60 Vette practice build

[JPL-ACE]

Well, after a considerable time, I am back. My next car here is another practice car, a 60 Corvette. My goal is a 58 Vette very much like the one I had in the late 60s early 70s, which I have a Revell kit ready to go. But I will do this 60 kit as practice. I am not satisfied with my build quality yet, as you will see. This 60 is a partial kit already started and many parts lost. What I have is not built parts shown in the (and near) box plus the frame. No parts were painted yet so that is my work you see so far. The frame actually had working spring suspension and steering. I was luckily all the parts were still there in the box.

In the Hood pictures, the stock hood is the only one the kit had. I found the open hole hood in my parts box. I also found a 64 Mustang hood with a Ford hood blister and cut it to fit the Vette. I wont use it on this Vette but it is nearly identical to the hood on my 1:1 58 (TBC).

The 4th picture below is the seats, Engine Bay and built motor from my stock of motors I built before I started a car for this model club. I tried to draw in some wiring on the Bay which came out pretty good. The engine is very similar to my 1:1 58 with cross ram and home made headers (that dont look much like the on this engine).

The last pic is another part from my stock. I had to add a 2 mm tip to the front springs (the white tips). I dug out some wide ovals and mags similar to my old 58 too.

More to come and hopefully not as tardy as this entry.

[NOBLNG]

Welcome back. In my mind, every build is a practice build.?

[JPL-ACE]

13 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

Welcome back. In my mind, every build is a practice build.?

Thanks Greg, I will have a few more pics in a few days.

[JPL-ACE]

OK, here are 3 more views of the 60s interior. I am not satisfied with the painting quality up close but it looks pretty good from a distance. The steering wheel will be different than shown in the final assembly. The Dash especially looks good from a distance but up close, in the last picture, it looks like a kids Crayon work. I may try to use tape off (masking) in a future painting to see if I can control the sloppy look. Not sure if I can tape such a complex part but maybe I can reduce the mis-paint to a more tolerable level. I already use pens to pre-do some seams but I need more than a black pen, which gets kind of expensive to cover all the possible colors. May not be worth it for the slight improvement in paint quality.

Update: I painted the face of the Tach on the dash and will try to update a picture including the steering wheel and Tach later. Could be a little while as I am also busy scanning and uploading some drawings form my distant past. See them at "VERY OLD ART" in Auto Art forum. From the 60s and 70s but kind of modern if I do say so myself  ?

[JPL-ACE]

After a short spell of procrastination, problems, and other fun, here is a slight update to the 60 Vette. Here is a more detailed engine bay. Pay particular attention to the battery cables. I don't usually wire my models because I have not perfected that technique yet. But this came out pretty good.

In the next 2 pictures, I show a mock-up of the chassis and the painted body. I am planning to try to chrome the body next. Molotow pens and the metal foil (which I never used before). Wish me luck.

[johnyrotten]

Nice job on the battery,  looks good. I've had great success using a brush with the molotow,  haven't tried foil as of yet. My current build is practice as well. 

[JPL-ACE]

40 minutes ago, johnyrotten said:

Nice job on the battery,  looks good. I've had great success using a brush with the molotow,  haven't tried foil as of yet. My current build is practice as well. 

Thanks, John. I have built 4 practice models so far and I am not satisfied yet. I have collected a dozen models of favorite cars I have owned and I want to do them justice.

[BK9300]

Nice work so far!  Those dozen models will keep you busy for quite awhile.

[slusher]

Very nice work, coming along!

[espo]

Like seeing how your restoration of this '60 is going. When it is time to do the tribute to your '58 Corvette from the past you might try to find the discontinued Revell '58 Corvette kit. The kit has a lot of good detailing built in along with an opening trunk and a well-done side coves. 

[LennyB]

I like the color combo on the interior. Can't wait to see the interior installed so we can see the body color against it.

I still haven't decided on an interior color on the Vette I'm building so I'm curious to see how this looks.

[JPL-ACE]

21 hours ago, BK9300 said:

Nice work so far!  Those dozen models will keep you busy for quite awhile.

Thanks, Brian. I am itchen to build and afraid I will mess it up. So I have another half dozen to practice on. Busy alright.

[JPL-ACE]

9 hours ago, slusher said:

Very nice work, coming along!

Thanks Carl.

[JPL-ACE]

6 hours ago, espo said:

Like seeing how your restoration of this '60 is going. When it is time to do the tribute to your '58 Corvette from the past you might try to find the discontinued Revell '58 Corvette kit. The kit has a lot of good detailing built in along with an opening trunk and a well-done side coves. 

I bought a Revell 58 Corvette Roadster kit some time ago. It does not say or look like it has an open trunk, but it has 137 parts and looks detailed in the pics. I opened the box and the instructions show an opening trunk, so I do have it already. Thanks for the suggestion.

[JPL-ACE]

6 hours ago, LennyB said:

I like the color combo on the interior. Can't wait to see the interior installed so we can see the body color against it.

I still haven't decided on an interior color on the Vette I'm building so I'm curious to see how this looks.

I often use tans and creamy colors for the interior as they contrast well. I did the same thing on my Avanti I just finished, with goldish body paint. Thanks for the comment Len.

[JPL-ACE]

Final assembly done. Put in rear end, drive shaft, front wheels with springs and steering, header flanges, exhaust pipes, tail and headlights, floor pan, rear view mirror, BMF and chrome painting, interior tub, engine bay, windshield and finished the roof. Note that the roof is inaccurate for this car. I owned a 58 which is the same body and the roof allows roll-up windows and this one has a giant gap that just could not work. In the real 1:1 world, it would be 6" back and 2" sideways. I could lock my 58 and drive in the rain. No way I could fix the model.

The BMF was hard as this is my first use of it. Not perfect but I am happy with my first attempt. I used Molotow pens for some parts and started using masking to make cleaner lines. I am happy with that too, mostly. The interior tub and front windshield were a pain. Mostly did not line up and had to fit 3 major assemblies at the same time. I never had the model box which was missing instructions and parts so I don't know what manufacturer to bad mouth on the kit design. I have a 58 kit from Ravell that looks good and is recommended in several places. That will be for my 1:1 version. I wish I had taken some pictures of my 58. I don't remember the custom hood I had with (I think) a Ford bubble for clearance of my dual quads on cross ram.

Anyway, here are a few pictures. Maybe I will post some in the "finished" section of the forum.

[johnyrotten]

Nice work Gary. I've always liked the first generation corvette. Great color combo, too

[JPL-ACE]

On 10/25/2024 at 12:34 PM, LennyB said:

I like the color combo on the interior. Can't wait to see the interior installed so we can see the body color against it.

Sorry I took so long to finish but now you can see it.

[espo]

Great looking "practice run".  

[JPL-ACE]

Thanks for the compliment, Johnny. I had my 1:1 58 for 5 years or so back in the '70s while going to college. Wish I never sold it.

And thanks also to Espo's complement too.

Edited February 12 by JPL-ACE

[Kenmojr]

Interesting build. I presently own a 1960 C1 which I purchased in 1983.

[JPL-ACE]

1 hour ago, Kenmojr said:

Interesting build. I presently own a 1960 C1 which I purchased in 1983.

Thanks for the comment, Ken. Is the picture by your name the 60 Vette? Looks pretty good. 1983 is not far from when I sold mine. About 1975.

[milo1303s]

Looks great got a picture or 2 front and back with the roof on it I like them with the hard top !!!

[JPL-ACE]

Thanks Bob. I kept my top on most of the time too. Not a Wind-in-the-hair kinda guy. Good old days...