WIP: '57 Corvette prostreet

Hello all, hope to have more pics soon but this is it so far. The kit came with a conventional leaf rear suspension and the big tires stuck out about half an inch. I cut off about 1/3 of the chassis and scratched the rear frame and wheel tubs and fuel cell. I also made a new 4-link suspension which was a real bear.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/57.jpg
I also made shocks and coils and its too bad they are hidden so much.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/57a.jpg
Another view of the 4-link. Still have to add the fuel and brake lines and do some touch-ups.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/57b.jpg
I had to do alot of work on the body and changed the part lines on the tilt front section and cut out the trunk lid too.
Im not totally sure what colour it will end up as but it will be close to the interior, pretty much the way it's depicted on the box top.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/57d.jpg
cheers

That is looking awesome!! Keep us posted on the progress!! It looks to be coming along nicely!!

looks really good, keep up the good work

great work. those coil overs look awesome

can u get anymore detail pics of the rear end during progress? im thinking about doing this to my corvette too

Wondefull Work!

thanks everyone. i was expecting to have more pics today but small problems kept me from painting the body and interior. ever have one of those days? and to top it off, i broke my last bit for my pinvise so the engine is on hold also. sorry, AstroRide these are the only pics i took so far but i recommend tackling the suspension all the same. it was just something i wanted to try for awhile.

here is the test fitting of the engine, its a small car but that 283 is soooo tiny sitting there. and the headers to me look silly, i spent hours sanding and filling sinkholes and getting rid of the molding lines and now it looks like a big spider sitting where the engine should be. might make new ones out of solder but im not too sure yet. the white part sitting in front of the car is part of the hinge for the tilt front end.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/283.jpg
this is my scratch built dist. the top is from the scrap box and the base is sprue turned in my dremel as is the vacuum advance. it seems the older i get parts i make in 1/24 usually end up closer to 1/20 but i can live with it, lol.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/dist.jpg

hello everyone again. well after countless hours refining kit parts, digging thru the scrap box, scratchbuilding and crawling around the floor looking for parts that vanished from my tweezers, i finally have an engine. i will keep the headers afterall and locate the battery to the firewall somewhere. i wanted it in the trunk but there wasnt enuff room.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/chas.jpg
for the drive belts i carefully cut away the kit off center and poorly molded pulleys and made new ones or modified ones from my parts bin. i then painted them and glued them back onto the belts. the alt pulley was good and i left it alone. the belts were cut and small sections were taken out so the pulleys would line up on the crank and water pump and blower. as you can see this process isnt done yet and i still have to make an alternator and coil and lots of little details. dont have a rad yet and still looking for carbs.
cheers.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/chas2.jpg

THAT BLOWER BELT SHOULD HAVE AN IDLER PULLEY!!! sorry caps lock on

gee, thanks. like i said you can see this process isnt finished yet and the mount for the idler pulley is already on the blower. still looking for a suitable donor, or try to do something with the original one. but its back to renovating the house again for me now.

ahh ok

looking good. I dont know if resin is an option for you. if it is, try www.bestresin.com their casts are VERY clean, and their prices are more than reasonable. they have some very nice carbs

little more progress, test fitting the hood. took a long time to align everything up but to my great surprise it closes perfectly. and not to my great surprise, when i put the engine in place the hood hits the blower belt so a little more surgery there. funny how it cleared before i had painted the hood. :banghead:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/57e.jpg
a little more detail. soon i will be adding lines and the rad, turns out that this kit comes with 2 of them and one isnt that bad at all.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/57f.jpg
thanks for the great link, White97ex! wow talk about tons of goodies there. but i looked at the kit carbs again and i think i can do something with them, i will have a go at it anyway.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/carbs.jpg
cheers all.

I´m really digging the chassis mods and the engine, but would have painted the body in a different colour:D

engine is beautful ;)
Color is sweet ;)

awesome so far

The kit came with a conventional leaf rear suspension and the big tires stuck out about half an inch...

I think the 1:1 car did too... :iceslolan

I built one of these (very poorly) when I was 9 or 10... And I've been thinking about building one every time I pass this kit at wal-Mart... I think you just sealed the deal... :biggrin:

This beast is looking fantastic! I think the pink is rather bright, but it suits the look well. Nice engine detailing, too. It must have been a real bear getting all those pulleys lined up and the belt fitted... Great job!

thanks again everyone, really appreciate it. Merkava, it wasnt that tough really, i had holes drilled in them and used a pin to keep 'em all in line. someone before asked how i did my carbs, ( i think it was Klutz) so this time i took a few pics as i went along. i didnt stick to my first choice as it would have been too much work modifying them but i found these holley carbs from my '39 chevy kit. they were actually pretty good but very thin and had a lot of flash and also had no place for the fuel lines and where the throttle arms would be was instead a little ball of plastic, so i cut away what i didnt want.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/carbsa.jpg
i used tubing to represent the outside of the barrels that are visible on this holley.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/carbsb.jpg
i did a little shaping and raised the height with some plastic.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/carbsc.jpg
i made the baseplate and added bits of spruce here and there. i also added the fuel inlets .
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/carbsd.jpg
almost done here, just have to drill out some holes and just add a few more details.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/carbse.jpg
a little grey paint and im happy with them. i will paint and add the thottle arms tomorrow. (next time im going resin!)
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/interior.jpg
almost done the interior. just a bit of baremetal foil and some dullcoat. i cut out the door panels and sanded them smooth. i made the trim from sprue and scratched the handles, i didnt have a good pic of the real door handle so i just guessed. the armrests were built up with plastic and sanded to shape.
thanks again everyone for making this long job a lot more enjoyable.

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing the carb info :bigthumb:
This is going to be great when you finish! (actually, it already is :) )

well, finally the interior is out of the way. im pretty happy with it. the pedals kinda look gangly and should be tucked up higher,but much better then the pedals molded to the floor boards as it originally was.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/interiorb.jpg
the dash was the best feature of the kit and required only a little bit of filling and sanding. it sits a little crooked so i had to compromise the final position so it would look a bit better with the body on.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/interiora.jpg
im going to have floormats but not sure what i will use right now. a more up to date stereo and speaker grills would be at home here but i really would like to get on to something new. :iceslolan

Looks great :bigthumb:
Now, where can I get one of these kits...? LOL

Looks great :bigthumb:
Now, where can I get one of these kits...? LOL

I take it you're not in the US? :grinno:

They're everywhere here... Or at least at every Wal-Mart... :iceslolan

I take it you're not in the US? :grinno:

You got it! :biggrin:

You got it! :biggrin:

It's a longshot, but you might go here:

http://www.walmart.com/

...and see if they ship overseas? :biggrin:

no luck at walmart.com They receive their models in a mixed lot box. so you can't order a specific model. no way to order them on-line either

That sucks... :screwy:

I know eHobbies has it though, try them and see if they ship to the UK...

http://tinyurl.com/bvav2

still finishing up the body and buffing out a run i put in the trunklid. always some little setback. so while stuff are drying i mounted the carbs and added some linkages.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/vettea.jpg

i had to stagger the heights of the stacks so they would both fit. they came from a GTX kit. wasnt planning to do this but im kinda glad i did. had the alt painted a few times now but still cant settle for just the right look. its an ugly grey now so im gonna try a different colour and hope it looks ok this time.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/vette.jpg
cheers
Les

This is just awsome!

well, im still waiting on the body, hope to foil it tomorrow and add all the details but for today i thought i'd try to get as much done on the engine before i glue it in once and for all.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/mill.jpg

all i have to do now is make an alt bracket, another bracket for the throttle cable and drill some holes in the firewall and im ready to put it back in the frame for good. i know the linkages are a bit out of scale but in my fingers they looked sooooo tiny. :iceslolan

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/milla.jpg

here is the finished fuel regulator, all 10 pieces of it including the bracket. it was made from sprue and small bits of plastic. the lines are painted wire.
cheers .

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/milla.jpg

here is the finished fuel regulator, all 10 pieces of it including the bracket. it was made from sprue and small bits of plastic. the lines are painted wire.
cheers .

Outstanding! :bigthumb:

I just love how you do the detailing and painting your engines.
I can't believe how you do those so tiny mechanisms - you aren't a watchmaker by any chance, are you? :)

Any chance of a close-up on those fuel regulator thingy-bobs?
Are you going to heat stain the exhausts? They are so visible in the engine bay it could be quite an interesting addition IMO. I haven't got a clue how to do it though LOL

looks great. they fuel lines and regulators look superb

thanks guys. hey Klutz, i see you have a new lathe. i would love one of these, maybe santa will bring me one. :naughty:
i tried to get a close up but this is the best i could do. the top of it is sprue that i turned in my dremel and the bolt heads are tiny bits of stretched spruce. the rest is just little bits of plastic cut into basic shapes.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/fr.jpg
this is what i was trying to make,
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/holleyfr.jpg
no, i wont heat stain the headers, if it was a competition car or real world car i would for sure but since i wanted to make more of a custom car i want it to look all new and pampered,( i also have no idea how to do it either, lol). and if this was a real world car i would have painted all the parts more natural and realistic. but usually on these show cars everything is polished or chromed and althou i mixed steel, aluminum, silver, and gunmetal and some flat black and whites, i find basically it all just looks silver. i really would have liked to have all the different finishes and textures of different metals and alloys which really makes an engine look better but i guess its all okay. the body is really being a bear, i ran the clear on the hood also now and trying to sand them smooth i went down to the colour coat and i dont have that paint anymore.(i mixed it on the fly and thought i had enuff) :banghead: oh well, its all part of the experience, wohoooo!

Outstanding job!

It just blows my mind that you can do those itsy-titsy bits so cleanly and accurately :worshippy

I see your point on the heat staining. I was just being selfish - I thought I could copy your technique LOL

Looking forward to the next update

great work! I've got a same kit a few days ago. chassis is in too bad condition. I'm gonna scratch building the chassis even flame. Could You Show Me the Image in a Structural Part of the Hinge?

hey you go, ilovecaprice. i couldnt use the kit hinge as it was way too fragile and it was attached to the rad and i wanted mine connected to the frame. but most important i wanted to be able to remove the hood if i wanted to and it actually worked out pretty good. it was mostly trial and error and i had to notch the hood a bit so it would clear the frame when flipped up. the frame end was very easy but the pivot point could have been a tad higher.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/hinge.jpg

once that part was glued onto the frame i taped the hood onto the body and marked the areas i needed to add the rest of the hinge thru the grill opening with a pencil. its a simple matter to attach the hood. i just position it in place and put a pin on each side and still looks realistic.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/hingeb.jpg

the body is almost repaired and i should have it done tomorrow but its little things like this that are slowing me down. at first i thought i had the wrong windshield here but its the right one. as you can see, the fit and precision here are so perfect they could only be achieved with modern nano-technology. :uhoh:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/windshield.jpg

i sanded off the wipers and cleaned up the frame and glued it the windshield and then trimed off everything that hung out. im almost ready to add BMF here.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/windshielda.jpg
cheers all,
Les

:worshippy:

wow very niceley done

Wow. Nice work repairing that windshield, it looked like it was a real "precision" part. Once again, wonderful work on every other part of the build!

cant wait to see this finished

thanks again, everyone. spent all day with the BMF and trying to get the roof to fit properly. this is only the 2nd model i have used foil on and the results were pretty disappointing. but after trying it over and over i decided this was as good as it would get. the trim on the side of the car is stretched spruce as the original was poorly molded and didnt even follow a nice smooth curve around the door area. the foil went on okay in this area.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/bmff.jpg

its just around the windshield and back window that gave me headaches.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/bmfa.jpg

hey blownalcoholboy, i checked your link out and that is one nice chevy. i have a funnycar mill and wheels and tires and in another box i have a '57 chevy body. now with some special modifications...... ah how the imagination runs wild. could be my next project.
cheers all.

That's really awsome work.

Seriously impressed with the way you managed to recreate trim on the side panels and doors out of sprue!! :worshippy

Funnily enough, I tried to streatch some sprue myself last night and what a disaster! LOL! How do you do that?

BTW with your skill I 'm surprised you had trouble with the BMF. I found it to be very forgiving - after all, even I mangaged to use it ;)

What was your technique? I followed Alex Kustov's tutorial and the one on BMF's site and it all went pretty well....

thanks klutz, really appreciate your replies. they always come in around 330 am my time, about when i post my pics. if you want to stretch sprue, heat it slowly above a candle and dont get to close to the flame. if i want a long thin consistant strand i spread the heat out about half an inch across the sprue. when i feel almost no resistance in the heated part of the sprue, i will pull it apart slowly if i want it thick and more quickly if i want it really thin and fine, the feel of it just comes with experience, i guess. if the sprue starts to sag above the candle there is too much heat applied. just give it a few seconds to cool before tugging on it.
my first attempt ('62 chevy with lots of trim) with BMF turned out pretty good and resulted in being one of my fav parts in building a model. but like most things that could go wrong with this kit (it's pocessed), this too became a hassle. i didnt mention it before but i bought my foil years ago, could the age of it be a factor? i looked for and found Alex Kustov's tutorial and am reading it right now. thanks for the head's up. :biggrin:
cheers.

Looks sweet! Nice detials!

little more for you all, finally decided to tackle the rad.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/rad.jpg

the rad is a kit part cut down to fit between the frame rails and the fan is from an AMT rig kit. i cut it down to size and sanded the blades till it looked right. the shroud is the ever popular coke can. it all went together pretty well and really set off the front of the car nice. but in true quadzero fashion, i put it in too high and again the hood wouldnt close. :banghead: so i took it all out, chipped the paint and bent my brackets. but eventually i got it all sorted out and back in it went.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/rada.jpg

the overflow can is a piece of spruce sanded to shape and the bracket is again from the coke can. i will touch up the paint tomorrow.
cheers all and thanks for having a lookie loo.

I think that the radiator fan is perfect. So little time and money spent, but huge effect when done. Fantastic. This should be added to scalewiki too.

Damn, this thing gets better and better!

Very nice, clean work !!

thanks for the pics. I see. your idea is great.it can be easily to remove...
I love that idea. I bought the same kit. and now working on the chassis, but it's terrible. I couldn't recognized it. so, I trying to built chassis/flame from stylen stick(?) and stylen sheets. it's my first scrach building, so it's might be tough. but, now there's a only way for me. "DO IT!"

your work is fantastic! everything are great!!!

Outstanding and inspiring! :bigthumb:

I'm sooooooo glad I subscribed to this thread :biggrin: - Keep it up!

That radiator fan is a nice detail. Keep it commin'!

THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE, really really appreciate it. i think without your kind words i woulda quit and gone to something else. i was hoping to glue the body on today so i could finish the plumbing on the firewall but the trunklid doesnt want to dry as fast as i want it too. :disappoin
i went to your site, ilovecaprice and you should have no problems with the frame and scratchbuilding judging by the models you have on there. i love that yenko. i had to chuckle seeing this kit on your site, its such a curse to me! lol. that was the colour that i was shooting for. i was gonna build this outta the box and i had it almost finished except for the body work. but it was the wheels sticking out like that that made me want to try the 4 link suspension. and then when i did that, the engine looked plain and then the interior looked like a toy and the front suspension was a joke and one thing led to another and here i am still plugging away. i agree with your motto, "DO IT" and there are a lot of firsts for me on this kit. so i say go for it. i would love to see a wip from someone else with this kit. my real regret now is that i didnt make disc brakes but i couldnt take the wheels apart without breaking 'em.
thanks for the comments everyone about the fan, althou its the simplest thing i made for this i really like it too.
Klutz, when do we get more of the "rock and rollbar"? i really want to see that come together.

Klutz, when do we get more of the "rock and rollbar"? i really want to see that come together.

So do I :jump3: :rofl:

all i can say is wow good work :smokin:

Is this the old AMT 1957 Pro street model? Its green on the box art and comes with a 454, 2 spd powerglide and shortened 9" with ladder bar/wheeliebarsetup? I got this model off someone on AF awhile ago and its really good for AMT, I salvaged it though.. a 283 would haul a 57 vette, dont you worry about the engine size.

thanks again for the comments, just a small update here. i wanted to install the trunklid but the hinges hit the tops of the wheel tubs so i had to do a little surgery on them and do some touch up painting. i seem to be doing this process alot on this project, lol. here is the grill installed, i ground out the back with my dremel to open it up. the lens were unusuable so i scavenged some from my parts box and made bulbs with some stretched clear sprue. the white glue i used to attach these isnt dry yet.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/grill.jpg

im happy with the 283 now, Purpura. it is an important engine for this car and was one of the first ever to make 1hp/cid (stock) and with all the stuff on it now it doesnt seem so small. here is the kit and i've had it for about 8 years now, yes im slow :icon16:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/quadzero/box.jpg
there are some nice features but overall its one of the worst fitting kits i've ever come across and i have done a lot of AMT models that were a lot better.
it has a lot of optional parts for a stock or drag version (4 engine options) and different hood and roof options too but didnt have the narrowed rear and 454.

Comin' along nicley!

I think it's time to ask about your next project...? :biggrin:

looking really good. I know what you mean about the comments. It really helps knowing that someone somewhere around the world is watching and enjoying what you are building!

looking really good. I know what you mean about the comments. It really helps knowing that someone somewhere around the world is watching and enjoying what you are building!

Well Russel,

This is me from "somewhere around the world" waiting for an update on your Corvette :biggrin: LOL - I am enjoying that build too! j/k

Looking forward to more updates from BOTH of you ;)

Wow! This thing is looking GREAT!! How did I miss it? Fantastic!