Motor City

Steven, You missed my point. The models I mentioned were in the last year of their design for that generation or, as is the case of the Cutlass, a '65 model was never produced from the '64 mold. Therefore, those molds (if they still exist) should be unaltered from the models/years I mentioned.

I wonder why ERTL, and then Round 2, have re-issued so many of the same AMT models over and over again. Where are the models that should need no modification to the tooling such as the 1964 Bonneville, Grand Prix, Cutlass, and Wildcat, 1961 Bonneville and Invicta? The same goes for MPC models such as the 1965 Coronet 500, the 1966 Bonneville, Polara, and Monaco. Is it that the tooling is missing, in poor condition, or they don't think there is demand for these? I would like to see a lot of the promos from the 50s re-issued in styrene. Even cars without interiors would be cool to add to our collections.

silver '32 pickup or the '34 black w/red interior

My '55 has metal bumpers and wheel covers, so it's not a re-issue.

As far as I know, only the '56, '59, and '60 were re-issued.

The Indy Pace Car would be nice. Also, it would be cool to see a '48 Pontiac Streamliner or Torpedo 2-door fastback (GM called it a sedan-coupe).

Art and Tom, Any idea why my '55 DeSoto has no warp and the original-issue '56 Desoto warp quite a bit?

It doesn't come with emblems molded into the body, but has the decals instead. I guess I'll have to create emblems from a '65 GTO kit.

Thanks for the replies, John and Steve. I didn't know Jo-Han made kits prior to 1960. I saw a '63 Starfire kit with severe warp, so assumed that the switch to styrene occurred sometime that year since I have a couple of non-warped '63 kits. Maybe the Starfire was left in an attic. The '61 Fury has great detail. I notice there is a dip in the roof at the top center of the windshield, so maybe that was stored in a hot area at some point in its life..

Steve, So that is a kit molded in yellow and not a promo? I thought all of the '56-'62 Jo-Han models warped badly. I have a '63 deVille kit that has no warp, but the promos apparently still used the old plastic that warped.

Steve, Why would you want to do it over? It looks like a rare, non-warped model. My grandparents had a '59 Super 88 2-door hardtop in two-tone green. He traded in a black '55 Special 2-door hardtop for it and then traded the S88 in for a '63 Wildcat 4-door hardtop. All three were cool cars.

It looks like it has a built-in sidecar. The original was sharp, this is just weird.

about as exciting as a Chevette or Yugo ... oh, wait, the new Golf is the 2015 North American Car of the Year

Any suggestions on how to convert this kit to produce a stock 1952 Victoria?

Okey Spalding was at the recent Macomb Community College Show in Warren, Michigan. He had a nice finished '59 Rambler wagon on display, a variety of parts, the '55 Pontiac Star Chief hardtop, and possibly other cars. He didn't have anything I was interested in. Some of you may want to contact him for '66 Cadillac taillights. I asked about updating his website and he mentioned that it had expired and that he was working on a new one. I didn't ask him any other questions as I didn't know where to begin!

Millwrights unpack, set up, and move heavy equipment (machine tools, computer hardware, etc.). A tooling department would be involved in modifying old tooling, such as adapting the Jo-Han tooling to more modern injection molding equipment.

GM used the 'A' body designation on all regular intermediates through 1981. The Grand Prix and Monte Carlo were considered 'A Special', as I recall from the shop manuals. When the downsized front-wheel drive models came out for 1982, they were then called 'A' bodies, while the older style rear wheel drive models (Malibu, Monte Carlo, El Camino, Grand Prix, Regal, etc.) were then called 'G' body. The G bodies were never versions of the A bodies as the platforms were different (front wheel drive vs. rear wheel drive), and the RWD models came out first. The old RWD cars were still selling well, probably because people didn't like the smaller interiors of the new FWD replacement cars. GM continued producing the RWD platform for several years. The 1988 Monte Carlo was the last RWD model as the others intermediates went to FWD for that model year.

Banthrico made metal 1/25th promos of the Cadillac 4-door sedan from 1952-1955. The '54-'55 windows look more accurate than on the '52-'53. A few years ago, a metal pre-painted '53 Eldorado model was made. The box said it was 1/24th and 1/26th scale on different sides, so maybe it's 1/25th . Some of the early AMT models have no warp, while others are terrible, and I'm referring to the same model year of a given model car. Be patient and you will find them. Banthrico made a metal '54 Mercury, and I think they also made '50 and '51 models.

I just saw the Polar Lights kit at Hobby Lobby a couple of days ago, but didn't want to buy it without checking here first. From the pictures I've seen here, it looks like the GTO and 6.5 litre emblems on the sides are just decals. I won't get into the discussion of which looks more accurate as I haven't owned either version. I saw the original AMT '64 kit years ago and it looked nice - about like the '65 model. Is the AMT version issued several years ago the Polar Lights kit mentioned here? Is that a hardtop or post sedan? Wasn't the Revell/Monogram GTO a 2-door post sedan in 1/24th scale? Thanks.

The AMT '65 and '66 Wildcats used the same interior. Besides the differences in front and rear styling and exterior side trim, the interiors on the real cars are quite different. It has already been mentioned that the '66 dashboard on the real car was changed. The '66 seats and door panels had a new pattern, and should have had the slimback bucket seats GM started using that year. The Wildcat Custom had cool, round Wildcat emblems in the seatbacks - front and rear. Hopefully Round 2 will eventually correct these errors or someone will make these parts in resin.

As I recall, the L60-15 was standard on the '70 Buick GSX. I don't believe it was standard equipment on any other muscle car.

I would have to say some of the Trans Am kits because of the complex decal sets that need to be applied. Practicing on some newer kits with decals would be better than risk damaging an original decal set. Also, some kits have remained unbuilt in case I ever decide to buy the real car. Then the kit could be painted in the same color combination.

Back in the mid-80s, Pontiac would have an annual show in May at their Pontiac headquarters. I think there were 10-12 vehicles in their collection at the time (Banshee, '64 GTO coupe, '78 Trans Am station wagon, '61 Tempest 4-door sedan, the very first '26 Pontiac produced, and others I can't recall now). Oldsmobile's collection was at the R.E. Olds Museum in Lansing, which also had many experimental, exotic engines, as well as 1 of the 4 1897 Oldsmobiles, which was on loan from the Smithsonian Institute. Buick's collection went to the Sloan Museum in Flint. Cadillac's collection was stored in a warehouse in a Detroit suburb. I saw a number of cars and trucks from the Chevrolet collection 20 years ago at the GM Building. I don't know if the vehicles were on loan to the museum or donated to them, but the collection is quite good. Unfortunately, GM did not keep key cars such as the first Corvette, the 50 Millionth Car, and more of their concept cars, but the worldwide collection includes over 600 vehicles. I don't remember where I read that.

Whether you care for GM or not, they have had the most variety of models of any automaker over the course of a century. A real car enthusiast would appreciate the styling of at least some of their models over that period of time. I've seen a good part of the collection, which is open to car clubs and for other special events. It is definitely worth seeing. I have not seen the Nissan Museum, but I surmise it has a lot of racing-related cars on display, which is great if you like that sort of thing. Everyone has different tastes, that's for sure. I'd like to see the Mercedes museum some day.

There sure are some unusual shapes - especially with the non-boxy Volvos and a few other European models. Is it just me, or are that '49 Packard and '54 Studebaker just goofy? The late 30s and early 40s Packard wagons were gorgeous. The '49 looks like someone had extra paneling around the house and decided to add a few pieces to his car. It doesn't actually look as bad in person, but that photo made it look odd. The '53 Studebaker looked nice, but they really glopped the chrome on the front of the '54. Maybe AMT could make a '53 Studebaker wagon out of their tooling for the Starliner. What I would like is the '68 Vista Cruiser my family had. It looked sharp, wasn't boxy like most of the others at that time, and rode and handled well. I can't find pictures at the moment. Another neglected category is hearses. My former manager's father rode to the cemetery in a '39 Packard hearse for his funeral. The body was made by Henney, and is one of the most beautiful vehicles I've ever seen.