1961 Pontiac Ventura kustom

[skip]

Nice Interior Decorating Charley! Hope the rest of the car goes the same way,
if it does this thing is going to be stunning.

[lo51merc]

I may just be getting here a lot later in the project, but, I think that all of the changes you've made to the body make the car look a lot cleaner, lighter, and sportier. With the addition of all of the new jewelry it will be a knockout.
Gary

[sharp]

Its gonna be one cool lookin' Kustom when your done!

[chepp]

The glass fit isn't perfect but it's all that I could do after letting it sit for several weeks. To install, I'll fill the gaps with canopy cement and attempt to build it up in small amounts to be flush with the glass. When it's dried clear BMF should disguise the worst of the problems.

The backlight was a little easier to fit than the windshield but it still required a lot of precise filing/sanding to reduce the glass and enlarge the opening for a better fit. Even so, there are some minor gaps that should be OK after filling with canopy cement and disguising with BMF.

[chepp]

I've given up on getting the front and rear glass to fit.

Today I removed the roof and spliced in one from the AMT '65 Riviera. I changed the photo to grayscale because of the hideous yellow molded color of the Riv.

[sharp]

Nice work!!

[Mr. Metallic]

The bubbletop is a classic form, but your addition of the Rivi roof really works. Looking forward to more

[ChrisV]

I can only agree... The Riviera roof is an interesting but remarkably sharp looking choice!
The greyscale image really emphasizes the many tasteful modifications on the car.

[SteveMilberry]

Very nice. I wouldn't have thought of that.

[chepp]

Here's a rear three-quarter view...again in monochrome to hide that fugly yellow plastic roof. I'm calling the roof a '63 even though it is from the '65 Riv kit because it literally is out of the same unchanged part of the body mold from the kit that was updated in other places from the '64 that itself was an update of the '63.

Because of the roof changes, I've modified the interior bucket and added some styrene locators here and there to keep it in position. I've modified the front and rear axle holders to fit better and to include some view blocks to give the illusion that there are inner fenders.

[RodBurNeR]

nice work Charley! i am also enjoying the pin point descriptions on the images!

[lo51merc]

I'll assume the Riviera roof section needed some tweaking for what looks like a perfect fit. Can you tell us about that? Stylewise it's a great fit in the overall design of the Poncho.

[chepp]

May 26, 2024 9:15:09 GMT -5 lo51merc said:

I'll assume the Riviera roof section needed some tweaking for what looks like a perfect fit. Can you tell us about that? Stylewise it's a great fit in the overall design of the Poncho.

Thanks! Actually, all it needed was "sinking" the rear of the roof into the deck and replacing the "Coke bottle" window trim under the side windows with flatter styrene.

[lo51merc]

Thanks so much for your how-to. The pictures make it very clear. I'll keep this idea in mind for a possible future project.
Gary

[chepp]

OK, I'm back at it. This was supposed to be a two-week (maybe three) curbside that I started last October. There was a little bit of mission creep (replacing the roof) but it just keeps dragging on. The black items above are the axle holders that snap into the body. The custom Riviera clear wheel is painted with Tamiya clear green to go with the interior.

The body had endless boo-boos that I thought I had corrected before spraying Tamiya Fine Gray (L) primer and then Model Master Sterling Silver Metallic as a base coat. Still, more boo-boos that I couldn't live with appeared as I added three coats of Tamiya TS-13 clear. So, I'll fix them before moving on to masking and fogging various undercolors. Eventually, It will get Tamiya Clear Green and more clear.