StevenGuthmiller

Balmy Harry! The great "city" of Embarrass Minnesota had the lowest temperature in the lower 48 this morning at 42 degrees below zero! So.....cry me a river! Steve

I feel your pain Al! It was a relatively warm day here in Minnesota today.....5 degrees. Needless to say, most of my outdoor photography sessions are on hold until about May! Great looking Caddy by the way! Steve

I live in Minnesota where there's virtually no humidity at all in the winter months, & in the summer I'm painting in an air conditioned room. I've had minor fogging or blushing incidents in the past with Duplicolor paints, but usually nothing that couldn't be polished out. The major problems seam to have been due to primer or something. I was using Testors lacquer primers for a while, followed by MCW paint, but when I clear coated with Duplicolor clear, rather than blushing, it looked under magnification as though the primer was "leaching" up through the paint. Something that couldn't be polished out. I've had my fill of Testors Lacquer paints, primers & clear coats & have completely given up on them. If anyone is a fan of Testors lacquers, you may want to leave the room now as I vent my frustrations with them. When I first started using them, I thought they were great, although I stayed away from the metallics just because the metal flakes in them are just hugely out of scale! Then there was the issue with the primer I just mentioned & others I won't. The clear coat seemed to work well for me......for a while. Then suddenly I started having major cracking issues which after a while I decided was due to the slower curing properties it has as apposed to a fast drying Duplicolor. It seems the final coat, in a multi-coat system, were drying slower than successive coats causing the top coat to crack. Any way, sorry about the rant but I really feel let down by the Testors lacquers & clears & will not return to using them. Steve

Well, You did well Ray! How come I never come across these kinds of opportunities? I would venture to guess that if these are unmolested kits, I wouldn't be surprised if you could get as much as $1,500.00 for the lot. Possibly much more! Nice score Ray!! Steve

They don't get much prettier than that! One of the Modelhaus '60 kits is looking better all of the time! Steve

Wow Ray! Did you win the lottery?! An unbuilt '67 Bonneville alone could bring a couple hundred, or more by itself on ebay! Steve

I just use a cheap ($30.00) table type lighted magnifier from Hobby Lobby. I started using it about 3 years ago. My eyes are still pretty good, but I wouldn't even attempt to build anymore without one. Can't believe I ever managed without it. Steve

I liked the '60 Pontiac & Olds much better than the '59s as well, for the same reason. Much simpler, less "embellished" designs. The '60 Bonneville is one of my all time favorite GM cars, & the competition between the '59 & '60 Olds isn't even close in my opinion. I've always thought the '59 Olds was one of the uglier GM cars. Steve

I've stayed away from Radio Shack for years. Everything I ever bought there lasted less than a year before it fell apart. The Preston's distributors at Model Roundup run about $3.99 if that helps at all. Steve

Enamels are generally easy to remove compared to lacquers. Any number of techniques should work. You could try soaking in Super Clean too. Steve

All looks like some pretty cool stuff to me. The van is nice! Steve

Very nice Carl! I'm no fan of wagons but it looks great! The paint is beautiful! Steve

Been using the Duplicolor clear lately with good results. Although, I have had "fogging" issues in the past, I've not had that problem as of late. I think it may have been more of an issue with base coats or humidity than the clear itself. Steve

This is as close as you will get. This is a built up of a Modelhaus '61 coupe. No, I didn't build this. I wish I had!! Steve

Johan did an annual of the '62 Cadillac Fleetwood 4 door hardtop. That's the only one I know of. Modelhaus has a 1961 62 series coupe done from the Johan '61 Fleetwood. Here's a shot of a '62 promo for sale on ebay at the moment. Steve

I agree! between the '59 & the '60, the '60 looked much cleaner! Less cluttered I guess you could say. I'm a little surprised Monogram never did a '60 out of the '59 kit. I for one would love to have one! Hey....I think I have a bottle of that paint color! It's a '59 color, but it's called "Wood Rose". Steve

Thanks Tommy! If you've followed my other builds you probably realize that I usually try to find more unusual color combos. Not that I want them "weird", just a little more unique. I have this thing in my mind that looks for colors that "fit" the car the best. At least to my eye. Steve

Thanks John! You always seem to have solutions for every problem. I was considering looking at an AMT '57 steering wheel & column, but I'll have to see how ambitious I am. I usually spend a lot of time on the back end of these interiors with painting & detailing, I hate to spend too much time on the front end. Steve

All of the '58 AMT kits had these shallow, poorly detailed interiors. '58 was sort of the "dawn" of the model car interior & I suppose they thought as long as there's something inside....close enough. They did a fairly nice job on the dash boards & steering wheels in these early kits, but whoever they put in charge of the interior tubs must have had his mind on happy hour! Steve

There are several good sources for pre-wired distributors. I usually pick mine up from "www.modelroundup.com". They're made by "Preston's Car Parts" & are probably not the nicest ones on the market, but I just get them there out of ease as I buy a lot of my other supplies there as well. They've always been very good to me. Steve

I built one of the '58 Bonnevilles & a '58 Buick. Both had very lacking interior detail, but I've yet to see anything worse than this! I have faith that I'll manage to make it look at least presentable. Steve

I thought about that Bob. But this is supposed to be a "quicker" curbside build anyway. I didn't want to get into a whole bunch of "re-working". Besides, I like to try & keep these old annuals as close to original as possible. Steve

I'm sure you would get a thousand answers for that one Dave. I thought about trying to get a Dremel "reamer" in there, but then decided a more "gentle approach was in order. I just used one of these large curved Exacto blades & justs scraped them away. Seemed to work pretty well, & relatively quickly. It doesn't need to be perfect I guess. It will be covered with flocking material anyway. Steve

I let them soak in Super Clean overnight. Better safe than sorry. Steve

I had a Coral & Black 1958 62 series coupe for a while. Steve