Finding top modelers does not seem to be too much of a problem these days. Lots of lowrider modeling pros are seen online and they always send us jpeg pictures to our email or by regular mail when all else fails. And sometimes old friends just dial us up. Frank Brise-o (AKA "Cisco") is just such an avid follower of LRB. His first and last appearance in the printed version of the magazine was in 1994. Today, he is a much improved modeler and we wish to display his tiny cruisers here in our Winter edition.
It's very hard to tell you which model in Cisco's arsenal of super-custom lowriders is his best because they all look extremely good. And sometimes models are meant to be simple reflections of the real street rides that eventually get done up to a radical status.
Go ahead lay your best fantasy ride in front of the camera, Frank. Too clean, the model was his '39 Chevy custom convertible fresh with a cool Testors transparent red paint job (over a first layer of red metallic) and two-tone pink and red fuzzy fur spread over twin styrene and resin bucket seats. When sprinkled on, the fur easily glued itself to the pink and red base paint.
What about body modifications? Cisco developed an idea to strategically cut the vehicle, which was a Sedan Delivery truck to start. The entire roof section was removed and then the doors were cut open and hinged in reverse (suicide) fashion. The split-down-the-middle hood was tricky and was hinged using piano wire and 1/32-inch brass tubing. The engine is a '64 Chevy block that kept getting better and better as he kept fiddling with it.
Another popular model was his Galaxie '48 Chevy Woody wagon slammed to the ground. There's tons of tricks on this one, too. To start, Cisco mated the Chevy's front end with a Ford Woody body. He opened the doors (and later hinged them), hood and back window hatch. The paint is a House of Kolor brand in candy orange over a charcoal-silver base and flat black paint for the rooftop. The trimming is a light tan and wood effect and was done by hand using an acid brush and brown paint. Since the doors swing open, the eye is allowed to peer into the interior. The bench seats are from a '50 Chevy pick-up kit with tan and orange fuzzy fur for a cloth look, while the headliner was hand painted to resemble slotted woodgrain.
As Frank has been in the model building business for several years, he knows just about every other hobby pro around town. His pals at O.G. Hobbies (Baldwin Park, California) chrome plated the engine, while Frank added more orange to accent engine and radiator. Other custom parts and pieces include a hand-crafted wood slotted roof rack (using brass wire and balsa wood) and he used a resin cast, swamp cooler and visor.
From Cisco's collection, we pointed to his cool-lookin' '62 Chevy Impala and his '37 custom with a wooden trailer. The six-deuce features a custom brandywine candy paint job over a metallic red base. The interior is stock but received an off-white sprinkling of fuzzy fur and three woofers were mounted in the speaker tray. The frame is chrome plated and the belly of the car was fully painted as was the body.
The model pulling a trailer was originally a Black Force slammers kit in which Frank dubbed a '37 because he used a '37 Chevy grille. But that is only a tidbit of high velocity of trick modifications. "I did a lot of changes," he says. Frank also faabricated '39 Chevy headlights and sunk them deep into the fender like the old Fords.
The body modifications were well thought out. Can you tell where the body is stretched? Well, keep lookin'! It's in the rear and Frank used white styrene and model Bondo plus the doors and rear hatch were hinged open. In the process of building a perfect model, it's standard practice to always work on the body before you paint. In Cisco's case, he squirted the long and low '37 with House of Kolor aqua blue green over a gray base. Cisco also tells us what he did to the interior and how he applied some tricks to the trailer.
The teardrop-shaped trailer was fashioned from hand-cut balsa wood and shaped to fit all angles and areas. The soft wood was also stained with brown paint and a paint thinner mixture. Creative detailed accessories also include machined aluminum hubcaps, rear view mirrors and a rear fender (they were also flared out) section of a '39 Chevy kit.
Boy, that's a lot of work and we only covered the general basics from his clean '39 convertible to a long and low trailer-pulling '37 custom. We hope that you enjoy Cisco's work and through our photo feature, we hope that we've gained you as a cyber reader.