59 Ford Retractable Hardtop

Hi Gang, here's what I got started on the 59 retract
Body together, 4 seperate panels that don't fit that good let alone straight



got the chassis made up, the seats are just white gued for right now, put the wheels from the kit on, the white walls are a seperate plastic insert and the whole wheel/tire assy. look too big to me



here is a picture of the tires, on the right is the kit tire, center is the tire for the 58 and on the left is the stock 58 tire



put the two smaller tires on and like the looks a lot better, it has a chrome trim panel that goes on the back and around the rear tire but I have to get the chassis and body fit better than what it is



Don't know which one will be the worst to build, the 58 or the 59 cause sofar the 59 has the lead on worst. 

Thanks for looking  

Here is a picture of the colors on the 59, not sure if I'm going to use the skirts

 

Thanks for looking  

I am watching this one. I have this kit and am even thinking about building it.

I would go with the mags, on white walls, give it that ol'scool look, just me, looks good tho, I have 3 of these going right now. good job.

Comparing model foto with car pic and yes, tires too big.  I wouldn't have noticed, good for you!  If you want the stock rear skirt, as in car foto, I'd say no.  If you wanted to go with a smoother aftermarket custom one I'd say fine.  Just my opinion.  Car foto has too much chrome with both flat piece to the rear and strip around rear wheel well/skirt. Stock rear opening looks best, especially if you opt for white walls.

Looks a sweet project!

Looks good with the small tires. As for the skirt I would skip it on this one.

Nice subject John.

I'd say the stock tyres look about the right size. Have you scaled them out?

Skid wrote:Nice subject John.

I'd say the stock tyres look about the right size. Have you scaled them out?

I did scale them out and came out to 33" tall with 17" rims  Too big     I found a better set in my tire shop that are 29" tall with 15" rims and wide whitewalls too so I'll be using them  

Got to work on the roof, I put a .005" shim on all four links ( covered the whole link )  Fit good but just a little loose so I added another .005" shim at the top of the outside links and it will stay where you put it

Top up



Going down





and down in the body



and here it is down with the body off



by doing a mock up I found that the windsheild frame is twisted so I'll have to find a way to correct that and have to get the body straight, driver rear is a little low but I'm getting their.

Thanks for looking and will up date when I get more done  

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This will be a cool build !!!!

I'm never a fan of 'working' parts on styrene models but it looks like you've got this on right John.

Well done.

Hi,

Is the retractable roof/hood part of the kit or have you scratch built it...

Another question if that is ok, may I ask, how do you 'scale' something, so sorry for what may seem like daft questions...

Many thanks...

Andy...

Johnag wrote:Hi,

Is the retractable roof/hood part of the kit or have you scratch built it...

Another question if that is ok, may I ask, how do you 'scale' something, so sorry for what may seem like daft questions...

Many thanks...

Andy...

It is part of the kit, 59 Ford Skyliner from Revell.

I have a 1/25 scale ruler that I use, it's easier than figuring the math for me anyway.

Hopeing to get back on this soon  

To scale something out, you measure a real whatever you are building and then divide that measurement by the scale. I keep a cheap calculator on the bench to help me with the math. So if you wanted to build a part that was 3 inches by 3 inches square in 1/25th scale. You would divide 3.00 by 25 the answer is 0.12 inches. I hope this helps. Some one else can help you if you need a metric explanation.

Johnag wrote:Hi,

Is the retractable roof/hood part of the kit or have you scratch built it...

Another question if that is ok, may I ask, how do you 'scale' something, so sorry for what may seem like daft questions...

Many thanks...

Andy...

Andy, it's not a daft question, the way I work out scale, is in 1/25 scale there are 2' (feet to an inch) so if ya break that down, to quarters, it would mean that a 1/4" would avarage out to about 6 scale inches, hope this helps ya out bud.

John, I'm glad yer posting these issues with the top, I have one that's about ready to hit the bench, and seeing what yer goin thru, is setting me up for a good time, tho mine will be, ummmmm, allot different  I'm gonna chop mine, and have mine still function,  just working out the math for it, thanx man, btw, this is looking great, keep it going.

Zbuckster wrote:To scale something out, you measure a real whatever you are building and then divide that measurement by the scale. I keep a cheap calculator on the bench to help me with the math. So if you wanted to build a part that was 3 inches by 3 inches square in 1/25th scale. You would divide 3.00 by 25 the answer is 0.12 inches. I hope this helps. Some one else can help you if you need a metric explanation.

Gothic Kustomz wrote:Andy, it's not a daft question, the way I work out scale, is in 1/25 scale there are 2' (feet to an inch) so if ya break that down, to quarters, it would mean that a 1/4" would avarage out to about 6 scale inches, hope this helps  ya out bud.

Thank you both for that, maths was never a strong point for me...

So sorry John for going , hope you don't mind, sorry...

Andy...

 Hi Gang, I haven't been able to do much on anything lately on accout of my eye's   I have glaucoma and will be doing the laser on the left eye Nov. 19th and then the right eye on Dec. 3rd. so it's a little hard to see right now but will be better after the laser   Third time I've had it done so it's no big deal just cann't see right till after it's done

Great looking build of an old kit. I remember building this exact kit back in 1979 at age 12. My buddy had one too, then we had a smash up derby with them.

Good luck with the eyes I hope it all works out for you.

Got a small update, waiting for my new eye bulbs (glasses) to come in so I can do some bigger things until then    Got the body and the parts primered, got the white painted on the body, hood, roof cover and the rear shelf





Got the chassis all painted



Going to let the white dry for a little while then mask it and paint all the yellow, body and the roof and work on the int.

Thanks for looking and comments are always welcome   

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I have seen Sunliners at car shows around town here in Victoria. When on display the owner usually poses the roof up to show the workings. WOW, some complicated. I hope Revell has not passed that on to you. One suggestion in dealing with rear wheel well skirts, how about the long fender skirts ending in a continental kit ?
Cheers Eh!

001  Kewel!

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