Quick '39 Chevy Truck Part 2

Now the hard part! My first Valiant resin Ford V3000 conversion was done by just cutting out the top half of the solid resin cab interior to make it look like there was an 'inside'...

My 'Quick resin V3000' was a cheat with only the top half the cab drilled out.
Could I do any better this time?

It was a quick solution to the problem - how to make  a solid resin model look more like a multipart kit - and was adequate, but I wasn't all together satisfied with the result.

One of my readers suggested that I could improve the conversion - the next time - by excavating the whole of the cab by drilling in through the bottom of the model. So this is what I decided to try out with this 'Chevy' conversion of the Valiant model.

First I drilled a few pilot holes in through the front windscreen to mark the 'top' of the cab so that when I drilled in via the bottom of the cab I didn't drill straight up and through the roof! Then I marked out a 'safe zone' on the underside of the cab, the extent of the cab interior I intended to drill out...

I had to be very, very careful when using my Dremmel, so I started drilling out a hole from the centre of the cab outwards towards where I wanted the walls of the cab interior to be. All the time keeping an eye on where the drill was coming out using the pilot holes I had drilled to mark the roof of the cab.

Once I had drilled out the interior as close to the walls of the cab that I dared I changed from a drill bit in my Dremmel to a reaming bit (a small rotating cutting tool that cuts horizontally) to slowly shave the thickness of the walls down until I was happy. I also used the reaming tool to tidy and square up the hole I had drilled out.

I then used a craft knife and files to precisely finish off the interior and make sure the cab windows were neatly shaped...

Obviously this still isn't perfect, the cab walls are still a little on the thick side but I didn't want to risk accidentally drilling right through a door or something so erred on the side of safety. But I reckon this won't look so bad once the interior is painted and I fit the windows.

To finish off the cab interior I will - of course - have to add a new cab floor, with a seat and a driver in place. But I am quite happy as this was - I hope - the worst bit of the job, everything else should be plain sailing!

Next: The cab interior.