I'm a Ford kinda guy. I claim no alliances, but it's hard to deny that pre-war Fords played a pretty major role in the early days of hot rodding. Chevy, they came into their own a little later in my mind. 55, 56, 57; the big Chevy moments in hot rod history. Of those three, the 55 is my favourite, then the 56, then the 57. The later they got the bigger they got, the more chrome there was and every year made them a little less beautiful in my eyes. More elegant maybe, but at the cost of freshfacedness.
Out of all the fifties Chevrolet offerings though, the 1951 model year was a pretty good vintage I'd say. Classy but not too classy, with a subtle yet very noticeable touch of class without any pretentiousness. A good all rounder that's oft-ignored in favour of later offerings.
I was delighted, then, to find this little 51 in a parts lot I bought. I quickly skipped past the two 57s in there, one of them a convertible, to check out this very clean but started build and started to get excited.
The engine is done - not beautifully but not too bad either, just needs a little detail work over the factory correct paint. The rest of the car is assembled with the tiniest traces of glue just gently barely holding it's bare plastic parts in place. Shouldn't take long at all to prise the various bits apart and get her primed. No prep needed - I don't see any evidence of flash being removed or any filler being laid down and it doesn't look as though it ever needed any. Very cleanly moulded, nice detail, multipiece floorpan and even more surprisingly everything seems to be there! It wasn't all in one bag, admittedly, but I pieced it together crime-scene-forensics style and I'm not gonna be short of much, if anything.
I don't often say this, but I think this one is gonna get build box stock! And there's a testament indeed to the coolness that I see in this particular Junkyard Jewel. Long may the world's parts boxes bring us all happiness as rich and fresh as mine
JB
Out of all the fifties Chevrolet offerings though, the 1951 model year was a pretty good vintage I'd say. Classy but not too classy, with a subtle yet very noticeable touch of class without any pretentiousness. A good all rounder that's oft-ignored in favour of later offerings.
I was delighted, then, to find this little 51 in a parts lot I bought. I quickly skipped past the two 57s in there, one of them a convertible, to check out this very clean but started build and started to get excited.
The engine is done - not beautifully but not too bad either, just needs a little detail work over the factory correct paint. The rest of the car is assembled with the tiniest traces of glue just gently barely holding it's bare plastic parts in place. Shouldn't take long at all to prise the various bits apart and get her primed. No prep needed - I don't see any evidence of flash being removed or any filler being laid down and it doesn't look as though it ever needed any. Very cleanly moulded, nice detail, multipiece floorpan and even more surprisingly everything seems to be there! It wasn't all in one bag, admittedly, but I pieced it together crime-scene-forensics style and I'm not gonna be short of much, if anything.
I don't often say this, but I think this one is gonna get build box stock! And there's a testament indeed to the coolness that I see in this particular Junkyard Jewel. Long may the world's parts boxes bring us all happiness as rich and fresh as mine
JB
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