randyc

I thought that car looked familiar. I did one years ago. Nice build. Looks great!

I have this one. No top, no box, was missing the drivers side rear trim spear. I grabbed a spear, but didn't realize it had the antenna on it as well. While I was fabbing, made the chrome fender trim as well. Easy mod that made nice difference Your correct about pricing being everywhere and then being pretty common considering there are only supposed to be 1000 of them.

Nice! I have the regular white/beige version. Great cars. Seems like the prices on these have stabilized or even dropping. Which would make sense, since I have one. They always get cheaper after I buy them. But they are great looking cars. Nice scores.

Papers aren't as important to me either. Something else that has to be kept up with. I should start a ring binder with nothing but papers in sleeves. I don;t have any with fatal paint flaws. this 36 Ford of Todd's is close though. We'll see how it comes out. And another aspect of this would be how important are mirrors/wipers to you? I can live with a less expensive car missing mirrors or wipers. Most of my cars are displayed on a shelf at top of room, so you can't really tell if they have wipers and mirrors. Plus they are easily knocked off or missing anyway. I save loose ones for later attachment if I don;t want to deal with it. I have a zip lock bag that I save them in. I am not super critical of paint. But bad rash is bad rash. And mostly all the cars are still pretty good. I had a buyer last week want to haggle based on his claim that paint was very bad. I knew it was not that bad. We eventually found our price. And I bought a car for a friend last week - new no box 66 Chevelle. You know the ones you see 4 on the tray in a fold top box? They had cut the whole box and tray. Wrapped that in bubble and taped the whole thing up with a label on it. It arrived fine, weirdly enough. Just had to saw all the tape and bubble off. And online estate sales and such thank you for keeping collections in good hands. lol. Your box will go today - didn't get there in time yesterday.

You must have been in the right place at the right time. I never find deals like that. I looked it up and even that seller doesn't have anything else close to that one, even at make offer, that I want. Durn it. I woulda been on that one.

At this point, I have about all the cheaper Mint cars out there. With or without boxes. So it's getting harder to stay under that $50 threshold. But if it's something I want, I start by looking at the cheapest and go from there. and find myself studying the photos closely for paint and structural deficiencies, like the 67 Camaro and 57 Cameo discussion on the other board. I'm letting those go for now. I did get a 57 Dodge truck and the paint is pretty awful on it. Might try polishing kit on it and see if I can smooth some of it down. That and it's just a homely truck. Can't wait to see a new project on here. Love those too. When weather warms, I want to get back on my Jada 58 Caddy. See what I can do with the paint on it.

Friend of mine's family had an M-37, which is some variant of the above as well? It was their farm truck and a variant of the Power Wagon ( I just googled them ).

So when my buddy Todd was alive, our collections overlapped in a few places. One was the DM 36 Ford. We both have one. Mine was boxless. I'm not sure if I even have the up top. No papers. Todd has box, top, boot, but no papers. My car looks great. I gave it a cursory cleaning and put it on display. I just got Todd's out of box from when we brought everything up from his widow's house. Todd had everything in closed curios. So I'm curious about the story on this one. Looked like the car had never been cleaned. Very dusty. Under the dust is questionable paint. Lots of bad stuff going on in the paint. Nothing fatal, but one of the messiest models I have seen. Not like Todd to not have at least tried to clean it up either. I remember him telling me he got it. He even gave me his green one when he got the blue one. So I'm trying to clean this thing up - I polished out most of the imperfections on the hood. The passenger door looks like someone sanded it with 220 (straight line) and then applied the paint. the rest of the car is just generally not good. We'll see when I get done. I may try to get photos next time I'm down to the building. This one is so dusty that I'm comtemplating bringing it up to the house for a bath in the sink. So which is better - buy the car in really good shape and no box, or a lesser example that has issues? I don't mind cleaning and detailing - I enjoy bringing them back. BUt this one seems pretty bad. I'm imaginging Todd didn't see how bad it was in the listing. Maybe when he saw it, he lost interest? I'll never know and asking him has not generated a reply. Yet. And btw, I do not believe there is such a thing as PERFECT PAINT at this point in the FM/DM market. Too many years have passed and paint issues are cropping into the paint of these replicas.. With that said, I have had a few examples that were close and ONE that I honestly could not find and issue with. (Orange FM 69 Coupe in Monaco Orange). Todd has some that are close in his stuff. The 37 Alfa I'm cleaning is dang close. Beautiful replica - does absolutely nothing for me emotionally. At this point, shall we discuss the overabundace of RED cars? On teh bench I have the 1960 Mercedes convertible, the 1936 Mercedes 500K, and the Alfa. All the same color basically - coulda come from the same barrel of paint. And this is mentioned in many places. At least now, Welly and Motormax et al give us more color choices.

Yep on temps to paint. I was down in building last evening - 48 ish in building, but I was hot anyway, so it felt reasoanble. I managed to polish up a couple and start another one. See thread on car condition I'm about to start.

Wonder for a moment, what we might be seeing now had these been more popular. At one point, these were supposed to have easily removable fenders and bumpers. Not sure that got past the design stage though. Probably some huge legal ramifications. There was a local Subway franchisee who had one and had me (graphcis shop then) make logos for the doors. Of course his screaming yellow Vette also had them. We did not however do that to his DeLorean. At least he was a car guy, right? Back to the replica - these are nice. I recently sold one from Todd's cars. I woulda kept it, but I have two plastic builtups. And a 1/18 diecast that I can't GIVE away. It may go to the Goodwill. That's how bad it is to sell. Unless one of you uns wanna pay shipping to have it.

Hmmmm, you're right. I have the black/white one and didn't even realize the top was chrome with paint. Never seen one of them peeling that I remember.

Those are such nice cars. Glad you found one reasonably priced. I don't have to have a box, but the more I get into this collecting hobby, the more a box is a comfort if nothing else, for the shipping to me. And someday it will be nice to have for resale. Someday...

I have found some deals on diecast Franklin and Danbury Mint cars. I bought a 58 Impala, 55 Chevy, the Boris something Cobra (atrocious to me) For $110. Sold the 55 and Cobra for $110 and kept the 58 for free. Found a 57 Chevy Mint car for $12, sold for $30. A friend found several for $8 each. 69 Camaro that only needed a tire swap to be perfect and a 53(?) GMC Limited Edition truck that I still have waiting for a front bumper. I found some bumpers that will work. Just need to take the time to affix the bumper and clean it up. I prowl the local stores - several in our downtown - occasionally. Could probably do better if I looked more often. And have been able to haggle with sellers on most occasions to get a reasonable price. Haven't seen a lot of plastics locally though.

Wow! Seeing these in your photos and descriptions certainly makes them tempting. I have looked before but never been too excited, but they do look nice in your photos. Seems like a consistent issue for paint over chrome plating on Mint cars. The 57 Cadillac has same issue on the doors in many cases. It is fun to see how sellers try to pass that off as making it rarer or more valuable in some way.

Dang nice!

Yep. If you can get something in a color that works for you, it saves a lot of the chances of screwing something up and goes so quick to detail a diecast. After modeling for 40ish years, I don't get quite as excited about planning and painting and such. Waiting for planets to align and the moon to be in it's proper place for the paint to go on smoothly is just not as exciting as it used to be.

I'll watch it. Like you, I've built models and read magazines since I was old enough to read my uncle's Hot Rod magazines. And with Prime Unlimited, I can often read a novel a day. Now most of these aren't top shelf writers, but that also makes them different at times.

Good luck there.

Naw the Jim Morrison "Blue Lady" car he referred to. It's a 67 GT 500 very much like the diecast we've discussed in dark blue with no top stripes. I shoulda been clearer.

You could. But it would also be awesome with a proper Penske racer. Just a fun project to watch all the way around.

The HW Mercury is on par with the Mint cars. Mercury Kustoms have always be my favorites for some reason.

Nice piece. Someday...

Hirohatas come up occasionally on ebay. Usually $75 for no box and on up from there. It was my holy grail of scale models. Well a couple years ago, when everyone was asking what I wanted and I wanted absolutely nothing real, I said donate to the Hirohata fund. And I bought one. Then later I bought a different car in a fancy case with wood base. The Hirohata lives there on my dresser now. That is a beautiful replica. My most expensive car to date at $150 delivered. The other one would have to be painted from something else? Looks like it would be reasonably easy to replicate? Snake has a thread on here now and I have the same car in green. With a repaint and some decals... or am I missing something? I did look it up.

I think I was watching that one? ? I usually don't mind if don't win. Just less money I am spending. But like you, I do watch for the gangster cars. Would like to get them at some point. It's black so not a huge draw for me, but the extras make it worth watching. I have the figures from the 32 Chrysler that could be used with it.

They do look nice. I built the plastics in the past. And these just don't fit my collection theme anymore. But I do look and kinda think about buying one when I see them at WM. No one locally apparently knows about BRE or cares. If it ain't NASCAR.... Nice cars.