StevenGuthmiller

You have more patience than I do John! My '59 is getting the interior it came with, & believe me, being a Jr. Craftsman article, it does leave a little to be desired as far as "crispness" goes. But, no project is getting any special treatment in my shop. You brought her, you dance with her! Steve

Could be one of those transformations that may be a little difficult to pick up. You know, one of those, "something's different, but I can't quite put my finger on it" moments. It seems to go together seamlessly. Very interesting. Steve

Although the cars themselves have been pretty much relegated to the dust bin of history, the 1960 & 1961 Dodge dashboards are one of my all time favorites. with the "see through" speedo & push button trans, not to mention the transparent steering wheels & that wild star shaped steering wheel on the '60, they should at least garner an honorable mention for being one of the most unusual! All of the Mopars from the late 50s & early 60s were definitely something that would be remembered at the very least! Steve

I tried to find a little info on-line about what ward drove. I didn't go into a lot of depth on it, but the little bit of info I did find seems to make us both pretty much correct Rich. Apparently, Ward was a Ford man in the mid fifties, switching to Mopar in '59-'60. Someone seemed to have recalled seeing an episode with Ward driving a '60 Plymouth! Steve

No, I haven't forgotten about the '60 New Yorker build. The '59 Ford is just taking up most of my limited build time. I have managed to complete the body prep & one more prime coat in the next half hour or so, & it will be ready for paint. I'm pretty excited to see how it will look "dressed up" in its "Iris" metallic paint job! With any luck, the "Lilac" should go on the top tomorrow & the first couple of coats of Iris on Monday night. Hopefully ready for clear by Tuesday night. We'll see how it goes. Steve

Finished up the last of 3 clear coats this morning. The paint is still wet & has a little leveling to do, but it will still require some polishing to give a good smooth finish. So far, I'm pretty happy with the way it's looking. Now it's on to the interior work! Steve

I think a New Yorker may have been a little too "up town" for Ward & June. They struck me as being a little more along the line of Dodge people! Steve

My latest purchase from MCW. Now I'm ready to start slinging paint! Steve

I am a Mopar man Axel, or at least I was years ago when they built "real" cars! I like them all! Anything from the mid fifties to around '72 is the era I love. The picture of the 300 on my profile photo is a '66. I owned a '67 300 when I was in high school & have been a 300 fanatic every since. As a matter of fact, you'll probably start seeing some Chrysler 300 builds coming from me soon. I have a restorable kit for every 300 from 1962 to 1968, all old Johan kits. After finishing up my current 1959 Ford Galaxie & 1960 Chrysler New Yorker builds, I hope to start off with a very nice '64 Chrysler 300 I picked up a while back. Steve

All the way to the bank would be my guess. The world is full of fools, & there's another born every second. I guess if I had no morals, I'd do the same. Steve

Welcome Axel! Sounds like your interests are about the same as mine! We should get along nicely! Steve

Thanks Rich! Almost 100% of the 1:1 '59s in this color that I've seen online have the same interior arrangement. Dash, steering column & door tops painted the same "Geranium" as the outside with the majority of the rest of the interior a matching "coral" color, with the exception of the seat inserts which are a sort of striped black material surrounded by a white vinyl stripe. Door panels get black accents & black carpet. I imagine that's where I'm headed. Steve

Thanks guys! I remember that turquoise '59 Tulio! It was a beauty! The tires I'm using for this build are the AMT "Deluxe Champion" parts pack ones. I use them for a lot of these old AMT promo style wheels because their hollow & the wheels just pop right into them. No muss, no fuss! Plus the look great! Steve

You can always make your own antenna Tommy. I make them with heated & stretched pieces of left over sprue. You can stretch them to what ever thickness you need, & get as detailed as you like. I start with a slightly larger piece for the base section, drill out the end & glue in a thinner piece for the "telescoping" section. Slightly heat the tip to give you the little "ball" at the top, & a bigger one at the bottom for the base. experiment a little. It's just waste plastic any way. Steve

Just a couple more pics. Last night I sprayed on the "Colonial White". Tonight I finished cleaning up the scripts & then masked for spraying the polished aluminum panels behind the rear wheel & inside of the side spears with Alclad "Polished Aluminum". Now that the color coats are on, the next step is cleaning up the ragged paint edges between colors & then the clear coats can begin. Steve

Very nice Rich!! Part of the reason these '59 Chryslers are hard to find, in kit form & the real deal, probably has a lot to do with the "popularity" of them. Or should I say, lack there of. I would venture to say that there are probably very few people restoring these cars today, or for that matter, restoring the kit! I would bet that even most "car" people would not even recognize what year, make or model this was without a little coaxing along. I could never understand why a restored '57 Belair, with it's probable pickup load of after market parts, could sell for 6 figures, while a car like this, completely restored, would probably sell for less than $30,000.00. Can you imagine what it would be like to find parts for a car like this? Or how many of them even exist any more? So, keep your dime a dozen '57 chevies, I'll take one of these over the top Mopar land barges any day of the week!! Nice work Rich! Steve

You see some really ridiculous things on ebay. The other day, while surfing the site, I happened upon someone who was "Trying" to sell kit parts. He had at least a few that I just couldn't believe. The one that stands out the most was a set of four pretty much generic mid 60s AMT narrow white wall tires with a "buy it now" price of $24.99! I almost soiled myself from laughing so hard! Steve

You'll notice, nobody bid on one of them. My prediction is, that's the way it will remain. I'm not a betting man, but if I were going to...... Steve

Looks immensely better Al!! Now you're talkin'! Steve

It must have been a pretty popular combo Ron. There's certainly no shortage of reference material on the web for it. Steve

Boy Gary! I guess all I can say is thank you! I may have explained myself on this forum before, but I'll reiterate. I missed out on these old annuals from the late 50s & early 60s being born in '62, so now,with the arrival of ebay & the availability of this great old subject matter, I find myself feeling like a kid again. I also feel my mortality & realize that I no longer have forever to take a year to build one kit. I may have 30 years left to live but who knows how much longer I'll be able to build before the hands & eyes go. So I decided that I would go on a early plastic spree of sorts & see if I could build these old kits with little more than what they came with from the factory & still make them a presentable display piece. If & when I finish all of the ones I would like to build, maybe there will still be time to go back to the '49 Mercs & '57 Chevies. & if not, I can still die happy. Steve

Another Beauty Yuri!! I sure wish AMT would have done a better job on these steel wheels. Way too "thick" on the outer edge! Steve

Bill. As far as polishing MCW metallics goes, i really can't tell you. I always use clear coats over my color coats. I just like to have the assurance that I won't burn through my color coats when I'm polishing. I usually use 3 or 4 clear coats over my paint. I really stopped having issues with mold lines when I started using my current painting system. I start with a couple of coats of Testors lacquer primer, followed by 3 coats of duplicolor primer in progressively heavier coats. Then paint & clear. I like to use the Testors primer first because it's designed for plastic & therefore less likely to give me problems with crazing. Sort of seals things up, if you will, before the "heavy" stuff. Steve

I was out mowing my lawn in a coat this afternoon! Somehow I think that's not natural! Steve

I'm really liking this color! After the first coat I thought it looked way too "orange". Even after the second coat I wasn't too sure. It just looked so bright & overwhelming. But once I got it unmasked & uncovered the white primer, I think it balanced out nicely. Just have to clean the paint off of the scripts & the c-pillar badges & then I'll be ready for more masking to paint the white part. Steve Added one more shot of the scripts after cleaning them off.