1959 Desoto Fireflite Convertible

Time to move on to another project.

This time I’m probably going to just get myself into trouble, but after a number of mid to late 60s builds, I wanted to get back to the 50s and try to do something a little nuts.

I’m starting with this X-El 1959 Desoto Fireflite 4 door hard top, and converting it into a full detail convertible.

I’ll be utilizing as much of the AMT 1957 Chrysler 300 kit for the guts as I can, but the real test is going to be putting together an interior.

The promo has no interior, so one will basically need to be scratch built from the ground up.

I’ll hopefully be able to modify some of the interior parts from the 300, and with any luck, I’ll be able to find at least a starting point for the dash board.

In any case, the first task was to fill the unwanted door seams, and begin the transformation from a 4 door to a 2 door.

I began this work many years ago, but decided to start over again.

Rather than fill the panel lines with filler, (I hate putty) I filled them by gluing pieces of thinly stretch sprue into the gaps and then sanding and going over it with a very thin glaze of putty.

Shot a guide coat of primer over the mods to see how it’s going.

Looks okay so far, although a little more light work might be required.





Steve

1 Like

Very impressive door switch!

Steve,
Now that’s one very impressive conversion considering the amount of scratch building that’s going to be needed. Now I truly suck at scribing, which makes your 4 door to 2 door all that much more impressive.
As for your filling the the unwanted 4 door seams with stretched sprue then glazing, the pics surely prove that it’s the way to go with no shrinking down the road as any putty will eventually do.

joel