1971_Chevelle
This is a tribute build to give to my father. He owned a 1971 Chevelle and I have very fond memories of that car. I was hoping it was going to be my first car when I got my license since by that time my father had purchased a 1977 Old Cutlass, but sadly things didn't work out that way. The original 1971 kit was only molded 1 year, in 1971 and I was lucky to find one. I paid a lot of money for it and it stands as being my most expensive kit at $150 USD. So because of this, I am weary of cutting it up. Instead I bought a readily available 1970 Chevelle and converting it to a 71. I want to build my rare and expensive 71 some day box stock. This will be painted the original factory colour yellow green metallic which is on order from MCW finishes (www.mcwfinishes.com)
My father did not have an SS model so I had to modify the hood and remove the SS cowl. This hood is from a 72 promo model which happens to also be a AMT model so the fit is 100% the same, in fact the hood in the 1970 through to 1972 are exactly the same so fit will not be an issue. When I am finished with the modifications I will mold it and cast a copy in resin to use on the car.
You can see I have already glued the resin copied 71 headlight and side signal lights to the 1970 body. Looks like a 71 to me now :)
I wanted to build this car true to what my father owned so I had to model in 3d in CAD the wheels and the bench seat. I did both in my cad and 3d printed them with my resin printer.
I detailed the engine complete with real rubber hoses and wired distributor
Wired the firewall with 32 ga unwrapped black wire. Kind of cheated and did not scrap away the molded wires from the model part. Shhhhh.
Detailed the chassis. Made my own flex brake lines by coiling unwrapped 32 ga silver wire around a solid wire and made my own e-brake cables and remainder of the brake lines with 32 ga wires (black and silver). Then a good friend of mine, Vince weathered my chassis. Being colour blind this is something I can never successfully do since I can't visualize the correct colours to pull it off. Also put some photo etch muffler clamps from Ted's Modelling.
After painting the seats green (so much green, but that's what the car looked like) my buddy Vince, made seat belts for them and made my interior look more like cloth and vinyl).
Converted the sport dash to a standard dash and made the column shiter from a pearl pin and the signal swith out of 32 ga wire.
Final assembly. Only minor items left, rubber truck liner, floor mats, trunk jack and tire bar, spare tire.
Photo etch battery cables, radiator cap and emblems.
