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'54 Chevy Sedan Delivery-Completed Photos


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Thanks Pete! :D That's about the same process I follow for smoothing the paint out with one twist. I use a chamois to polish with and use Novus 2 and then 1. A guy can't get much smoother than cow skin for polishing purposes. lol

I can usually get a real smooth finish straight from the can but you know how handling and installing last minute parts lends itself to messing with that. lol

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Thanks Pete! :D That's about the same process I follow for smoothing the paint out with one twist. I use a chamois to polish with and use Novus 2 and then 1. A guy can't get much smoother than cow skin for polishing purposes. lol

I can usually get a real smooth finish straight from the can but you know how handling and installing last minute parts lends itself to messing with that. lol

 

Hummm, I never thought of using a chamois, but that is a heck of a good idea. I have some stuff in progress and I think I will give it a try! I love it when I pick up a new tip. Thanks

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Great stuff! I have really enjoyed your build. And like someone else said, I, too was timid about using Model Master Wet Look. Me thinks it's a go now. You may have said, but what brand of black did you use?

 

Andy

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Pete: No problem bud. What do you have in progress?

 

Andy: Thank you kindly. The Wet Look is tricky and I'll say this, dispense it and shoot it on right after it gasses out. If you wait too long it'll come out like spider web. I'm using Model Master Black One Coat Lacquer which it doesn't look like is made or available any longer. That's really too bad too because that stuff goes on smooth right out of the can.

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Thanks Joe. Just an fyi, mine is a club project. There are about 10 of us building them. It should be fun to see what everyone comes up with. I like the chassis idea but I don't do hot rods very often so my parts stash of hotrod chassis is limited to zero. I was stuck tubing it the old fashion way by adding strip styrene to the middle. Then I had to do frame modifications and suspension adjustments. Some times I just have to do it the hard way! I like your way better!

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LOL. Thanks Pete. 10 of you building that car? Wow! All of you guys must have horror stories of your own on how sucky of a kit that thing is. The mold/ seam lines are terrible on those things. :smiley3:

 

Small medicine/ pill bottles cut in half at the bottoms also make for good wheel tubs. :D

Edited by mustang1989
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Just a test fit of the body on the chassis so far. I've got to wet sand the body to get rid of some of the roughness and put one more gloss coat on this bad boy before I'll be satisfied.

Here are the fruits of 6 months work so far:

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LOL. Thanks Pete. 10 of you building that car? Wow! All of you guys must have horror stories of your own on how sucky of a kit that thing is. The mold/ seam lines are terrible on those things. :smiley3:

 

Small medicine/ pill bottles cut in half at the bottoms also make for good wheel tubs. :D

 

So now you tell me about and easier way to do it! Where were you two months ago! :smiley2: Or more correctly, where was I?? Perhaps I will remember that trick for the next try.

 

Yes, the stories have been flying. Most of us glued the hood shut to deal with that problem making these curb side. I solved the mold line issues on the top by doing a chop. Probably more work than just cleaning it up but then I seem to have a pension for doing things the hard way. I have to admire you willingness to open this pig up and show off the inside!

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So now you tell me about and easier way to do it! Where were you two months ago! :smiley2: Or more correctly, where was I??

 

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So now you tell me about and easier way to do it! Where were you two months ago! :smiley2: Or more correctly, where was I??

 

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By the way, I just tried your chamois method and like it a lot. Thanks!

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There have been several updates here. First I wanted more than just a plain ol' battery in this engine compartment so I began by robbing the battery from an AMT '51 Chevy kit, cut the battery posts off of it and drilled holes through the bottom where the battery posts used to be. I used an electrical diode that I got at Radio Shack due to the squared off ends of the wire and the .028" diameter that made it perfect for battery posts.

 

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See what I mean?

 

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I've got some PE battery terminals but didn't like how thin they were as it doesn't look very real so I'll be cutting a few more of these out and stack them up about 3 high and filling in the sides for a more realistic battery terminal end. Here's the single layer on top of each battery post for now though:

 

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Secondly I started work on my PE electric cooling fan for the radiator. At around 11 pieces total to count the electrical circuits I ran to it this thing was no joke to build. The hardest part was getting the outside ring of the fan assy perfectly round. Anyways here we are with that ....

 

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a little scale reference against my spare '54 Chev

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I'm also continuing work on my interior door panels which have given me a lot of grief. I've stripped them 4 times so far. Just wasn't happy with the way the paint was behaving. I used acrylic for the white inserts and after I applied the gloss coat to seal it all in the acrylic paint started cracking. Then it was a masking issue that looked really bad and then I had a paint boo boo that went to crap when I was sanding to correct it. You know, the typical stuff. I used white primer as a base coat so we'll see what happens this time round.

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Now you're scaring me. That fan looks awesome, along with how the battery is coming along.

 

Great work...tedious I know as it reminds me of putting rails on ships.

 

Bill

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Thanks Bill. lol.

 

I hear you on the tedious part. Sometimes I think to myself that it would just be easier and faster to just put a battery in there but then I think.................NAHHH!! lol.

 

Completed battery:

 

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I don't want to be a kill joy, but I thought the old Delco batteries had yellow tops. The little research I did seemed to bare that out. Sorry, my OCD sometimes gets the better of me.

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You aint being one there Pete. This is a custom build.....all the way through and I didn't want to break up the black with a big ol' yeller battery smack dab in the middle of it all. lol

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You aint being one there Pete. This is a custom build.....all the way through and I didn't want to break up the black with a big ol' yeller battery smack dab in the middle of it all. lol

 

I see that I was not very clear. I was talking about the red filler caps. The old Delcos had yellow filler caps. Other than that you nailed it. Well, there is one thing you left out. I remember taking a copper penny(back when they were actually a high copper alloy) and heating it and melting it edgewise into the top near the non-ground terminal. We did that to stop corrosion around the terminal much like a zinc on a boat prop.

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Ok, let's see, a penny is about 3/4" so .75/25 = about .030. If you cut a thin wafer of .030" copper wire ..........Oh, never mind ;-)​

Edited by PeteJ
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Ok gang, I ended up trying to adhere the master cylinder assembly onto the firewall and in the process of gluing it to the firewall I made contact between the two in the absolute wrong place on the firewall. I mean it STUCK and there wasn't any removing it without damage to the paint. I managed to break it free and wound up with a big 'ol primered spot on the firewall. Man I was pissed!!! icon_boom.gifBeyond pissed! icon_boom.gificon_boom.gificon_boom.gif I got up and walked away from the whole mess for about 20 minutes , came to my senses, returned to the bench and dispensed some Tamiya X-29 Black I had and shot it through the airbrush to cover up that God awful mess there on the firewall. My problem was that the vacuum hose was just a shade too long so trimmed it back and stared over again. This time I got it. If you look close you can see the outline of the boo-boo just to the right of the master cylinder but the good news is that the body L/H inner fender well will cover this up.

I also got the primer coat on the hood for the fourth time! They say the third time is the charm but I guess we'll have to make an exception here with this thing.

The progress:

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  • 1 month later...

Sheesh. I got so busy with my new project that I forgot to post the completion here. I finished it up a few weeks ago and felt pretty good about the results.

 

When I was a kid I was drawn to the Revell Street Demons line-up and ended up buying them all. I only built three of them back then and this was one of them. It's funny how when the hobby follows us into adulthood we see how much we either overlooked or just how bad the kits were back then. But hey, we were having fun back then right? lol . I took this project on in January of this year and although this kit does suck, I've had a great amount of fun with it and learning opportunities left and right over the course of the last 8-1/2 months. Although I was drawn to this car as a kid (and still am), as an adult I didn't care for the gasser stance for a "street" car and wanted something a little more jazzed up and to have some fun with it. Sooooooo, I created a dropped down party mobile. I mean .............with all that room in the back the possibilities were endless. I started out with my eyes being a lot bigger than 1.) my ability and 2.) what there was room for back there. Over the course of the build while my vision/ goal was always the same, I had to modify the ideas somewhat and my abilities got a tune up but I'm very happy with the end result.
I won't go over every detail of the build but I will say that there were 7 different kits and a lot of aftermarket involved in its making. What really blew me away was the fact that there weren't any headlight bezels/ buckets (and there still aren't to this day with the latest release of this kit!!! facepalm_zpsgaclnqrj.gif ) and the hood hinge cut outs at the back of the engine compartment just make you want to slap the original kit engineers.
I'd like to thank all of those who followed along and commented/ encouraged me throughout this creation. You guys are da bomb. icon_bow.gif

The kit:
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Glamour shots:
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and then there's what's inside:

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Hi, Joseph,

 

This car is a magnificent piece of work! Your close-up photos of the engine compartment and interior look like they were taken from a car magazine with all your amazing details. I'll bet that at least 50 of the views on the counter for this thread are mine as I followed along on each new post. I love your gloss black finish and the crisp reflections that show how smooth it is. Thanks for the ride!

 

Ed

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