1/12 Cord info

[hippie6]

I was able to scoop up a sealed 1/12 Cord kit lasst weekend. Did I stumble upon some gold or just something average?? I haven't seen this kit before (not in 1/12 scale) Not sure what I'm gonna do with it yet.

Thanks for the info

Brad

[Modelmartin]

That is a 80sor 90s? re-issue of the original kit from the mid-60s. It is a really nice kit and builds well but is not a particularly valuable kit, unfortunately. I would guess the value somewhere from $30 -50.00.

[sjordan2]

Once again, the talent, wisdom and experience of the late Martin Swire lives on. You can find information on his build here. As I recall, he found the roll-up side windows to be too thick and elected to delete them.

http://www.freewebs.com/martsmodels/1937cord812.htm

Edited July 26, 2010 by sjordan2

[sjordan2]

Another note of interest (to only a few, maybe):

I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a local high school teacher by the name of Glenn Pray was a restorer of Cords, Auburns and Duesenbergs. He decided to build an 8/10 scale production replica of the supercharged Cord, which survived for a few short years. I visited his shop with my Dad, and it was a wonder to behold – Glenn let me crawl all over a Duesey boattail speedster that had just been restored. Anyway, out in his lot awaiting some sort of attention was a smashed-up Cord 812, which supposedly had been the death car of movie cowboy legend Tom Mix. I have not much recollection of it, except that the seats were upholstered in black-and-white pinto pony hides (well, I was just a little kid, the car was demolished over 30 years before, and it could have been Holstein cowhide), and the whole front end was smashed to pieces. It makes sense that Glenn would have had it, since Mix was a veteran Oklahoma cowboy in his youth, who became a circus/trick pony rider with his horse, Tony, and later a silent and talkie movie star.

I think the car was originally white.

Tom Mix story here:

http://sowhereisshenow.blogspot.com/2009/02/tom-mix-and-saguaros.html

Edited July 26, 2010 by sjordan2

[Junkman]

Not sure what you are going to do with it? Well, what was a model kit made for?

Nah seriously, this is a double edged sword if there ever was one. It builds into quite a nice model, if you ever manage to build it. To say it is challenging would be a gross understatement. And I went through this twice already. That I will not do it a third time may tell you something.

One piece of advice: Do not follow the instructions. The body must be completely assembled before you paint it, otherwise you will never be able to mate the front clip to the main body properly.

[ZIL 111V]

AMT(Bud the Kat) introduced that beauty back in 1965, the kit was really far out for the days, Big 1/12 (To my knowledge AMT's only 1/12th kit car ever) & nicely detailed, since it was marketed for, mostly, young modelers, the assemblies are not too complex, when completed the kit really look great for such an old tool, a beautiful scale model for it's day.

...A kool comic strip ad with AMT's the "Kat" mascote was published in kids mags back then to promote this great kit.

The kit was never a big hit, guess a Vette or Hot Rod (like Monogram 1/8 kit series) would have been right on target for young modelers of the 60's. Anyway AMT did a great kit of one of the most beautiful 30's American Classic.

The kit was last reissued in 1993 (your box) by ERTL, another regular is the 1982 Matchbox version (nice yellow boxart).

As alredy mention collectebility value of this kit is very...very low: I got the first 60's Edition mint edition in sealed box on eBay 6 weeks ago for $47!!!, the '82 mint edition goes for an everage of $30 & the '93 edition is usualy the "cheapest" can be bought for $25-$30...depending on how many are "fighting" in last minute bids!..the "highest"...if i can say, as expected, is the first 60's Edition

...Classic car kits, even in large scale, are no money makers...(except kit boxes with those 6 letters:P-O-C-H-E-R )

Nice kit of a beauty.

[Junkman]

...Classic car kits, even in large scale, are no money makers.

It's a shame, really. I'm amazed for how little money one can snatch them up - if they turn up for sale at all. And even in the much more popular 1/25-24 scale, classics fail to attract big money. This is in stark contrast to the real car world. I wonder why.

[Jim Gibbons]

This builds into a nice kit. I built the early '80s release and it came out well. As mentioned above, I assembled the body before painting.

In the late '60s, NBC produced "Stuart Little" for television, and they used this very kit for the car Stuart drove. I remember going on a class field trip to the NBC Studios in NYC in '69, and in the lobby, they had the model on display in a glass case. If I recall, it was painted red.

Skip, I remember Glenn Pray's Cord 810. Pretty neat, actually. I saw one at a local car show about three years ago. They used a Corvair engine to power it. I still recall the Road & Track issue that featured it when it first came out. Several years ago, The History Channel had a car related show, and they had a segment on the Tom Mix crash. At least the car was saved. Also, Skip, being another Walt Kelly fan, I miss your Pogo avatar...you should add him to your signature line!

[Art Anderson]

On Highway 79, about half way between Florence Junction AZ (Intersection of 79 with US-60 East of Mesa & Apache Junction) and Florence AZ there is a rest area/picnic area maintained by Arizona DOT, that is on the site where Tom Mix died when he drove his Cord into a construction zone. It's quite interesting, very nice monument there.

I believe the Tom Mix Cord has been restored, seem to remember seeing it at an ACD Reunion in Auburn IN's Eckardt Park back about 1996 or so.

Art

[sjordan2]

On Highway 79, about half way between Florence Junction AZ (Intersection of 79 with US-60 East of Mesa & Apache Junction) and Florence AZ there is a rest area/picnic area maintained by Arizona DOT, that is on the site where Tom Mix died when he drove his Cord into a construction zone. It's quite interesting, very nice monument there.

I believe the Tom Mix Cord has been restored, seem to remember seeing it at an ACD Reunion in Auburn IN's Eckardt Park back about 1996 or so.

Art

Referring back to the article I linked to above, it appears his Cord was yellow, not white as I remembered (well, everything was in black and white in those days). Here's the memorial you referenced:

EDIT: Art (as usual) was right, this Cord (below) has been restored. Further research shows that Mix's Cord was a supercharged phaeton seating 4; the AMT kit is a 2-seater convertible coupe. According to a writer on the subject, "it has unique details like the “TM” embossed leather stone guards on the rear fenders and a clumsily preserved partial “Tom Mix” license plate frame. Sidney Craig’s 1937 Cord 812 Supercharged Phaeton is the last monument in Tom Mix’s career. It is documented in Josh Malks’ Cord 810/812 The Timeless Classic as delivered new to Mix. One of the great designs of the classic era, the Cord’s front wheel drive chassis, supercharged Lycoming V-8 engine and open 5-seat coachwork was inimitably linked with Tom Mix, featuring an exposed rear-mounted spare tire with extended rear bumper, raised rear license plate bracket on the left bumper spring, two Kilborn Sauer fog lights and single Trippe driving light which are seen in period photos with the famous cowboy star." The car was offered for sale at Bonhams in 2009. Details at:

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=USA&screen=lotdetailsNoFlash&iSaleItemNo=4225432&iSaleNo=17327&iSaleSectionNo=2

One thing I just noticed; the old photo of the Cord appears to have flagpoles on the front, probably for parades, etc.

Edited July 30, 2010 by sjordan2

[sjordan2]

By the way, Monogram made a pretty nice 1/24 version of the 5-seater Phaeton like the Mix car. Like the 1/12 AMT, one of the toughest tests of skill is adding the thin chrome trim to the strips on the coffin nose. In my estimation, no kit of this car is complete without attention to this detail.

Edited July 30, 2010 by sjordan2

[Jim Gibbons]

By the way, Monogram made a pretty nice 1/24 version of the 5-seater Phaeton like the Mix car. Like the 1/12 AMT, one of the toughest tests of skill is adding the chrome trim to the strips on the coffin nose.

Yay, Skip! Great to see Pogo back! I built a couple of the Monogram kits over the years; the first was back around '69-'70 where I pretty much only painted the taillights red, and black (incorrectly) for the instruments. A few years ago, I built another as a gift for my doctor (who is probably most responsible for saving my life) using Tamiya Racing White which is more of a warm white "ivory" tone than their Pure White, with a red interior. It came out beautifully. I even painted red piping on the black convertible roof. Unfortunately, all the pictures I had of it are on an expired computer which I'm hoping at some time to salvage. I do admit to cheating on the louvres, though; I used a silver Sharpie pen for the trim after attempting (disastrously) trying BMF on it. BMF would definitely be a lot easier on the 1/12 version. The original version of the 1/12 Cord had plated louvre trim, along with steering via the steering wheel, and movable headlights, all of which disappeared with the later releases.

[sjordan2]

Yay, Skip! Great to see Pogo back! I built a couple of the Monogram kits over the years; the first was back around '69-'70 where I pretty much only painted the taillights red, and black (incorrectly) for the instruments. A few years ago, I built another as a gift for my doctor (who is probably most responsible for saving my life) using Tamiya Racing White which is more of a warm white "ivory" tone than their Pure White, with a red interior. It came out beautifully. I even painted red piping on the black convertible roof. Unfortunately, all the pictures I had of it are on an expired computer which I'm hoping at some time to salvage. I do admit to cheating on the louvres, though; I used a silver Sharpie pen for the trim after attempting (disastrously) trying BMF on it. BMF would definitely be a lot easier on the 1/12 version. The original version of the 1/12 Cord had plated louvre trim, along with steering via the steering wheel, and movable headlights, all of which disappeared with the later releases.

This must look something like your build, though it's very white. (But a great color for this car, and very Hollywood – recalling the name of a Graham saloon using the same body molds)

I have a really hard time getting the Tom Mix story out of my mind, and his biography and the tragic ending bring to mind climactic scenes from Slim Pickens in "Dr. Strangelove" and "Thelma and Louise"; the last witness to see him as he missed the roadwork signs and went flying off the road at 80 mph, said he stood up in the car, hanging tight on the steering wheel and standing on the brakes before he smashed into the side of a gully wash. I kind of like to think of him shouting "Yaaahooo" as he went down. The plume of smoke was seen from a great distance. When you look at his biography, his life would make a great movie. Here's one reason why, from a special "spy decoder" box-top premium from Ralston, detailing the injuries through his life:

I vote for Woody Harrelson or Matthew McCoughnahey to star in a script by David Mamet.

Edited July 30, 2010 by sjordan2

[slantasaurus]

I have 4 of these kits, 3 of the 90's issue and 1 80's issue. I am quite surprised that noone has mentioned the 1 major error in the kit. The hood is molded with 2 ribs on it where there should only be 1. It would take a LOT of work to correct it though as the number of ribs are correct, just placed wrong. I have only started 1 of the 4 kits that I have and have only built the engine in that kit and added some details like fuel and spark plug wires. My goal is to build all of these kits eventually and donate at least 1 of them to the ACD Museum. I also want to convert 1 of them into the Hardtop that was custom built for the president of Champion Spark Plugs, the 1:1 car is in main showroom of the ACD Museum, and I have plenty of reference pics of it. If you need any reference pics of Cords just check my Photobuckets, I have albums of the ACD Museum and the ACD Parade from the last 5 years and several more in older photos that aren't digital. I even crawled under one of the cars in the Museum so I could get good chassis pics help in building the 1/12 scale kit, that was back in the mid-90's before the Museum was remodeled upstairs.

If Art Anderson is still looking in, I hope to see you in Auburn this year..........I'll be at the Parade and Kruse....er, Russo (or whatever they're going to call it....) Auction on Saturday. PM me if you're going.

[Art Anderson]

Referring back to the article I linked to above, it appears his Cord was yellow, not white as I remembered (well, everything was in black and white in those days). Here's the memorial you referenced:

EDIT: Art (as usual) was right, this Cord (below) has been restored. Further research shows that Mix's Cord was a supercharged phaeton seating 4; the AMT kit is a 2-seater convertible coupe. According to a writer on the subject, "it has unique details like the “TM†embossed leather stone guards on the rear fenders and a clumsily preserved partial “Tom Mix†license plate frame. Sidney Craig’s 1937 Cord 812 Supercharged Phaeton is the last monument in Tom Mix’s career. It is documented in Josh Malks’ Cord 810/812 The Timeless Classic as delivered new to Mix. One of the great designs of the classic era, the Cord’s front wheel drive chassis, supercharged Lycoming V-8 engine and open 5-seat coachwork was inimitably linked with Tom Mix, featuring an exposed rear-mounted spare tire with extended rear bumper, raised rear license plate bracket on the left bumper spring, two Kilborn Sauer fog lights and single Trippe driving light which are seen in period photos with the famous cowboy star." The car was offered for sale at Bonhams in 2009. Details at:

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=USA&screen=lotdetailsNoFlash&iSaleItemNo=4225432&iSaleNo=17327&iSaleSectionNo=2

One thing I just noticed; the old photo of the Cord appears to have flagpoles on the front, probably for parades, etc.

Skip--

I believe the Tom Mix Cord is painted "Cigarette Cream" which was a popular Cord color. In 1993, at the behest of the late Bill Harrison of Monta Vista CA (Bill was model car kit collector personified!), I completely reworked a terribly inaccurate Cord 810 sedan body into two versions--Non-supercharged Westchester Sedan, and a supercharged Westchester trunkback sedan. In 1994, due to a vitriolic letter from Guido Fieuw of SA, I completely corrected every "error" in those bodies (and there were many!!!), as I had started with one of his early efforts which was completely unusable (made from fiberglas, thicker than battleship armor in places, paper thin in others, rougher'n a cob all over), and then supplemented those two with the Convertible Coupe a/k/a The Sportsman (the same Cord body style that AMT did in 1/12). Along with the late Lee Baker (out of Chattanooga TN, now deceased) we teamed up to research the Cord 810 color palette for Dave Dodge of MCW Automotive Finishes (interesting work, as Cord used paint vendors now long gone, and called out tinting colors known then by names that don't correspond with anything DuPont or PPG-Ditzler), and Dave managed to come up with most of them in very close factory matches (I believe Dave can still mix those colors for anyone interested, but they do come at a higher price than his normally stocked colors.

One of the highlights of working up the Cord sedans was being introduced by Bill Harrison (who seemed to know EVERY Classic Car personality on the West Coast!) to Josh Malks, who met Lee and I at NNL West in 1994, driving his iconic metallic silver-grey World traveling '36 Cord Westchester (that car has been all over Europe and the UK, even driven on a rally from London to Tel Aviv, and dozens of round-trips from California to Auburn every Labor Day weekend) at the Santa Clara Convention Center, where Lee and I measured and photographed a ton of details, and which gave me the references for the parts to do the non-supercharged Lycoming V8. Then, Josh hustled Lee and I into the car, for a FAST ride down the 101 Freeway--about 25 miles or so--that thing had the acceleration of most modern cars!

An Italian customer of mine (AAM) sent me several color pics (Packed away at the moment) of the AAM '37 Cord flatback sedan he built, and detailed with sterling silver wire laid on the edges of the grille louvers--have some of that wire, just haven't gotten up the courage to try that yet (one of these days!).

Art

[sjordan2]

Skip--

I believe the Tom Mix Cord is painted "Cigarette Cream" which was a popular Cord color. In 1993, at the behest of the late Bill Harrison of Monta Vista CA (Bill was model car kit collector personified!), I completely reworked a terribly inaccurate Cord 810 sedan body into two versions--Non-supercharged Westchester Sedan, and a supercharged Westchester trunkback sedan. In 1994, due to a vitriolic letter from Guido Fieuw of SA, I completely corrected every "error" in those bodies (and there were many!!!), as I had started with one of his early efforts which was completely unusable (made from fiberglas, thicker than battleship armor in places, paper thin in others, rougher'n a cob all over), and then supplemented those two with the Convertible Coupe a/k/a The Sportsman (the same Cord body style that AMT did in 1/12). Along with the late Lee Baker (out of Chattanooga TN, now deceased) we teamed up to research the Cord 810 color palette for Dave Dodge of MCW Automotive Finishes (interesting work, as Cord used paint vendors now long gone, and called out tinting colors known then by names that don't correspond with anything DuPont or PPG-Ditzler), and Dave managed to come up with most of them in very close factory matches (I believe Dave can still mix those colors for anyone interested, but they do come at a higher price than his normally stocked colors.

One of the highlights of working up the Cord sedans was being introduced by Bill Harrison (who seemed to know EVERY Classic Car personality on the West Coast!) to Josh Malks, who met Lee and I at NNL West in 1994, driving his iconic metallic silver-grey World traveling '36 Cord Westchester (that car has been all over Europe and the UK, even driven on a rally from London to Tel Aviv, and dozens of round-trips from California to Auburn every Labor Day weekend) at the Santa Clara Convention Center, where Lee and I measured and photographed a ton of details, and which gave me the references for the parts to do the non-supercharged Lycoming V8. Then, Josh hustled Lee and I into the car, for a FAST ride down the 101 Freeway--about 25 miles or so--that thing had the acceleration of most modern cars!

An Italian customer of mine (AAM) sent me several color pics (Packed away at the moment) of the AAM '37 Cord flatback sedan he built, and detailed with sterling silver wire laid on the edges of the grille louvers--have some of that wire, just haven't gotten up the courage to try that yet (one of these days!).

Art

I've seen one of your Westchester builds, and it's stunning. You really ought to post some pictures here.

[hippie6]

Hey Andrew great info. I just sold the kit for $51. Great estimating!!