This kit is an oldie but goodie - I've been working on it off and on for probably 5 or 6 years, and it was on the shelf for another 5 years before that. It's a very nice kit, with extra parts provided to build a bone-stock Impala or a dropped lowrider. I decided to go with a lowrider. This kit is mostly built from the box with a few minor custom touches. Fortunately this kit is the first one I started documenting my progress on for whatever reason, so I have lots of great photos of the build.
For the finish, I decided to go with a nice bright color so I picked out Model Master Fire Orange Pearl over a basecoat of Go Mango, with a two tone white and orange interior.
Like the actual car, assembly starts with the frame. After painting the frame gloss black, I began painting and adding suspension components. I also assembled and painted the engine and mounted it in the frame. The engine block is painted to match the body.
While working on the suspension and frame, I also started the floorpan and body. I shot the whole thing with the Go Mango (I know, it's a Chrysler color) but it makes a great base for the Fire Orange Pearl. Once the base had cured for about a week, I shot two coats of the pearl.
Normally the engine bay on a car like this would be black, but since I'm going for a bit more of a custom feel so it will match the body.
Once the floorpan was dry, a little detail painting was done to punch things up a little. The body plugs, gas tank and a few other details were added before mounting the frame.
You sharp eyed readers may have noticed at this stage that I had a stupid attack and put the oil pan on backwards when I built the engine. Fortunately I was able to remove the frame and fix my mistake without damaging anything.
While I had purchased some aftermarket wheels, tires, and suspension parts for this kit, I ended up using the kit parts which looked better than I thought they would. So I have a really nice set of coilover shocks, disc brakes and wire wheels to use on another kit.
It was at this point in the build that I started to add the Bare Metal Foil to the body when disaster struck. I had a bit of foil that wrinkled and I tried to lift it off with some Tamiya tape. Unfortunately the tape lifted a little more than the foil. The entire rear quarter's paint lifted off, right down to the primer. I don't have any photos of the damage, but I did cover the fix....
I knew I would never be able to match the quarter to the rest of the model, and I had no desire to strip and repaint the whole thing at this stage. So I decided to make this an 'in progress' car. I started by grinding off the trim and drilling trim holes all the way down the body.
Once that was done, I masked off the rest of the model and shot the door and quarter with regular old gray auto primer. The trunk was painted gray too, but I ended up going back to orange for it. The hood and trunk were painted much later and don't quite match, but it's close enough that I can live with it.
Throughout this build I'm constantly taking the body on and off to check fit and see which areas need touch up, and also to work on the interior.
The trunk is all kit parts, the only thing I added was the herringbone trunk mat decal to punch up the trunk floor. I still need to paint the back (front?) wall of the trunk.
I did add some detail to the engine bay, putting in a wired distributor, hoses and brass brake lines coming off the master cylinder.
I'm working on the interior now, and once it is complete I'll be able to start closing the model up.
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