THarrison351

In December 1965 Peter Brock started his own design firm and motor racing team, Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE) which worked with Hino, Datsun and Toyota GT cars Brock designed for BRE clients included the Hino Samurai, the Toyota JP6 and the Triumph TR-250K. Brock continued racing, now driving his own Lotus 11 MKII and paid rides with a TVR and Mercury in the NASCAR series. Brock began performance development on the Hino 900, which then evolved into their Hino 1300 Contessa. When Toyota took over Hino, Brock approached Datsun. John Morton raced mostly SCCA Club races through 1968 until Brock hired him for his new BRE Datsun team. The period between 1969 and 1972 were fruitful for John, Peter and Datsun. BRE became the west coast Datsun factory race team and competed in 1969 in the SCCA DP (D production cars with limited modifications) class with Datsun 2000 roadsters, in 1970 and 1971 in the CP (C production cars with limited modifications) class with the 240Zs (SCCA National Champions '70-'71) and in 1971-72 the 2.5 Trans-Am Series races with the Datsun 510s (National Champions '71-'72). The race team was disbanded at the end of the 1972 season when Brock moved on to hang gliding. (Wikipedia) This is an excellent article written by Peter Brock about the 240Z: Datsun Rising: Peter Brock on the BRE Datsun 240Z In 2018 Greenlight released a nice tribute to the BRE 1970 Datsun 240Z. For less than $20 from Hobby Lobby with a 40% coupon, it's not bad and looks to be in 1/24 scale. Simplified, it only has opening doors, and a mostly stock interior. It does have a "roll bar" and if you take it apart, the center stack has a flat panel with what looks like switches, lights and other racing items. A racing drivers seat and some belts would have been nice. The chassis is stock and it rides high. Behind the wheels there are disc brakes, but they aren't painted, just black plastic. In fact, because this was a production based car, the rear should be drums. I didn't do much, some paint on the chassis, the door panels, brakes, wheels, and front spoiler. I lowered it as far as it would go and hit all the taillight pins with white paint per Snake's advice. Also as told in the What did you get today? thread, I polished the paint because the Tampo is kind of dull as finished. A further note. They have a Gulf version which I plan to do the same modifications to lower and paint. These are a part of Greenlight's Tokyo Torque collection. As a part of the collection, which comes in 1/64, 1/43 and 1/24 scales. The 1/64 Z cars have had multiple liveries of SCCA and rally cars. I'd love to see those in 1/24 scale. They also have 1/64 and 1/43 versions of the BRE Datsun 510s and have the 1/64 Bobby Allison car he ran successfully. I would definitely buy those in 1/24 scale! Original Original Original Gulf liveried fake racer

?

Cool little diecast. It's because the automakers told us we didn't want cars anymore. We want four door trucks with useless beds and lifted station wagons (crossovers)

I believe they're all Danbury Mint except the 1949 blue and grey Riviera hardtop in the middle front and the 1949 old ivory Roadmaster convertible on the left hand side in the show room. Those are Franklin Mint. If you want to know the model years, the red and blue Buick Skylark convertibles in the show room are 1953. Front row from left to right, 1956 Tahiti coral/Dover white Roadmaster convertible, 1956 Carlsbad black/Seminole red/Cameo beige Roadmaster Riviera 4 door hardtop, 1948 nickel gray/cumulus gray Roadmaster coupe, and 1953 Terrace green Estate Wagon,

The first car pictured might have been in a NASCAR Grand National race at one time, but that picture is from a later date. It would have no longer been eligible because it would have been too old for a 1969 Thunderbird. A 1969 Thunderbird would be eligible for the 1969, 1970 and 1971 seasons. Those wheels (slotted) are for disc brakes. Disc brakes did not come into use in NASCAR until the 1972 season. It was probably some type of Sportsman or vintage racer. Great pictures otherwise. Oh, yeah If you Google Henley Gray and 1971 Thunderbird you'll see another unusual, but good looking NASCAR GN car. He campaigned it for several races in the 1972 an 1973 seasons. The decals were actually part of the previous AMT release with the green 1971 Thunderbird on the box.

So, I've tried the white paint on the back of the stem in the past, but didn't notice a difference. That's why I stopped doing it. I tried it one more time just to see. After breaking the stem on one taillight frame (repaired) and painting the light stems I noticed the silver sharpie touch up I added on the left lens was missing. Must have rubbed off in polishing and handling. It's been replaced with a Molotow touch up. Thank you for letting me know. After getting it all back together, I took a photo and the flash was on my phone. I don't like the pictures with the flash because it washes out the model. I took a second photo without the flash and guess what, the stems show dark, but the photo with flash they look light bulbs in the lens. I guess the difference is the flash. Flash No Flash Edit. After looking at the original posted pictures, they may not be as dark. There it certainly something reflecting back. I'll try it on my next diecast the BRE 240Z by Greenlight

I finally finished updating some of things to make this a little less toy like. I usually don't do anything to the M2 diecasts. I think I touched up the wheels on one of the Shelby GT 350s with silver paint because too much chrome. As you can see this one suffers from the same problem. At least in my opinion. I painted the wheel centers gunmetal. The calipers were painted also. The wipers were too far up on the windshield so I brought them down a bit and painted them silver because too much chrome. The taillights needed some touch up too. I also painted the trim at the base of the driver and passenger windows with a Molotow pen to represent the chrome strip that's supposed to be there. The interior had this odd painted steering wheel. The column and wheel are silver and the spokes are brown. Now it's all flat black. It's not stock, but I didn't want to draw attention to it. I touched up the gauge cluster with a sharpie and fixed the door panels with some flat black paint because they had the armrests, door handle and roller all painted silver. They should have been accented. I did a little accent painting under the hood. It could use an intake manifold to connect the two "carburetors" to the engine, but then I need to wire it and meh, no one will see it again after this. I popped the exhaust off and ran a paint pen up and down it and glued it back on. While I was there, I painted the brake rotor assembly piece's backside because they bothered me. Before Before Before Before Before Before

From what I can see, the engine could sit on display by itself. It's remarkable where DM was in creating detail in the early 2000s considering what crudeness existed only a few years before. If the whole Mint diecast market hadn't imploded at the end of that decade who knows what cars and trucks we'd have and with the current production capabilities, what details and functions the vehicles would have.

The 1955 Chevy was the first successful Chevrolet with an optional V8 engine. Chevy's new 265 cu in overhead valve V8 was designed to be smaller, lighter, and more powerful than previous V8s in the auto industry, and would come to be known as the "Chevy small block". The 1955 Chevy had smooth straight panels on the sides and hood. This was a major departure from previous years for Chevrolet. Although Ford introduced what would be the first "shoe box" body design in 1949, GM and Chrysler were slow to catch on, only slowly replacing some of their bubble-like hood and side panels with flatter ones each year, without achieving a full shoe box look by 1954. But in 1955, Chevy designed the entire car with the full shoe box look. Along with the flatter straighter panels, the 1955 also had modern cues like wrap-around glass on the windshield, and triangular tail lights that jutted outward. This new look, combined with new power and engineering, made the 1955 an instant hit with the buying public and a critical success.The 1955's top trim offering was the Bel Air, which had more chrome than the 150 or 210. The Bel Air, 210 and 150 model could be bought as a four-door, or could be bought as a two door with a post between the front and rear passenger windows, known as the two-door sedan. The Bel Air or 210 model could also be had as a two door with no post between the side windows. This was known as the sport coupe, or better known by collectors as "the two door hardtop". Since this model had no post between the two side windows, it had a shorter roof and longer rear deck than the two door sedan had. Chevy also offered a convertible, with the same shorter roof and longer rear deck as the sport coupe, and it was offered in Bel Air trim only. The 265 was new for 1955, and it was the first V8 available in a Chevrolet since 1918 Model "D" was offered. That car did not sell well due to its price during an oncoming recession throughout World War-I, so Chevy reverted to OHV inline 4-cylinder engines until 1929 when Chevy switched to an inline 6-cylinder engine. This reliable six cylinder would power Chevy cars until 1963 and was known as the "stove-bolt six". However, the new 265 V-8 in 1955 offered more power than the six, and weighed 100 pounds less. the The 265 was available in three power packages standard, with 162 hp, the uprated 180 hp, also known as the "Power Pack" engine, and 195 hp, late in the model year, known as the "Super Power Pack"engine. The car contained one of three transmission types, all with the shifter on the column: 3-speed Synchromesh manual, 3-speed Synchromesh manual with overdrive, or 2-speed automatic "powerglide." The 1955 Chevrolet also offered many other firsts for Chevrolet, including changing from a 6-volt to a 12-volt electrical system. The 1955 offered new options like air conditioning, power windows, power seats, power steering and power brakes. Other options included automatic light dimmers, door handle protectors, bumper protectors and "wonder-bar" radios, a station seeking design. So many new options were available that some referred to the car as "Chevy's little Cadillac." Never before had so many options been offered for a car in the low-price field. The 1955 offered a wide array of colors. One solid color, which was standard for the 150, could be had for the 210 or Bel Air...or nineteen different two-tone color combinations were also available. (Wikipedia) The Danbury Mint 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible was released in 2002. Almost ten years after Franklin Mint released their first 1955 Bel Air Convertible. Nine years and my my, how the details have grown. This one comes with an uptop and a boot, removable fender skirts and a hinged continental tire. The hood has realistic scissoring hinges with tiny springs. The doors hinge and pivot correctly and snap shut. The seats and sun visors move. And in typical DM fashion the fuel filler cover opens. The Powerglide transmission even has cooling lines running to it! One of my favorite things and the most fifties aspect is the color combination. Harvest Gold & India Ivory, with a green interior. My diecast acquisition was a fluke. Randy announced a little while back that he had found a really nice one with box and everything for a price he could live with. A few day later this one popped up on eBay with a buy it now or best offer $25 plus shipping. Car and boot only, no top, skirts or anything else. The pictures weren't great, but it looked OK, so I bought it now. A few days later it arrived, and I felt something shifting in the box. I kind of had a bad feeling. Inside the box of packing peanuts was smaller box. I took that box out and could feel the car shifting around. Opening that one I was greeted with pulverized packing peanuts, a damaged car, and at the bottom of the box a layer of bubble wrap. This would be the third time I repaired a car that was shipped in a box with no other protection but peanuts. All three were damaged. This one lost the mirrors, one side of the windshield frame broke, the windshield was knocked loose, a vent window was out, a whitewall had come off a tire, the boot was stressed, and various scratches and chips occurred all over the body. I contacted the seller and he graciously refunded all the money and let me keep the car! So, I've fixed everything as best as I can, polished and touched up the paint. I'd like to find the top and skirts to complete it Broken windshield frame and missing vent window Loose parts and stressed boot Parts I'd like to get

Turned out really sharp Snake!

For some this is a Holy Grail of diecast. It sort of was for me. The first time I saw one I thought how remarkable it was they were able to create so many fine details in a production model. From the movable vent windows and spot lights to the tiny frame rollers at the back to prevent the bumper from scraping, it's amazing. One other detail you'll notice if you handle one is the way the doors open. They pull back and hinge, a two step operation. The doors fit incredibly tight. I've watched these for several years on eBay thinking I'll probably never own one because they're too expensive. Rarely are any damaged, and even those go for a pretty good price. I think I did well considering there's nothing wrong with this one and I have the box. My true Holy Grail car would be the 1934 Ford "The California Kid". Those go for even more money. I've seen in the sold history of eBay a dirty damaged one go for $85 buy it now, but I missed it. This is an excellent link for the history of the Hirohata Mercury. Hirohata's 1951 Mercury This is a great review with better pictures than mine on the Danbury Mint model of the Mercury. Danbury Mint Hirohata Mercury Skirts are removable Tiny frame rollers that move Vent window and spot light

The 1939 Ford Deluxe Convertible Coupe provided drivers with a flathead V-8 engine, 1930's styling, and something new for a Ford, hydraulic brakes. This was the last year, Ford equipped its cars with a rumble seat. The V-8 engine had 90 hp and 221 cu in coupled to a 3 speed manual transmission. Front and rear suspension were much the same as the Model T, A, and previous V-8 Ford cars. Solid axle, transverse semi-elliptical leaf spring located by triangulated radius arms and would continue mostly unchanged until 1948. The biggest mechanical news for 1939 was inclusion of hydraulic brakes from Ford Lockheed (not Bendix) these were not self energizing brakes so the pedal effort is high. Visually, the 1939 Ford Deluxe has a modern looking front with a flatter hood, the headlights were moved further out to the center of the fenders and this would be the last year for lens, bulb and reflector type lights in the Ford models. Seal beam headlights will become standard. The 1939 Ford Deluxe Convertible Coupe model from Franklin Mint is a jewel and after my review of their 1932 Ford Roadster Hot Rod, it's hard to believe they came from the same company. This model gets that much closer to Danbury Mint in detail work. The fit and finish is very nice. Most all of the chrome is separate plated pieces instead of silver paint. The fender skirts look removable, but they're attached. I do like the effort to make it look like they might be removable. The engine is fully wired and plumbed and it even has a leather like fan belt. There's a delicate antenna in the center of the windshield with a corresponding knob inside to turn it if it only moved. The interior, oh the interior, I have a Danbury Mint 1940 Packard with door windows you can manipulate up and down. On this one, the actual window roller moves the window up and down! Be very careful! The seats fold forward and the tire compartment lifts fully exposing an actual removable spare, with open lug holes and center. All the seats, including the rumble seat have a good vinyl texture to them. The up top wit interior frame, and boot cover have a well replicated fabric feel. The whole interior is just well executed! I have been trying to get one of these for over a year once I saw some pictures of them while looking through Legacy Motors Lists and Reviews. The problem was the damaged ones were always missing parts that were needed and the ones that had parts would bid beyond what I felt they were worth. So, last week this one came up as a complete car, boxes, paperwork, everything and I won it $65 shipped. Considering I was being outbid on damaged ones without boxes, paperwork, etc. at $45 plus shipping I think I did OK. All it need was a little polish to bring back the luster.

What a handsome car!

Looks very good Randy!

As much as I read Popular Hot Rodding in the seventies I never had an interest in Project X. It wasn't until Hollywood Knights when I saw and heard it move, it became interesting. That's a beautiful diecast, but the rear wheel openings are stock on the diecast. On the Hollywood Knights version and for a long time the were radiused and flared. I can't remember when they took them back to stock.

Lucky!

Yes it's an M2. I left that out. It's the second 510 I've purchased from M2. I have a modified black red Advan too. I don't plan to do anything to that one.

Those look nice Randy!

Well, here is the Franklin Mint 1932 Ford Roadster Hot Rod. It's red and white and has nice paint. There's been something that was bothering me from the start after I won it and saw the on-line pictures. Now that I have it ,I've figured it out. The body, wheels and tires are all out of proportion. The tire's diameters are too small, so the wheel's diameters are too small, also too small is the steering wheel. It's OK though, the air cleaner has more than made up for all the wheel's shortcomings. I think it's from their 1957 Ford Fairlane Skyliner. Other than chrome plating, the 1932 221 cu in flathead V-8 appears completely stock from the 1932 Ford Deuce Coupe. Not sure what Franklin Mint was thinking when they created the front suspension. It's supposed to represent a coil spring double wishbone independent suspension. I'll let you be the judge. Those two red upside down tears on the back are supposed to be the tail lights. They're just two red spots of paint. No trim, nothing else. I do like the photo etch grille! I'm just glad I didn't pay full price, or half price, I paid a little over $20 plus shipping. It's missing the mirror, but I think it looks better without it. It was a little large. Once again, proportions. Who knows, maybe I'll add appropriate sized wheels and tires and a nice hot rod mirror. It would be nice to get that ill looking motor out of there, and maybe remove the hood sides...Oh, yeah. The front suspension, that would require major surgery. I think I'll just leave it as is.

I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday and saw this on the shelf. I missed out on the light green "stock" version at Walmart. This is essentially the same car but painted tan?, ivory? I don't know. It also has a little black chin spoiler and stripes down the sides. It will definitely see a Snake-Fu session. Not sure where the folks heads were at when they painted the steering wheel. Wood spokes, metal wheel? The engine is interesting too. I'll take a better picture when I take it apart. The air filter is there (blue), then behind it are these two black long points (carburetors, not in picture) going down to the chassis plate, then no intake manifold. There's exhaust headers molded to the engine and that's it on the LH side. Well, for $20 I guess I shouldn't complain.

That's pretty cool!

Oh I see it now please disregard

The fact that the Daytona was faster than the Superbird didn't help it win races. The two seasons it was competitive it only won six times. The Superbird was competitive one season and won eight times. Of course Richard Petty and Petty Enterprise probably had something to do with that.

I like this truck! Wagon fenders and everything! Yours looks really nice too! I have one packed away. It's been packed since we moved over six years ago.

Well, This might end in a divorce for me, but I finally have two diecast cars I've lusted after for some time. The Hirohata Mercury is finally mine! That's not a picture of my car, but according to the seller and the pictures from eBay are not great, it's mint. I hope he's right. I'd given up on finding one to repair that was a reasonable price and started looking for one in good condition at a reasonable price. This turned out to be much easier. If it's not what the seller claims, it's going back. I do like that about eBay. Next I've been looking for this for almost a year. Franklin Mint 1939 Ford Convertible. Again, not my car, but the pictures from the seller were not the greatest and claimed to be mint. These have been on the market just out of my reach for what I wanted to pay and the ones that were obtainable were always missing the top and boot, and sometimes worse than that. Just like the Hirohata Mercury, if it's not as the seller claims, it's going back. Finally there's this, I saw this from Franklin Mint and I didn't ever remember seeing one. The price was ridiculously low. The seller had a the '32 hot rod coupe as well. I'd seen those before and it had a low bid. So I watched them both until the end and placed a low bid on the roadster and won. Well, then I looked at pictures of it online, because the seller only showed a couple and I'm glad I paid very little. No offense to anyone who has one of these and loves it, but this looks like it was cast by MotorMax. I'm really aghast at what I've seen in some of these pictures. This is one that looks best from the side with everything closed. Once I receive these, I'll do a full picture coverage of them in a separate post.