1957 Chevy Bel Air 4 door Sports Sedan Hardtop 1/25 scale model-Revisited!

Beings that since I posted about this model back in 2010,  it has become my most popular post.  I thought I would revisit it with better, brand new digital photos of this model, that I just took, today. Now you can see this 1984 built AMT/Jo-Han scale model in somewhat more detail. It is a little over 8" long in 1/25 scale.

For these photos, I took the clear cover off the display box, and took the model outside to photograph it.

For a model that I built 28 years ago, I think it came out nice, and it still is very presentable! It is far from perfect but scale model kit builds of this body style of '57 Bel Air 4 door hardtops are practically non-existent.

 That is why I combined an AMT 1957 Chevy Bel Air 2 door hardtop kit with a Jo-Han/Ex-El products 1956 Pontiac Star Chief 4 door Catalina hardtop reproduction dealer promotional model to make this model.

Door lines on the body needed to be filled in and rescribed. Door handles needed to be shaved off and rebuilt in different spots.

The interior cavity opening in the body needed lengthened to accommodate the longer interior box and 4 door hardtop roof.  The back half of the interior box needed to be totally cut away, including the complete removal of the coupe rear arm rests, reconstructed, as well as lengthened, including rebuilding the package shelf, new rear door panels, new arm rests, as well as extending the width of the back seat, and making the coupe split back front seat into a sedan type solid back front seat. The window assembly came from a junked AMT original AMT 1957 Pontiac Star Chief Catalina 4 door hardtop friction promotional model. It fit my body shell without my having to modify it. I also added a turn signal lever to the steering column, as this is missing from the AMT kit. In that time period 1956 and 1957, Pontiac and Chevrolet shared the same hardtop roof sheet metal.

  The AMT '57 Chevy kit has the hood bar molded in as an integral part of the bumper grille assembly.

  

For this model, I cut the piece free from this assembly and attached it to the front of the hood as per the actual car.

A close up shot of this detail

This model is a replica of a yellow and white '57 Bel Air 4 door hardtop that I owned from 1980 through 1983. My dad made me sell it because he said that it was junk, and it would never be worth anything. I had alot of misgivings about this, but I was still "just a kid that did not know anything". so I did not really have a choice.The choices I did have were, either sell the car, or my dad would have booted me out of the house. There was no way that I could afford that, so I sold the car at a tremendous loss. My building this model was a consolation to me.

I thought you might enjoy seeing these images of this what I consider to be a nicer body style than the two door hardtop. I tried to open the hood to photograph the fully painted and detailed engine compartmet, but it was stuck shut. I have not opened it in about 15 years, and I was afraid if I would have used too much force, that I would have damaged the model. So I let it go.

                        So enjoy the images that I was able to take of this one of a kind model car.

Grille, and Chevrolet coat of arms on grille bar.

Let's zoom up on this view!

                                                 Oh, them cool '57 taillights!!

Here is the original post from 2010.

http://jayveejayaresjunk.blogspot.com/2010/11/1957-chevy-bel-air-4-door-sports-sedan.html

Jim.

"Buick '59." (As in the AMT 1/25 scale type!)

Here is an old model junkyard salvage job, that I got at the big AACA car show flea market area in the fall of 1984 for about $30.00. When I got it from the vendor, it had scars on it from having long custom fenderskirts that were glued onto the quarter panels. It also had some other holes in it from having the usual spotlights, antennae, and other useless  late 1950's era customizing garbage mounted on the thing. One roof pillar was cracked, and about ready to fall out. All and all, for an original 1959 3'n'1 kit, it was in darn good shape. Other than being missing one wheel cover, and the taillights, this model did not need all that much body filler work to bring it up to factory stock condition. I made my own wheel cover mold out of  Elmer's type glue, using one of the original wheel covers to make the mold. After the glue totally dried in about a day, I pulled the hubcap off the glue, and it left a perfect impression of the part in all it's fine detail. After the  glue mold was totally cured, in about a day, I filled it up with a casein type two part glue, and left this cure for about 3 days.  I was able to pop the new wheelcover out of the mold intact, and,"Walla!!", I had my fourth wheel cover, made out of all things, solidified casein glue. Just a note. Casein two part glue was an industrial electronically cured adhesive that was used in the woodworking industry up to the mid to late 1980's, when it was ruled illegal to make, sell, or use anymore in the United States, as one of it's main ingredients was formaldahyde, which according to our government has been proven hazardous to our health. So this type of glue is no longer available in the U.S. .

 Orthographic 3/4 driver's side front view.

  Passenger side view, showing right rear wheel cover that is made out of  casein glue that is normally electronically cured, but it was capable of air curing in about 3 days.

  Driver's side view.

 The chrome on this thing was,(is) in kind of crappy shape, so I just touched it up as best I could, back in 1984, when I got this model. It was not painted when I got it, so that made it easier for me to pretty much paint it whatever color I wanted, so  I used Testors light blue on it, and a dark flat blue for the interior. I hand painted on the exterior "chrome" trim using Testors silver. I had to black out the entire grille opening, first as the original chrome plating was really weak there. After the flat black was dry there,I went over,and repainted the grille "squares" silver, one at a time, very carefully, with a really small detail paint brush. I detailed this model the best I could at the time, considering that by that time, I did not have very much access as to how the interior of a 1959 Buick Invicta is supposed to be colored. I still think I did okay. I think I could probably do a better job today.

  This kit was only issued by AMT three times. The first time, of course was when it was issued new in the fall of 1958, for the new 1959 car model year. It was issued again, I was told, in 1963, as part of their "Craftsman Series" of kits of select cars. The final issue of this kit was as part of a Mexican road race series of cars they issued in 1969. It was able to be built stock. This  kit is what would be called a "curbside model" as it has no engine, or an opening hood, as was customary for the early  annual model car kits of American cars issued in the late 1950's. After this kit was issued in 1969, as the "Boondock Bomber" it has not been reissued since, as it is believed the molds for this kit were either lost or destroyed.

  I found the missing taillights I needed for this model, from my model car parts stash bin.

  Gotta love that GRILLE!!

  Dashboard detail.

 Just like the old Doowop song by the Medallions, "....Gonna get me a Buick '59!!"

Jim.

"The Hot One"- AMT's 1/16 scale 1955 Chevy Bel Air hardtop build up from around 1980

Here is a model that I built a couple of years after I did my orange and white AMT 1/16 '57 Bel Air. This model came out much nicer than the '57 did, as I took more time to build this one, and I had made the switch from Pactra to Testors paint. I had to, as Pactra had just gone out of business, and their paints had all but disappeared from all the hobby shops that I dealt with. Those shops all restocked with Testors paints, except for one. I don't know how they did it, but they carried the full Pactra line until around 1982. Then it dissapeared from them, too. This model was one of the earliest models, once I had the color paint work done, I clear coated the body, for more of a wet look gloss. Both doors and the hood  still work as they should. I had some problems with the doors, with the paint blistering from putting the clear coat on too soon after I painted the dark red on them, so I had to strip, and repaint them. That is why they are slightly darker than the dark red on the rest of the model.Other than that, this is still a gorgeous model, for my having built this 32 years ago.

Here are some random images of the thing, including some shots of the sparely detailed engine compartment. Other than it being there, I left it in it's unpainted orange-red plastic state, but I did paint the transmission silver, as well as the carburetor. I also painted the air cleaner, generator, starter motor, distributor, fan, and fan belt pulleys black.I also took the time to paint the master cylinder silver, too. Other than that, I did nothing else to the engine compartment. For the interior, I just added flat white to the bare orange red colored plastic seats, and sidepanels to give it a two toned red and white interior. I  did fully detail paint the dashboard,though.

The model is spray canned painted Testors dark red, and I believe Testors tan, with Testors "Glosscote" clearcoat to finish it off.

I just recently printed up these "1955" license tags on my computer for this about 5 years ago. I had already had these red painted plastic tag blanks mounted on the model, though, since I built it, in the first place, in the hope I would put some kind of decal or glue on some kind of license graphic in the future. Which I finally did here.

Now that I really look at these images of this model is I now remember how I really got frustrated at the fact, that when I was in the final stages of assembly with the thing, no matter what I did, or how hard I tried, I could NOT get the rear bumper to mount level on the car. So I had to settle for a look that looks like the driver of this car backed into somebody else's car at parking lot speed, and bent  the whole bumper up at the bracket mounts on both sides of the car at the same time. So the results are a bumper that hangs down at the front ends of it. To me, it looks like crap, but that's life, sometimes.

Interior shot. Sorry, I guss I should have opened the doors so you can see the seat and dashboard better. The thing was, I kind of had to hurry up, as I photographed the model on my actual driveway, and my wife was away. I didn't want her to come back and squish the model and me laying on the driveway to get the images that you see here.

Two engine compartment shots. It does have some detailling, but very little plumbing, and no wiring. What for? the model doesn't run, anyway!

  Two nice profile shots.

As with the '57 model, this model is about a foot long.

  Three-quarter passenger side-front view shot.

  

 Here is a shot of  the model in my hand. See image below for full shot.

This last image is a picture my daughter took of me, complete with my scruffy 1975 haircut and all, holding the model, after I finished my photo shoot.

Jim V.

1976 buildup of AMT's 1/16 scale '57 Chevy Bel Air hardtop coupe: One of my favorites.

One of my favorite old 1957 Chevy models (I have about 20 different '57 Chevy models, total) is this big 1/16 scale AMT '57 Bel Air coupe kit which was re issued in late 1976, which was when I built this model. It originally was designed for the doors to open and shut, as well as the hood. I couldn't get the doors to stay closed right, so I glued them shut around 1980. The hinges on the hood broke, so I made the hood function by gluing kite string on the back corners of the hood, and glued the other ends of the string to the corners of the cowl.

It is painted 1970's Pactra "insignia orange" and white. I painted the engine Pactra "insignia red", which is incorrect,but I didn't give a rip  back then, as I only painted engines back then in these bigger kits. The interior, for most part, I left the bare white plastic, but I painted the seat insets, floor, the door panel insets, and the dash top, flat black. This model is close to a foot long, and for the time it was issued, has more detail than their standard 1/25 scale kit. I painted all the bright metal trim on in Pactra chrome silver paint, to finish it up. Beings as I was still kind of an inexperienced model builder, there is some glue melt damage, as well as paint mess-ups. It has also suffered some damage over the years, but I was always able to repair it, to a degree. I think the model still looks nice, for it's age.

It may be a little scruffy, and tired looking around the edges, but as far as I'm concerned, this gives this model a sense of old historical character, like it has been around for awhile, which it has.

Below are more images that I just took on this past Saturday, April 21, (2012)

Jim.

1956 DeSoto: Artistry In Motion.

When we were growing up in the mid 1960's, my parents struggled at times, especially my dad to make sure we had a roof over our heads, and a decent place to sleep. He felt like that he did not succeed, but in my eyes, my dad succeeded wonderfully. At the time, our family car was a 1950 Chrysler Windsor 4 door sedan, (restored example pic immediately above, cannot enlarge this image) a nondescript, slightly rundown outdated automobile, but it met our needs. He basically would spend Saturday mornings, when he was not working, doing his own repair work on the thing, to keep it safe for us, and also so it would pass the then two times a year Pennsylvania State inspection. It would drive dad nuts trying to get his car to pass, but he would always figure out a way to get it to pass every 6 months back then. My dad, and his brothers, (my uncles) would help each other out, sharing tires, if they drove similar makes to get their cars to pass inspection, as money was tight for everyone on my dad's side of the family.

I don't know how he managed to pull the next trick he did in the summer of 1965, when he showed us this beautiful 1956 DeSoto that was for sale at a Texaco gas station. He showed it to mom, and us kid, and as soon as we saw it, we fell in love with it, as to us, it was like stepping up to a Rolls Royce, from a model T. The old '50 Chrysler was not exactly like riding in the lap of luxury. More like a rolling shanty shack than a car. Imagine our delight, when my dad figured out one of his "creative financing" schemes, to bring the car home. The car was really luxurious. It had full power. Brakes, steering, electric windows, push- button drive, and a power seat. It also had a two speaker, (front and rear) AM radio. My mom liked the push button drive, and the top central mounted clock on the dashboard. We kids like playing with the electric windows. I think once we made my dad mad at us, as we ran his battery down, playing with the windows. Back in the 1950's when a car was equipped with electric windows, the curcuit that they were wired on was always "hot". You did not need to have the car running to work the windows. The logic behind this paid off several times when in the summer, when my dad was sleeping, after working 2nd shift at the RCA plant in Lancaster, he would get home in the car and leave the windows open in the thing, so it would not be so hot to get in, when he went back to work that afternoon. A couple of times, though,while he was sleeping, thunderstorms came up fast, and my mom, or one of us was able rush out, and shut the windows without needing to get the key and turn on the ignition to accessories setting to do so.

This car was such a step up for us. No matter how you looked at it, there were no bad angles in which to view it. Mom even tried to learn to get her driver's licence in that thing, it was that easy for her to drive. But things did not work out, and she did not try to get it after while for reasons I can't say here. It was like riding in the lap of luxury, when we rode in the thing. It was an aqua and white Fireflite "Sportsman" 4 door hardtop. That means when you put all 4 windows down, there was no center post between the front and rear doors, and the side of the window areas was wide open. quite beautiful to look at, and a cool drive on the hottest summer days, before automotive air conditioning became commonplace. It was available back then in this car, originally, but it did not have it as it was terribly expensive, and not very efficient. With the 4 windows all down, and the fresh air intake open on the cowl, in front of the windshield, while moving, the air came out at our feet, under the dash, inthe car, and this kept us plenty cool enough...as long as the car was moving at least at 20 MPH.

My dad, in general, frowned upon taking pictures of just things, when we were kids. But he was proud of this car, and we begged him,at least, me, anyway to take some pictures of it. And he obliged. But only if there were people in the pictures. That was his rule. So, on Easter Sunday of 1966, we took a series of pictures of us with the car. The image at the top of this post is of my dad in front of the car. The one other image of part of the car, by itself was an image of my sister standing in the street beside the car. I just blew up and cropped her out , as to show the side of the car somewhat more clearly. This is this image right below this text.

The image below, here, is us three kids that same day, in front of the car, after getting back from church. I'm the boy in the middle. I'm 8 years old, here.
My love affair for anything 1956 DeSoto has never faded. As time has gone by, it has gotten actually stronger. In 1976, Jo-Han models re-issued their original dealer plastic 1/25 scale promotional model of a 4 door sedan version of this car, and I was finally able to get a model of it, and do it up some what like my dad's car, but these do not have interiors with them. In my eyes, though, it was better than nothing.

In and around 2002, the Danbury Mint anounced that it was going to release a black and gold Adventurer hardtop in die cast 1/24 scale. Needless to say, I was thrilled that anyone would do such a high quality super detailed model of any 1956 DeSoto. So as soon as it bacame available, I bought it. It is a beautiful model, but what I really wanted was a Fireflite hardtop.
In around 2005, they released a limited edition Fireflite Sportsman 2 door hardtop in the plum and lavender color you see on this model in these images. It was limited to a 5000 model run, then it was discontinued. Money was a little tight for my wife and me at the time, and I missed it, because when I finally got the money together, Danbury had sold out of the thing.
Finally, this past December of 2011, I was able to snag one of these on the second market from an internet forum friend for the original 2005 issue price. This model really captures the true essence of the timeless beauty of this automobile. Danbury really did their homework on this model, as everything on this model is perfect as I remember it. Even though this model is of a 2 door coupe. My dad's car was a 4 door hardtop. Whether it is a 2 door hardtop, like this model, or a 4 door hardtop, like my dad's car was, both models were referred to as "Sportsman" models, as this was DeSoto's publicity term for the pillarless "hardtop" design. In my eyes, though, all 1956 DeSoto's were and are beautiful pieces of rolling art. And, yeah, it's got a Hemi!!
As I said, there are no bad viewing angles of this car!
And now, Danbury Mint, you can make me ecstatic. Please do this car in aqua and white as a tribute to my 77 year old dad.
Jim.