Junkman

This would be the first new car I'd consider buying in more than 20 years. And cruise it up and down the road...

For that, which looks terrific btw., you won't need the stock interior. You may try the one from the custom 62 Catalina for size.

Why was everything nicer and better in the good old days?

I'm afraid you'll draw a blank with Heller too. The Heller tyres are very generic with the exception of the Michelin radials in the 15/6.

17" is the correct rim size for a 500K and 540K, the tyre size would be 6.50 - 17 or 7.00 - 17 respectively. I have seen factory photos of new cars wearing Continentals or Dunlops. The tyres in the picture posted by Skip I've seen for the first time and just by looking at the tread they seem to be special. I also think that one of the words on the sidewall spells 'REGEN', the German word for rain. This is a chart of which tyre sizes were fitted on pre-war Mercedes from the factory:

And yes, the perimeter frame would have an X-member, it was hence called the X-Plus frame.

Correct, the Chevies had the X-frame, but the Olds didn't. That's part of the problem.

There aren't many good renditions of the underpinnings of GM B-Platform cars with perimeter frames, since most of them would be promo based. The one that comes to mind is the AMT 67 Impala. In addition to the engines already mentioned, the Jo-Han 68-70 Olds 442 ones aren't bad, neither are the ones from the Toronado kits. But all this still leaves you with the Jo-Han interior and for a replacement you are pretty much on your own. I would do what Doug suggests. Say thank you that it exists at all and build what's in the box.

Sure. Got some non-European stuff too:

True. I should move to Spain.

You can't expect that every model kit reviewer has a thorough knowlege of the model kit history. And factually, they are correct. The kits matter of factly lack the detail and finesse that is expected nowadays. Now for us nutters who are into those old kits, I do fully agree with what Jeff wrote. Many of those old kits capture the shape of the real car a lot better than the new ones do. The new ones may be correct, yes, but just cloning something in scale doesn't always look right to the eye, since the persepctive is different when looking at a model. I noticed this the first time, when a friend of mine put his 60 Ford annual next to my new tool 60 AMT Starliner. I now got me a resin body of the annual and want to combine it with the interior and underpinnings of the newer kit. The same goes for the 59 Chevy. I can't pinpoint what it is, but the Revellogram one just doesn't look right to me, whereas the old annual and the AMT El Camino do. I'm more interested in shape and colour than detail anyway. I'd actually be happy with a curbside of every model I build. The body and trim must look right, not be right IMO. A lot of art must go into making models, not just cloning the real thing in a different size.

Nice, especially the Bird. You should post them in the 'what do you drive' thread. Found some more road gold:

Errrr... obviously they spent too little time buildig these. Had they allocated sufficient time building these, the records would have survived.

So it does actually contain the pick up bed, carson top, bonnet, nose, and wheels? And all the chromed parts specific to the Ala Kart?

I could start liking those Chinese...

That website does exist already. Visit http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums and go to "1:1 Reference pictures" It might need a bit of improvement in the sorting department, but the start has been made. On the other hand, when doing builds of contemporary cars like said Mustang, it should be easy enough to pop by your local dealership, get the sales brochures, and have a peek underneath a car that's on display there.

What was the Mod Rod version? I think I've never seen it.

A mirror would help?

Correct. I try my best.

Posterity. I may not always get it right, but I still think my English is better than your German. What I was trying to say is that back then there was comparatively little concern for archiving the few remaining records, which car modellers might find useful 65 years later, since other duties appeared to be more pressing at the time. What we should look into is whether some promotional materials or sales brochures have survived in private hands and how we can get access to them.

I knew they are Dunlops. And I think it is safe to assume they were available on new cars. Speaking of factory photos, here is a photo of the Sindelfingen factory 1945: You may imagine that saving records for posteriority was not a top priority.

I would think there were more than one type of tyres available. IIRC the ones in the Jo-Han kits are Dunlops? Here we really are on thin ice because - as mentioned earlier - most of the records were pulverized and most people who could tell are dead by now. Even factory photos are rare.

You're sorted.

Paint chips for engine paints don't exist, at lwast I have never ever seen any. But I just happen to know that a close match for the Duesenberg engine colour is Humbrol No. 2 Emerald, which started life as BR/GWR 'Malachite'. It's very close to RAL 6029, Revell 61, Gunze 26, Testors/MM 1524... I always used Humbrol enamel, since it automatically gives the correct finish.

I guess we have to call the A-Team. And if they decline, there's still Xena.