An old Impala upgraded

Having surprised myself by completing a number of fairly hard-core “chops” last year, I wasn’t ready to get back in the deep end. But my fingers were twitching, and for some inexplicable reason I got a sudden urge to upgrade an old Corgi ’59 Chevrolet Impala.

I loved this model when it came out. It had a very accurate, crisply-detailed body, but since it was designed as a toy, with a sturdy child-proof suspension system, from some angles it seems to sit rather too high on slightly oversized wheels and tyres.

So I wanted to see if I could get it looking more like the exaggerated “long, low, wide” look shown in contemporary ads.

I located some smaller wheels and tyres. And having dismantled the model, I decided to cut out the centre pillars to make it a 4-door hardtop, gave it some new clear glazing, a revised interior and proper “glass” headlamps. And of course a good dose of BMF was needed for the brightwork.

And this is how it came out in the end.

You may not think the changes were worth the bother, and you may be perfectly happy with the original Corgi and may even think it looks “cleaner”.

But it was just something to do, and in terms of matching up to the old publicity shots I think I more or less achieved the “look” I was aiming for.

Oh, and just in case anyone thinks I have been Photoshopping again, I will post a few build details in the Handicrafts forum for anyone interested.