9/19/02 - The first thing was to section the body a scale four inches. I started by marking the cut lines. |
9/19/02 - Using a razor saw, I cut along the lines. Here is the result. The two
thin strips adjacent to the body were discarded. |
9/20/02 - Here's the body, glued back together. I held everything together on the
inside with masking tape while the cement cured. |
9/21/02 - Next came the top chop. I marked off cut lines and removed a scale three
inches. Then I cemented the top back to the body and again held it in
place with masking tape. |
9/21/02 - A top with one or more curves, like the '49 Merc is complex to chop. I
lined up the center posts and let everything else fall into place. I wanted
the windshield posts to be very strong, so I glued pieces of sprue in place for added strength. |
 9/21/02 - At the rear, I glued the pieces that had been removed over the upper edge
of the cut to help fill the gap between the upper and lower sections of
the top that were caused by the curve of the top.
|
 9/21/02 - Sprue was glued to the windshield posts from the inside... |
|
 ...and also across the cut
line at the rear. |
|
9/21/02 - Everything's glued in place. Time to start laying on the filler. |
|
9/30/02 - This shows the early stages of filling and smoothing on the chopped top.
The sectioning cuts have also been filled and smoothed. |
|
9/30/02 - I wanted to radius the rear wheel openings. I started with a pattern to
keep thing symetrical and then marked the areas to be removed on both
sides. |
|
10/10/02 - The front wheel openings also had to be enlarged for both appearance sake
and to clear the front tires. |
|
10/10/02 - The rear window was enlarged by removing the area shown. |
|
 10/10/02 - In keeping with the "lead sled" theme of the car, a pancaked
hood was essential. |
|
10/13/02 - Here's the reworked hood, waiting for filler. Also note that the windshield posts are beginning to take shape. I also
added the custom frenched headlight bezels from the kit. |
|
 10/13/02 - At the rear, the chopped top
is beginning to take shape. The rear wheel openings have been radiused,
rear window enlarged, taillight openings filled and the rolled pan is
in place. |
|
 10/16/02 - The Lincoln engine came from AMT's 1925 Model T kit. It was mated to the
Merc's standard transmission. |
|
10/20/02 - Body work is still progressing at this point. This was a test fit of the
body and chassis. |
|
 10/20/02 - The custom taillight housings have been added here. I used tubular styrene
and carefully drilled holes in the body of the correct diameter. Then
I glued pieces of the tubular styrene in place and shaped it to fit the
body contours. |
|
11/26/02 - At this point it was time to start work on the interior. I carefully cut
the side panels away from the interior tub and cut them down to fit the sectioned body. The front seat was also cut down and reshaped. |
|
 11/26/02 - The front floor pan also had
to be cut down and reshaped to provide engine clearance. |
|
 11/26/02 - Here you can see how I recessed the center section of the floor pan to
provide engine clearance. |
|
11/26/02 - To simulate tuck 'n' roll uphoulstery I used strips of half-round styrene
glued in place. Tedious, but well worth the effort. |
|
12/10/02 - This shows how the strip styrene is trimmed and shaped to fit the front
seat. |
|
1/22/03 - Here's the finished interior. |
|
1/22/03 - At this point the majority of the body work is almost done. |
|
 1/22/03 - Just a little more sanding and shaping left to go. |
|
1/22/03 - I had to do some reshaping of the window pillars. |
|
 2/3/03 - While the bodywork was underway, I built up the chassis, pretty much box stock. |
|
2/3/03 - I added some photoreduced magazine and record album covers to the trunk
area. |
|
3/3/03 - I also used very thin half-round
styrene to simulate chrome trim on the body and around the windows. |
|
 3/3/03 - Bodywork is finished! Ready for primer. |
|
3/3/03 - Here you can see how I shaped the styrene "chrome trim" to fit
the body contours. |
|
3/3/03 - The rear windows were also reshaped. |
|
11/6/03 - Paint is finished here. I used two different colors of fingernail polish,
applied with an airbrush. |
|
4/2/05 - And then disaster struck! |
|
 4/2/05 - I was using super glue to bond the interior to the body. It slipped and
spilled and as you can see, seriously damaged the windows and the paint
job. |
|
4/13/05 - So I had to strip the paint and start over. Fortunately I had used "sprue-glue"
filler for the body work, so that didn't have to be redone. |
|
 4/13/05 - Primer applied again...
This did teach me a couple of lessons. The main thing was to not
panic. I set the project aside for a while and then came back to
it. Lots of times disasters can be salvaged. |
|
 4/13/05 - Starting to mask off the body for the two-tone paint job. I usually use
masking tape to cover large areas and then liquid masking applied with
a brush for smaller areas. |
|
4/13/05 - Here's the lower body painted with a silver-blue flip-flop fingernail
polish. |
|
5/6/05 - The upper body color is also flip-flop fingernail polish in a blue-green
metallic. |
|
5/22/05 - This is a side-by-side comparison, custom and stock versions of the same vehicle. |
|
 5/22/05 - And a rear view of the finished product. |
|
