randyc

Might try a sign shop and see if they have any "sign foam" scraps. Scraps would likely work. It is high density Urethane (HDU). It is very "carveable". Comes in sheets form but can be glued up to make whatever thickness you need. Very tight cell structure, sands nicely and can be painted with most anything to completely smooth for mold or final painting.

Seems like you could use a revell 55 chevy chassis. Olds engine from the 50 Olds kit? Not sure about interior, though. Might could use the 55 chevy as a start?

Go on and hack. If you mess up, I have a Color me Gone with a warped body (bad dehydrator incident). Bound to be a trade of some sort we can work if you need the kit other than the body.

Yes, 1/24. Very similar to the WIX 67 GTO. I haven't compared them side by side, but am thinking I may sell off my 67 Red Wix diecast and my 66 Revell plastic builtup. I'll have this one and the 67 Convertible diecast. I may have a set of pre printed M&H slicks That I may see if will work. These slicks are no larger than the front street tires. Strangely, I've only recently run across this one but the chassis has 2008 tampo'd on it. There seem to be quite a few of them on ebay right now. May have always been and I just didn't run across them.

Just in today. From Icons University of Racing series. Working suspension, wired engine, battery cables. Slicks seem a little small. Fairly inexpensive to boot.

Just a thought - folks, make sure you have a plan! I'm going this coming weekend to help clear a friend's collection for his widow. We had been doing diecasts for the last year and he has a bunch of Franklin and Danbury Mint diecasts to go through. I had agreed to do this when it looked like there was no reason to worry about such. I'll end up doing a bunch of work for little personal return but I did agree to this. Make a plan. If nothing else, get an inventory going and at least assign some sort of value to each item you list.

Well, let's skip right to the end. Finished. And I love it. Yes it has some issues, but looks great on coffee table. Hood is held on with duct tape. Some gaps here and there. Door panels aren't stock. And so on. But it favors a stock 63 Caddy. Even worked out that I could use the factory body screws on the corners.

I agree with Snake- this is the Motormax clone/ripoff of Ertl's AG Milner coupe. Looks like Monogram's TRX tread pattern on the front radials. Or maybe a larger repop of the Revell diecast? I sold my Revell but still have 2 Ertls, on signed, one unsigned. Good work fabbing up an engine.

Good luck to him. I see a few good high dollar cars in there but not $1500 worth to me. I'm about to delve into a friend's collection that died a couple weeks ago. Help his widow get rid of what the family doesn't keep. And I will be breaking up the collection I think. Close to 150 cars he had told me at one time. We'll see what is really there. He never inventoried the collection but had it all on display. She knows NOTHING about his cars she says. And I have quite a few builds and repairs he was coming to get last weekend. With that happening, I have started inventorying my collection to a spreadsheet. Over 200 cars, diecast and plastics so far. 1/43 and larger. Not counting the 1/64s yet. Some should be high dollar cars. Some cheapies we have seen a lot. I'd buy the whole lot at $500 though. No more due to logistics of getting back across the country and no boxes and such as that. HAVE A PLAN FOR YOUR COLLECTION!

I need some input on the hood. Any suggestions? I really don't want to have to cut up the firewall area. Any ideas?

I think it will look good on shelf but will not bear close inspection. But it will look like a stockish 63 Caddy. Thanks for looking in on it. I also have wheels for my 58 Caddy conv. I think it's going to eventually be Lake Placid Blue and white, to match a Stratocaster I have that my wife bought me. And I have bought a DM 53 Buick Estate Wagon to carry on the 50's boat theme I like so good. Waiting for it to arrive.

A few were, but mostly in China. I'm sure someone knows more than me and can tell which ones and history. Maybe earlier cars? Idk. And I don't think the owners of Mints could go after their tooling. It belongs to China once it's there? Something like that. Might be a problem for the kit makers someday. If any country can ever make for better pricing. This might be a good question for George Bojaciuk, who worked at FM I think it was.

I dunno. I collect and build models. And part of that hobby is flipping diecasts when I can get a deal on a collection or set of cars. Helps pay for the hobby. But you may not mean it like that? It's part of my hobby, even though I have owned a hobby shop in the past. That's a big money pit. Fun, but a good way to lose a lot of money. LOL I also know I'm not going to retire on what my collection is worth. So it's all hobby.

I wonder sometimes, if the Welly/Motormax cars are clones of the basic Mint toolings. I have a 50 Chevy that looks like it could have been based on the Mint version, with everything made into minimal pieces instead of individual parts. Maybe made from an assembled version? I don't know.

Yeah, if you're into diecasts, ebay is addicting. Especially once you start collecting Mint cars. I wasn't able to afford and turned my nose up at such diecasts when they were new. But now? If I can find a bargain, it's too easy. I'm studying on a Corvette now - and I really don't collect Corvettes. but price is right and it's a nice model. Danbury mint for about same price as a plastic kit? Heck yeah.

I have a 1/24 Franklin Mint of that one. Same color. Dusty case and all. It's in my office at work. Found at consignment store for $10. Missing mirrors, maybe something else. No one notices that but me.

That's pretty cool and I can't tell where the parts were incorporated if you hadn't shared that. I have an LE Danbury GMC 53 pickup that a firend found cheap - like $10 that only seems to need a bumper. I keep putting bumpers in the case with it as I find them - will fix it one of these days and will make a nice display piece. I don;t have a spare proper bumper so it will probably be some sort of car bumper, but who cares, really? Glad to see more folks in this section saving and collecting and building diecasts.

NICE!

Nice! Sunstar seems to do such a great job with their cars. I had a 64 Galaxie that was one of my favorites. I have the 57 in a MInt car - the red one with the incorrect paint across the rear. I am also working on a 59 Revell plastic kit and trying my darndest to buid it witih the working top. I also have 3 55s from the Mints (purple/white, pink/white, black/white), an AMT 56 builtup, Mint 56 Sunliner, the 57 convertible, a Revell 57 race car. I *think* I read somewhere that the Fords outsold the Chevies of the period? Guess they all rusted out, cause if that is so, there sure aren't as many seen as the Chevy. The more I look at them, the more I like the Ford. Such a pretty design for 55 & 56. 57 not so much in my eyes, but still good.

Nice save!

I've read that waxing can help keep paint rash at bay for a bit. I have a Mint Desoto that the roof has warped on - not sure if that was abuse by a PO or the metal doing funny things. But I'm in it really cheap, so no big deal. I can part it out eventually for more than I have in it. It seems that almost every car I have has at least a bubble or two in the paint - some are very small and none are so bad that the car is ruined. The less I like a car, the less rash it will have.

So I got this Jada Caddy. I started taking it apart before I thought to take photos. Had plans of a simple wheel swap and some detailing. When looking for wheels, I ran across this entire chassis from a Mint 59 Caddy. I do have the other seat. No dash or door panels though. Have some work to do to make dash work. And paint it and the door panels white. Seller & I struck a deal (remember those killed cars I posted a little bit ago? - they are gone). So when it got here, I had an idea to see if the whole chassis would fit under the body. This is first attempt just to see if it even possibly would work. The engine insert and general detailing of this car is Jada - not very good. So I blew it apart and checked - the frame and wheelbase are pretty much spot on. Witha little grinding and cutting away bosses, I was able to get it better and better. Thing I'm gonna have to figure out is the hood. Can I possibly get the hinged hood to work? Doubtful. Any suggestions? Also have to figure out how to attach the two in a more permanent manner. Maybe brass tabs epoxied inside the body?

I had a Classic Metal works 49 Mercury just crumble into pieces. I saved the wheels and tires. I also had a 1/18 ertl black 68 Chevelle SS396 that blistered pretty bad, BUT many of them on ebay seem to have the same issue. Mine was never out of box other than to remove the bands and look at it a couple times. I have a lot of cars that are showing some paint disturbances. But heck, any car, real or model, won't stay perfect forever.

If I am painting an interior that is basically one color, like Black, I'll spray the whole thing in one color of black - doesn't matter which one really. then use various flats and glosses to make the parts appear to be different materials. With an airbrush I can control the sheen of the parts. Vinyl seats are somewhere in the middle. Carpets are dead flat if I don't use flocking or embossing powder. I paint lots of metal castings - transmissins and such with Dark Anodic Gray. I have sevral jars of the stuff and can paint straight from jar through airbrush. Transmissions are never bright. Exhaust will be this, stainless,, or burnt metal - whichever is closest to hand. Stainless steel metallizer can represent cast aluminum parts that aren't bright anymore. Looking at them closely, they really aren't so much metallic as a shade of gray, unless they are polished. Getting your eye to accept that an aluminum part isn't really what comes out of the can/jar is really hard to do. Good thread going here.

Not sure what might have them, but *sometimes* you can find a Franklin or Danbury mint parts car for cheap that will have nice wheels/tires. And a load of other spare parts for projects. I know some of the Corvettes have the twin stripe tires. Franklin's black 67 convertible has a most excellent set of tires and turbine wheels. Those are fairly cheap if you look long enough. I have bought several different cars for around $10 just for parts. Probably $20 by the time you figure in shipping. And no, I don't have one on hand now. I'm on like the 3rd one of those that have passed through my hands.