Post by oldcoyote on Apr 13, 2009 8:41:36 GMT -5
67Impala427 suggested I do a brief write up on the build of the R&R 1938 Chevrolet/AMT 1937 Chevrolet ........ so here goes
The 1938 Chevrolet has been a "Holy Grail" for me for years as it was my mom and dad's first car .......... plus they are so ugly that they're cute. When I saw that R&R made a '38 four door body I just had to get one.
I contacted R&R over a year ago to get a '66 Biscayne (more about that later) and a '38 Chevy 4-door. I was told they were out of both bodies ......... about two months ago I saw the '38 on an Ebay auction and was able to win the "kit" (I was the only bidder)
The contents of the "kit" are the body, the hood, an interior tub, a front seat, and a dashboard. I expect to do some clean-up on every resin body that I buy, but I was somewhat shocked with the situation I was faced with. The body was so thick (inside) that the interior tub would not begin to fit between the sides. Plus, the body also had some rather "thin" areas that required caution. The dashboard was a mess of pocked resin and the front seat was almost a block of pure resin. However, the outside of the body was really quite nice and projected the '38's "Ugly Duckling" image extremely well. So I decided to soldier on with the build.
It took over two and a half hours of grinding with a Dremel to get the body into a position to accept the interior tub. The rest of the body cleanup, opening windows, smoothing wheel-wells, etc. went smoothly.
The hood fit was another problem area. The cowl area of the body was way too thick, and the hood stuck up on the top and did not come close to dropping all the way down to the fender line. It took quite a bit of careful sanding and grinding to get the hood to fit the cowl. However, the hood still did not drop to its correct position on the right side. The left drop was okay however. So I had to cut a hood side extension out of sheet styrene and putty it on to the right side hood "curtain". It didn't wind up 100% correct, but the fit and finish of the real things weren't 100% either.
The donor kit to go with this body is the AMT 1937 Chevy coupe. The frame rails fit the body very nicely lengthwise, but had to be "shortened" under the interior tub to allow the body to drop down to the correct height. Other than that slight modification the chassis was built box stock. The Blue Flame "Hot Water"six cylinder engine nestled into position with the body with no problems at all. All of the trim items, headlights, taillight (singular on this sedan), bumpers, etc came straight from the '37 kit. I used the dashboard out of the '37 kit and it fit beautifully with the body and interior tub. The roughness of the inside of the body required the use of clear sheet styrene for windows, as the kit windows were too wide and the angles were way off.
These old sedans were not flashy by any stretch of the imagination, so I custom mixed an external paint color from MCW #2005 blue and four syringes of MCW #2000 black .......... that brought a ruddy dark blue color that I felt would be a very acceptable color for an old "Stovebolt sedan.
As a side note, I found the '66 Biscayne body at MCW, and boy is it a beauty ....... everything you need to convert a Revell '65 Impala hardtop into a fire breathing '66 427 Biscayne two door sedan ........... if you're looking for this body, look no further.
While the '38 didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, I think it makes a fairly nice shelf model and it serves the desire to build an old "Butt Ugly" Chevy sedan.
The 1938 Chevrolet has been a "Holy Grail" for me for years as it was my mom and dad's first car .......... plus they are so ugly that they're cute. When I saw that R&R made a '38 four door body I just had to get one.
I contacted R&R over a year ago to get a '66 Biscayne (more about that later) and a '38 Chevy 4-door. I was told they were out of both bodies ......... about two months ago I saw the '38 on an Ebay auction and was able to win the "kit" (I was the only bidder)
The contents of the "kit" are the body, the hood, an interior tub, a front seat, and a dashboard. I expect to do some clean-up on every resin body that I buy, but I was somewhat shocked with the situation I was faced with. The body was so thick (inside) that the interior tub would not begin to fit between the sides. Plus, the body also had some rather "thin" areas that required caution. The dashboard was a mess of pocked resin and the front seat was almost a block of pure resin. However, the outside of the body was really quite nice and projected the '38's "Ugly Duckling" image extremely well. So I decided to soldier on with the build.
It took over two and a half hours of grinding with a Dremel to get the body into a position to accept the interior tub. The rest of the body cleanup, opening windows, smoothing wheel-wells, etc. went smoothly.
The hood fit was another problem area. The cowl area of the body was way too thick, and the hood stuck up on the top and did not come close to dropping all the way down to the fender line. It took quite a bit of careful sanding and grinding to get the hood to fit the cowl. However, the hood still did not drop to its correct position on the right side. The left drop was okay however. So I had to cut a hood side extension out of sheet styrene and putty it on to the right side hood "curtain". It didn't wind up 100% correct, but the fit and finish of the real things weren't 100% either.
The donor kit to go with this body is the AMT 1937 Chevy coupe. The frame rails fit the body very nicely lengthwise, but had to be "shortened" under the interior tub to allow the body to drop down to the correct height. Other than that slight modification the chassis was built box stock. The Blue Flame "Hot Water"six cylinder engine nestled into position with the body with no problems at all. All of the trim items, headlights, taillight (singular on this sedan), bumpers, etc came straight from the '37 kit. I used the dashboard out of the '37 kit and it fit beautifully with the body and interior tub. The roughness of the inside of the body required the use of clear sheet styrene for windows, as the kit windows were too wide and the angles were way off.
These old sedans were not flashy by any stretch of the imagination, so I custom mixed an external paint color from MCW #2005 blue and four syringes of MCW #2000 black .......... that brought a ruddy dark blue color that I felt would be a very acceptable color for an old "Stovebolt sedan.
As a side note, I found the '66 Biscayne body at MCW, and boy is it a beauty ....... everything you need to convert a Revell '65 Impala hardtop into a fire breathing '66 427 Biscayne two door sedan ........... if you're looking for this body, look no further.
While the '38 didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, I think it makes a fairly nice shelf model and it serves the desire to build an old "Butt Ugly" Chevy sedan.
