Chuck Most

Eddie would have been proud. I've never built this specifically because I don't want to re create that paint job.

Personally I think this car is crying out for a set of full wheel covers (mostly thanks to the padded top and the presence of a Slant Six) but the Mag 500s always look good on these.

Love it! This is a kit I'd love to see reissued. I built one ages ago (lifted with the Mickey Thompson tires from the Revell Rubicon), have another about 30% finished as a "truggy" conversion, and at one point I had one where I'd started modifying the grille and bumper to depict a '97/98 model. Great kit though I never understood the gimmicky working suspension.

I just had to pair up a Hudson Hornet and a Judson supercharger, courtesy of the AMT '64 Cutlass Convertible. The main bulk of the '53 Club Coupe is box stock, with the following exceptions- the Judson supercharger (obviously) and drive belt, the finned cylinder head from Morgan Automotive Detail, a spin-on oil filter, a Replicas and Miniatures MSD ignition box, a floor shifter and steering wheel from the AMT '51 Bel Air hardtop, and some old MPC Polyglas GT tires with the five-spokes from an AMT '69 4-4-2. I wanted to indicate old collision damage, repaired with junkyard mismatch parts, on an originally red car. To that end, the main body was painted red, the fenders black, and the hood aqua. All of this was covered in grey primer, then light blue, which was then sanded away to expose the respective original color coats. The red is also clearly visible on the firewall. Also still getting the hang of my new camera- which is my phone (LG Stylo 6). Not thrilled with the pics but they'll work until I get the hang of the phone camera. I've had a few LG phones in the past and the camera is usually pretty good. Ironically this is the most expensive LG I've had and the camera is only kinda so-so. 🤣🤣

Is it a prototype? Was it build for Oldsmobile's personal use? Or was it an independent conversion? Who cares, here it is. This is a mashup of the new reissue AMT '64 Cutlass convertible and a late '80's reissue of the AMT '65 El Camino. The cowl, roof, bed, and tailgate, along with about 1/8" of the rear quarters, was cut out of the El Camino body, and a comparable area of the Cutlass body was removed, then the two were spliced. A bit of reshaping to the rear quarters and copious amounts of putty did the rest. The interior is the Cutlass tub cut down and capped off at the back with the El Camino's interior tub rear bulkhead. The chassis is from the El Camino, it required a bit of trimming to fit the now-narrower rear quarters at the very rear of the car. I also lowered because the stock axle position would have had the thing sit like a 4x4. The Olds engine pretty much dropped in, but I had to move the axle notch forward. I didn't wire the engine or go too far with detail because the conversion was enough of a project for me. Wheels were pirated from an AMT '69 4-4-2, with tires from an AMT '77 Pacer wagon. Eventually I might put the camper on the back, the version of the El Camino I used only had the topper shell.

Probably because my inbox was at 98% 🤣

I've got a few that meet the criteria...

My guess is it was a compromise for the upcoming "engine included" version, though even then, they could have gotten away with the good old oil pan notch to clear a wire axle in that case, since the kit is full blown retrorific and all. On the one I built I ended up snapping off a pin. I glued the block into place and drilled out a hole where the pin used to be and used a piece of brass rod to pin the wheel into place.

Maybe I'm weird, but I also never have enough parts for a complete '53 F-100, even though it seems like I always have ten of the kits at any given time. If it didn't have a red interior and were a year newer it would look an awful lot like the pickup on display at the local Ford dealer.

This started out as an idea for a simple junker farm truck with a V8 swap. I even got so far as building the chassis with the push bumper, and plugging in a 283 and 4 speed from a later model Chevrolet truck, along with jettisoning the torque tube for a driveshaft. That chassis still sits there in the box. A while after I started that, I build up the chassis from an S10 Extreme, with the intent of making up a small "bread van" body for it. to that end the chassis was build mostly box stock but fitted with some Hoppin' Hydros wheels and tires. A while later, and said chassis ended up with an LT1 and six speed manual. One day, the '50 cab just kinda ended up on the S10 chassis and I went with it. I might add an air suspension setup to the bed, for now let's say it's under the bed floor and this depicts the truck at "display height". The interior features the S10's floor shifter (despite having the shifter and the box saying it has a 2.2 and a five speed, the S10 Extreme kit contains the same 4.3/auto combo as every other AMT S-truck), along with bomber seats from a Revell Ford Model A. The bed saw the most modifications. It was shortened to go with the S10 wheelbase, and also mounted a bit higher on the body. That solves two things I always thought looked awkward about the Advance series trucks- the beds looked too long and too low. The fenders were also moved higher up the bedsides. The bed floor itself is just plastic painted grey, and the kit decals were applied. This is the 76 issue of the kit, which comes with wood grain decals for the side stakes. But you will need to apply them over a suitable base coat because Round 2 has this weird fixation with semi-transparent decal graphics. Aside from that I more or less went with a subtle "barn find" kind of look, retaining the stock handles, trim, etc. The rear bumper was something I made up for the truck's original "farm truck" theme, I just shunted it over to this project because I liked the look. I even took advantage of the way AMT did the cab corners to make it look like replacements had been fitted into place. And that mostly completed stock-ish chassis? Who knows? Maybe one of these days it'll actually get built.

Just as it appears in Tim's roadster, only with modern bright kit chrome. The sprue attachments are also easily dealt with, which is always startling for a 1960's kit.

In 1924, farmer Loren Heider opened up a repair shop, specializing in all types of motor vehicles, but primarily farm tractors. At least initially. This would lead to his opening of a Case equipment dealer later on. But before that, the repair business proved successful enough that Loren was able to purchase his first new car, a 1929 Oldsmobile F-29 sedan. So impressed was Loren by his stately sedan, that in 1932, he became the Oldsmobile dealer in the sleepy hamlet of Pompeii, Michigan. His two sons joined the dealership as the years wore on, and later on, his younger son would purchase his own Olds dealership, in nearby Sumner. While Loren Heider & Sons (renamed simply Heider Oldsmobile after 1965) stayed Oldsmobile-only due to apathy from GM HQ, Heider of Sumner picked up Chevrolet in 1964, and Pontiac in 1968. The original Pompeii dealership amazingly stayed around all the way up to Oldsmobile's end in 2004, and beyond. Today it is Heider Automotive, a used car/repair/body shop servicing all makes and models. The Sumner dealer was one of the casualties of GM's 2009 dealer jettison. While there was a '63 Chevrolet truck used by the Pompeii dealer, this is not that truck. Perusing craigslist one day, Dan Heider saw an ad for a '63 Chevy pickup. What grabbed his attention was the engine- a 455 Olds V8. The '69 Cutlass buckets and console drew him in further, and by the end of the week, it was parked in front of Heider Automotive. The truck as it stands is a bit of an anachronism. The door graphics are based on the 1969 Sign of Leadership design, even though the logos bear the Pompeii dealership's pre 1965 name. The rear bumper was rescued from a junkyard by Dan years before, it had come from his uncle's Chevy-Olds-Pontiac operation in Sumner. But, the truck is red (a hasty respray over the factory grey), just like the Chevrolet trucks the Heider family businesses used. Aside from the graphics and rear bumper, Dan also jettisoned the stock brakes for front discs and a boosted dual chamber cylinder, and fitted the truck with some Olds Rally wheels and Redline Firestones. By the way, none of that is true! It's just the backstory that helped to guide the project, and/or filled in the logical gaps when I decided to go a certain route. As for the actual model- it is the AMT '60 Apache 10. It was converted to a 63 by using the grille from an original AMT/SMP annual kit and a Revell '66 hood. Now... don't look too close because it still has the '60 torsion bar front suspension. '63 was the first year for coil springs up front on GM pickups. But since most people would never notice I just left the chassis as provided in the kit. This was also my first project to make extensive use of the new Revell acrylics. So far so good on those. The engine, transmission, seats, and center console came from an AMT '69 Olds 442, the redlines (even though now they're more like brown lines) are old Satco parts, and the wheels are even older Scale Equipment Limited resin two-piece units. I'm almost never 100% happy with models I finish, but this one? This one's a rare exception. It's far from perfect but for a vehicle like this, that's kind of the whole point.

And you, Mr. Boyd- it is partially your fault I bought the kit in the first place, because of the article you did for Scale Auto years ago featuring an Oldsmobile roadster hot rod with the Judson superchargers from this very same kit. I figured having the Judsons would be nice, and having the remainder of a '64 Cutlass would be a benefit. My Cutlass won't be as showroom fresh as yours though. But back to the trim, I will say the other stuff is easily dealt with. The scripts took well to the old "foil bare plastic, prime, and paint, then chip/scrape/sand the layers away to reveal the chrome" trick.

Jeez, I was wondering where all the Scout II kits went. Fantastic job on all of them.

That was my plan B, but after thinking I'd developed a system three or four times over I put the Cutlass back in the box for now until the migraine subsides. I'll give that method a shot when the ambition returns. Your model looks amazing, by the way.