'64 Impala SS Convertible Old WIP

About 4 years ago I got the bright idea of building all the cars I used to own or had an impact on me growing up in real life that there are kits for. There are a surprising number of them actually.

Although this was the first I started in the series it is actually about the fourth I finished. I had never done a shiny (well semi shiny) car before so this kept getting put aside over a two or three year period while I learned the techniques. Let's just say that at that time I only did military subjects and cars were way out of my comfort zone.  Unfortunately I have lost some of the in progress pictures so there will be gaps in the story.


This is the very nice Revell latest release of the hard top. Beautiful kit with very nice details until you come to the tail lights. They are different sizes and just too large so will be replaced at a later date but more on that to come. 




Step one was to make it a convertible so I cut that beautiful roof off and shaped the windshield frame and rear compartment for the top . The inner fenders were then painted black and masked off. 




Next up came that little jewel of a 327. Unfortunately the build up pictures of that were some of the MIA but here it is in place.

With coat of tinted Future (RIP) to bring out detail, add some grime and artificial shadows.





And after a coat of Testers Dullcoat to have a more realistic shine (or lack there of) and tone down the shading. This was a 12 year old daily driven car so the engine was not pristine. Added some basic wiring and hoses.




No the plug wires do not look like rope in person! I used a stiff twine to try and replicate the barded case wires that were on the real car. 



Next up was doing the underside. Build pics gone but before paint it looked like a bunch of white plastic glued together which I am sure most here have seen before anyway. Completely out of box with no modifications done.


As I said when I got my car it was 12 years old. That may mean nothing with todays cars or people down south but up here anything made much before the mid 90s had about a 4 year life expectancy for the body and floor. I bought the car after an almost complete floor replacement was done and it was well undercoated but still had some rust tones peeking through in places and things that had not been replaced such as the fuel tank and exhaust were quite rusty. I finished the underside to reflect that.