1965 Dodge Coronet 500 by Polar Lights

[JayC]

I was given this model kit about a year ago by a family member. I haven't really thought too much about it as I was never much into the Coronet. At the time I wasn't too interested in getting back into modelling. Now that I'm trying to get back into the hobby I got it out to look at it. I've also been debating if I wanna post it in the trading forum or not. Here's a box shot:

If I built it I would probably modify it a little. I would definitely paint it a different color. I don't care for the chrome strip down the side so I would probably grind that down and smooth it out. I'm just wondering if anyone ever built this kit? Even though the box says it is skill 2, it also says it is a snap together kit without the need to paint. The instructions then say you can glue it and paint it. I took the parts bags out and had a brief look at them, but I don't know how good this kit might actually be. Is it accurate? It can be built as one of two types - stock or for the strip.

[Guest arni]

So apart from that,it is a good kit?

Edited September 30, 2009 by arni

[BigGary]

So apart from that,it is a good kit?

I e-mailed Round2 awhile back and asked them about re-issuing the '65 annual. They said they were aware of the interest in this kit, but had no plans to re-issue in the near future. Maybe you've noticed the original AMT kit from '65 brings high prices.

Maybe if enough people e-mailed Round2 and asked about it, that might make it happen.

By the way, I disgree with Mark about the side Chrome trim. The chrome trim appears to me to be straight. The body is slightly higher in back than in front. Here's a '65 to compare to:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http:/...=1&ct=image

Gary

[Zoom Zoom]

Sadly the Coronet and GTO in the series were rather halfhearted attempts at models. I assume they were meant to be better, but somewhere along the way someone either cut budget, cut designers out of the loop, rushed things along that shouldn't be rushed...everything a good kit does not need to happen in development. So we're stuck w/a '65 Coronet kit, while much cheaper than an original kit (that had it's own accuracy issues), just doesn't capture the character of the real car very well. Weak engraving, proportional issues, detail issues, that horrific side trim (drawn with a straight edge, it's as flat as Kansas, when it should make an gentle downwards arc from front to rear), sectioned body...I built one mostly OOB and it's a pretty "bleh" model to look at. Thankfully I didn't pay much for it. In the grand scheme of things, value-wise it's basically a $5 model in accuracy, detail, and satisfaction. The paint from Polar Lights models strips nicely with 91% or stronger alcohol.

[JayC]

Thanks guys. I guess I will toss it aside. I, too, was rather disappointed in the engine. It is just one blue-molded blob. Like I said above, I have been thinking about offering it up for trade in the swap forum, but after reading about it I'm not sure I would feel comfortable even swapping it for something else.

[charlie8575]

Based on what I remember reading somewhere, the chassis is a pretty good starting point for a resin project.

I'd get an R&R '63-'66 Dodge/Plymouth downsized full-size or B-body and use the chassis as a start for that.

Charlie Larkin

[mr moto]

I'm really sorry to hear that evaluation. I have one stashed away also and hadn't really looked at it closely yet. It will still probably get built one day but I was hoping for a really good Coronet kit. Back in the day I built several of the old AMT Coronets and loved that kit as well as the 1:1. Maybe Round 2 will change their mind about re-issuing because I'm not ready to pay what the originals go for on Ebay!

[Art Anderson]

I e-mailed Round2 awhile back and asked them about re-issuing the '65 annual. They said they were aware of the interest in this kit, but had no plans to re-issue in the near future. Maybe you've noticed the original AMT kit from '65 brings high prices.

Maybe if enough people e-mailed Round2 and asked about it, that might make it happen.

By the way, I disgree with Mark about the side Chrome trim. The chrome trim appears to me to be straight. The body is slightly higher in back than in front. Here's a '65 to compare to:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http:/...=1&ct=image

Gary

I've posted too many times already about the errors in the Polar Lights Coronet--basically that Sales let Walmart dictate the release date, far too far ahead of the scheduled time frame and all that--the kit is a disappointment both to me, and the guy who was heading up Polar Lights at the time.

HOWEVER, the '64 GTO is far more accurately done, despite some claims to the contrary on this and other boards! When one has over 200 photos and measurements of the real car to go by, done by none other than the legendary John Mueller (long time AMT Corporation head of product research and design--he DOES know his stuff) I stand by what I said, that kit is very well done overall--the only '64 GTO done as well was the original AMT kit from 1964, now in the unobtainium category.

As for the old, original AMT '65 Coronet, two things: The kit cannot be brought back without nearly the same investment as an all new tool--the original tool was an early MPC design, produced and marketed by AMT, whereupon, MPC took the tooling, made a funny car kit out of it. I have the complete MPC tooling list as it stood from RC2 in 2004--almost nothing of the original kit tooling appears on that very lengthy tooling inventory. In addition, by comparing John Mueller's reference photo's of two original cars, the MPC designed, AMT produced '65 Dodge Coronet 500 is itself far from accurately done as well.

Art

[elan]

I too bought the '65 Coronet for $5. It is kind of a joke to assemble as it really needs to be glued togther. If you put some effort into detailing it can be a decent model. I'm happy with the way it turned out. What are your options? I don't like the car enough to pay big bucks for a vintage version. Like the Rolling Stones sang "You can't always get what you want." Edited October 1, 2009 by elan

[Zoom Zoom]

I've posted too many times already about the errors in the Polar Lights Coronet--basically that Sales let Walmart dictate the release date, far too far ahead of the scheduled time frame and all that--the kit is a disappointment both to me, and the guy who was heading up Polar Lights at the time.

Well, that is just shocking!

I will never buy another model kit at Wal Mart!

Oh...wai...

[Art Anderson]

Art, what about the Monogram '64 GTO kit? this is argueably in my opinion, the best '64 GTO kit ever done.

Dave

Dave.

We evaluated the Monogram '64 GTO with John Mueller, and he pointed out numerous serious inaccuracies in the body shell--too wide, too boxy, hood and rear deck way too flat, for starters. Mueller provided us with some 300 pics he had taken on our deal of a pair of GTO's, both hardtop and convertible (Monogram's kit is a two door sedan (Post). Now, in doing reference pics of a car for modeling, no consideration is given to "beauty shots" but rather pics that show shapes, dimensions and details. Those get taken from all sorts of crazy angles, in order to capture all the subtleties of the car when a mockup is done for a model kit or a diecast.

When evaluating any model car kit, particularly the body shell, it's essential to compare that body shell to pics of the actual car, by holding the body shell in as close to the same position as it appears in the pic of the 1:1, THEN closing one eye or the other, to eliminate visual perspective and depth perception, in order to view both in the same manner, just two dimensions (a camera lens does not give the effect of that 3rd dimension, depth.

Monogram's tooling of the early to mid 1980's all tend to show a certain boxiness, too flat panels, but they are one thing for sure, INFINITLY buildable, which certainly made them extremely saleable, without question.

But, I would urge anyone purporting to judge any model car kit or diecast, to consult as many pics of the real thing as possible, and forget trying to judge accuracy merely by comparing one kit to another---there is no 1:1 benchmark when that is done.

Art

[Art Anderson]

i got to thinking about the Polar Lights and Walmart thing. did Walmart ever stock Polar Lights kits? i only remember ever seeing AMT, Revell and Lindberg.

Dave

Yes, Walmart did carry Polar Lights kits, in selected stores. Funny thing with Walmart--they don't always have the same stock on the shelves from one town to the next. In fact, they got the first shipments of the Great American Rides kits.

Art

[Ron Hamilton]

I bought most of the Polar Lights kits, but have only built one '64 GTO.

I originally wanted to make a quick, out of the box build out of it, but I got kind of got carried away with it, polishing out the paint, detailing the interior, adding Bare Metal Foil, washes for the wire wheel covers and grilles, some "Last Detail" decals, red lined tires, and the appropriate Model Car Garage photoetch details. It was still done in a few hours, as compared to a few weeks for most of my other builds.

While quite simple, I liked what I built. I have a couple of the original AMT '64 GTO Hardtops on my collection, and they do look better than the Polar Lights version in my opinion, but not by much. I just did not care for the moulded in headlamps.

I have a Polar Lights' '64 GTO Convertible in the queue, which I hope will be another "Quick Build"

The '65 Coronet 500 is another story. I think it could be made into a decent representation of the one-to-one, but it will take a lot more work. I stripped the paint off of a white one, and put it back in the box. I also have a resin copy of the AMT kit, utilizing a chassis form a Lindberg '64 Dodge in primer. I may build both of them side by side, to do as a comparo.

[Zoom Zoom]

Then there was the '05 GTO ... oy, what a clunker that one was! Easily the worst of the bunch, I thought. Indifferently engineered, the headlights were an absolute joke and the instructions were completely useless. And the "drift car" variant ... I really don't know who PL thought they were fooling with that one. A street-stock GTO painted to look like a drift car does not a drift car make!

I built a couple of the Ford GT's and liked them, both got new wheels/tires, and overall it's a pretty good kit. BTW, the '05 GTO and Ford GT front tires are perfect "realistic sidewall" replacement tires for the Revell tuner wheels. They fit perfectly.

I built a few of the '05 GTO's, and I had to fix the headlights/foglamps on them . The basic kit was pretty decent, but I could slap whomever decided to penny pinch that kit on it's very face. Making those headlights/foglamps so ridiculously un-detailed (and the license plate holes about 4X larger than scale and not flashed over) was a major cop-out. Absolutely the worst place possible on any model kit is to make the whole thing look good, until you get to the very face of it!! It screamed "we are too cheap, modelers won't care". And yes, the instructions were garbage. Clearly Polar Lights was hobbled by some very poor decision making somewhere along the line. And yet I liked that GTO well enough to fix the most obvious problems (would it have killed them to put reflector contours behind the headlight covers? I swear...it was as if the person who made this decision was the same one behind those awful composite headlights done on MPC promos/kits...you know, those composite units that were chrome plated...and looked absolutely awful!). I built only one Coronet, was bored to the brink of narcolepsy, and never bothered to get another, no inspiration to have a better one.

Ron's GTO looks so good I might revisit mine someday. As soon as Polar Lights went down the predecorated snap kits for Wal Mart path, we were bound to end up with threads like this. Sometimes the kit can rise above, other times they're hobbled mercilessly.

[Jon Cole]

Then there was the '05 GTO ... oy, what a clunker that one was! Easily the worst of the bunch, I thought. Indifferently engineered, the headlights were an absolute joke and the instructions were completely useless. And the "drift car" variant ... I really don't know who PL thought they were fooling with that one. A street-stock GTO painted to look like a drift car does not a drift car make!

I don't have either the street or drift GTO. It sounds like you may be saying the "drift" variant is the street car with the paint like the 1:1 drift paint scheme? Yeah, that would be mighty lame on PL's part! The drift car is 100% race prepped machine.

Of course, PL was just making the most on their new tooling at the time. Still, I'm happy I passed on it.

[Dave Mikrut]

Yep I built it. What's cool about this kit is that it comes in more than one color. I chose the white one

so I could make a version of the Ramchargers drag car. Here are some fotos of the build.

[JayC]

I like the gold color on the GTO. I didn't even know Wal-Mart had these kits if it wasn't for the $15 price tag. Definitely not the $5 some people paid! I didn't know these kits came in different colors. I absolutely hate the red color on the one I was given. After looking at some other pictures, I would probably keep the chrome strip on the side. I saw a yellow '65 Coronet that I really liked.

The Ramchargers model looks great!

I dunno, I'm still up in the air on this kit. Since I was given it and don't actually have any money into it so far part of me wants to try and do something with it. Then there's the other part that just completely dislikes the very mention of snap kit (and lack of detail mentioned by others). I was thinking of using the tires in a completely different, unrelated-to-cars project. I just don't know if they are the right scale and I'm not sure how to determined what scale I need. Oh well, in the box the Coronet sits.

[Dave Mikrut]

Well I felt the same way and was compelled to add a little more detail to the chassis, even tho it was just a little it did

add some realism. This was a quiky build, the decalling was a real son of a gun tho! hehe

[JayC]

I love your interior! You really made it come to life! The extra details you made really enhance the kit.

While looking for images of the '65 Coronet 500 I came across this one. This is the yellow one I mentioned above. I'm an absolute sucker for yellow, so that it why I'm drawn to it so much. I would try and paint it as close to this one as I could.

http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/crenshaw65.html

[Dave Mikrut]

This is actually one of my all-time favorite cars and I profess to be a Chevy man! haha!

There is a guy who cruises a gold and white one in my town, I will try to get a foto of it

to add to this thread.

[JayC]

The paint from Polar Lights models strips nicely with 91% or stronger alcohol.

I think I am actually leaning on putting it together now. I was going to go with a Camaro as a first project in a long time, but this will suffice. If I mess it up, I won't feel too bad about it. I quoted the above because I think the PL paint will definitely have to go, and I'm glad to hear it strips nicely. On closer inspection, the PL paint job just isn't that great. The chrome just looks smudged on and the inside has a lot of silver overspray. On the other side of the car, a bit over half the chrome strip isn't even painted. A part of the interior "tub" has some red residue on it as well. Since I would plan on painting just about everything it isn't a real big issue. It just makes me wish they didn't try to paint the body at all. It would have made things easier.

Edited October 5, 2009 by JayC

[JayC]

I decided to revive this thread because I have noticed something about the engine. I may be wrong, but I want to mention it. I was just looking through pictures again of the '65 Coronet. I got to looking at the engine in the kit and am wondering if it is molded as a V6? I just want to say that I know very little about engines, so I may be wrong. Let me first ask a dumb question, is it the distributor that the spark plug wires connect to? I was looking at the one with the kit and I see six little protrusions where the spark plug wires would go. There is one little protrusion in the center of the six. Where does that wire go to? Looking at the bottom of the engine block, it looks like there are three spots on each side where the wires would go. Here are a couple pics that will show what I'm talking about.

[BigGary]

I got this kit in '65 when it was an AMT annual. I modified the body for AWB but never finished it. I keep hoping Round2 will bring it out again.

Gary

[Harry P.]

They put a six-cylinder distributor in the kit?

Geez, talk about asleep at the switch. Hello, quality control??? Is there anybody in there???

[JayC]

I'll try and get some pics later. I can just cut the six protrusions off the distributor. I have some bead wire I want to use for the spark plug wires. I'm not sure exactly where they go on the engine. Like I said, I was looking at some pictures of the real thing. Some engines have the wires going down into the engine out of shot of the camera. A couple pictures showed the wires on top of the engine like the one Dave showed above.

I was going to strip the paint and paint the car a different color. I decided I wanted it to look stock like it just rolled off the assembly line instead of a custom. Since the kit isn't that great I didn't really want to spend the time stripping and then the money to get the primer, paint, and clear for it. I probably wouldn't have bought this kit if I saw it in the store, but since it was given to me I didn't want to see it just sitting there in the box. I'm really using the kit as practice for stuff like foiling and then bead wire for spark plugs.