Motor City

Mark & Snake, Thanks for the comments. I guess I'll have to eyeball my '64 Chevelle for comparison to see how to correct it. I don't want to take the top off. I understand Dan Blocker got a convertible Z16 (Bonanza was sponsored by Chevy) and the other 200 were hardtops. Someone cloned Blocker's car and the original has not publicly surfaced. .

Snake, Happy New Year to you and everyone else on the forum! Is the Z16 roof really that bad?

When is someone going to come out with a '66 Wildcat interior that has the correct seat and door panel pattern, thin-shell bucket seats and dashboard? That '65 interior was always wrong and it's disappointing that Round2 won't fix it! I guess we're supposed to be satisfied with some new or revised custom wheels.

The nicknames are kind of dumb. The Hemi has been referred to as the elephant motor, and elephants are supposedly afraid of mice. But you never hear of a small-block Chevy beating a Hemi!

some 4-door sedan plastic kits: '61 Tempest '61 Corvair '62-'69 Lincoln some 4-door sedan plastic promos: '51-'55 Chevy '51-'52 Pontiac Chieftain '54-'55 Roadmaster '49-'54 Ford '60 Comet '53-'56 Plymouth '55-'56 DeSoto Taurus SHO '95-'97 Aurora '98 Intrigue

Bill, That's a cool and rare car. I saw one at the Woodward Cruise last year. It had original paint and some rust. The models are nice, too.

I agree that it would make more sense to have a separate '49/'50 tooling. Another variation would be to do a '50 Chieftain Catalina, Pontiac's first hardtop.

The AMT '51 Chevy kits were a good idea with the Bel Air hardtop, convertible, and fastback. The real '51 and '52 are quite similar, but the grille and side trim changed from one year to the next. I'm not sure if the interiors were identical. The '49 and '50 are almost identical. All four years could have been done by providing the various side trim and grilles, etc. Banthrico made well detailed aluminum models of the '49 and '50 in 2-door sedan and/or business coupe, 4-door fastback, 2-door fastback, 4-door sedan, convertible and '50 Bel Air (the first Chevrolet hardtop). Product Miniature Corporation (PMC) made most of the promos for '51 and '52 in the same body styles, but in plastic. All of these are relatively affordable, but most have no interior, and none have opening hoods. The PMC models tend to have some slight warping. I obtained a beautiful '50 Bel Air several years ago for about $85.00. With 3D printing and CAD, it wouldn't be difficult for Round 2 to take an original parts and create new '68 and '69 models, but that doesn't seem to be their business model.

Another phantom '76 MPC kit was the Corvette convertible. I took the rally wheels and used them for my '68 Impala SS convertible kit to replace the wheelcovers that came with it. I sold the Corvette kit to a guy and said that no '76 Corvette convertible was made. It was a good kit that also had the optional aluminum wheels. Looking back, it would have been neat to have a shelf of these phantom models.

this car pictured is a '68 Rebel (intermediate) convertible; the Ambassador was a full-sized car

I picked up the '68 Ambassador convertible kit at the Jo-Han factory several years after it came out, but sold it since the real car didn't exist!

The mouse motor became a hot rod term for a small block Chevy V8, while the big block Chevy was often called the rat motor.

Keith and Mark Orr, GM used the vented trunk lids on the '71 models as part of their ventilation system. People complained about water and leaves getting in the trunk, though I don't recall much of a problem on my '71 Eldorado. This was used on all of the large cars, the Riviera, Toronado, and Eldorado, and '71 and '72 Vega. It was discontinued after 1971 except for the Vega.

Last year, someone was selling his Dad's massive promo collection. He had worked for a company that provided model car boxes to the model car companies. He had 3 '69 Coronet convertibles in different colors and each sold for around $3600. This kit is a relative bargain.

Hallmark All-American Trucks annuals: 1995 '56 Ford F-100 1996 '55 Cameo 1997 '53 GMC 1998 '37 Ford 1999 '57 D100 Sweptside 2000 '78 Li'l Red Express 2001 '59 El Camino 2002 '57 Ranchero 2003 '72 Cheyenne 2004 '00 F-150 2005 '03 Silverado SS crew cab 2006 '48 Ford F-1 2007 '47 Chevrolet 2008 '60 F-100 2009 '04 SSR 2010 '40 Ford 2011 '70 El Camino SS 2012 '66 F-100 2013 '36 GMC 2014 '68 Ranchero GT 2015 '57 Chevy 3100 2016 '70 Bronco 2017 '76 Chevy C-10 Sport Truck 2018 '54 Mercury M-100 2019 '82 Jeep CJ-8

I just compiled a list of the Hallmark Classic American Cars annuals over the weekend. Special editions aren't included (Batmobile, KI.T.T., Ford GT, etc.). 1991 '57 Corvette 1992 '66 Mustang conv. 1993 '56 Thunderbird 1994 '57 Bel Air conv. 1995 '69 Camaro 1996 '59 deVille 1997 '69 Hurst/Olds 1998 '70 Hemicuda 1999 '55 Nomad 2000 '69 Judge 2001 '53 Skylark 2002 '70 Mach 1 2003 '63 Corvette 2004 '66 Toronado 2005 '68 Firebird conv. 2006 '61 Impala conv. 2007 '57 Fairlane 500 conv. 2008 '70 Chevelle SS 2009 '63 Thunderbird Sports Roadster 2010 '64 GTO 2011 '68 Mustang fastback 2012 '77 Trans Am Special Edition 2013 '55 Crown Victoria Skyliner 2014 '70 GSX 2015 '70 Cougar Eliminator 2016 '70 Z-28 2017 '69 Mustang Boss 429 2018 '68 Nova SS 2019 '70 Torino Cobra Vintage Roadsters: 1998 '31 Model A 1999 '32 Chevy 2000 '35 Auburn Speedster 2001 '30 Cadillac

Our '63 LeSabre was the first car Dad, my brother and I ever used bondo on. It looked good for a first attempt, but we should have gotten touch-up paint mixed from an automotive paint supply so it would have matched better than the similar Duplicolor shades. Neither of them ever used it again, but I used it on some hand-me-down cars.

I've occasionally wondered how much money they could have possibly saved by retooling promos/kits into the Craftsman series and other reissues by having rear bumpers now integrating the taillights instead of separate red taillights ('65 Riviera), and chrome taillights instead of red ones ('60 Bonneville). It's not as if these changes did not take some planning, test runs, and revisions. What they did with many of the '70 models by issuing unassembled promos as kits seemed to make more sense.

sadly, yes

Yes, it is a beautiful kit of a nice looking car. I've wondered why it has never been reissued like the '62 has. My Dad bought one to build in the same color combination as our '63 LeSabre 2-door hardtop, but never got around to it. It's a somewhat formal kit that an adult back then would have typically built with the optional bucket seats, which were also available on the convertible and 4-door hardtop! A Wildcat would also have been a good choice for that year.

I agree, Adam, they need to come back. I'll be looking forward to your reviews. Those white "flames" really accentuate the body lines and complement the black top and interior! ?

One of the worst is the mold lines on either side of the roof where the top and quarter panel meet. Jo-Han was notorious for not smoothing that area out before painting the '68-'71 442 promos, and I've also seen it on finished kits! The MPC '68-'72 GTO promos and kits are also afflicted with this, but it's less noticeable.

I just checked the '72 El Camino. Both front fenders have deep sink marks just behind the parking lights. It also has a '73 El Camino rear bumper with the built-in taillights! The tires and wheels are way larger than they should be, but the body proportions are pretty good. The wheelbase is about 2 25/32", length 5", width 1 7/8". The real dimensions are: 116" wheelbase, length 206.8", width 75.4". I was shocked at how small it is. The scale is roughly 1/41.

The Lindberg models were of better quality than Palmer models, but not nearly as good as the AMT and Revell kits of the same scale. They did some interesting cars, and it's a shame they weren't done by AMT and MPC at that time.

'62 & '63 Grand Prix '61 Starfire, '64-'66 Starfire '63 Wildcat '75-'76 Eldorado convertible '71-'72 Riviera GS '76 Regal S/R & Indy Pace Car '65 442 '65 & '67 GS any '68-'73 Ranchero GT '66 Coronet 500 '66 Satellite '70 & '71 Sport Fury GT '69-'71 300 '56-'58 Fury '56-'59 Adventurer