1972 SS454 Chevelle, Yellow (Maisto)

Okay, so Maisto's latest American muscle offerings aren't everything we want, they do have a good shape and do take well to detailing. They have potential in other words. This one is a client's car. I was supposed to just chrome it but being a convertible there wasn't much to chrome so I thought I'd throw in some painted details and it kind of got away from me. This customer really got his money's worth! From here you can see the following added details: correctly painted SS grill, correctly painted wheels and correctly painted headlight bezels. The hood pins have been chromed too.

Here you can see the paint added to the rear side marker light, the chrome trim and the dark paint on the wheels. The wheels still look too shiny but they at least are the correct color. The windshield frame was dull silver to start with but now has chrome as it should. The door handles and lock bezel wake up with a little chrome foil.

Back here I've added back up light lenses and unique "Heartbeat" plates. The original plates are still there so the customer can decide whether to keep them. The stripes on this Maisto are pretty well done, but the curved corners should be less blunt. The custom-made Heartbeat plates were made by Ken Macolly. He can make custom plates for almost all states or unique statements. Just click his name to e-mail him.

Here you can see the grill details again. It sure looks better blacked out with flat black paint as do the headlight bezels. All I did under the hood was battery caps and underside of the hood. I wish Maisto hadn't so poorly molded the washer bottle and master cylinder into the fender liner, they look rather lame. On the other hand they put a warning sticker on the battery which looks great.

The console received a good deal of black paint to make it look correct. Maisto put a nice SS badge on the steering wheel and they did a nice job on the dash. While working on this car I noticed something rather odd: the driver's side rear door panel has no window crank but the passenger side one does! It's the same on the interior of my own hardtop. They are molded in so it's not like a piece was just not attached.

The job Maisto did on the underside was horrible so I set out to fix some of it. I removed the chrome exhaust and trans and painted them silver (leaving the exhaust tips chrome). I know how I could fix the drive shaft look, paint the gas tank and steering components to make it look even better but this customer already got more than his money's worth! Maybe on my own copy someday.

Enjoy Bob!