1959

Me and my wife both drive boring Toyotas as daily drivers so let's leave those a side and concentrate on our older cars. 59 Ford Galaxie. Bought this 1993 at the age of 15. It was a project car imported from Arizona. We restored it with my father and got it finished 1996. It has been driven some 25000 miles since then and has been very reliable car. 1957 Chrysler New yorker. Model I fell in love in 1990 when there was am article about a very nice example in Finnish American car magazine. When this very same car that was in the article popped up for sale two years ago just 10 miles from our home there was not much to do than buy it. 1959 Buick Invicta convertible. Almost as long as I have loved 57 Chryslers I have also loved 59 Buicks as I saw the front end of a project car in old cars sales yard close to our summer cottage. It is just so mean. As I had a dream of a late 50s convertible I bundled it to a one package: 59 Buick and a convertible. I have owned the car for 6 years. I am third owner and have all the original documents including the bill of sale from Vancouver. 1963 Buick Riviera which came as a trade for a 1996 Mustang that I had as a daily driver. My plan was to get rid of it soon but my wife really likes the car and don't let me sell. We'll, I quest it is a positive problem!

This is an old build from 1995. AMT 66 Mustang that has been modified to 65 GT version (at least almost) with a help of parts from AMT 66 GT Fairlane. As the Mustang kit is not very detailed the rear and front suspension, inner fenders, exhaust pipes etc. have been taken from the Fairlane among with some other details as the wheels and tires too. Grille mesh is from my brother's shaver with some GT foglights from parts box. I needed to make the panel lines for the headlight bezels and the front fenders in the area below the bumber needed to be "rounded" quite a lot as it has completely wrong form in the model. Luckily it was very thick so it could be done by just sanding it. Paint is from a small repair paint spray can which I think was a Mitsubishi color. I sprayed the paint to a glass jar and then sprayed it with airbrush. Several coats of 1-k clear over the paint and polished with Millennium 2000 kit. Kimmo

I started to get worried with a stash of about 10 new unbuilt ones and about 20 previously built restoration projects but I have no worries anymore! Great to see pictures of such a great collections, thanks everyone for sharing.

I have also built few Monograms in the late 80s and early 90s (age 12-15) but only few of them have survived. In the old bubble gum sales rack is 57 BelAir which I made as a convertible because the roof is too high and short in the model. 53 Belair was the first kit I ever made some modifications. That was rebuilt by my son few years ago, at age 8. Also his rebuilt is my brother's old ZZ Top Ford that has been backdated to a nostalgic style. We have got some built Monograms from couple of my friends but let's see if those will be rebuild. Even that the kits have very little fitment issues they often seem a bit too much like some 1:24 die cast cars to my eyes.

Great job! I built also one as a teenager and it became terrible. Dismatled after few years and after 25 years I found it again. Rebuilt became better but not as nice as the one here. It sure is a tricky model. And as an owner of 1:1 59 Ford all small incorrect things in the Revell model jumps up.

These are built by my son, age 10,5 now. Body paint is done by me as I don't let him use the airbrush and thinners yet. White colors are basic spray can paints and red is Revells Ferrari Red painted with air brush. 55 Cameo was built almost three years ago. It is out of the box with opened grille. Hardest part was to build the bed. Willys is done about a year ago and is otherwise from the box but with the 392 Hemi from Amt 53 Stude. Fitment of the flip front was pretty hard for the kid builder and is still pretty terrible even with the efforts to get it ligned with the body. Kimmo& Henri (the builder)

This is an old build from 1996, the last one I finished before 25 years break. Amt 57 Fairlane is fitted on Revell 55 Jukebox Ford chassis. I managed to get a set of photo etched disc brakes which can be seen through the Supreme wheels. I used the rear wheel rims from a part box drag racing wheels with the Supreme centres. Engine is Boss Mustangs 429 with ZR-1 Vette fuel injection. Body is otherwise original but inner fenders are removed and the deck lid is opened. Paint is done with a basic hardware store 1-k allaround paint. Color is self mixed pink and black is slightly softened with the same pink color. Polishing is done with Millenium 2000 kit. Interior is pretty much from the Fairlane kit with scratch built rear side panels. I took the car to few model car shows and won Street Machine class on each of those. Times have changed and the quality of the models have improved a lot from those days, no chance to get a trophy with this anymore! Kimmo

Wow! Great idea and styling and very well executed model. I am a huge fan of 50s dream cars and this is one of the nicest models I have seen built on that style! Inspires me to keep working on my 60 Ford bubble top model.

WOW, this is an amazing build! Flawless work and very tasteful modifications. I would also like to see more of your work here in the forum as I am not in the Instagram.

My son (age 9 then) made a quick backdating for the zztop Ford with a little help from me. Kit was once built by my brother and then I dismantled it in the early nineties to build a 90s hitech rod out of it which was luckily never finished. Unfortunately I had sanded of some of the pressings from the body which does not fit the old school look but atleast we got the kit saved. I think the kit works fine for the backdating as the top chop and stance are OK for that style too. Hood sides would need modifications to become more period perfect but we left them now untouched. What we did was to change the tires from the spare part box. Front wheels from amt 34 Tudor chromed with Molotow pen and some amt steel wheels with slicks to the rear end. Engine is flathead with trim parts. Inside just the steering wheel and shifter was changed. Paint is a just a spray can gold without clear coat. We have one more built zztop ford in our stash that we will modify more to the style that Billy Gibbons' other famous 34 coupe has.

As a big fan of 50s dream cars I really like this! A great idea that is very well executed! Very nice proportions, it certainly looks like it is from the factory.

Wow, 10 finished models in a year with such a high quality of work. I hardly finish two builds and not even close to that quality. Impressive!

Nice build, I really like your idea of a worn out pro street car. As the 90s style is quite agded nowadays this could easily have happend in the real life too.

And from the work bench. Plastic work in this is not my proudest moments so there is certainly enough bondo and fillerpaint on it?

And some photos without the space theme

This built was done together with my son ( age 8 then) and it got it's inspiration from 50's Motorama dreamcars and a scrap yard 59 Caddy kit and some nice parts that were found from the spare parts box. The whole bottom of the kit with suspension, inner fenders etc had been utilized for Johan 64 Caddy upgrade project. We decided to go the easy way and make a slammer out of it so the hood was glued. Bottom was taken from that same 64 Caddy kit as it was a very easy fit with correct wheelbase and most of the dimensions. Windshield is Amt 59 Imperial rear glass and the rear glass in the car is Caddy's original windshield. Extra fins and front fender skirts are also from the Imperial kit. Taillights are probably from Amt 57 Ford. I am not very happy how the front end turned out but it has a turbine inlet made out of two turbine wheels glued on top of each others and some spare part box grille pieces. I might do that again if I run into an extra grille/bumber piece. Car was modified as a two seater and seats and console are from Amt 58 Impala. Johan custom steering wheel and Imperial's shifter were added too. Interior is painted by my son with a brush. Paint is just a guick spray can silver meant for car wheels. We didn't want it to be too shiny so there is no clear coat on it. Afterwards thinking it might have been a good way to impove the looks but too late now. Chrome trim is done with the kit's "foil stickers". Thanks for looking Kimmo&Henri

Hi Andy. Thanks for kind words. We still have this common hobby, my son's Stude is finished about a year ago. He got interesed in model car building when looking at my old builds and as he wanted to start building I also got back in to this hobby after 25 years break. Has been a lot of fun together!

My son (age 9) built the original version. I have painted the body as I don't let him yet to work with the paints and thinners in air brushing. Yellow paint is a mixture of creamy white and yellow Humbrol enamels. Roof color is 57 Chrysler's Copper Brown Metallic from spray can. Other wise it is out of the box. Pro Street version is my old build from 1994. Whole chassis and running gear is from Amt 67 Pro Street Chevelle. Fuel injection is scratch built with Trepanier built 1:1 50 Buick as an inspiration. I guess the idea for the color is also from the same car. Paint is 1K car paint and it is polished with Millenium2000 kit. I even won few trophies with it. Unfortunately the 90s monochromatic style looks quite aged nowadays and also gives the model a pretty "toy like" looks but that was the style then. Thanks for looking!

Thanks for the comments! Realised I forgot to add photo of the engine.

My build is a restoration of my friend's old Chevy that was built at least twice. I put a parts box 409 (probably Amt 57 Chevy's) with unknown fuel injection. AMT 56 Ford front wheels and parts box rear wheels with AMT Blue Streaks. Paint is just guick and dirty: spray can gold with spray can clear over the AMT 57 Chevy decals. Built just for fun so no detailling or paint polishing. Thanks for looking.

Hi all Finally got my self to sign up to the forum. I am Kimmo from Finland, 45 years old. During late 80s until 1996 I was guite active on model car building (mainly 1/25 USA cars) and took them also to shows and even won some trophies. But then studies, job, house, family and 1:1 cars took my time. Luckily I had saved all my models, tools and spareparts and few years ago my son (then 7 years) got interested in those so we started to make some easy build models with him. He started to give me some pressure to start my own projects too so now I am also back in business. And it has been fun to build after a long break. I haven't done very serious builds so not too much wiring or paint polishings anymore, just fun builds with focus on overall looks. Our main interest is 50s cars and pickups and nostalgic customs&rods. I'll post some pics about our builds to the under glass section soon.

Hi all This is my first post here so let's see how this goes... My build is Graffiti Coupe with Monogram Lil Coffin Hemi, wheels&tires and seats. Suspension is modified to get the car closer to the ground but otherwise not so many modifications. Paint is just a spray can blue with spray can clear coat and it has not been polished. Not so much detailling as this was built just for fun and is actually my second build after 25 years break from modelling. Hope you like it! Kimmo from Finland