hotrod59f100 Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 What was the deal with this company? I saw at a car show a Nissan pathfinder and a toyota land cruiser made by them boxed in a flat white card board boxes. I was told by the seller that their only available at the car dealership? I didn't buy them but I did buy a aoshima Honda accord wagon . When I opened the box it included a resin left hand dash made by American satco. Were the two company's linked some how? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luc Janssens Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 What was the deal with this company? I saw at a car show a Nissan pathfinder and a toyota land cruiser made by them boxed in a flat white card board boxes. I was told by the seller that their only available at the car dealership? I didn't buy them but I did buy a aoshima Honda accord wagon . When I opened the box it included a resin right hand dash made by American satco. We're the to company's linked some how? IIRC American Satco was the US distributor for Aoshima, they also sold tires sets of Aoshima origin as well as their own designs...but the story ended... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbwelda Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 you sound confused. let me take a crack at it: >We're the to company's linked some how? that would be "Were the two companies linked somehow?". in answer to that yeah i think satco made the left hand drive dashs for some aoshima kits. i have an mgb kit with a resin left hand drive dash, and i do not recall it saying satco on it but i wouldnt be surprised. they are left hand drive dashes by the way, not right hand drive... so there is the link: aoshima evidently contracted with satco to produce the resin dashboards. i thought this thread would be about their tires, and how they are no longer being produced, at least not by satco. which is a real shame. somebody please tell me i missed them starting back up on production of tires. yes i know about the guy who was copying them and in fact provided a couple for masters for him, but i mean the real american satco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixx Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Man, I miss those wide white walls they produced!! They were the best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Cole Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Satco was alive in the 90's, iirc. Sadly, no longer in business afaik. That Pathfinder had nothing to do with any promo or Nissan dealerships. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 I think Roger Sills(?, not sure about the surname) was the head of American SATCO, and they did offer some nice tire sets in the '90s. IIRC, they were headquartered out of Iowa. FWIW, you can still find their tire sets on eBay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemodeler Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 I think Roger Sills(?, not sure about the surname) was the head of American SATCO, and they did offer some nice tire sets in the '90s. IIRC, they were headquartered out of Iowa. FWIW, you can still find their tire sets on eBay. You are correct Casey, they were based in Iowa and I think Roger had a connection to AMT/Ertl somehow. At one time they were looking at producing a LWB mid-60's Chevy pickup and then Revell announced their new 64 Chevy SWB pickup and that cancelled Satco's plans. Their tires that they offered are top notch (some are still available at The Model Empire, I think!) and would be greatly appreciated by us truck builders. Sadly, they went out of business but hopefully someone can resurrect their tire line someday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotrod59f100 Posted May 17, 2012 Author Share Posted May 17, 2012 (edited) you sound confused. let me take a crack at it: >We're the to company's linked some how? that would be "Were the two companies linked somehow?". in answer to that yeah i think satco made the left hand drive dashs for some aoshima kits. i have an mgb kit with a resin left hand drive dash, and i do not recall it saying satco on it but i wouldnt be surprised. they are left hand drive dashes by the way, not right hand drive... so there is the link: aoshima evidently contracted with satco to produce the resin dashboards. i thought this thread would be about their tires, and how they are no longer being produced, at least not by satco. which is a real shame. somebody please tell me i missed them starting back up on production of tires. yes i know about the guy who was copying them and in fact provided a couple for masters for him, but i mean the real american satco. Your right it was left hand drive dash. Edited May 17, 2012 by hotrod59f100 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotrod59f100 Posted May 17, 2012 Author Share Posted May 17, 2012 I'm new to the American satco brand ,I didn't know they produced tires and such till I did a quick eBay search. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eshaver Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Yes, I too was a big fan of the American satco tires . I went around as i was a releif driver for Wal Worl for a couple of years . I would do my deliveries , drop a trailer and use the cab to stop at a nearby hobby shop and of course buy out all the tires . Ed Shaver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roncla Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Man, I miss those wide white walls they produced!! They were the best Some of the Satco tires are being reproduced by the Modelhaus (with Satcos' permission ). The wide whites are #T428 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Did American SATCO actually produce the tires themselves or were they simply re-packaged Aoshima tires (or whomever supplied the tires to Aoshima)? Or was it a mix of SATCO's own unique tires and some repackaged Aoshima tires? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbwelda Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 given their supplying the resin dashboards it could be satco supplied aoshima their tires as well. from what i knew, they at least designed their own tires if not actually manufactured them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Anderson Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 Did American SATCO actually produce the tires themselves or were they simply re-packaged Aoshima tires (or whomever supplied the tires to Aoshima)? Or was it a mix of SATCO's own unique tires and some repackaged Aoshima tires? American Satco (Roger Sills, who had been an AMT Ertl exec) imported numerous sets of neoprene rubber tires for models from Japan. Now most probably do not know that in Shizoka City, Japan, there are numerous mom & pop shops who make stuff like rubber tires for model car and truck kits for all the major manufacturers there. That is what Roger imported.. Roger paid for the tooling of the Firestone wide white tire himself, and those got produced, as most of us know (I still have probably 30 sets of them--leftover stock from AAM (included them in several AAM resin kits). Unfortunately, Roger was involved in other stuff, including his being an officer in US Army Reserve--last saw him at the Racing Champions/AMT Ertl outlet store in Dyersville back in the summer of 2004). Art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Most Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 I tend to hoarde Satco tires as I find them - the Bridgestone light truck tires are very nice! The line of Firestones previously mentioned were good as well. I have seen the metal soldiers available from Satco, but I'm not at all sure what the story on those was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotrod59f100 Posted May 17, 2012 Author Share Posted May 17, 2012 Cool info guys . Double D I agree the dash is rough at best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Anderson Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 American Satco was the U.S. distributor for Aoshima kits at one point. some kits had LHD resin dashboards included so that those kits could be built as or close to cars that we had here. i know the resin dashboards in the kits i had were ROUGH and in my opinion unuseable. American Satco had thier own tire line and they also repackaged Aoshima tires for sale. pretty sure that the 50's style whitewalls, the red. blue and gold stripe tires and the "super stock" drag slicks were thier own creation while all the others were Aoshima sourced. IMO the 50's style whitewall tires were too fat and should have been a bit skinnier in thread width to have looked good under most kits. the other issue with the super stock drag slicks is that the pre-printed white lettering would literally just rub off when you touched it with your fingers. Actually, Satco's Firestone "Wide Whites" were done off a 7:00-15 Firestone tire, that was mounted and inflated. Those old bias ply tires tended to have tread width that was almost exactly same as the rim width, so in this case, a 7" tread width translates out to ..280" (which incidently is also the exact tread width of the tires in the Mobius Hudson kits. 7:00-15 was a very common tire size by the early 1950's, and carried on all the way to the advent of radial tires in the early 70's here in the US. This is a very correct tire size for mid-upper priced cars of the 1950's, and low-priced station wagons through that era as well, and even the earliest of muscle cars. Part of the misconception may well be the Revell, AMT and Monogram street tires in those respective company's kits that were almost always a bit too narrow for scale accuracy? Art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GreggH Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Are they still available today? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Are they still available today? Yes, they can still be found as NOS (new old stock) on eBay, but American SATCO is no longer producing new tires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Johnny Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 The dashes weren't that bad were they Dave? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinfan5 Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 (edited) I remember having the Pathfinder kit when I was a teen in 90's, didn't they aslo make a land cruiser as well? or something from Toyota?, I remember having one of those as well, I think lol Edited May 19, 2012 by martinfan5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Hall Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 I remember having the Pathfinder kit when I was a teen in 90's, didn't they aslo make a land cruiser as well? or something from Toyota?, I remember having one of those as well, I think lol I remember a 4Runner IIRC... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinfan5 Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 I remember a 4Runner IIRC... Then thats got to be it, the 4runner kit, I can barley remember last, let alone something from the 90s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 FWIW, I bought an Aoshima Subaru Legacy GT wagon a decade ago, and it included a LHD dashboard which was very nicely done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotrod59f100 Posted May 19, 2012 Author Share Posted May 19, 2012 (edited) The dashes weren't that bad were they Dave? The dash that came with my accord has pin holes everywhere ,thick spots ,vary bad edges and major lack of depth of the controls nobs and vents. Edited May 19, 2012 by hotrod59f100 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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