'57 Chevy Custom

It has been quite a while since my last update, but believe it or not things have been happening in the workshop. The most recent project off the bench is this, a mild-custom 1957 Chevy Bel Air Coupe.



After project Charger a couple of years ago - see this post - I promised my friend Chris that I would build a car for his birthday, rather than just give him a gift that he might not really want. He took me up on the offer and requested a black 1957 Chevy with a subtle custom touch. As luck has it, I already had the good old AMT '57 Chevy Coupe kit in my stash of unbuilt models, so I got straight to work.



Chris wanted it black, mean and subtly customized without being too radical. That approach is right up my street so I got busy and sprayed the body shell with a few light coats of Halfords white plastic primer, which was gently sanded before a good few coats of BMW Jet Black paint . This is not a metallic colour, so no lacquer was required and I was able to polish up the colour coat with a cloth and some G3 cutting compound to give it a showroom finish.




Work then commenced on the interior, which was finished in a factory original black and white scheme simply by coating the interior with white primer, then brush painting the black carpet and seat inserts. The seat buttons and instrument bezels were finished with a silver gel pen to give the appearance of chrome details.



After deciding that the engine bay in this kit (which dates from the 1960s) was not sufficiently detailed, plus that the lowering job on the front end would make it hard to make a believable engine bay, owing to the model's simple axle arrangement, I decided to seal the engine bay shut and not add a detailed engine. This also allowed me to present Chris with a model which has a nicely fixed bonnet, or hood, which will not keep falling off!

The kit makers, AMT, provided fairly good chrome-plated front grille and rear bumper assemblies which to my eyes look pretty nice, despite having some mold lines at either end. The grille was given a black wash and the Chevrolet badge was brush painted in the correct colours. The tyres, whichwere provided in black vinyl, were given nice white walls using a white paint marker, cheaply available from craft shops.

I first built AMT's '57 Chevy kit back when I was at school, and I must say I enjoyed it just as much this time, 20+ years later. It includes some nice 1960s speed and custom parts and is great fun, plus it looks like a '57 Chevy when it's built. Add one to your stash if you see one for sale.