11/7/17 - As is usually the case with these old promos, over the years it has warped significantly. |
11/7/17 - But the only parts I'll really need are in good condition, including the front grille / bumper... |
...rear bumper / taillight assembly... |
...and the stock hubcaps. I'll also need to cast resin duplicates of the side trim. |
11/7/17 - I'll be using AMT's '57 Chrysler 300C kit... |
and a '57 DeSoto hardtop resin transkit. |
12/9/17 - I'm going to use the AMT body. The side trim will have to be changed completely, and the Chrysler has the least amount that will have to be removed. |
12/9/17 - Because the two hoods are radically different in shape, I'll use the one from the resin transkit. |
1/25/18 - I had to trim and reshape part of the Chrysler front end in order to fit the DeSoto front bumper and grille. I also trimmed away the original chassis mounting tab on the bumper, and trimmed the upper surface of the grille surround. |
|
1/25/18 - So far, so good. With the reshaping done, and the resin hood in place, I'm pleased with how things look. |
|
1/26/18 - The only real difference between the '57 and '58 rear bumpers is in the exhaust tips. The '57's (bottom) are oval shaped, while the '58 (top) have an indentation in the center. The original JoHan friction is somewhat out of scale, so the rear bumper is a little too small to properly fit the Chrysler body. |
|
1/26/18 - I started by carefully removing the exhaust tips and taillight towers from both bumpers. |
|
1/28/18 - Many times, the best way to proceed with a build reveals itself slowly. My research showed that both the Chrysler and DeSoto has chrome trim surrounding the taillight housings. The JoHan friction didn't have these, but the AMT Chrysler did. I reshaped both the chrome trim pieces and the taillight bezels. These will be assembled prior to rechroming. |
|
1/28/18 - Here's the mockup of all the rear components. |
|
|
|
