1970 Chevy El Camino SS454, Silver (Ertl)

This is a customer order. The silver of the car kind of makes it hard to see the chrome work, but it is there! Of course what you do see is the black vinyl roof I've added. The vinyl top on the El Caminos is actually pretty well done. It really adds some visual pizzazz to the car. Though I don't think this about most cars, I do think this truck-car looks better with a top than it does without vinyl. I also detailed the grill and wheels.

The bed has chrome all around though it is hard to see. Look closely, it is a little more shiny than the silver paint. The top extends to a small strip below the rear window. It is edged by a strip of chrome which sets off the vinyl quite nicely. Quite a bit of disassembly is required to put a top on this model but the top goes on quite well. The results speak volumes! I must say, Ertl did a nice job molding the interior of the beds on this one. I do wish the tail gates were metal though. It feels like it will break off every time I open one.

You can just make out the seams on either side. This really makes the tops look great. This model has a relatively simple roof line which helps the vinyl lay flat with no puckers or wrinkles. Getting it to wrap around the sail panels is kind of a trick but necessary to make it look as it should. With the top you can at least see some of the chrome work I did! The black adds some needed contrast. The black of the top goes well with the black stripes and black interior.

The interiors of these are so, well, BLACK. There really isn't much to chrome or paint. I did add the steering wheel trim and I blacked out the screw nubs by the seats. The automatic consoles could use some additional details. I'll have to come up with a way to make the gear indicator and add that to a few of my Chevelles with the auto console.

Now we can talk about some detailing. I don't know why, but the El Caminos don't have batteries with caps on them. The top is just flat. I did detail the battery terminals, under hood, washer