Odd request, not for the faint of heart!

[ericpetersonSA]

The roof will pop right out. Not worried about it all. Might heat it up in boiling water for good measure -- you'd be surprised what an extra hundred degrees will do -- but that might not even be necessary.

- E

[CaitlinsChoice]

~Ed

Don't forget to check out www.theredlineworld.com for more redline fun!

[ericpetersonSA]

There's no hurry. I know you come across small collections and lots from time to time. Keep your eyes open for early beater Cams. Just about any tabber will have a no-letter hood, so junkyard beaters that have no cowls or crushed tops are perfect candidates. Otherwise, other stuff will come up -- I'm sure!

- E

[CaitlinsChoice]

~Ed

Don't forget to check out www.theredlineworld.com for more redline fun!

[ericpetersonSA]

Thought it might be fun to post a blow by blow!



Disassembly!



First cut at the body getting straightened out, and the police details cut down.



First test with the proposed wheels and tires.



After 30 minutes in the Aircraft Paint Stripper. Second pass at roof straightening. Note the other projects in the background, the most interesting of which is either the Type 1 VW Combi in 1/43 or the stack of five red interiors....

- E

[CaitlinsChoice]

~Ed

Don't forget to check out www.theredlineworld.com for more redline fun!

[ericpetersonSA]

Looking at tons of pics of traditional American hearses, I found that truly upscale coachbuilt units, like the big '60s Caddies, were lengthened and dramatically modified from the beltline up. Less costly units based on big less costly wagons had a 'glas topper blended in and a big back door.

That's what we're after...



My favorite source of thick styrene -- cheap $1.29 pen holders from Office Depot. The castings are injection molded from a slurry of liquid styrene in one color and ground styrene in a second, to get the pebbly appearance. Brittle, but very easy to cut. More importantly, it soaks up liquid cement like a sponge and dries fast in minutes.



Two layers cut to size and glued into a sandwich...



My second favorite source of very thin styrene -- plastic drinking cups for water coolers. Poor quality, low density, useless except when built up ... also dries in moments when glued.

At this point I've removed some of the body casting to begin to form the outline of the new rear door. Note where the body formerly curved up and in around the old window I've cut back the edges of the rim square to allow the installation of square-ended fragments later.




Plastic has been cut and trimmed to the first approximation of the final shape. This was done by hand with a Dremel using either a 1" abrasive cutoff wheel or a 1/8" cylindrical cutter.



Drying with epoxy in place. Tomorrow it'll be ready for more.

- E

[CaitlinsChoice]

~Ed

Don't forget to check out www.theredlineworld.com for more redline fun!

[ericpetersonSA]

No, no opening back door. That would require at least two copies of the casting --or-- access to an N/C EDM setup that could cut the rear door out along the edges. Haven't done much hardware design in ages and can't impose on buds in model shops any more because I haven't been sending them any work ;-(

- E

[CaitlinsChoice]

~Ed

Don't forget to check out www.theredlineworld.com for more redline fun!