1953 Ford Pickup

[modelcarjr]

i worked on this one all day yesterday just prepping the body, assembling the chassis so that I could get an idea about wheel height and attaching as many parts as I could so that I could paint th  all assembled on the body or truck bed. I am building it using the custom parts and custom instructions with the rear fenders, roll pans, and the custom engine choice. So that much was successful yesterday and today I painted the body and all other parts. I think it will work out OK but its not the friendliest of kits to say the least. The color is Tamiya Coral Blue with blue and black interior. Tomorrow I'll rub it out and get started with assembly! Thanks for looking! 

[kyledehart5]

Very nice!! Love the color choice. This is going to look awesome

[tcoat]

Beautiful so far. Was that Coral Blue a spray of bottle? It is exactly the colour I need when I do my Cars I Used To Own '56 Chevy.

[handiabled]

Bookmarked. You picked the perfect color for this!

[kyledehart5]

Nov 25, 2024 7:20:37 GMT -5 tcoat said:

Beautiful so far. Was that Coral Blue a spray of bottle? It is exactly the colour I need when I do my Cars I Used To Own '56 Chevy.

I’ll chime in because I have a couple cans. It’s TS-41 spray can. One of my favorites of theirs  Created by Tamiya for the Leyton House F1 car kit. It’s a good match for the race car but also works well as a 50s era color like this build or your ‘56. 

[modelcarjr]

Thanks, Kyle, Tcoat, and Handlabled! I appreciate your comments! Yes, the paint is a spray can of Tamiya TS-41 as Kyle mentioned. Tamiya has a lot of colors and I haven't yet explored them all but look forward to finding more interesting colors in the Tamiya line. I also like light Green Pearl(1957 Ford wagon) and Orange Metallic (almost perfect match for Sierra Gold).

Well, this one is done. I rubbed out the body, painted the wood in the bed, added some color to the interior with Mexican blanket seat cover decals, found some Halibrand-style touring wheels in the parts box, red bullet taillights in the parts box and a exterior mirror from Aoshima in their 15 inch American Mag wheels and tires that I bought. An extra in the box. Nothing in the kit has been updated like a few of the AMT kits I have bought lately, not even the decals. The kit has a lot to be desired, but it builds up OK. The nice thing about the big Halibrand-style wheels is there is plenty of glue surface so I could position the wheels in the opening and glue the wheelback so that it looks right. But if it rolled it would look like a clown truck going down the road. But the outward appearance is good so I am not concerned with the correctness of the chassis/wheels. Thanks for looking!

[keavdog]

oh wow.. that is cool. I'd drive that!

[tcoat]

Wait
Wait
Wait
Three days?

THREE DAYS???

[TJ]

What a gorgeous build....and it took you how long?

[greg]

What a cool model pickmeup. I'm half tempted to get a can of TS-41 just to have it, what a great color....looks great on the truck.

Nice work, and if I may echo Tcoat, 3 days?!?!

[modelcarjr]

Thanks, John, Tcoat, TJ and Greg! I appreciate your comments!

It was more like 5 days. I started on the 23rd and finished on the 27th. I will add that it took most of my time so I would say 32-40 hours, at least. I always have trouble with fitment on trucks, and I could see right away that this would be the case on this old mold. So here's the rundown:

Nov. 23 - I spent the whole day prepping the body, other parts and pre-assembling as much as I could. There were mold lines and lots of pesky flash. I pre-assembled before paint, the chassis and suspensions with the exception of the exhausts and driveshaft. I pre-assembled as many body parts as possible, including the rear fenders on the bed, (a lot of mocking up the chassis with the interior platform, body, and bed to get the fenders in the right place) roll pans, and firewall. I also de-chromed engine parts and the grill headlight assembly in the purple pond.

Nov. 24 - Painting the body and all the other parts. Primer on about 75% of the parts starting about noon when the humidity had dropped below 50%. Body color goes on about 2 PM and clear follows in about 1 hour. Other parts are painted as well either black or silver and depending on the part and time, may or may not get primer. Some parts like the grill that had to be dechromed were painted the next day because the chrome was hard coming off.

Nov. 25 - Spent the day rubbing out the body and painting the parts that required taping off. On this build, there were only two since the body was all one color. The interior platform was taped off and painted black, and the bed floor was taped off and painted brown. Once dry, tape was pulled and the bed was brush painted with several swipes of different shades of brown and foiled. Painted the grill and misc. other parts.

Nov. 26 - Engine assembled and installed with driveshaft and exhaust parts. Searched for and found wheels and tires that I thought would work and bullet taillights for the alcoves in the fenders. Detail painted the windshield frame and inner fender liners. Foil applied to door handles and windshield wipers. Assembled the interior platform with seats, shifter, etc. and decaled the seat. installed windows, dash and steering assembly in body. Assembled the chassis with interior floor, then bed and body and attached wheels to see how stance looked.

Nov. 27 - Made an adjustment to the body to get it to sit straight. One side didn't sit down so I used a clamp and some glue and it quit shifting. Attached all other parts and finished detail painting. Grill with headlight lenses, taillights, tailgate with Ford lettering, paint and foil on hood, gas cap, top hose for the engine, side mirror and license plate.

That's it! Its done! Thanks for looking and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

[tcoat]

OK 32 to 40 hours

[handiabled]

Your a machine! I really like the way the bed turned out! The mexican blanket look to the bench seats is really cool!

[greg]

Oh, 5 days. That changes everything.

What a slowpoke.

[406 Silverado]

Are you kidding me? 5 frickin' days and you're done with this beauty already? It would take me 5 months to turn out something with that much style and you go and do this in 5 days. True talent in every sense of the word John. WOW!!! 

[kyledehart5]

Quick and excellent work. Really enjoyed following along…mostly after it was already done. 🤣 great work.