Motor City

One of the worst kits ever for body/interior/chassis fit was the MPC '77 and newer Trans Am.

maybe there's hope for a '68-'69 Cyclone GT or '67 GS or one of the other 1960s intermediates that was never done

That's why I buy older kits instead of the warped promos from AMT and Jo-Han.

I think it was a promo made by Product Miniature Corporation (PMC) out of Wisconsin. I emailed a couple of years ago regarding what tooling they may still have and got no response. I have an Opel Rekord 2-door sedan, and I think they made a Renault Dauphine and a few other European cars in the late 1950s. These models typically have no glass or interior, with generic hubcaps or wheel covers, and blackwall tires.

Bill, The color looks dead on for a '57. Do you use lacquer or enamel? I haven't used an airbrush yet, and I still have some factory-type Duplicolor paint in large and small spray cans. The best paint job I ever did was from an auto supply who mixed up some Jade Gold lacquer for my '68 442 kit. I painted it the same as our family's Vista Cruiser. I've found that the spray nozzle makes a big difference when using cans. A fan-type spray nozzle seems to provide a wider, smoother coat than a conventional nozzle found on most cans.

Bill, You did a great job on that Corvette! Congratulations for having it used on the website. What paint did you use and is that Bare Metal foil for the chrome trim?

Some guys in the Cadillac club will hate me for this, but I always thought the '57-'58 Eldorado Brougham looked like it was designed by a committee. From the side, the front fender and front door have tasteful use of chrome. The rear quarter trim is a continuation of the rear bumper, and the rear door tries to blend in all of this mess. It just doesn't work. The Continental Mark II was much more tasteful looking.

No, it's not what you refer to as a vanity city, Dave. On the north side of 8 Mile (also occasionally referred to as Base Line by old timers) are the cities of Southfield, Ferndale and Warren. The south side of 8 Mile is Detroit, and farther west is Redford, Livonia, Northville.

one several miles from me had them stacked 6 high, which was nothing compared to this!

forgot to mention that there was no 1948 Eldorado that this Foose design was based on

What's with this abomination that is supposed to be an Eldorado? It looks like some kind of customized car with a '54 Pontiac grille, but nothing resembles an Eldorado - not even a '53, which has vaguely similar rear fenders. https://www.revell.com/model-kits/cars/85-4435.html#.W3WoRU3fOAg

The problem with a lot newer kits is the emblems are not engraved, so you are expected to affix decals. It would be much better to have the emblems engraved so the end user can sand them off if not wanted. Examples of this are the AMT '69 H/O, and the Revell '50 Olds 88 and '72 H/O convertible, and the Lindberg '64 Belvedere.

If any cars cry to be made in multiple versions, it would be: '70-'72 GS and GSX '68 and '69 Cyclone GT, '69 Spoiler, '69 Spoiler II '72-'76 Ranchero GT or Squire '77-'79 Ranchero GT '73-'77 El Camino or GMC Sprint These are no-brainers! Of course, all would be 1/25th scale.

Spock returned to Twentieth Century Detroit when cars actually had nice designs and didn't all look alike!

I picked up an unbuilt '63 riviera kit recently. Speaking of great design, why hasn't AMT or Revell or Moebius done the '63 Grand Prix yet?

Hi Mike, I've never seen that variation without the quarter trim. That is definitely the '72 grille, the Eldorado script on the front of the fender is in about the right place, and the wheelcovers also look similar to the '72. I forgot to mention in the earlier post that the '71 has ELDORADO block letters on the trunk, while the '72 is script, but the louvers make it easy to tell a '71 from a '72. A little trivia that I just found out recently is that the louvers on the real '71 were reduced in number sometime during the year. My first car was a Clove '71 Eldorado (about the color of the car above, gold leather, gold vinyl padded top). The '71 promos came with single and dual exhaust, but only the single exhaust is correct. I have almost every color that the '71 came in, including Clove. I have an original set of keys from my car displayed with it.1971eldo.bmp. If anyone would like a separate thread on the FWD Eldorados, let me know. I currently own a '68 and a '77 Biarritz. 1971 Eldorado convertible with 56 trunk louvers.docx

thanks, Chris

On some of the later kits with this option, it was recommended to cut the sunvisors off to get a better fit. It sounds like a good idea, but the execution wasn't what it should have been. Some promos were made with the top up ('62 Ford Galaxie comes to mind).

I hope I can clear some things up regarding the second generation Eldorado FWD kits covering model years 1971-1976. The first issue was a '71, kit#C114. The '72 kit is #C211. The kits graphics are identical except for the kit number on both ends of the box. The '73 kit, #GC-2300, has updated the ski car graphics with the correct round side marker light on the quarter panel, the revised rear bumper and taillights, and revised front bumper of which you see very little. Since no year is indicated on the rear license plate, here are ways to tell them apart: '71 louvered trunk lid, ELDORADO in block letters with 8.2 Litre emblem on the back end of each front fender, grille with a fine vertically-oriented rectangular pattern; '72 no louvered trunk, Eldorado in script on the front edge of the front fender with 8.2 Litre emblem on the back end of the front fender, grille with a slightly coarser vertically-oriented pattern with faint crowns on top of the headlights; both interiors are identical '73 full vinyl top, separate taillights instead of integrated into the rear bumper, egg-crate grille The real confusion comes with the Eldorado Rancher kit, which was issued as a '74 and '76 kit (I'm not sure about '75). The '74 has a revised grille, taillights in the rear bumper again, and a landau top that was carried over for '75 and '76. My '73 and '74's are difficult to get at, so I'm not sure what interior revisions were made if at all. Both the '73 and '74 have the fender skirts. The '75 promo has the ends of the front fenders molded as part of the body, while the '76 promos have it molded as part of the bumper assembly. The rear taillights on the '75 are two small rectangles separated by a Cadillac emblem on each side of the rear plate. The '76 has one rectangular light on each side of the plate. Both the '75 and '76 promos have front & rear plates with the year indicated. I'm not sure if the kit has a year on it. Here are photos of the '73 kit box that I got off the internet. I don't think it was ever re-issued. 1973 Cadillac Eldorado kit.docx

the '73 Eldorado kit had a different box than shown

That's real sharp, Paul. I'd like to see a '68 Vista Cruiser as your next wagon!

I used to have the MPC '60 Corvette kit. It builds well but the interior is incorrect as it's a waffle pattern. I don't remember which is which, but between the '59 and '60, one has vertical pleats in the seats while the other has horizontal pleats.

There was a kit on evilbay that sold for over $100 within the past year. I forgot to copy/paste the photos into a Word document.

maybe Premier's 1956 Lincoln?

I don't own an original 1967 AMT kit, but the AMT 1968 Riviera was shrink wrapped from the factory. I have 1967 models from Jo-Han and MPC that are shrink wrapped. I went to a lecture a number of years ago and the guy who designed the Leva car talked about it and showed a model of it plus some literature.