1996 Impala SS

I'm doing this old school,so the engine will be in Chevrolet Orange, rams horn exhaust manifolds & generally trying to use 1960s colour schemes on the interior, exterior & engine bay.

Made the brake & clutch pedals, park brake is parts bin. And we can't have an Impala  SS with a column shift auto, so the console is being converted to a floor shift. Found a manual gearbox, so the engine/gearbox is curing as we speak.

I'm toying with converting it to either a 2 or 4 door pillarless hardtop. 4 door would need minimal interior work. Tempting.........
This the build I'm after the Rally wheels for.

Chris, cool car. Will be fun to see this come together.

My high school buddy's dad had one back then, with the 396 big block. It was the light mint green metallic color. Even with the auto tranny and posi-traction diff, it would burn rubber like there is no tomorrow. What fun for high school kids!!

Nice subject, work that magic, Chris.

Removed/butchered the pillars. This will be a 2 door hardtop or a convertible.


Here's the small block Chev, in traditional Chevrolet Orange. The kit exhaust manifolds were moulded into the heads. They were removed and the rams horn ones fitted.



WIP on the door panels. Fill & sand to extend the front door panels & remove detail from the rear ones.

Nice job on the conversion Chris and the engine is looking real showey!!

Radical changes happening ..... great idea, obviously you'll pull it off .... just dont forget to keep us up to date so we (meaning I) can lean something.

Unique idea, looking forward to seeing this one.

Wish I'd bought the kit when it came out.  Your work and the engine in particular are very well done.  Will follow this one!

Chris: I like what you are doing, but it would nice to have the box art to look at. Do you have a photo you can post?

Hi Mr W,

I'm also in on this one, love the engine work...

Andy...

I like both ideas for the phantom cars. The 2 door hard top would have sold big I think. And a big full size drop top hasn't been built in years.

JohnJ wrote:Chris:  I like what you are doing, but it would nice to have the box art to look at.  Do you have a photo you can post?

One from the "Donks" series. I now have some spare 26" wheels & tyres

Added a rear speaker grill from a '59 or '60 Impala. I'm trying to channel some of the early SS styling cues into this build.

After the disapointing Corvette build, I took a brief break. Now back into this one. I keep finding more pin holes in the door cards, so they're slow going.
Here's the dash with some added BMF, the console got some bling too. Can't have an Impala SS
without some chrome, can we?

The interior is look nice in bright red. Are you going the convertible route?

Shelby wrote:The interior is look nice in bright red.  Are you going the convertible route?

Convertible. I'm working on moving the door shut line back and filling the rear door shut lines.

It's looking great Chris. The conversion is going really well.

Door panels are among the best, most detailed I've seen. Glad you're getting back to the Chev.

Glad to hear you're going the convertible way.

It's lookin great Chris and I agree with harron on the door cards.

The credit for the detail on the door cards goes to the good folk at Revell. I've just added the B pillar width to the front doors ( if that makes sense!) & sanded out the door pulls & handles on what was the rear door cards. I had them filled & sanded ( I foolishly thought) Damn gloss found a dozen holes that I thought I'd filled. So I'm going to make some cover strips to hide them.
Some Dulcote tomorrow and then the cover panels.

I could tell the inside door trim was molded-in. The availability of p.e. parts like window cranks can improve interiors too, but that kit's interior is crisp and clear. Only factor that gets to me on models with one color interiors is the smoothness, the flatness and artificial look they always have. There are almost never molded-in wrinkles. The best way to give a more realistic look is a wash of thinned paint, depending on interior darkness or lightness. It flows into crevices and accentuates trim ribbing, and tufts or tucks in leather and vinyl.
The little classic Impala rear seat center chrome trim adds a lot as well. Thanks for the fotos and creativity on this one.

Nice, I never knew that chrome part was for a speaker grill.

Andy...