1965 Chevy Pickup & Hemi Hydro combo

I tried using a file to remove the bulges molded into the top side rails of the bed...slight problem, I have no files or sanding sticks thin enough to do the job without taking plastic off the tops of the rear fenders. So the top rail will be removed, and while I'm fixing it, I'll make it look more like the real truck, might as well, right? The first step was cutting the top rail off of one side using my Trumpeter panel scriber, then gluing two styrene strips together to get something the same thickness as the sides of the bed. Once that is glued down, I'll add a another strip to the top of the new rail, and add a piece of copper tubing underneath the outside edge, making it look more like the 1:1 bed! The last pic is a quick and dirty mock-up to check the stance, I used the "lowered" front end instead of the stock one...combine that with the Big & Little rim/tire combo, and it looks just right to me! :thumbs: :thumbs:

And the last update for now, I got the engine assembled and seams removed, this will get some primer soon, along with the chassis!

Well, after cracking the filler Sam had put on the boat, I made a decision. Since I was going to have to re-work it, I might as well go all out. So I threw the boat in the freezer for a few hours, and broke it down...



I'm seriously considering making the top out of Basswood, just because I love the look of the old Chris Craft boats...we'll see if I go that far later!

Since the boat is soaking in Super Clean to loosen/remove the filler, I decided to get to work on the trailer frame. It's not too bad, but needs some sanding to get rid of some nasty looking spots. After an hour or so of sanding stick work, we have a nice looking trailer to work with!

This pic shows what the rails looked like when I started. Like I said, not bad, but it needs to be flat and smooth!


These pics are after smoothing the rails out, much better!




Even the fender got smoothed out, even though it's only issues were on the rolled sections at the edges.

I'm sure you noticed the clamps in the last few pics, they're not the fancy-pants ones you guys have, but they do work...kind of! There's a good reason for them. There is a hole in the top of the trailer frame for a part, but it's located right at the edge of the rail. Since it was so close to the outside edge, it of course left a void in the rail. So I hacked a piece of the rail out and glued a bit of strip styrene in there to fill the hole. I'll re-drill the hole once everything has cured completely.





The filled in area, you can see there is an extra piece of styrene on the inside of the rail, it's so when I re-drill the hole, I've got something to drill into without weakening the rail like it was originally.


I clamped the trailer to a sanding stick to keep it all straight, since it wanted to bend upward at the rear. You can see the added strip on the inside plainly here.


The patch has been trimmed to shape and rough sanded, once the glue fully cures, I'll smooth it all out nice and pretty!