Art Anderson

While I haven't weathered a model car since I did the boxart for the Lesney-AMT reissue of the 1907 Thomas Flyer, I find myself looking at, fixing in my memory, lots of older, weathered cars. That was pretty much how it got done, at least for me, back in the days when color prints cost a small arm and a leg to develop and print. Today, with digital cameras, the research gets pretty easy, and dirt cheap too (once you get past the price of the camera!), and oh, did I mention instantaneous results? Seriously, the best out there at weathering do take the time to see where rust streaks run and flow down an old painted surface, see how mud splatters up the sides of a car or pickup truck body, and how dust collects on the sides and rear surfaces of a body shell or pickup box. I learned a lot of this weathering HO railroad cars years ago, when after several weathering jobs on boxcars, I was astonished to finally discover the rather narrow bands of roadbed dirt that got sprayed up the ends of RR cars from the wheels of the car in front of them during a rainstorm. That began changing how I looked at the process. Whlle I don't weather model cars anymore (perhaps I should think of starting to?) some things come to mind: If it's a worn out 30's or 40's car, particularly a Ford, look closely at the windshield and side glass--you should notice a "milkiness" around the edges of the safety glass, where the clear plastic sticky laminate between the two sheets of plate glass has dried out, turned cloudy. Those old, darker paints used back then weathered quickly, due to UV exposure--as a kid, I almost never saw a shiny dark blue, green or black car more than say, 5yrs old, that didn't have a "shimmer" of a transparent red and blue haze on top of the paint, not at all unlike the discoloration one sees on a chrome exhaust header on a driven street rod or motorcycle exhaust. Not sure just how to replicate that, but it would be interesting to say the least! Old car chrome spears, particularly on Fords from the 30's onward, but other lower to midpriced cars as well, were made from stainless steel (which Ford called "rustless steel" for years, with good reason) doesn't rust, it stays fairly bright, with but a slightly dull burnished haze on it. About the only chrome plated trim on 50's or 60's cars were the door handles, emblems and scripts and of course bumpers, all else was either stainless steel, or anodized aluminum (which itself turns a whitish, rather dull silver color with time). Chrome bumpers tend to rust, first in specks, finally in patches where the rust has pushed and peeled away the chrome plating, finally overall rust, with only hints of very dull silver chrome. Headlights, particularly sealed beams, stay bright, as their silver plated reflectors are sealed inside the glass, so they stand out rather starkly even on the rustiest of cars. Rustout almost always tended to follow a pattern--rust started where there were "moisture traps" in the body structure. From the introduction of full width "envelope" body shells in 1948-49, the most logical moisture trap area was the rocker panels, which rotted from the inside out. Next came the areas over the rear wheel arches, as those had a "lip" to the inside, and even rolled edges on that lip, which trapped road dirt that held water for a long time after any rainfall. Of course, in snow country, the increasing use of salt to melt the snow and ice on the pavement accelerated that process immensely, but you will see rustout on a lot of old cars in even the desert southwest, due to the alkaline content of the soils, and the road dust that accumulates, gets wet when it does rain. Rust also began where mounting holes existed for attaching chrome trim, body side spears, and around windows and the base of the roof on the more upscale models. With the coming of the "frenched look" of "eyebrows" over the tops of headlights, particularly on GM and Chrysler products of the mid-50's, the lack of an inner fender panel wrapping pretty much all the way around the front wheels allowed road dirt and mud to collect in those voids above the headlights, with resulting rot, also from the inside out. Even wheels with full wheel covers had their share of rust, given the standard mounting of full wheel covers by means of spring clips or tabs that scraped the paint off the inner edge of the rims, so rust, along with dirt mixed with storm water made for dirty streaks on tires. Tires weather as well, as I am sure most know. Pre-WWII tires were natural latex rubber, which wasn't completely black even when new, and as those tires aged, they turned a medium grey color on all surfaces exposed to sunlight, but the tread surfaces, if the car was being driven, remained almost dark black due to wear (but the tread grooves collected whatever road grime was present, so they show up lighter in whatever color (greyish grime in the city, tan or even reddish dirt if the car got a lot of use on gravel or dirt roads). Even postwar synthetic rubber tires got a greyish look to their sidewalls, but more a dark charcoal color. Old whitewalls in service, even if cleaned, would start to turn a dirty yellow in a week or so, as the colors of the black rubber underneath the white rubber leached through, eventually turning a dark brown if not cleaned. In the city, sidewall scuffing was, and still is, common. On blackwall tires, of course scuffing takes off any raised lettering from the tread siping up to the fattest part of the sidewall, on the outer sides of the tires. On whitewalls, curb scuffing made for blackish smudges where dirt ground into the white rubber, eventually, the scuff bead around the edge of the whitewall would disappear, and splotches of white showed through outside of the carefully buffed area that the factory gave those tires in manufacture. Underneath, when new, those older cars had black chassis almost universally, but leaf springs, and often coil springs as well, were not painted prior to their assembly, so those parts got surface rust very quickly. The undersides of body shells seldom got any more attention than primer, with a bit of lower body color overspray along the bottoms of rocker panels, but that disappeared very quickly--either under factory or dealer-installed tar based undercoating, or in dry country, dust and dirt. Old undercoating tended to dry out, flake away, leaving patches of bare metal that rusted quickly in service. Anyone who has ever been underneath an older car that's seen a lot of road time should know that dirt and seeping oil or grease (hey, if those older cars didn't leak lubricants, it was because they were out of lubricants!) mixed together in a caked on layer of grime, that in time would flake away, and the process would begin all over again. The area around oilpan drain plugs, transmission filler and drain plugs (same with rear axle differential housings) tended to be wet with oil, and rather black in color. Engines would pick up what ever dust or dirt came in through the radiator, dulling, then darkening whatever color they had been painted. The inevitable seepage of coolant around water pumps, and along the seam between cylinder block and heads tended to make the engine paint peel there as well. Where fuel seeped from carburetors down onto the intake manifold, the painted part got discolored, and even the paint might peel away, as gasoline dissolved it over time. The various additives in gasoline tended to turn diecast carburetors a brownish color as well. Firewalls and the inner fender panels ajacent to the engine took on a grime of their own, from both road dirt blowing in from the front, and perhaps some oil or coolant that escaped, and got blown or thrown against those surfaces. Copper radiators with brass tanks used to be painted with an asphaltic black paint, which when new was a semi-gloss black, but which collected dust and dirt, which turned them a dull dark charcoal grey color. Bug splatters on the forward surface of radiator cores is also a common thing, something which modelers seldom ever replicate. Laminated safety plate glass doesn't crumble and fall out like modern tempered glass, rather the broken glass was held pretty much in place by the gummy, sticky layer of plastic laminate between the two sheets of glass, so cracks, even the results of an impact are there, with the glass pretty much held in its original contour or shape. Phew! Long winded post, I know, but based on years of observation. Art

Those are the two-piece hard black plastic Firestone 15" Indy Car tires that were substituted, in 1975, for the original PVC tires in the AMT Corporation 1963 Agajanian Willard Battery Spl (Watson roadster, Parnelli Jones up), and their 1963 Lotus Powered By Ford (Jim Clark, Dan Gurney). These tires were also included in a version of the AMT Corporation '37 Chevy Coupe, at my suggestion, when they were looking at doing a Bonneville version of the model. Art

Some more interesting car names: Buick's Marquette, Oldsmobile's Viking, Nash's Lafayette. Studebaker, located as they were about two miles south of Notre Dame's Golden Dome, decided to capitalize on the popularity of the then-coach of the Fighting Irish, naming their new low-priced car the Rockne (only to be doomed to oblivion when Knute Rockne died in a plane crash), they then followed by redoing the car, naming it after their CEO, calling it the Erskine--but that one failed to catch on after CEO Erskine ran Studebaker into bankruptcy in 1933 and then committed suicide. But, Studebaker did hit a home run with their 1939 Champion, while still holding on to the Land Cruiser. Eight years before Ford introduced a mid-priced car, Chevrolet had a one-year run with a very low-priced version of the Cast Iron Wonder, the 1931 Chevrolet Mercury! There were a number of cars named after famous Native Americans, notably the Tecumseh, and the Geronimo. Stutz got lots of mileage out of Bearcat. Jordan, produced by the son of the early 19th century "Witch of Wall Street" Nettie Jordan, made lots of press coverage with the Playboy. New Era Motors might have had better success, if they'd offered a bumper sticker for the back bumper of one of their better-known marques "You've been Mooned!" From the astronomic side, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter have all been used, funny though, no Pluto. But Galaxy and Galaxie have both been used, as has Constellation I believe. Add to that Orion and North Star. I seem to remember running across a reference to a car called the Great Bear, but not the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major. Of course, both Comet and Meteor have been used, both of them multiple times over the past century. From the bovine side of things, of course the Maverick, and the Taurus. Equine enthusiasts have the Pinto (and the Pony) along with Mustang (although the stated inspiration for the 'stang was actually the North American Aviation WW-II fighter). Nautically speaking, the Mayflower, Corvette (the highly maneuverable little British subchasers of WW-II), even the Oldsmobile Pirate. Enough for tonight. Art

Maybach named the car that, to capitalize on their supplying Maybach diesel engines to power the Zeppelin dirigibles (such as Hindenburg) that were all the rage in Germany in the 20's and 30's. Art

I think it had more to do with acknowledging Dodge's radiator mascot/hood ornament, which first appeared, I believe, in 1934, a male bighorn sheep, or ram. Art

I think that was the Mitsubishi Pajero, which was rebadged as the Montero for importation into the US? Art

I'd love to see pics of the model that Donald C. Burnham won the contest with in the 1930's. Donald C. Burnham grew up in the house next door to my boyhood home in West Lafayette. His father, a registered pharmacist turned Mobilgas gas station owner, and the longest serving mayor of West Lafayette was a long time family friend as well. Don Burnham also was an international model airplane builder and flyer by the late 30's, in his teenaged years, and as an Eagle Scout, was the first runnerup in a competition to be the Boy Scout to accompany then Captain Richard E. Byrd on his second expedition to the South Pole. He grew up to be the manufacturing manager of Oldsmobile in his 20's, and the CEO and Chairman of Westinghouse in the 60's. Art

I've always chuckled at the notion of owning an Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire! (I wouldn't have cherished the notion of driving an ASS to work either!) Art

Beauville goes all the way back to 1955, when it was used to name the Bel Air 4dr Station Wagon. But which was worse, calling the new mid-priced Fomoco product "Edsel" (so named after the late father of Henry Ford II, Benson Ford and Willian Clay Ford), or "Utopian Turtletop" which was what one avante-garde sophisticated poet suggested????? Car, and body style names have almost always been the province of marketing types, seldom anyone else. Most seem to have been concocted to evoke a buying emotion, some however, have come from the whims and personal opinions of upper management (the CEO of Nissan, for example, had just seen the hit movie "My Fair Lady" starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn (in the role of Eliza, the East End cockney girl whom the Professor determined to pass off as a society girl), and ordered that the forthcoming Nissan (then Datsun in the USA) GT sports car be named "Fairlady". Now Fairlady might play in Tokyo, but the US sales division balked at that, taking Fairlady badges off every one of the cars as they hit the West Coast, and substituting "240Z", which helped immeasurably to sell the car here. I think Honda's using the moniker CVCC for their first really serious marketing of their signature subcompact here resulted ultimately in the renaming of that series "Civic", probably because CVCC can almost be pronounced as Civic in the US. Nova, of course, had a really nice connotation here in the US, and it wasn't until political correctness began to be played, that it was pointed out that Nova is at least offensive in Latin America. Names like Impala, Cougar, Jaguar evoke a theme of speed, fleetness of foot, although being fleet of foot (wheels) isn't something one normally associates with bedspring ride and Powerglide. Automakers, notably GM and Chrysler for years used car body style or trim names to associate their cars with luxury, with desireable locations, such as Cambridge, Mayfair, Wayfarer, Belvedere, Bel Air, Biscayne, Delray. Newport, Windsor, New Yorker. Ford names, once they started using them, were more descriptive of the trim level. Mainline referred to their lowest priced, main line of cars, Custom tended to denote upscale, with Crestline being very descriptive of the "Crest" of Ford trim and appointments, but Mercury marketing got into the act with names like Monterrey and Montclair, even Lincoln had the Capri, Ford even had an upscale 2dr wagon called Del Rio. Fairlane simply was drawn from the estate of the then-late Henry and Clara Ford, Fairlane Estate. Ford's station wagon names for decades evoked thoughts of western dude ranches, of upscale rural homes, of life in the country, in an era when many Americans could point back to their growing up on farms and in small towns. Chevrolet termed their station wagon variant of their 1/2 ton Panel Delivery the Suburban, drawing attention to the then just-recognized fact that there were belts of suburban communities growing up around virtually every major city in the US in the 20's and 30's. Curiously, the 1955-58 GMC version of the upscale Cameo Carrier from Chevy was called the "Suburban Carryall". Whether GMC's Carryall was ever used to carry all, International Harvester called their station wagon version of the panel delivery, simply, the International Carryall, and likely most of them were used in that role. Buick, once management was convinced to adopt body and trim level names, used Roadmaster to indicate that their top line car was indeed Master of the Road, but how many correctly guessed that Century denoted a car that was capable of cruising at the then (in 1941) speed of 100mph, and that from a mass-production car (Duesenberg J's had already surpassed that cruising speed 12yrs earlier, on such roads that could accommodate such velocities). Many body style names came right from horse-drawn carriages: Beauville, Victoria, Phaeton, Roadster, Station Wagon, Landau, Cabriolet, Berline, Coach, Coupe', Landaulet, Coupelet, Sedan. A few of those names got munged by their use on car body styles that in no way reflect the heritage of the particular name, but that's Madison Avenue for ya. No horsedrawn carriages carried the names of Phaeton or Crown Victoria on a 4dr closed vehicle, for example. Phew, enough for now! Art

For starters, pre-World War II rodders tended to shy away from flathead V8's, to them all the Ford V8 was good for was to be the "best waterheater Detroit ever built". Seriously, inline 4-bangers ruled the hot rod scene in the 30's (it wasn't until those prewar rodders went off to war that their younger kin discovered the possibilities of the Flathead V8 for the most part). As for 4-cylinder engines, at the top of the horsepower charts (excluding the exotic Model A/B Ford based Cragar 4, which was both scarce and expensive) were the Chevy 4's out of the 20's, followed by the somewhat larger 4-cyl that powered Oldsmobiles from 1919 to about 1924 or so (the engine that is in the Beverly Hillbillies Truck kit, BTW). Model A engines were popular, the Model B even more so (and there is but one external visual difference between the two--the Model B doesn't have the outside oil return pipe on the valve galley cover on the left side of the block!), with one of the numerous aftermarket cylinder heads (Revell has two different Model A speed equipment heads, a flathead, and an OHV conversion, look inside their '31 and '29 Model A kits). All sorts of wild intake manifolds got built, as were exhaust headers (the tapered section of a Ford torque tube made for those wild looking "megaphone pipes"!). Bodies remained, for the most part, completely stock, and not that many were channeled, almost no coupes ran, roadsters were king. Suspensions tended to be mostly stock Ford setups, not even dropped front axles for the most part. 6:00-16 wheels and tires were pretty much what got run by the late 30's, often on '35 Ford wire wheels (R&D Unique has those in cast white metal). As for paintwork, most didn't spend much time or money on that, often the cars ran in primer (now you begin to see where rat rods got their modern day inspiration!). There have been a number of books written about hot rodding in the years 1930-1941, as well as a good number of articles in Hot Rod and Rod & Custom (others also) that talk about what I have just written. Art

Harry, I agree! I determined, YEARS ago, to enter a model in a contest ONLY if I think it's good enough to show. I learned to build for me, and only me. If I think a model is something I want you to see, then I will show it to you, either in person, or at a contest or NNL, if not then not, period. The same pretty much is true of magazine coverage of anything I build. If I think a model of mine is good enough to be photographed by a magazine, then I will honor the card requesting mine and my model's presence at that magazine's (or the contest organizers') photography setup, if not, then not. Currently, I refuse to allow any of my stuff to be photographed by "that other magazine" but that is due more to their corporate philosophy, which I have detailed vehemently to them, not related to any other perceived biases. There are contests and there are contests. By this, I mean that it all depends on the particular fervent interests of the organizers, be they a committee of sorts, or a model car club. Some organizations appear to be very open-minded as to the model car subject matter, others may well be swayed toward dragsters, street rods, or all out, balls-to-the-walls customs. This is very much like IPMS in so many ways--over the now several decades of IPMS/USA for example, relatively few model cars have ever placed at the top, winning the top overall awards at IPMS Nats, but when one looks at the primary modeling focus of IPMS, it's not hard to understand that the organization is heavily dominated by modelers of military aircraft and armor--that's pretty much life. There are also, those smaller, almost "provincial" little clubs who when they put on a contest, tend to favor the modelers they know personally, and again, that's a part of life as well. For this reason, and this reason alone, when our local model car club, which acted in partnership with our local IPMS chapter for several years in putting on an annual model contest, spoke out intensively AGAINST allowing entries from our own two clubs' membership to avoid any accusations of favoritism, only to be shot down yearly. So, for me at least, it's far more fun to show up at a contest hundreds of miles away from home, enter something I want the other entrants and spectators to see, and then let events take their course, without any concerns whatsoever about bringing home a trophy. If I do, that's fun, of course, but if not, so what? I went to have some fun, enjoy the camaraderie of being with other modelers whom I may never have known before (and meet up with online friends perhaps for the first time ever!), and that, to me is far more fun. I've found that doing this is a lot nicer than going to a show with high expectations, only to come home frustrated and angry--I get enough of that at my job. Just some ramblings of mine. Art

I second that, Harry!. Their stuff isn't cheap, but frankly, their bolts and rivet details can't be beaten either, for looks. And if you check their website, they even have super-tiny threaded bolts, and nuts to go on 'em. Their service is fantastic, every time I have ordered from them, my order has arrived within 3 business days of my placing it. Art

For what Bill Geary did, brass is much more workable than spring steel, and as for tungsten, that stuff can be a bit difficult to time, outside of an industrial supply house. Art

One of the ingredients of CSC is Sodium Hydroxide, which is the chemical name for ordinary household lye, also the active ingredient in most drain cleaners and oven cleaners. Sodium Hydroxide is death on aluminum, dissolves it very quickly, which is why what happened to you happened. Art

Harry, Bill, and all..... There are a few fabrics out there that not only are extremely thin, but also VERY tightly flexible and tightly woven in the bargain as well (I have a medium weight jacket made from such a fabric). I haven't been in a fabric store in decades, dunno if the stuff is available by the yard, but it shouldn't be too hard to find a used jacket made from it at say, Goodwill, St Vincent DePaul, or Salvation Army stores this time of year. I wouldn't overlook women's clothing either--this kind of fabric (closely woven, extremely flexible (meaning that it will bend and fold tightly and easily) I believe is also used, in fact it's worth looking at a pair of men's chino slacks as well--same story, closely woven fabric, synthetic, and very tightly flexible. In addition, I have seen flexible CA glue offered, which should make attaching such fabric to the tulip panel of the body, and to the framing of a working convertible top. Art

Yeah, that was me. I used one of my Courier resin castings (modified a Country Squire to do that one, a sedan delivery) as what we at Johnny Lightning called a "reference model" for the chinese pattern makers to understand more fully the proportions of the car when they did the tooling mockups (masters) for the Johnny Lightning 1/24 scale diecast Courier. I had to send that master to Beanstalk Productions, then the licensing agent for Ford Motor Company for approval. It came back, with a list of "dings" from Patrick Mulligan (who was editor of that other model car magazine for a year or so before going to Detroit and Beanstalk), with photo's and factory drawings to back up what he said needed to be corrected. We were close, but not close enough to satisfy Ford, so it took another two weeks or so to come up with a body shell master that would pass Beanstalk's inspection. The result was this: These pics are of the test shots, of which I have a couple, and represent what Patrick told me were the most accurately done '57 Ford station wagon bodies he'd ever seen in 1/24 scale. The production piece was done as a white and yellow with red trim and logo's Coca Cola Bottler's service car. Only about 10,000 or so were ever produced by RC2, so they are a bit hard to find now (production run was in early 2005). Art

Keep in mind that woodie station wagon bodies in general, and Ford in particular, in the day of that Model A, were built from close-grained hardwood, usually birch plywood for the panels, and hard maple for the framing. That meant almost no wood graining showed up, and on a model it would be for all intents and purposes invisible, unless older and discolored by time. Art

I concur! Aluminum is very difficult to solder, even with "aluminum solder", due to aluminum's melting point being so close to that of solder of any sort. Brass, on the other hand, solderes readily, but sufficient heat is the answer here, you have to have the metal hot enough for the solder to melt and "flow" on it. Also, I tend to shy away from rosin or acid core solders, as rosin tends to burn when using a torch, and acid fluxes like to keep on eating even after the soldering job is done, and can really interfere with a nice paint job. My favorite soldering flux is "Tix Flux" which I get locally in a large specialty electronics store, and it works equally well with either soldering iron or my miniature torch. Also, silver solder is much, much stronger than ordinary lead-tin solders, so I use that for major joints, and find I can add detail parts with 60-40 lead/tin solder without threatening a nearby silver solder joint as silver has a higher melting point than the more common solders. But, in any event, heat sinks (mine are aluminum, look for all the world like miniature spring clothespins in aluminum. As for the brass stock, if it's to be bent to shape, solid K&S brass rod works far better than tubing, as it doesn't collapse or try to kink when being bent (tubing benders only go down so small). To make the stuff easier to bend, I simply anneal the rod stock in the area to be bent, by heating to dull red heat with my torch, which makes the brass very soft and bendable. Hope this helps! Art

OK, I will. Revell did this kit in 1957 (Yeah, Nineteen Fifty-Seven) in 1/25 scale. Word of warning, as a 52yr old tool, it's right out of the late 1950's, before Revell had the capability of making one-piece body shells, so it is a multipiece body. A little bit crude in spots, it can be built into a rather credible piece, though. Art

Elan, Those wire axles in model kits are, almost always, in kits for which the tooling was done in the era 1950's through the 70's, when not only was that the accepted way (back when the market for model cars was more kids than adults and ease of assembly was paramount), just as "pan chassis" with all sorts of molded on details comes from that same era--a great many model kits, including most models of domestic American cars 1958 to the late early 80's were spun off mass produceable, assembled promotional model cars done for the Detroit Big Three to promote their new cars at the dealerships. There are literally thousands of tons of tooling for those old kits still around, in some condition or another, and to expect a manufacturer to modify (and that could be considerable!) those tools to produce even state of the art model car kit suspension setups very likely would preclude their being reissued at all, and many subjects that can be reissued from those old tools would not stand the test of sales numbers to justify making new tools of a lot of them. Art

Also, the chrome bumpers on the high end diecast models, such as those that come from the "Mints" are actually removed from the sprues before plating, as they are not vacuum-metalized with vaporized aluminum, but rather are plated in real chromium, over a base plating of real copper. As such, those manufacturers can take the time to clean up those parts and polish over parting lines before the parts are committed to the electro plating bath. But then, you pay what, upwards of $130 for a car from Franklin or Danbury Mint? Art

A lot has to do with how molten styrene flows when injected into the mold, as to where injection and/or sprue attachment points and mold parting lines almost have to be. Another is the simple fact that steel molds are far stiffer than the hardest styrene, so a part cannot be pulled from a steel die if there are any undercuts whatsoever, without damage to the very surfaces we want to see as smooth as possible. Take the bumpers from a '59 Chevy (or just look at the bumpers on the tree in your pics, see how the ends wrap around in toward the body surface/wheel opening!) for example: Note how not only is the front (or rear for that matter) bumper not only goes straight across the end of the body, and wraps around to the sides to protect the corners of the fender or quarter panel, but then "tucks in" at its ends, in a half-bullet shape. Now, in order to eliminate the nasty mold parting line which can show vertically at that end of the bumper, one could split the tool horizontally, but the elimination of one parting line will create an even more visible one, all the way across the bumper itself, almost certainly less desireable wouldn't you say? Now, suppose we eliminate the sprue attachment points at that parting line which is vertical just forward of the bumper end--if one does not want the long horizontal parting line across the face of that bumper, then it must be tooled so that one side of the tool molds the back side along with the tips of the ends, the other the front leaving the major parting lines at the rear edges of the top and bottom of the bumper. Now, with that in mind, there is absolutely no place whatsoever on the back side of the bumper to put that attachment point, not without creating another problem elsewhere, bearing in mind that styrene flows into model kit parts THROUGH the sprue attachment points. which is what the sprue tree does, channel molten plastic to, and in to, the parts. It's certainly true that very few Japanese kits have this problem, but then, with only a few exceptions, (such as Gunze Sangyo's '59 Impala and '59 Eldorado kits in 1/32 scale, few model kits of American 50's or 60's cars have ever come out of Japan, from tooling they designed themselves. With the much simpler styling of many foreign cars, the problems of molding some highly visible parts such as bumpers just aren't there in comparison to that '59 Chevy described above. Another issue is that of "draft angles". Styrene plastic does not like being dragged out of a mold when that means scuffing across the steel of the mold--that leads to scarring of the surface of the plastic, and worse, it leads to seriously visible mold wear, as believe it or not, styrene plastic is rather abrasive, even in its freshly molded, warm and slightly soft state. So, a very slight angle may at times be cut into the mold cavities, to allow the molded styrene part to pull away from the steel upon demolding, rather than being scuffed against it, and that also shows up by emphasizing parting lines. Now, I suppose that '50 Chevy bumper could be done in multiple parts, as were the majority of the 1:1 bumpers (a 59 Chevy produced in any plant other than Van Nuys CA had a two piece front bumper, split in the middle and bolted together, the rear bumper came in three sections, split at the bumper guards, also bolted together (the "California Bumper" produced at Van Nuys being the only exception to this). But, the downside of that would be (even though one could eliminate that nasty parting line described above) a bumper that would have to be glued together in the same assembly breakdown as the real ones, with all the attendant squeals from many builders, and would likely also require a larger, more expensive tool, perhaps even a second mold press to produce, resulting in a higher retail price (with attendant VERY LOUD SQUEALS from modelers!), so it is one of those "Catch 22" situations. And, I haven't even begun to address the very real need for the molten styrene to fill every cavity completely, with no "short shots" (which even with the best styrene flow engineering, can still happen, but not caused by the design of the tooling. Bear in mind as well, in most overseas domestic model kit markets, model car kits (indeed most all plastic model kits) have come to be produced at almost "cost no object" levels, witness the ever higher prices for newly tooled model kits. However, our US Domestic Market has demanded, for decades, that products be made to sell at a rather small range of "Price Points" or target maximum retail prices, and that's not limited to model car kits. Walmart and the other big box stores, while hardly a source for model car kits anymore, demand products they sell to be within those price points, and even a few pennies can be enough to kill a sale to them, with negative results to any manufacturer who does not strive to meet them. Also, we modelers need only to look in the mirror, to see the ultimate determinant of price points for the model kits we want to buy. How many times on these forums here, in fact on any model car forum on the web, have we seen carping about the price of new model kits, hmmmmm? Price point, my friends, price point, demanded by us as well. Somehow, I doubt seriously that such is the case in say, Japan, witness the wide variation, and much higher prices over there for a model car produced there, for sale there, than what we might expect here in the US. Thus parts counts tend to be lower a lot of the time, for say a Revell or AMT kit, than for many car kits coming out of other countries, not always, but a lot of the time. These are issues that very few reps at trade shows are knowledgeable enough to to address and explain, and most consumers wouldn't stand still long enough for a company's tooling engineer to explain either, but they are very real considerations that have to be taken into account in the model car kit manufacturing business. Art

So where is your spirit of adventure??????? Just don the Nomex, put the backava on your heads, have the fire extinguishers ready! Now, come the day you turn 90, and he 83, that should be a global warming event for sure!!!! Art

On July 12, 1974, I got the best birthday call from my little sister I could have had--my nephew Rodney was born, in Colorado Springs, CO, where her husband was stationed in the US Army. To this day, to this childless old man, Rodney is my favorite of all my nephews and nieces, for being my 30th birthday present, and for being just the tremendous all around person that he's always been. He was a great kid growing up, and is a very special nephew as an adult too, an inspiration. We've shared perhaps a dozen birthday parties over the last 35 years, and believe me, in a family as generally as close as mine, those have been special (Rodney and I were each given Super Soakers on our birthday in 1984, and of course, we both were dripping wet within minutes--I won, BTW!!!). And now that he has moved back to Indiana, with his wife and two young sons, I suspect that a SuperSoaker event will happen once again, come next July--can't wait!!! I know how my Grandmother felt, as I was born on HER birthday, in 1944, a fact she never failed to mention at every opportunity--it was great as a little kid to share my special day with her. So Luke, continue to enjoy your brother, let him reciprocate, and go ahead, challenge him for that last slice of birthday cake!!! Art

In the 50's, through 1961, Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles used a letters-numbers system. Two letters at the beginning (left side) denoted the county (many counties had multiple pairs of letters based on the number of registrations expected, with the numerals ranging from 1 to 9999. For example, Tippecanoe County (where I live) used the prefix letters MM, MN, MQ and MP, MM plates being Fairfield Twp, which encompasses the City of Lafayette, and in 1953, MN was used for West Lafayette/Wabash Twp and all the rest of the rural townships. By the end of the 50's, our local car population had grown to the extent that MP was added, MQ came along, I believe, in 1960, MP being Lafayette, MQ assigned to wherever in the county. St Joseph County would be very similar, but I don't know the letter prefixes, can't find any list online at the moment, but I do know that such a list does exist, so possibly a query on one of the many antique car message boards might turn up something (I am thinking of Antique Automobile Club of America -- AACA -- here. A Google search should turn up their message boards). In 1951, due to the crisis-like rearming of US Armed Forces in the face of the Korean Conflict and the Cold War, steel and other metals were limited as to what private industries and the various states could use, so Indiana adopted a strip tag to be secured under the license plate mounting bolts on both front and rear of the car (back then, Indiana's motor vehicle code required both front and rear plates) over the "year" of the plate, be that "year" designation at the top or at the bottom of the plate. These happened for 1951, 1953, and 1955, as the plates being steel, they were very prone to rusting. For finding a St Joseph County-issued license plate from the 50's, to get a correct letter prefix, do some searching for Studebakers, lots of those restorers like an Indiana plate from the year of their car, on the front, or in states which require two plates, often they will put on Indiana plates when showing their cars. Also don't forget magazines, such as Collectible Automobile and Special Interest Autos/Hemmings Classic Cars mags. Every once in a while, a car shows up there in good quality photo's showing clearly the license plate of the year of mfr. As a little aside here: From the beginnings of automobile registration in Indiana, through the late 1970's, License Branches were a political plum, management of them determined by the then current governor. So, in effect, license branches operated as private businesses, almost always the chairman of the county Democratic or Republican Committee becoming the manager, dependent of course, on the political persuasion of the Governor. This lead to the lowest numbers being reserved for the top echelon of party faithful, #1 almost always going to the Chairman, and often all the way to #100. In addtion, one could, for an extra fee, reserve a specific number. Our next door neighbor always got a license number matching his street address (Mr Carr lived at 345 South Chauncey, so his license plate number was always MN 345, beginning in 1962 until he died in 1973, 79D345). With this in mind, you might want to consider making up a 4-digit number at random. Art