I'll
be honest, I was not that impressed the first time I saw the 71/72
Chevelles from Maisto. But after a bit of detailing I found they
can look very, very good. I'm just a sucker for being able to
take a $15 model and make it look as good as many $60-$70 models.
Up front this '71 got additional body color on the grill area,
flat black on the grill background and personalized plates.
Here's
another quick peek at that redone grill. I added color to the
area between the headlight bezel and grill, below the headlight
bezel and between the stacked turnsignal lenses. The hood pins
got a little chrome foil. It looks like I should also add a little
red to the area between the grill and the bumper.
After
a little research I found that the tail light lenses each have
a circle of chrome in the middle so I added that. The inboard
ones don't show it too well here becaus of the white paint on
the back up lamps. The body fit and paint finish are very nice.
I
really didn't do much here. In this year of car GM was using a
nearly black trunk paint so I left it black as cast. That huge
spare right in the middle looks kind of dumb but that's the way
it comes. You can see the tail lights and plates again here.
1971
was the last year for any chrome under the hood. I chromed the
valve covers and air cleaner lid. The lid was tough since the
engine call out is a tampo so I had to trim the chrome around
it carefully so it would show. The silver paint on the valve covers
wasn't good enough so I chromed them. It was hard to avoid a few
wrinkles in tight spots but it does look better to me.
Maisto
leaves the wheels all chrome so I painted them. I couldn't find
a satin or flat paint in the right shade so I mixed my own. It
still looks like I need to darken my mixture a bit to look more
correct. The 71/72 wheels have painted grey almost to the very
edge of the rim with a very narrow chrome trim ring. The way Maisto
cast the wheels this would be hard for me to paint cleanly so
I left them as you see here which still looks pretty good.
Maisto
did a nice job on the interior. They even painted the door panel
trim so there was very little left to do. I did paint some flat
black details on the console but you can't see them from this
shot. I really like the seat trim and SS badge on the steering
wheel. Like I said, Maisto did a nice job in here. I just wish
they had also gotten body color all the way up the door frame.
Here
is where the most improvement was made. The car now has a complete
and separate drive shaft and the exhaust is no longer attached
to the transmission. I also painted the exhaust so it is silver
not chrome. The gas tank got painted as well. I don't think Chevelles
had a cross-over pipe you see in the middle, but it helps keep
the exhaust in place and on a 1:1 is a good piece of performance
equipment so I left it in place.
Here's
how that grill looks with the additional body color paint added
to the area between the grill and the bumper. Another nice little
improvement!