'57 Thunderbird - Mild Custom or Prototype?
Aug 19, 2010 10:04:45 GMT -4
Post by BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON on Aug 19, 2010 10:04:45 GMT -4
Mild Custom? Full Custom? Factory Prototype?
(More pictures below)
The ’57 Thunderbird is one of several iconic 50’s American cars that I’ve wanted to customize from the perspective of cleaning up and simplifying the underlying design. Obviously heavily influenced by the Pininfarina Ferraris, I thought I’d do this one from that point of view.
The car is lowered about 3” all around. I removed all the bumpers, fake vents, door handles and trim, straightened the accent line in front of the front door, and integrated the grill into the front end using brass mesh from K&S. The Lucas spots are from my parts box. I added a more aggressive and functional looking hood scoop from the AMT ’49 Ford kit. The rear pan is rolled and the taillights are cut down pieces from the AMT ’50 Ford kit. For a racing car keynote I used Halibrand 4-hole kidney bean mags of the type seen on the ’57 Reventlow Scarabs. I got them a couple of years ago from Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland. They’re finished in Aluminum Plate Testors Metalizer and buffed out bright. But for a custom flavor I ran a set of white pinners from Modelhaus.
Exterior paint is Duplicolor Orange Mist Metallic over a gold base for a Kandy Kopper effect sealed with Krylon Crystal Clear acrylic. The interior is done in Duplicolor Wimbledon White and Cayenne Red with Matte Aluminum BMF.
Everything else is from the kit.
Thanx for lookin’,
B.
