Chevy Chevelle 68 Revell by fnick

[Fnick]

Morning all

 

Decals complete at least for the body!

 

 

 

 

And yes I did realise (too late obviously! 😄) that you should have either the stripes on the bonnet / boot OR the stripes on the sides but NOT both! 🤗.

 

I did ponder trying to remove the side stripes on as I had only put them on one side when I realised my mistake but thought that would be too hazardous. As it turns out I very nearly messed the side stripes on the other side as the decals twisted and folded when I took them out of the water. Thankfully I recovered that situation but I was very close to an outpour of French "Poetry"!

 

Anyhoo time to leave the decals to dry properly and fingers crossed I can get some time to take advantage of the dry warm weather to lay down the clear coat.

 

Thanks for looking Nick 

[Spiny]

If it's any consolation I would probably have made exactly the same mistake too.

 

Incidentally, in the situation of trying to remove a decal, you might be able to manage it with some Microset and an old brush - apply the Microset as if you were sticking the decal down, then try to tickle it up with the brush. Unforutnately it's not always successful, but you also have the advantage here of having a non-metallic colour so youcould sand it back too.

 

That said, I don't think you really get much in the way of rivet counting (or whatever the car equivalent is) on road-going cars so if you like it this way (and I do) then keep it as it is.

[Fnick]

Thanks Spiny for you comments and suggestions.

 

14 hours ago, Spiny said:

If it's any consolation

Absolutely is! 😄

 

One thing I needed to turn my attention back to was the front grill. Below is what I need to have as a shape if I want you try and keep the grid at the same distance from the front of the bumper even underneath the light fittings. Downside is that it is extremely tricky to keep that thin bit straight and not bent either horizontally or vertically.

 

 

On of the main issues is that the headlight fittings protrude at the back if I want to keep the grill the same height.

 

 

So I took the plunge and started sanding the back back frequently checking i was not opening a nice hole at the front! Thankfully I managed to get rid of enough material to have the grill sit well enough.

 

 

I'm clearly at the limit as you can see the black paint start to show through and on one of the fittings I can see my phone torch shining dimly through it! 

 

However this it what it looks like from the front

 

 

Convincing enough for my liking and the part of the grill you can see behind the light fittings is straight. 

 

Once the grill is painted black I think it blend in nicely and my workaround will not be obvious.

 

Nick

 

[Neddy]

Nice going! 👍

[Fnick]

Thanks Neddy! ☺️

[keefr22]

Very nice work on the grille Nick, looks really tidy!!

 

On 10/05/2025 at 07:34, Fnick said:

And yes I did realise (too late obviously! 😄) that you should have either the stripes on the bonnet / boot OR the stripes on the sides but NOT both! 🤗.

 

 

Why not? It might have been a dealer option, or the owner could have put them on him(her!)self....

 

Keith

[Fnick]

Slight tangent but I was getting rid of some rubbish that was left behind the summer house by the previous owner and found this.

 

 

Prett cool right! 😃

 

It's already found a place in my study! 😄

 

 

I'm not known for my decorative tastes but I do thing the two complement each other quite nicely! 

 

Nick

Edited May 12 by Fnick

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, Fnick said:

getting rid of some rubbish

 

Glad you didn't only see the back of it and bin it - what a great find!

 

Keith 

[Spiny]

Very good find, I wish the previous owner of my house had left similarly interesting things. So far, the most interesting thing has been a set of torn 1980s motorbike parts adverts.

 

Got to admit that you're braver than me mounting your models on the panelling - I can't bring myself to buy that sort of case for fear of it all crashing down models and all. Yet I'm perfectly happy to fix up a coat rack which will support many times the weight of some plastic models - go figure!

[keefr22]

30 minutes ago, Spiny said:

Yet I'm perfectly happy to fix up a coat rack which will support many times the weight of some plastic models - go figure!

 

Just shows you have your priorities right....

 

Keith

[Fnick]

1 hour ago, Spiny said:

I can't bring myself to buy that sort of case for fear of it all crashing down models

There's 4 screws in plugs holding that up that are strong enough to probably hold a small cupboard. Have to admit it's a very good case (even though it is marketed for 1:72 busses! 😄). 

[Fnick]

And back to the build. It is now clear coated, 2 dry coats and one wet coat. I'm going to experiment with that amount of coats as you cant really the clear coat as a layer on top of the paint (if that makes sense!).

 

Risk is that I haven't got enough clear coat on to polish without a high risk of burning through but heh you don't try stuff you don't know!

 

Here is how it looks like

 

 

There are a couple of rough spots on the bonnet on the white decal with one of them being in a particular awkward location...

 

I'm now leaving the model in my converted loft bathroom as the temperature was already 24°C at 8 this morning so I'm banking on a week in those conditions should be enough to get this clear coat fully cured!

 

One issue I had on the Chrysler concept car was that when removing the masking tape after painting the window surrounds it took away a bit of the clear despite me detacking the tape. 

 

So I may paint all the window surrounds,etc before sanding the clear coat just in case I get the same issue. I may then have issues with damaging the chrome when sanding the clear coat so not 100% sure what to do.

 

Anyhoo enough rambling!

 

Thanks for looking Nick 

[Toftdale]

Great work all round, but particularly neat solution with the grill - Andy 

[Fnick]

Morning all

 

Back to this one. The clear coat has been curing for well over two weeks. I did put some masking tape down in a area that was going to be covered by a bumper overnight and no damage was done when I removed it so I am going to sand and polish the body before painting the chrome detail.

 

Here is the result after sanding with 6k and 8k micromesh and polishing with coarse and fine compounds.

 

 

Looks ok doesn't it?

 

Here's another angle

 

 

Yep no it doesn't! 😄. I knew there was a tiny bit of orange peel left but it looked as though it had gone after polishing. The polishing didn't go to plan as I'm still having issues with the tamiya compounds coming having pretty much solidified! No reflection on tamiya quality. Maybe it is the way they have been stored. They also are a few years old but I didn't think they would do that. Anyhoo a brand new set is on its way. When I applied the coarse it created loads of scratches on the roof...

 

As much as I want this car to come out ok I'm still regarding it as a bit of a mule for the Impala that I really want to get right!

 

So back to sanding. To get a comparison I only sanded half the roof.

 

Here is that result

 

 

Much happier with the left hand side.

 

And now both sides done.

 

 

And now sanded with 8k micromesh 

 

 

Yes there are quite a few scratches left but I am waiting to see if new coarse compound will sort them out. Also this is under quite a harsh white light.

 

Under more natural lighting 

 

 

Better IMHO.

 

I'm still learning (clearly! 😄) a) how to sand down and polish. Applying just enough pressure is quite tricky and b) how far I can push the clear coat (Mr colour super clear III)

 

One thing is that as this is black paint over black primer I may not know if I have burned through to the paint or worse to the primer!

 

So loads more sanding and polishing required but hopefully the end result will be worth it.

 

I might not use the finishing compound to try and keep the shine to a minimum. As Pete and six97s correctly remarked the shine on these cars was no where near as pronounced as more modern cars.

 

Thanks for persevering! Not the most exciting update but hopefully might be useful to someone. 🙂

 

Nick

[Technics]

Great seeing this work done in steps. Looks really promising.

[SnøMotion]

Looking great, Nick! It always good to see progress of any kind 

 

Martin

[bzn20]

On 5/10/2025 at 7:34 AM, Fnick said:

but NOT both

Box lid illustration shows both or have I missed something ? 

[Fnick]

I had to double check! The box art shows the metal work on the sides which can be either aluminium or chrome. I have not done the chrome painting on the body yet. That will be done after polishing.

 

On that note I received my new tamiya compounds. One of the old ones had dried up so much I couldn't even squeeze it out of the tube! 

 

Nick

[Spiny]

I'd say your polishing is working out very well. Black is very difficult to get shiny as it shows every bit of orange peel, and I've yet to get a perfectly smooth black paint as there's always corners you can't get at. Plus there's the difficulty you're encountering of finding that sweet spot between cutting back to a smooth finish and cutting back through the paint. I've had exactly the same thing with my current Europa build where my first sanding session ended up looking crap under the wrong light, fortunately it looks a bit better after a second attempt like you're doing now. I'd say yours is well worth polishing up to a good shine based on how flat you have the roof - after all it's the initial coarser grits/compounds which tend to cause the burn through rather than the final bits.

[CrazyCrank]

The final result is far better than the previous one 👍

[Six97s]

22 hours ago, bzn20 said:

Box lid illustration shows both or have I missed something ? 

 

It does, but it's wrong.  The wide stripes were only available for the '70 - '72 model years.  The thinner side stripes would be correct for a factory original '68,  

[Toftdale]

Hi Nick, I the Chevelle is looking ace, great work - Andy 

[Fnick]

Morning all

 

So polishing is complete.

 

 

Much better than my first attempt... however... There are scratches on the he roof...😟

 

 

Just could not get rid of those and I'm not risking more polishing. It looks a bit worse than it actually is in the pic. Oh and ignore what looks like a big blob on the left that is actually a reflection of a light bulb! 🙂

 

So with that done I started on what I was dreading the most. Masking for chrome painting on the body.

 

 

Really really really (really!) hope that I don't get any issues with either paint or decals when I take the masking off. Not too worried about paint creeping in as the chrome paint is sprayed in such light layers.

 

Speaking of chrome I got some chrome on the front light fittings (still need a bit more) and as the grill was also painted (by hand) I couldn't resist getting a sneak preview

 

 

Quite pleased with how that is looking! 🙂 

 

Thanks for looking Nick 

[SnøMotion]

Nice polishing and that grille looks superb! 

 

Martin

[othertales]

Most excellent work! The black colour looks beautifully rich and the grill is just a delight to see 👏