RESIN 1957 PONTIAC 1/25TH SCALE FEATURE BUILD ARTICLE

This model is based on a real car from my hometown. It
stalked the streets of our little town in 1966, mostly seen on
Friday nights. Staging between the stop and go lights on the
one way main street. This was not your fathers car!

I built this model from memory. Watching this thing eat
everything in its sight at the local painted off quarter mile that
we fashioned on a straight stretch of two lane blacktop
outside of town. The real car got its engine from a wrecked 65
Pontiac 2+2 with a 421 regular duty. The engine was then
blueprinted and fit with factory 421 super duty heads and
parts. Here is a sign of the times, you could still order this stuff
from your local Pontiac dealer.

The car itself was a very clean cheap model 57 Chieftain 2dr.
sedan, the bottom of the line car. White vinyl with cloth
interior, dog dish hubcaps, single exhaust 347ci. 2bbl., with a 3
on the tree. That of course was before the transplant work. It
was painted in factory lilac and kenya ivory. It was originally
solid gray.

I started with a resin cast 2dr. sedan from The Resin Realm. I
prepped and primed the body, smoothed the trunk. The real car
was decked and just had the key lock. I then airbrushed the car
in 5 coats each of lilac and kenya ivory, the paint is lacquer
from MCW.

The body was then detailed with Bare Metal Foil. The fender
rockets are from a 62 Catalina and modified to closer represent
the original ones. The door handles are from a Monogram 59
Chevy. This kit came with a dash and steering wheel. I used
the interior tub and seats from a 55 Chevy and modified them
to follow the design of the Pontiac interior. The dash was
widened to fit the tub and fill the gap at the windshield.

The interior was painted in white and flat gray to resemble
vinyl and cloth. This was a sleeper car, so everything was left
stock on the inside with the exception of a simple column tach,
and a Hurst floor shifter. Front glass and rear side windows
are 55 Chevy, and the back glass is 57 Chevy. The floor was
painted in rubber as this was a base model car.

I looked at different chassis options and decided the old tool
AMT Trophy Series from a 57 Chevy fit the best, doing some
mods to accept the interior tub and the 421 engine. Getting the
421 to sit right required some bending of the factory headers to
fit between the frame rails. Some scratch building was done on
the factory dump gates to mate the headers to the dual
exhausts. The driveshaft is 62 Catalina shortened. Pontiac
rated the 421 Super Duty with dual 4bbls. at a conservative
405 hp. The real car had a claimed dyno test of 457hp.

The engine is plumbed and wired. Heater box and blower are
AMT 57 Chevy. The carbs are Carter AFB'S. The master
cylinder is 62 Catalina. Radiator and support are modified 55
Chevy.

These are the type of cars we used to build as teens back in the
60's Working jobs part time and saving our pennies to pour
into our dream cars. Going many Sunday mornings to a
sanctioned dragstrip to wring them out.