Finned Fender Updates
I’ve harbored, for a long time, the desire to return to my modeling roots, so to speak, and build another replica scale miniature of a factory stock Club Vicky – this time of the Gemma Jackson Vicky. As well, I’ve wanted to design and build a modified scale Vicky – – this time a well-restyled version of the same car built to the same standard and using some of the same parts. My long-time passion for ‘57 Fords and specific interest in building a factory ‘57 Ford Vicky miniature, has required access to key measurements and other information that can only be sourced from a 1:1 car, and that lead me to purchase of a 1:1 scale Vicky that is covered elsewhere on this site. I made myself a promise – years ago — that I would return to this subject matter, in the future, and build another version of my 1979-era replica stock model of the Club Vicky model. And, this time, I’ll do it right!
Though the factory stock Vicky model was satisfactory in the context of a limited skill set I had 35 years ago, I decided to move on to my next modeling project which was my mid-engine ‘36 Ford Sedan Delivery model and a sectioned, chopped, front wheel drive ‘49 Mercury
as well as a more traditionally-styled ‘51 Merc Convertible: following my Club Vicky model, I built a series of high-end scale customs and street rods (all extensively covered in the model car media) that reflected my interest in modified vehicles. Each of those models pioneered new and advanced techniques which helped me to develop increasingly higher skill levels.
The 1957 Ford Victoria Project has also triggered work on my 1:1 Club Vicky which restoration and modification has provided a wealth of information for my reprised Club Vicky model: this full-scale car will be leased to auto display venues, and then sold. Please enjoy the following chronological notes on the “big” car and the Club Vicky models.
Note that additional details of the 1:1 Jackson Vicky restoration and modification are found elsewhere on The Vicky Scale Models page.
As other work proceeded on the car, I noticed that there were some bodywork problems on the driver’s side of the car. So, because we’re going to respray the front clip in blue, it wasn’t much more work to re-spray […]
At this point, reassembly of the front suspension started in earnest. With all the factory suspension bits sandblasted and powder-coated, assembly was event-free and much more pleasant than the dirty dis-assembly stage. Check out these great photos: The front disc […]
With the paint on the firewall and the frame paint fully cured, it was time to move forward with assembling the car. After more than a year with the car being apart, it is good to get started on re-assembly. […]
I had initially thought we could remove the body from the frame, then to have the bare frame sand blasted and power coated. That process would have allowed George and Wayne to have cleaned the underbody and spray it, and […]
Just after the first of the year, Mike Smith was moving forward on wrapping up the work on my high performance Y-Block. Mike bolted down the freshly chrome-plated parts, re-installed the ignition wires and custom routed the setup, checked out […]
With some time off for Thanksgiving (and just to take a break), we got back to work on the Vicky. At this point, catalyzed primer-surfacer was applied to the front clip had set up and was ready for block sanding: […]
Work continued on the fenders. One very subtle change that I asked George Layton to create was to extend the factory top-of-fender, front-to-back, “peak” so it would terminate over the one-time separate “eyebrow” above the front fenders. The tapered peak […]
My goal with the front end of the Vicky has been to remove evidence of how the factory assembled the fenders by welding up the gaps and seams. The effort to remove panel gaps by welding up the seams doesn’t […]
The question inevitably comes up – what will be the effect of the mechanical and aesthetic changes I’m doing to the car? One of my sons, Eric, who sells and races Volkswagen professionally, advised me that restomods are generally worth […]
Prior to my purchase of the car, the prior (second) owner had a quality autobody shop reshoot the blue color no doubt to remedy the heavy stone chipping on the front end of the car that I observed in the […]