'51 Chevy Fastback Coupe Mild Custom - Disaster Has Struck!

[BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON]

I’ve been working on this for the past few weeks. It’s an AMT ’51 Chevy fastback coupe done as a mid-50’s mild custom. The body was completely nosed, decked and shaved, then new simplified accent trim was added to the sides above the front and rear wheel openings. The trim was made from thin triangular Plastruct styrene stock and will be foiled. The skirts are the stock Chevy units from the kit, extended to match the lower edge of the rear fender using quarter round styrene stock. The headlights are fully frenched and lidded using the stock kit headlight buckets with styrene stock added for the lid extensions. The grille is the stock kit piece with the center bar removed and a ’54 Pontiac center inserted. It still needs some work to get it properly lined up. The front bumpers have been shaved and custom bullets from the AMT ’53 Ford Pickup kit added. The rear bumper will be the kit custom piece to go with the kit roll pan I installed. The front end has been lowered using the kit lowering assembly and lowering blocks added at the rear to even out the rake. The undercarriage is finished in Duplicolor Wimbledon White with the chassis finished in the same color as the body, Tamiya TS-54 Light Blue Metallic Pearl. The front fender liners and firewall will be Wimbledon White, with the kit modified 6-banger finished with a gold block and head, Wimbledon white valve cover, and quite a bit of chrome bright work. The interior will be a custom tuck ‘n’ roll and promises to be the most tedious and difficult part of the project. Tires will be AMT whitewalls and I’m planning on using mid-50’s style bullet-center wheel covers.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[KRAZY RICK]

Nice start Bernard

[41CHEVY]

Very nice project. Full House 6 powered? Paul

[BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON]

Not for the squeamish! This is truly embarrassing. As I was writing my post for the start of this w.i.p. I had left my work lamps on, the Chevy’s body raised close to one of them to get the right lighting and photo angle. After posting I went back into my work room to find this!!!!:



There’s just enough damage to the right fender to mean the body is toast as well as the hood. So stupid of me! I’m too disheartened to tackle the whole thing a second time right now, so I’ll move on to another project and get back to this with a second kit, perhaps later this year.

Thanks for lookin'. Sorry for the false alarm!
B.

[KRAZY RICK]

Jun 29, 2014 15:58:54 GMT -4 BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON said:

Not for the squeamish! This is truly embarrassing. As I was writing my post for the start of this w.i.p. I had left my work lamps on, the Chevy’s body raised close to one of them to get the right lighting and photo angle. After posting I went back into my work room to find this!!!!:



There’s just enough damage to the right fender to mean the body is toast as well as the hood. So stupid of me! I’m too disheartened to tackle the whole thing a second time right now, so I’ll move on to another project and get back to this with a second kit, perhaps later this year.

Thanks for lookin'. Sorry for the false alarm!
B.

That's a shame Bernard, but I'd stick it on E-Pay & call it a Demolition project !!

[Deleted]

that's bad luck you could make it into a crash or something simalar

[DON]

Man that really sucks.. It does really look like it was in an accident; if someone tried to make it look like a wreck they couldnt get it that realistic.
The only thing I could suggest is to find a junker 51 Chevy kit and cut the whole front clip off and attach it to your build .Kind of like somebody would have done with this car if it was a 1:1 scale.

[ACDP5859]

Jun 30, 2014 12:45:50 GMT -4 DON said:

Man that really sucks.. It does really look like it was in an accident; if someone tried to make it look like a wreck they couldn't get it that realistic.
The only thing I could suggest is to find a junker 51 Chevy kit and cut the whole front clip off and attach it to your build .Kind of like somebody would have done with this car if it was a 1:1 scale.

DUDE! All that extra work. For what. The kit is cheap enough. You just buy another one.
Oh Bernard, I feel for you buddy. Things like this happen to me all the time. I did the hot water trick with a 60 Falcon trying to fix a warp. Turned it into a pretty blue blob.

[BERT "THE CRUSHER"]

Ouch! As Bad as I feel about that, I'm glad others here make those mistakes. That looks like something I would do. It was looking great!

[KRAZY RICK]

Jun 30, 2014 14:28:26 GMT -4 ACDP5859 said:

Jun 30, 2014 12:45:50 GMT -4 DON said:

Man that really sucks.. It does really look like it was in an accident; if someone tried to make it look like a wreck they couldn't get it that realistic.
The only thing I could suggest is to find a junker 51 Chevy kit and cut the whole front clip off and attach it to your build .Kind of like somebody would have done with this car if it was a 1:1 scale.

DUDE! All that extra work. For what. The kit is cheap enough. You just buy another one.
Oh Bernard, I feel for you buddy. Things like this happen to me all the time. I did the hot water trick with a 60 Falcon trying to fix a warp. Turned it into a pretty blue blob.

I agree with Dominick, either pick up a new one; or just scrap it & move on

[BRITBOY]

Ouch! I had that happen to me years ago - I'd built some battleship while on holiday (boring holiday or a quick build? Probably both) and it got put on the back shelf of the car for the drive home. One long, hot, sunny drive later and I was the proud owner of the world's only U-shaped battleship.

You just gotta take a deep breath and move on.

[BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll get back to this in a few months once I'm over the initial shock of my major screw up. In the meantime I'm in the middle of a Therapy Build that I started 3 days ago and hope to finish within the next 2. A simple Deuce roadster, just what I need about now.

Here's a teaser: