I’ve always liked this year of Impala, especially the rear end and the horizontal fins. I’ve had a few of the kits since they came out, time to build one.
First I tossed the wheels and tires in favor of something meatier and added brakes. The wheels are from a Ferrari 360 with some minor changes to make them fit in the wheel wells and the tires are from the parts box. The brakes are from a Nissan Skyline. I kept the same ride height, at least for the time being…
It will be a two-tone with the main color something between Lemon and Butternut Yellow. There is a lot of prep needed to clean up this body for painting, plus it had a broken roof pillar that had to be repaired.
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Is this the Gunze Sangyo kit in 1/32?
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It’s the Monogram 1/25th scale kit.
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I decided to lower the front by about 0.060 of an inch by removing the spring bosses in the lower control arms. Then I raised the rear by about the same amount by making new coil springs. Not a lot of difference, but enough to see and the rocker is no longer parallel to the ground.
The tailpipes interfered with the larger rear wheels so I cut them off and made them exit in front of the wheel wells. I also filled the mounting indentations in the frame for the tailpipe hangars. The exhaust system was intentionally distressed.
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Stance is everything in a hot rod! Nicely done.
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Very nice mod work.
Truth!
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The secondary color for the two-tone is Tamiya LP-19 Gun Metal.
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That’s going to look very sharp with those colours. Can’t wait to see where it’s going.
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Nice! I’ve tried multi colors and never have great luck, 99% of it looks great but the mask didn’t work on one area and it bleeds. Never fails for me. I did mask and clear coat one time but it left a noticeable ridge in the paint. What’s your trick?
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Keep in mind this is only one of the two colors, so any seepage can be addressed easily.
I masked off everything that will be yellow and painted the gray, and clear coated it before unmasking the body.
I use thin 3M or Tamiya masking tape for the paint lines and burnish it down with a wooden toothpick.
Fortunately all I had to do was sand the paint line (ridge) on what will be the chrome trim on the fins to smooth out the paint build up.
Before I paint the yellow I’ll mask the gray the same way.
I’m painting it in this order because the gray is lacquer and it dries/cures much faster/harder than the enamel yellow I’m using.
But since both colors are going on plastic (not paint) the lacquer in this case could have been applied after the enamel.
So the “trick” is thin tape, burnish it down one more time right before painting, and only put as much paint on as needed. Also remove the tape within minutes of spraying; you’ll get a smoother paint line and there’s less time for the paint to seep under the masking.
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Thanks for letting me know your procedure, I may give it some more practice soon. Looking forward to seeing your kit progress.
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As i read Ferrari wheels i thought No, but the pic is a big YES. Very Cool
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The primary color is a mix of Testors 1112 Light Yellow and 1116 Cream enamel. Both bottles of paint are from the last century, (80’s era).
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That’s a nice colour. It does seem to make the gun metal look darker, but maybe it’s just the picture. Should look fantastic with the trim finished.
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Welcome to the forums!
The interior is pretty basic. I used the same Gunmetal for the top of the dash and under the rear window as I did on the body. I swapped the factory steering wheel for one from a 1/24th 240Z; the larger scale works pretty well here.
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The foil has been applied to the molded in trim. That took some time…
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The foil is a very nice detail, great job!
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Your Chevy is looking awesome and I really like the stance that you went with on it. Joe Martin from the TV show “Iron Resurrection” redid his personal 60 Impala on the show once.
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Finally got most of the chrome parts attached to the exterior. I made a decal for the badge on the hood.
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