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Jo-Han Desoto Adventurer Hardtop


GeeBee

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I bought this off eBay, the kit was listed as "Brand New & Boxed" ....

This is what I got !!!

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After sending a few emails to the seller, I ended up keeping the kit and got a 75% refund, so in the end the model cost me £5.99, (around $9.75), there was a few parts that were broken, or had come un-glued, two of the wheels had snapped off, and the others snapped when I tried to remove them, but the rest of the model basically fell apart, luckily the body and chassis hadn't had too much paint applied as the body was left as the colour it was molded in (Blue) and the roof panel had been brushed painted in white, which had gone a little on the yellow side, the chassis just had the axles and the exhaust picked out in colour, the interior was left in it's molded in blue.

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The wheel backs were drilled out using a 2mm drill, I will use some 2mm aluminium to make new axles

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The parts were put into plastic tubs and sprayed with Fairy Power Spray, the chrome parts were soaked in household bleach, and will redone using Alclad.

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The windows basically fell out, and was only glued at the base of the front screen, the glue marks will stay, as once there refitted, the old glue will not bee seen, the screen got a wash and a polish using Novus # 2

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A few mold lines were removed from the body and the body was block sanded to remove a few sink marks, everything is ready for a couple of coats of plastic primer, I'd like to detail the interior, but as all the detail is molded into the seats, I'd like to find some decal material to match the fabric pattern, if anyone know if these are available, please let me know ...

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Edited by GeeBee
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Probably the best way to get a good deal - I love it when they fall apart like that.

Do you make your own decals at all? I have made a few fabric decals - it's pretty easy of you can find (or make) a good picture of the texture.

Mine is molded in red - wish I had a light blue version :(

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Probably the best way to get a good deal - I love it when they fall apart like that.

Do you make your own decals at all? I have made a few fabric decals - it's pretty easy of you can find (or make) a good picture of the texture.

Mine is molded in red - wish I had a light blue version :(

Sadly I don't make my own decals, infact I haven't even got a printer ... just my old Dell laptop, didn't know if there were any generic decals sheets available, I'm sure I've seen some somewhere ...

Blue was pretty easy to paint over, I got the body and a few parts in primer today, just need to touch up the edges were I wet sanded through

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I was cleaning up the engine, and it basically fell apart in my hands, I was dreading the alternator and belts breaking, so I was going to leave them in place, the engine harves were cleaned up and fixed back together ..

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Your thread made me pull out my old '60 Desoto to look it over...

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This is what I started with. I had destroyed this kit when I was younger, as you can see in this photo. One of the issues was that as I tried to get a decent finish, I kept sanding mistakes and sanded off the detail on the chrome strip down the right side. And of course I was trying to hand paint details with Testors Sticky Silver. It's since been stripped and I completely sanded off all the trim.

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I am hoping to build to this look, I know this is a Chrysler in the photo. I may do a finished metallic finish roof, but the body will have that sanded primer look. I believe I'm up to the task.

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Geoff, Scale Motorsports has various upholstery pattern decals for 50's & 60's cars. You may want to see if any of their stuff matches or comes close to the upholstery pattern you are looking for.

Thanks Rich, I knew I had seen sheets of decals somewhere, I've just had a look and nothing seems close, I'm still undesided what body colour I'm going to do it in yet, but the seat pattern looks to be the same on pictures of different colour cars, here's a photo of the seat pattern material

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I like this one too.

I have 2 of these to restore.

One I bought new and built to match the box art, the other I got in a trade.

Sadly, it has had all the trim removed, so may Not get a resto.

Unless I can foilcast/copy the trim from the first kit.

I let a seller know that his "Mint" unbuilt Trek Klingon ship was Not mint

as ALL the parts were loose in the box.

His reply, 'It has not been assembled, thus it IS Mint.'

I wonder if he got even One Dollar on that kit!

Edited by Edsel-Dan
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  • 2 weeks later...

Sadly today there was an accident in the hobby room, when a shelf collapsed, luckily non of my other models were harmed, one showcase got broken, but the desoto, which had been painted yesterday took the full force of the shelf and it's contents ....

I has been laid to rest ....I've kept a few parts in the spares box

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I will keep my eye open for another, but I'm not going to pay silly money for one,

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