1960 Chevrolet Impala Custom
Designed and constructed by Mark S. Gustavson
Photos by Mike Barlow and Mark S. Gustavson

Not surprisingly, 1960 Chevies were favorite custom fare in the early Sixties. Of course, some of those custom Chevies were wretched, but some were pretty well done (link here to the material we assembled for Revell for '60 Chevies). For your review, a list of articles on historic and contemporary custom '60 Chevies is found elsewhere in this article. 

For this annual custom clinic how-to project, let's strike out over fresh territory and see what can be done to clean up a basically excellent design rather than merely copy one a car built before. Some of the basic changes involved substantial bodywork which didn't 'fight' with the original styling. Restyling the upper character line, installing '62 Pontiac rear quarter character shapes, installing a horizontal rear taillight to match horizontal front and rear bumpers resolves a couple of original design glitches.  Check out Car Modeler 2001 for a full how-to feature on this model. Here, please enjoy a few photos of the model.

A). The upper characterline was removed on the door and front fender and replaced with a more subtle and delicate shape. Note how the forward edge of the line curls downward to match the reshaped leading edge of the front fenders that were sanded to angle downward, too.

B). The rear characterline from the AMT '62 Pontiac kit was sectioned onto the Chevy body.

C). The twin windsplits on the factory hood were removed and replaced with a single characterline. Careful block sanding aided smoothing the hood.

D). After a couple of coats of lacquer primer, the delicate center line is preferable to the factory design.

E). I mixed up a delicate pearlescent blue lacquer and applied five coats of this custom color over a darker matte blue base coat. Note that the B pillars have been widened – the factory roof line is too small.

F). The roof has been extended a bit over the windshield to better balance out the A pillars. Note that the windshield and backlight surround moldings were sanded co-planar with the surrounding panels.

G). The undercarriage was treated to three different basic colors: dark grey metallic, medium gloss black on the suspension components, and the bodycolor on the firewall. The exhaust systems was painted in different colors of Metallizer.

H.)The front grille is reminscent of the rear grille with two bars. Built to my design drawings, Cody Grayland machined the headlights, the bars and the rear taillight assembly.

I.) Here's an interesting comparison. The '62 Pontiac is covered elsewhere in the Custom Clinic. The back of the Chevy has been mildly restyled this photo was taken – I scratchbuilt a horizontal bumper and narrowed the opening for the license plate. With a single rear bumper, the design front and rear are better integrated.

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