StevenGuthmiller

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

"In the beginning, the Earth was void & without form". Kind of like the interior on the AMT '58 Ford annual kit!! This has got to be one of the worst interiors I have ever seen on a kit! Door panel detail is absolutely non-existent! So, it has to get at least a little bit of re-vamping. I'm just adding a little bit of door panel trim & some PE window cranks. At least it's something. One of the worst parts may be the big round mold "plugs" on the floor. They're a bunch-o-fun to remove! Steve Before After

Sorry mike. Didn't mean to step on toes but I've had real issues with paint thinner & kit chrome in the past myself. I stay away from my chrome with any sort of solvent at all, even enamel paint & mineral spirits. Just my experience. Yours may be different. Steve

If you use a pre-wired distributor, you can kill several birds with one stone. You'll have the correct gauge of wire, & you can drill out your block & glue the shaft deep into the block for stability. I drill out the holes for the plugs & glue my wires deep into the heads as well. If you do those things, you'll not have to worry about wires coming out. I have a bigger problem getting them back out if I need to for some reason. Steve

All killer stuff Bill! I have all three.....hardtops of course! Steve

I agree! Maybe a little lacking in detail in areas, but the bodies were usually very nice, & you can't beat the subject matter! Steve