Jump to content
Model Cars Magazine Forum

Model King '59 Imperial.


Custom Hearse

Recommended Posts

I bought this at my LHS last week. It's a 3-1 curbside kit(stock, custom and stock car racer), with a removable roof.

It comes with a nice set of decals, but the decals shown on the box don't match the ones shown in the instructions. They include a choice of red or yellow stripes that turn into dots, and they include the Imperial name within the stripes. You also get mustard yellow flames, which include the Imperial name within. License plates: You get 8 sets of plate to add to the car: one set of '59 South Carolina plates, '59 Alabama plates, one set of "personalized" Texas plates(did people personalize plates back then?), 4 "current California "personalized" plates, and one set of "imperial" black and yellow plates(they look like older Ca. plates, but without the date. You get two large, and two small pinstripe sets, Three bumper stickers, a state inspection sticker(too small for me to read what state.... I'm old)one tachometer decal, and one instrument panel decal, two roundels with black "59's", and your choice of red, or white lines for your tires.

The body is really nice! There are only six spots of flash on it(between the top front side trim, just behind the doors on the top, and just below the taillights), and no sinkholes to fill. The frame has all the details molded in, with no realistic detail for the front suspension, and use solid metal axles. Four screws are included to attach the chassis to the body promo style. The interior is three pieces stock(interior pan, dash, and steering column), and five pieces race, and custom(add a tach, and a floor shifter). The front and rear seats are molded into the interior bucket.

The custom parts are interesting, to say the least. You get quite a few choices of parts to adorn this kit with. Scoops, louvers, grills, exhausts, spare tire covers, taillights.... One thing of interest.... Do you like big fins? Well.... You can make these fins at least two scale feet taller, and add a custom tail fin to the center of the trunk! YIKES!!!!

The stock car racer is just the basic stock vehicle, leaving off the car, and according to the instruction sheet, using the masking tape decals on the decal sheet(none to be found).

There are 15 steps all told on the instruction sheet(The wheel assembly looks like it'll be the most work.... to insert the wheel into the tire, you need a wooden block, and a hammer.... watch them thumbs kids!!!!), and they include a section of tips for the stock car, and, customizing tips....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No tooling changes were made in this re-issue....just new box and decals....which are great! The instructions are a repro of the first issue of the kit...so thats why some decals may not match...but I like the repro instructions and the new decals are much better than the old. Good stuff!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

was the issue with the steering wheel corrected? where the spokes are oddly positioned

As stated by Chris V, no. But with some careful shaving and trimming, the appearance can be much improved. Do some image searches, I recommend the Online Imperial club for reference pics. Also, the 60 Imperial wheel is the same, and the one that came in my 60 Imperial kit was molded correctly, so maybe someone could resin cast one of those.

Steering wheel is pretty much the same through 63 so maybe a later kit can be used for a donor or hit the parts boxes..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm in the "wish I had waited" camp with the Imperial; while it was nice to get the reissue before, I wish I'd waited and gotten the latest release instead, not only for the new boxart but also for the decals. Oh well, at least the Model King is getting it right the first time around with the newer stuff. I'm not compelled to buy more kits just for better decals and boxart.

Funny about the steering wheel issue; I have an original '60 and it's steering wheel is just as poorly centered as the reissue, but also found that it's not hard at all to fix w/a few minutes of careful X-acto and file work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 years later...

Okay i never even knew this kit existed until today, while browsing ebay i thought what the heck and typed imperial and saw this as the first result, it was the only one on the website and i could barely find any info on this one, it was about 44$ so i bought it right away, its not here yet but will post pictures of whats inside once it gets here, has anyone ever built this kit? When i google model king i can never find anything about them online whatsoever, wish more kits of this type would exist because Imperials are just so cool, only one i ever saw in real life was as a child in Finland.

post-10452-0-32915500-1368143893_thumb.j

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have that one too. I do Like them OLDIES!!!!!

And yes, Please Find some of the other Original 59's and 58's to re-issue!!!!

Maybe the 2 Odd 60 Chevy's Nomad wagon & El Camino!!!!

Drop the Fort Knox price off those originals!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm in the "wish I had waited" camp with the Imperial; while it was nice to get the reissue before, I wish I'd waited and gotten the latest release instead, not only for the new boxart but also for the decals. Oh well, at least the Model King is getting it right the first time around with the newer stuff. I'm not compelled to buy more kits just for better decals and boxart.

Funny about the steering wheel issue; I have an original '60 and it's steering wheel is just as poorly centered as the reissue, but also found that it's not hard at all to fix w/a few minutes of careful X-acto and file work.

I was lucky enough to get both re-issues and the one I opened had the original decal sheet in it. Hopefully I'll build this soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But, I think the 61 is the last Imperial AMT/SMP offered!

Not sure we will get an All new tooling of one any time soon

CAN Hope, but......................................

AMT made Imperials through '66. But the '66s got butchered into a version from a short-lived TV series ('Hero') and a pickup version. The '60-63 are the ones I'm lacking in my collection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Johan or AMT or maybe MPC made them up till approx 1968 as a promo, ( not to terriblly hard to find either ) and not sure of any other years or if there was a kit avail

EDIT,

just ck'd - there were 1966 1967 and 1968 , but all were promos based .

I can't find any evidence there was a 1969 or later

Edited by gtx6970
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Johan or AMT or maybe MPC made them utp till approx 1968 as a promo, ( not to terriblly hard to find either ) and not sure of any other years or if there was a kit avail

EDIT,

just ck'd - someone did a 1966 1967 and 1968 , but all were promos based .

Johan did '67-68 promos; AMT did kits and promos through '66. IIRC, AMT's '66 kit was available as a stock convertible only before it was butchered. But previous years ('60-65) AMT did ht and conv kits.

Edited by Rob Hall
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks , I wasn't sure if there were any kits avail after 1965-66 or not . But I knew of the later promos .

I have a builtup original issue 1958 Imperial convertible kit and have been thnking about picking up a 1959 kit just for giggles.

So now I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have clicked on this thread

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks , I wasn't sure if there were any kits avail after 1965-66 or not . But I knew of the later promos .

I have a builtup original issue 1958 Imperial convertible kit and have been thnking about picking up a 1959 kit just for giggles.

So now I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have clicked on this thread

I've thought about backdating one of my '59s to a '58 w/ a Modelhaus bumper/grille....won't be 100% a '58 (other trim differences)...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I forgot about AMT's 64, 65, & 66's,

(And, I Have a 66 built as the Custom Pickup.)

Sadly, custom bumpers, grill, etc,

And almost got a friend to buy an Unbuilt 64 convertible!!

Not sure Why AMT has only re-issued One kit (69 GTO 'Judge' Funny car)

Model King first got re-issued, but, hopefully they will start re-issuing them

again soon.

Always wanted the X-El re-issue 68.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...