1964 Econoline

Modeling Subjects Autos
21

The wheels and caps are the same but now they are not lost in the huge tires. Still not decided if going with the while lettering out or just the blackwalls. The real thing had very faded white letter on the little that remained of the poor old tires so that may be a third option.

The stance was perfect untilI lined up the floor with the door opening and lost just a hair of drop in the front. Going to have to cut and reposition the leaf springs to get what I need but that is no big deal.

22

Paneling, and decorations ready. Some will be paper and some decals. This will be my first venture into printing my own decals.

The posters are all accurate to what I had except the Cooper one. I had a promo poster for his Vancouver 1975 concert but there do not seem to be any pictures of it and I had to go with close enough. The small ones will be 8-track tape labels. The only concession I made to accuracy is the inclusion of the two model magazine covers as neither existed back then and I wasn’t building models at that point in my life. Besides, I don’t think I could post the real magazines I had back then here anyway!

Yes it truly was a child of the seventies. Just look at that paneling!

23

Front end dropped a tad more so stance is finally right. By today’s standards it looks extreme but was pretty normal back then.

24

PERFECT! Oh, bring back the 70’s and put Boston on the stereo!

tjs

25

I like this project a lot - and not only because I’m a “van man” myself - my first car was the “square” VW bus, and my second car is a fourth generation VW bus - I have owned it for 20 years now, let’s see if I can make it more…

This project is so cool because you are modelling something you know very well - and many modellers miss the fact that knowing your subject well is the foundation for a good model - much more than fancy paints, airbrush skill or tons of aftermarket.

Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

26

I will add a Boston 8-track for you. Although “Don’t look back” is not a good theme song for this build!

27

About 25% of my projects are things I know very well from experience with the subject or something at least very similar. The other 75% will get about 2 hours of research time for every hour spent on the actual build. I actually enjoy the research as much as the building. Every once in a while I will just build something with no reaserch at all but that is just to take a rest before my next round of intensive internet searching.

28

Wow! Love the build! Love the swivel seats too.

29

Lookin’ very cool.

30

Thanks everybody!

I have doors. The hinges are a tad ovescale but they are more to hang the doors on in the open position so it isn’t too obvious. The closing part of the deal is just a bonus. Once all black you will hardly see then anyway.

The doors were made by skinning over the cut out resin parts with very thin styrene and the hinges are the Lindbergh kit parts for the front doors of the Dodge.

They fit better than the pictures make them look and will need some tweaking after paint anyway. The doors are not wrinkled like they look here that is a trick of the smudged marker ink and the resin showing through the styrene.

This is how it will be displayed. The inside of these doors was really easy to model since the structure was covered with paneling and the latch mech is all hidden. The outer lips are all scale thickness.

31

Well…

Ummmm…

About those doors…

While sanding in prep for primer I managed to snap not one, but two of those little receiver rings off. I barely touched them and BING gone. The Lindberg plastic is apparently far more brittle than I realized.

So

Everything has come off (pictures eventually) and I am starting all over with folded over thin styrene sheet as the receiver and fine wire as the post. On the plus side this method results in a much more scale and accurate depiction of the hinges. The bad part remains to be confirmed but I suspect they will not stand up to repeated opening and closing very well so it may end up with permanently open doors. That wouldn’t be horrible since it can still be seen closed on the drivers side and the interior is really the star of the show for the passenger side anyway.

I also need to get some coats of buildable primer on it to make sure I can get the slight curves of the transitions in the body creases correct. By using such thin material I sort of restricted myself to how much shaping I can do. If the primer fails I will try a very thin skim of filler putty for shaping. If that fails then I will build the doors all over again but with styrene of the next thickness up. If that doesn’t cut it that will be the final nail in the coffin for closing doors since when open you cant see the outer skin anyway.

I will eventually win one way or the other.

32

Well after a brief intermission it is back to work on this.

Nice pair of late 60s/early 70s, cheap, made in Japan (when made in Japan still meant cheap) resonated side pipes and the whole three scale feet of exhaust pipe that hooks directly to the headers. No mufflers were harmed in the manufacturing of the exhaust system on the real thing nor model.

33

Reworked door hinges. Work great and hinges are very close to scale size. The will need some tweaking for size and shape once I get all the layers of paint on but that will be relatively easy.

34

Doors and their hinges look great! Open the doors, turn up the stereo, and let the party begin!

tjs

35

8 track player with 5 band equalizer and appropriate era home cabinet speakers ready to blow doors back off!

36

In primer

37

Lookin’ good-er an’ good-er. [clwn]

38

And good-er

39

You got that right [Y]

40

OK, so I spent hours and hour spraying two coats of super gloss black lacquer, then clear coating and polishing to Concours level shine, took the body back up to the bench took one long look at it and went back to the spray booth.

It was a beautiful shiny black van but it was not MY black van. My van had a 6 year old enamel paint job, never saw wax at any point while I owned it and was washed with a brush at a U-Wash booth when it go washed at all. It needed to have a fully intact but bit scruffy and mottled shiny finish.

I sprayed a coat of Tamiya semi gloss black over it but that was not shiny enough and far, far to smooth and even. Next step was to spray a light coat of Future over the whole thing. This brought the gloss way back up again so I used some Windex to remove much of it leaving it more uneven with some areas less glossy than others. Then I took an 800 grit sanding stick and added (GASP)swirl marks and light scrapes.

It is now perfect and looks like the real thing not a garage queen show van!