Put the engine together, needs a lot more detailling, but that will come later.

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And then I had to work more on the body, it was a ongoing thing, I couldn’t get it right. I hated it. I worked for many weeks to get the body paint prepped.

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And finally had something decent.

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Today I was finally able to put some color on the body, here is the Bentley Speed 8 British Racing Green, or BS8BRG if you want

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From a different angle

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I am working here on masking for the second color and added some special effects, with appreciation to my wife’s underwear drawer haha

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Yeah! the ‘Aston Martin California Sage that isn’t’ color shot on the body. After this, it is like christmas, time to unwrap

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And the final product, except for clear, I think I am happy with it, I know I could’ve done better, but considering the situation, I am happy with it.

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Well, yesterday was a slow day and the temperature wasn’t bad. So I thought to clear the car. It is I think the biggest obstacle for me during the buildprocess and it needs to be taken at some point.
Today was appearantly the day haha, the whole process takes up almost 2 hours, prepping, cleaning, mixing, shooting etcc….. but the result is nice I think.

The hood, don’t you love how metallic colors come to life after the clearcoat?

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And the body, it is hard to see, but I ghosted the sidegraphics a little bit, this makes it a bit more mild and doesn’t give those hard lines to it.

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Another angle

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Because everything that had to be clearcoated, now is. I can start working on putting everything together. In this picture I added the upper-suspension parts and the dual-exhausts from which I cut off the back-end, which was a stock-pipe, I will replace that with a custom tailpipe.

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And the uppersuspensionparts in the enginebay, I left them silk-matt, so it will match the engine and gives a little bit of contrast.

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After polishing a few dustspics, I could start with the next big thing: Foiling:

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It took me almost all afternoon and lots and lots of BMF, but it does give that final touch to the car, and so far, nothing can beat BMF.

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It’s hiney is also finished.

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All the chromeplated parts were bleached, it had awful moldlines on the bumpers and would be just such an eyesore. Reason for me to get all the chrome off and get them ready for Alclad2, the only problem is that I’ve never done it on so many parts on one car.

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One of the things I wanted to improve are the springs, I made a set on my own and this is the compare between the kit-part and my-part. It does look a lot better. (IMHO)

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Here they are, fitted on the chassis, I like it a lot better.

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Same trick for the front suspension.

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And fitted

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A dry-fit for the de-chromed parts, the hood needs a little bit of tweaking I think

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And I worked some more on the engine, the horrible V-belt was omitted and replaced with some metal pully’s. Together with a scratch-built v-belt, it does look sharper.

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It is a little bit thinner than realistic, but seen from the top, it is not noticable.

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And a testfit on the chassis.

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Same dryfit for the back, As you might’ve noticed, this Impala will get a Continental-kit, I just love those!

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Sorry about the blurry pictures, but this is a fuel-line with 3 separate fuelfilters, purpose is a better fuel-flow with over-capacity.

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Shortened to fit

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And fitted to the engine, replacing the molded in fuel-lines from the kit.

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The wheels are still a mystery, I tend to go with the stock-wheels, but I don’t like the hubcaps, I guess I need to look through my parts-box. The idea of fitting modern alloy’s has passed, I believe this is a nicer look with the whitewalls.

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I flocked the interior…

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And the (parcel?)-shelf

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The finished doorpanels, I really like the look it has.

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After the interior got flocked, I could start assembling the interior. I still need to paint the steering column, but that is a little thing to do. After that, the dashboard can go in. And I can finish detailling the interior

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Test-fit in the car, don’t you love how shiney it is?

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Another thing that bothered me, was the crankshaft driven fan. I got the fan and fixed it in the radiatorshroud, by fixing it in between two metal rods, now it represents a electric-powered fan.

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Which is now fitted in the engine-bay

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Because this car has had some minor/major modifications, dryfitting is been done often. It gives me the space I need for making changes and show me if I made the right aestatical decissions.
One thing I learned through this dryfit is that the way the interior goes into the car, can not be followed from directions. This is due to the modified enginebay and the sparkplug leads. This had consequences in lining up the interior right for glueing it to it’s chassis, rather than being glued to the body as it should.

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I put the sparkplugwires through the firewall in this picture, but didn’t set it up properly

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I made a teomplate for the headliner. It is a often-forgotten aspect of a modelcar, but I find it important enough to have it in each car, even though it has never been discoverd yet. haha.

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A top view reveals the fuel-lines, v-belt and the sparkplug wires.

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And finally the solution for the wheels!!!!!!!!WHOOOHOOOO!.
I was sitting behind my computer, wandering through my thoughts and through my stash of modelcars (which I am a little proud of). At a sudden moment, I looked at my ’49 Mercury kit from Revell. And then it struck me, didn’t that kit had some Sombrero’s? I remember from the last time I made that kit, I used the reversed steelies. So I had to have those Sombrero’s somewhere. It took me a half an hour of digging, but found them in good condition on the chrome-tree. Next problem was to find 4 matching tires, which also took me a good half an hour.
The next day, since it was late night, I took them down and tried one of the hubcaps on the ’59 tires. It was a perfect match and gives the right look to the project. Me likey!

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In one of my earlier posts, I told you I didn’t like some parts and would modify or scratch them. The springs were one, the shocks were also awful. I am sorry about this somewhat blurry picture, but I replaced the kit part with a simple shock setup. I got 2 matching pieces of tubing, put them together (did not glue them!, as it is hard to have them exactly the right size, this way, they can be slided into place) and add 2 brass rings to them. A nice, simple and cheap way to make shocks.

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And fitted.

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Yesterday I sprayed the parts that needed to be chromed with alclad black and alclad chrome. Unfortunately, the pictueres don’t tell the whole story, they are nice and shiney, but look dull in the pictures.

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And for now the last one:
I added the seatbelts in the car, simple but effective.

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I think this might be my last update, the Impala nears completion and it will be just a few tiny little parts that has to be placed, before I can call it done.
It was a kit with mixed feelings, although; when I am honest, most of the downside was created by me, changing the kit. haha.

I finished the dashboard by spraying the dash in the contrast-color and the steeringwheel in the body-color.

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The headliner was airbrushed and placed.

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These next 2 pictures don’t really show it, but by using clear-glue (Humbrol) I made small lenses for the dials.

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The springs from the hood-hinge were removed and detailed with a somewhat course scratch spring

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And some pictures of the finished interior

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I added wires to the alternator and made a metal rod as a guide for the coolant hose

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The metal rod bends easier and when I have the shape I want, I get some black insulated wire and replicate the metal rod.

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I’ll show you guys a little trick of the trade. I have thought about this not that long ago and this is the first project where I am going to try this on.
I always had a hard time glueing mirrors, antenna’s and what not to the body, last thing you want is to screw up your nice paintjob.
And one night I got it, not sure if the trick already exists, but this came from my very own 2 braincells.
This tricks also makes the piece better attached to the body, with a whole lot less chance of falling off.
First, I drilled a 0,5mm hole in the part

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Than inserted a 0,5mm metal wire in it.

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After that, I drilled carefully a 0,5mm hole in the body

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And inserted the part into the hole. As I can see it, you have 2 options; either glue it, with a tiny bit of superglue, or not glue it. I chose the last, so when you take it with you to a modelshow, you get the parts off and store them separate, safely.

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Then I added very, very thin metal rods for the antenna’s and I am done

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And while I was busy with the rods, I also made me some Curb-Feelers, I thought it would give the car a very nice touch.

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