Hi Guys and Gals,

I'm working on a car that most of you under 40 may not have seen to much of when they were running on the American streets in the '50's and '60's. A '55 Ford Victoria Hardtop...........This is being converted from the old AMT '56 Ford Victoria mold which I believe dates back to 1964. I'm going to build this bone stock as it may have appeared in someone's driveway brand new in 1955.

The biggest change on this particular model is the roof. '55 Ford Victorias had completely different rooflines than the '56 2 door Victoria hardtops. Thus I had to use the roof off the Lindberg '53 Ford since they shared the same basic stamping in 1:1.

Here are some pics to show you where I'm headed to far.......:wink:

http://images12.fotki.com/v213/photos/2/250280/2585218/P8180001-vi.jpg?700525
http://images12.fotki.com/v214/photos/2/250280/2585218/P8210005-vi.jpg?700525
http://images12.fotki.com/v217/photos/2/250280/2585218/P8210007-vi.jpg?700525
http://images12.fotki.com/v216/photos/2/250280/2585218/P8240011-vi.jpg?700525

Here's the link to my Fotki album if you want a more detailed look..

Mr Obsessive's '55 Ford Vicky (http://public.fotki.com/MrObsessive/1955_ford_fairlane/)

Since there are so many pics (about 65) you might want to use the slideshow feature. Although, most pics have descriptions under them if you look at them individually.

Thanks for lookin'! :)

BILL

That's gonna be pretty cool!!:) I'm gonna move this thread to the In-Progress forum. :)

I have been a regular visitor for some time. When I saw your project I decided to register just to tell you: I HATE YOU.

I think I will give up building.....

Nice progress! It realy looks like the real deal! So Keep it up!

Welcome to A/F!!! Your work from your other builds are truly amazing!! I know this will be of the same quality! Will you be having the working windows? We all look forward to seeing this progress into a masterpiece!!

Cool conversion work so far.

Welcome to AF Bill! It's good to see you posting here on AF.

For those that don't know Bill Geary yet, he's does some amazing things with model cars. I've met him at the Birmingham model car show and seen some of his work. His working windows absolutely floored me. See them here.
http://public.fotki.com/MrObsessive/1964_gto_project/right_front_window.html

I hope you enjoy your stay here! :)

Welcome Bill! Looking forward to a lesson or two!!!

Murray

Glad to see you back here Bill! So beyond the trademark super-detailing, what will the color scheme be on this one?

How's the GTO convertible coming along?

Welcome to A/F!!! Your work from your other builds are truly amazing!! I know this will be of the same quality! Will you be having the working windows? We all look forward to seeing this progress into a masterpiece!!

Hi Ol' Dude!

Thanks for the compliment! Yes, I'm gonna try the working windows on this one also. It'll be more of a challenge due to the fact that this is a hardtop car, and I'll have to devise some kind of tool to reach around the seats to roll the rear windows down. :)

Stay tuned........this will be a long project.....(but not as long as that GTO!

BILL

Glad to see you back here Bill! So beyond the trademark super-detailing, what will the color scheme be on this one?

How's the GTO convertible coming along?

Hi Bob!

I decided on Colonial White and Regency Purple metallic. That was a 1954-55 color and not often seen on the 1:1's at all! You usually see the white/aqua, or red/white combo. I wanna be a little different I guess! The GTO had suffered a driver's side window failure............the mechanism still works, but the epoxy broke away from the regulator. I fixed it somewhat, but now the window rolls up and down really stiff. Also, the hood hinges have broken so the hood just lifts off now. I'm still not happy with the uptop I made out of the cut off hardtop, so that be will in for some revision also. I kinda got burned out on the whole project so I started the Ford.

That's one of the changes I'm going to do for the '55 Ford.......The hood will have the scissor hinges, but I'm going to set it up so that the hood will also lift off so as to not put any stress on the hinges when up or when putting it down. I'll also make the hinges slightly thicker but not too thick so that they're out of scale.

See ya!


:)

BILL

Wowww. Nice project. Is gonna be cool! Good Luck!

Bill super-freaking Geary is on AF!

Well raise the dead and shoot the neighbors, this is a day for celebration. Bill, your stuff is always gennie. Hopefully you'll post some of that sweet 1958 Impala with the working suspension you built.

OK folks, been fairly busy this week trying to do some more work on the '55 Ford.........I've mostly been concentrating on the doors and door jambs. I've got the driver's door hinged and all set.......now to work on the passenger side.

Anyway, here's what's been happening..........

This photo shows the door jamb/inner door panels as they came out of the kit. These simply won't do due to them being molded together. In an actual car the sheet metal is obviously separate from the interior door panel.

So I'm going to take the back of an exacto blade and cut the door panel away from the "door jamb".

http://images15.fotki.com/v230/photos/2/250280/2585218/Pa300001-vi.jpg?700525

Okay! This was tougher than I thought because this plastic is soooooo thick!! Anyway, the inside door panel is cut away, and now I can glue this piece on the outer door skin outself.

http://images15.fotki.com/v246/photos/2/250280/2585218/Doorjambinnerleft-vi.jpg?700525

The black mark you see around the door jamb is a magic marker that I used to denote where I'll take the dremel tool and grind away the excess plastic so it will be the same width as the body door jamb.

What did I do with the interior door panel I cut away?? I saved it for future refence as far as size is concern. The patterns are different between '55 and '56 so I'll have to scratchbuild correct interior door panels for a '55. The cut away pieces can be used to determine how large of sheet plastic I have to use and what shape.

http://images15.fotki.com/v233/photos/2/250280/2585218/Leftdoorjambinner-vi.jpg?700525

I got the Dremel Moto-Tool out and grinded away the excess plastic. The door now looks much more in scale thickness wise, in keeping with the thickness of the body door jamb.

http://images12.fotki.com/v239/photos/2/250280/2585218/Pb030003-vi.jpg?700525

I've added plastic here to not make the inset of the door jamb so deep. I'll put some putty where the seams don't quite meet.

http://images12.fotki.com/v243/photos/2/250280/2585218/Pb050006-vi.jpg?700525

One bugaboo of the old AMT kits with opening doors is how they shaped the door jamb. Now mind you, in 1963-64 when this kit was tooled, no one paid much attention to such fiddly details such as every little swoop and curve in a door jamb.

But in my case, since I'm striving for scale realism, I've added some curved plastic to the lower corner of the door jamb. Real cars don't have the door jambs terminate in a sharp corner like that due to crashability.

It's more difficult to dent something that has a radius to it than something that is already bent. Like I mentioned before, I'll sand and shape this with some putty.

http://images12.fotki.com/v243/photos/2/250280/2585218/Pb050009-vi.jpg?700525

Okay! Here comes the fun part :grinno:.......................hinging the doors! I've made a support from some plastic stock, and tentatively positioned it inside the inner fender.

http://images12.fotki.com/v197/photos/2/250280/2585218/Pb050011-vi.jpg?700525

Here's the support when looking at the car from the front. One thing that is VERY important when positioning your support is to make sure the support is perfectly straight when looking at the car from the front and side.

If the hinges are tilted and not straight, this will lead to the door when opened to "hitting the curb" or "swinging up in the air" like a butterfly. (Ala 1958 Rambler American!)

You want your doors to swing out and look perfectly perpendicular to the car when opened, whether your looking at the car from the side, front or rear.

If the body is slightly warped, (such as this one) you'll have to compensate for when the body will be straightened somewhat when put on the chassis.

http://images12.fotki.com/v240/photos/2/250280/2585218/Pb050014-vi.jpg?700525

Here's what I use for hinge retainers.............simple small blocks of plastic drilled with the appropriate hole size. You don't want holes too big or otherwise the hinge will be floppy, and of course, you don't want the holes too small! :) A guage is good to have here for the different drill bits you'll be using.

http://images15.fotki.com/v235/photos/2/250280/2585218/Pb050012-vi.jpg?700525

Here are the hinges I made out of .030 brass. Note that the hinges are not symmetrical due to the fact that depending on how the body is shaped, you may have to make one hinge slightly different from the other. These are what's known as "gooseneck" hinges.

Most cars built in the '50's up through 1964 had these type of hinges. Starting about '65, due to the bodyshapes being much flatter and more planar than before, the hinges went to a simple pivot where the door turned into the inside of the fender (most cars). The hinge with the larger radius, is the upper door hinge due to the body having a slight more curve in that area. Once the doors are mounted and epoxied to the hinges, the difference won't be noticeable.

http://images15.fotki.com/v234/photos/2/250280/2585218/Pb060019-vi.jpg?700525

Alright! Now the hinge retainers are glued on..........

http://images15.fotki.com/v230/photos/2/250280/2585218/Pb050015-vi.jpg?700525

The door is now sitting on the hinges................I'll leave the epoxying of the doors for much later down the road.

http://images15.fotki.com/v233/photos/2/250280/2585218/Pb050017-vi.jpg?700525

Here's an approximate look on how the the doors would look when epoxied on and opened. I need to add another bit of bodywork on the door itself where the dogleg of the windshield post meets the inside of the door. On the 1:1, the hinge is not exposed like that...........so I'll have to add some plastic or something to cover that and blend it into the doors.

http://images12.fotki.com/v237/photos/2/250280/2585218/Pb050018-vi.jpg?700525

Whew!................:D Well that's it for now guys! I hope you learned a little something through all this mess! :) Hopefully each weekend, (depending on work schedule) I can give you an update on the 'Ol Vicky. I'll start work on the other door, then move to the trunk with hinging it.

Thanks for lookin'!

BILL

Great work!!!:sunglasse

Amazing work, and a helpful How-To! Thanks and good luck with this ambitious project.

I feel enlightened!

Thanks so much for taking the time to document this. Very helpful!!!

Murray

I cannot wait till the end to know what are you going to do with the bumpers and grill. They looked different in 55 than the 56, right?

W.