Brian Austin

I'd say the Golden Sahara is no worse than the wild customs of the '70s, including show rods. It was of its era. It was a show car. Those are supposed to be wild. ? I don't see anything wrong with glowing tires. I'd like to see them in person. The Golden Sahara has a fascinating history, with its various revisions over the years. It had many innovating features. That said, I think I prefer Golden Sahara I, which seems a little cleaner and less fussy. Apparently Liberace wanted to buy it. ? This video includes a brief history of the illuminated tires.

This is a resin model, but yeah, that engine is lacking. Thanks for the response, folks, My web searches only brought up dealers of the model. I don't know how I missed this one, given all the weird creations I've seen in the VW forums over the years.

This is claimed to have been built for Continental Motors of Fort Lauderdale. https://www.mintmodels.com/schuco/vw-t1-continental-motors-in-118-scale-by-schuco/p/20526

I never got one of these, though I do have a Corgi early '60s Cadillac ambulance, which scales to around 1:52 or so. I've been trying to build a Pontiac ambulance in 1:25, but it's a tricky conversion with the kits available. The classic comedy film "The Disorderly Orderly" has some great footage of two basically identical '61 ambulances.

It might create a blind spot as well. ?

https://www.oldbug.com/sowdcc.htm

Banthrico made diecast banks of that era Buick, four door sedans.

FWIW for informational purposes, that white fat sedan posted on a previous page is part of a series of art works by Erwin Wurm, of Austria.

As envisioned in 1925

Studebaker Museum in South Bend, IN.

Note the promo and diecast Studebakers are coupes while the movie car is a 2-door sedan.

The chip shortage thing is a complicated story. From what I've heard, the chip manufacturers were caught off-guard by the dynamics of the pandemic just as the other manufacturers. Auto makers shut down production and cancelled their orders for chips. The chip makers then anticipated lower demand for automotive chips, so they then turned to other buyers. Meanwhile auto production ramped back up, but those manufacturers had to get back in line for the chip production that were now going to consumer electronics and such. On top of all this, there was a fire at an auto chip plant in Japan!

Thanks guys, I did manage to remove the axle. I used a tool that had a claw, and gently pried the wheel off. In the end, I'm experimenting with the AutoWorld chassis for model railroad use, but I might just set one aside with my old Aurora and Tyco cars. In digging out my old track, I wished Aurora had come up a stronger connection system. Some of my sections have broken tabs. I did come across some good websites discussing the history, maintenance and tuning of the AW chassis, and I"m on the lookout for the AW parts packs, in the hope I can use the brushes and such on my old cars.

Maybe It'll be the Goldfinger Continental...in its cubed form. ?

At first I thought these were going to be of the type included in the Cannonball Run "ambulance" van.

In the late '80s or early '90s I used the AMT '40 Tudor roof to attempt to convert the IMC/Testors postwar Ford into a sedan. Project was never completed. It's very rough. The AMT kits are great for kitbashing.

That DIVCO is nice.

There was a bunch of unassembled '55 and '56 Pontiacs for sale at NNLEast several years ago along with the Rambler wagons. AMT did a '57 but I'm sure we'll never see that one again. It does seem interesting that this interior is offered when there are other JoHan models without interiors. For the Pontiac chassis, I recommend Revell's '50 Olds. The frame is similar between the two, though IIRC suspension designs differed. Perhaps the "new tool" AMT '57 Chevy floorpan will work though the trunk floor differs between makes.

I Have a couple of those old AMT kits myself with some others from the 1:43 series. I also have a builtup Renwal 1940 Ford Tudor. It's supposed to be 1:48 scale but it's way smaller than the AMT post-war coupe. Perhaps it's actually 1:50. I'm curious how the Tamiya kit fits in with these two kits in regards to size.

I recently started poking around the web looking for info regarding Tamiya's Ford staff car. There are quite a few reviews of this kit, and most seem to agree that there are some issues with this kit, and that it's expensive for what you get. It can be built in civilian trim as well as in military form. Out of the box military https://www.dembrudders.com/tamiya-148-ford-army-staff-car.html Detailed military build, with opened trunk http://www.smallscaleafv.com/inspiration/stefan-landman/ford-1942-staff-car-xviii-us-airborne-corps/page/slideshow Photoetch detail set https://www.scalemates.com/kits/hauler-hlx48262-usarmy-staff-car-1942--109200 Civilian https://modelingmadness.com/scott/cars/street/42ford.htm Civilian conversions https://myp48.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/modeling-more-vehicle-modeling/ Military & civilian https://www.scalemodelnews.com/2011/08/tamiya-us-army-staff-car-visits-crashed.html Taxi! https://baecklund.eu/scalemodels/gig/42ford.html

The Tested YT channel has several other 3-D printing review videos. Very informative.

Oddly enough, I just found some info right on Round2's website: "In 1956, Erik Erikson established SMP (Scale Model Products) as a subsidiary of his own Detroit Plastic Products, but with considerable financial interest held by AMT. " https://www.round2corp.com/amt-4/