When I was in my junior year in high school, my dad and I put our money together, and we bought a 1965 Buck Electra 225 coupe in the spring of 1975 for $300.00. I absolutely LOVED that car. That old 401 nailhead V8 was the most reliable engine that I ever drove. This car had more power than a then teenage boy could ever want for "showing off" in this car, and I did that very well to say the least, much to the chagrin of my dad. Needless to say, I drove to school in this chrome laden behemoth, and most of my friends thought it was a cool car. It was a light metallic green with a beige interior, loaded with A/C, and power everything.
Of course, back then, when I bought cars, I always wanted a scale model of the thing to remember it by, after the real thing was long gone. When I found out that AMT never did this as a scale model in '65, I was disappointed. But in July of 1976, I made a four view blueprint drawing of the car, because my dad and I still had the thing, but it was starting to wear out. That following spring, my dad let me trade the car in on a 1969 Buck Electra 225 coupe in brown and beige. We thought the car left the city, but one day when I was riding my bike in the city, the car showed up on a used car lot for $600.00, and my dad bought it back. But I had what I thought was a nicer car, and didn't care about the old '65 anymore. Or at least I thought. Time went by, but I never totally forgot about that car. Around 1987, I dug the old four view drawing out, and ran off some photocopies of it, so that I could modify it. When I originally made the drawing, my intentions were to sculpt build the model out of balsa wood. I really studied the shape, and lines of the car, and I thought that I could modify the drawing enough to make the model entirely out of posterboard. Let me put it this way. It was not easy,but I made it work because the car really does have very straight lines, except for the compound curves on the backside of the roof. Using Elmers Glue as a body filler, I was able to reproduce those compound curves by notching the posterboard at right angles to the first curvature that I would put in the posterboard, then pulling those little notches closed. The results are a very nice curved surface in two directions at the same time, like the real car has.The model is far from perfect, but you must consider that this model's body is totally scratch built out of what amounts to be cardboard. I did make some concessions on this little project. The wheels, axles, and interior box are from a Jo-Han 1977 Cadillac Coupe deVille snap kit. I drastically modified the parts, particularly the interior to look like a 1965 Buick Electra interior, using paper, cardboard, and scrap plastic. Then I fitted the interior tub to the body after I fitted the acetate plastic windows to the body, The outside of the body was painted, and detailed first, then the window "glass" was put in. Then I put in the headliner in with all it's garnish mouldings, and then I painted it. Then I installed the completed interior box. The chassis plate is also posterboard, fully detailed with the rear axle, frame, exhaust system, lower a-arms,and the bottom of the engine and transmission are glued on to the chassis plate, to give the bottom of the model an embossed look. I put inner fenders on the chassis plate, so that when you look at the model from the side, you do not see daylight between the wheel openings, and the tires. The chassis plate was painted black before I glued it to the body, completing this one of a kind model. As you can see, I tried to paint this model up like my actual car, but I must admit, my model is brighter green than the real one was. The hood does not open, as this model is done up like a dealer promotional model, which made things alot simpler for me to do, not having to totally duplicate the complete engine compartment.
Here is a link to my new post on this model with new better and unobstructed photos of the model in more detail.
http://jayveejayaresjunk.blogspot.com/2012/07/1965-buick-electra-225-coupe-125-scale.html
Jim.
