Revell '63 Corvette Roadster

[Snake45]

Got this little backbirth from Randy not long ago. He said it was a real turd and he wasn't kidding, but it was dirt-cheap and as I told him, I love a challenge. Which this thing most definitely was. If it's not the poorest diecast in my collection, it's definitely in the bottom two or three.

I wish I'd taken a couple “Before” pics so you could see what I started with, but, sadly, I didn't. At any rate, it comes with no vent widow representations of any kind, just a bare windshield. The whole grille/front bumper area is a disaster and a joke, and it can't just be removed and tossed, my first instinct, because the bumper cuts through the body lines and leaves a huge chasm that would have had to be filled to go that route. The front turn signal lights are similarly comically oversized, and all of that mess is molded in one huge piece. Yikes.

I started the Snake-Fu by black-washing the hood grilles, the rocker panels, and the alloy knockoff wheels, and I was shocked at how much better this simple step made the whole evil turd turd look. Encouraged, I drove on. The next big problem was the doors. The thing comes with some sort of logo tampoed on the doors, which the original owner had evidently tried to remove with some kind of solvent. This didn't work out too well for him. He left some big smears right in the middle of the doors, and then repainted the doors in a non-matching red that was noticeably brighter than the rest of the car. Even worse, the driver's door didn't fit, with a huge gap at the lower rear and sitting up too high at the top rear.

I attacked the rear edge of that door (the other one fit okay, more or less) with a file until I worked down the site of interference and got the thing to nestle down to where it should be, more or less. Then I carefully sanded both doors smooth with some well-worn #600 sandpaper to remove all evidence of the tampo removal smearing (and some orange peel of the repaint), but took pains not to sand through the red paint so I wouldn't have to prime the things. I thought Testor #3 Bright Red was too bright for the rest of the car, so shot the doors with an old rattlecan of Walmart Color Place red I had on hand. The doors came out about as smooth as the paint on the rest of the car, but the color is about a shade darker. Oh well. The doors now look a lot better than they did, anyway. At least they don't stand out as they originally did. While I had it apart to pant the doors, I painted the HUGE door hinges, which were black and very jarring to the eye, with Model Master Leather, which was a pretty decent match for the brown color of the interior. I see from the photos that I should have done the kick panel areas in the same color, but this isn't that obvious in 3D.

I gave up trying to do anything about the front end and just painted the “grille” area flat black. I painted the chromed, oversized turn signal pods with some of the Walmart rattecan red, decanted. They look slightly less vomitatious now. I used some of the decanted Walmart Red to touch up a few chips in the factory red paint, too. Oddly, these blend in VERY well and are now almost invisible.

The final step was to add vent windows and frames from a Revelle '67 Corvette roadster 1/25 kit I'd picked up cheap just for parts. These required only some minor filing on the base and front edge to match the angle of windshield frame. I was amazed at how well they fit, and how much better they made the whole sorry production look. They might have improved the model as much as everything else I did combined. Oh, forgot to mention that I hit the hubs of the wheels, which were bare black plastic, with the Molotow chrome pen, which also added a lot.

So here it is, in all its hideous glory. I took it from Completely Unacceptable to Just Barely Marginally Shelfworthy, and from some angles it reminds me of the red AMT '63 Vette I built about 30 years ago.. As always, thanks for looking, and comments welcome. I'm particularly interested in hearing what Randy, its original stepfather, has to say about it. 

[Gramps46]

FWIW here are pictures I took when I got mine though in white.  You were a brave man and it paid off for you.  Except for the wheels it is now in the junk box.

[randyc]

You guys are more glutton for punishment than I was.   As Snake said, Todd (original owner) bought this early in his collection days.   And it was originally for his wife, born in 63.   And they were ok with it.  But as Todd's collection improved and we got to be friends, he would ask if I could repair stuff.   So he'd send me a bunch of stuff to repair, usually paying me in other cars and cash.   This one, as stated, he had tried to remove the tampo and messed up the paint.   He wanted me to see if I could fix it.   I never got round to it before Todd passed.   And his wife lkept his 63 coupe from his collection.  She looked at hte car and decided she diodn't want it anymore.   So it went for sale and Richard decided to take the risk.  that's the basic back story.  

As for what it turned out like - that's about what I envisioned I could do if I ever tackeld it.   Glad Richard saved it and improved it as much as possible.   The big deal with repainting the whole car would be the FI tamps on the fender.  Looks good.  Todd would be happy with it if he were here, I think.   

Mythbusters did it and Snake has done it. You CAN polish a turd.  Good job.  

[Snake45]

7 hours ago, randyc said:

You guys are more glutton for punishment than I was.   As Snake said, Todd (original owner) bought this early in his collection days.   And it was originally for his wife, born in 63.   And they were ok with it.  But as Todd's collection improved and we got to be friends, he would ask if I could repair stuff.   So he'd send me a bunch of stuff to repair, usually paying me in other cars and cash.   This one, as stated, he had tried to remove the tampo and messed up the paint.   He wanted me to see if I could fix it.   I never got round to it before Todd passed.   And his wife lkept his 63 coupe from his collection.  She looked at hte car and decided she diodn't want it anymore.   So it went for sale and Richard decided to take the risk.  that's the basic back story.  

As for what it turned out like - that's about what I envisioned I could do if I ever tackeld it.   Glad Richard saved it and improved it as much as possible.   The big deal with repainting the whole car would be the FI tamps on the fender.  Looks good.  Todd would be happy with it if he were here, I think.   

Mythbusters did it and Snake has done it. You CAN polish a turd.  Good job.  

I was wondering when you'd weigh in. 

You are exactly right about repainting it. Losing the tampoed emblems (4 of them, and they might be the nicest thing about this backbirth) would make it look even more toylike. I'd rather live with the slight color mismatch until I can find something closer. 

Thanks for the kind words. 

[Tom Geiger]

1 hour ago, Snake45 said:

You are exactly right about repainting it. Losing the tampoed emblems (4 of them, and they might be the nicest thing about this backbirth) would make it look even more toylike. I'd rather live with the slight color mismatch until I can find something closer. 

Richard I know you are just playing with this one since it never will overcome its Palmer like issues. Per the door color, you can either two tone the sides or bite the bullet and tear it down to repaint the entire body in one color. 
 

 

Here’s one of my rebuilds. It had no hood and I knew I wasn’t going to match the ancient light blue so I added the bright blue color to pull it all together. You can do something similar with the Corvette.

[Snake45]

24 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

Richard I know you are just playing with this one since it never will overcome its Palmer like issues. Per the door color, you can either two tone the sides or bite the bullet and tear it down to repaint the entire body in one color. 
Here’s one of my rebuilds. It had no hood and I knew I wasn’t going to match the ancient light blue so I added the bright blue color to pull it all together. You can do something similar with the Corvette.

Naw, this baby is DONE unless I run across a red I think is closer. I have already moved on with my life.