Art Anderson

I simply use an ordinary polyethylene plastic 2-quart iced tea pitcher which has a lid that snaps on very snugly. I've had Purple Power in that for over a year, with no effects whatsoever on the pitcher! Art

1968 Promo's were molded in ABS plastic, and parts such as the interior (and it's components) and the glass were secured with a liquid cement. You may have to do some careful cutting with a Dremel tool for disassembly. Art

Actually, you can get that electro-conductive precoat from Eastwood.

Joe, electroplaing can be done on plastic--it was done way back in the 1950's and even into the 60's, on the likes of dashboard and gearshift knobs--and as well on the grilles & bumpers of those high-end diecast model cars and pickups from the likes of Franklin & Danbury Mints. All that is needed is a pre-coating of an electro-conductive material onto the raw plastic parts--and that stuff IS available in small quantities even today. Art

BUT, Spaz Stix, while great, does NOT provide the absolute mirror finish that vacuum-plating does. BTW, have you ever considered the tabletop chromium electroplating kits that are out there, Harry, from the likes of say, Eastwood? Art

And, I hadda stop, change my shirt due to the drool! This one is simply great--and I am not being biased when I say it. I'm lovin' it. Guys, I don't think it's gonna be very much longer now! Art

One thing to bear in mind: Many cars of the 50's and 60's were actually slightly wider at the rear than at the front, for two reasons: 1) Stability at highway speeds--as having the body sides tapering ever so slightly outward toward the reat aided stabilty at highway speeds, and 2) this feature also greatly reduced "wind noise" by minimizing "the buffeting" of turbulent air against the side panes of the body and rear quarter panels--in addition to minimizing the "oil can effect" which was the larger expanse of largly unsupoorted sheet metal from "drumming" due the eddying of air down the sides of the car at speed. Art

Jeff, I'm so sad to read this--I know how close all of you at DRAG have been--Having some of Paul's creations--his talent and artistry will be sorely missed. PEACE, my friend. Art

Also, bear in mind the firing order of a Model A or Model B: 1-3-4-2 Art

AMT and MPC kits have been molded in China since the late 1990's.

Roger, unfortunately, "tooling corrections" are not easily done, given that injection molding tooling such as for model kits is generally tool steel, case-hardened. In addition, most of the AMT (and MPC) tooling was created from information gotten several decades ago, probably no longer exists, and if it did, pretty much unusable in today's digital world of making model car kit tooling. Frankly, it would be less expensive to just do the particular subject all over again--but then would that new issue sell well enough to pay for it> Also, bear in mind, that as late as the 1970's, most all model car kits were being produced for a much younger audience--median age perhaps 12 or 13, quite different market that what exists today (all us 12yr olds somehow managed to survive to become grown-ups ) Art

All those old Lindberg kits (save for the Mopars that Lindberg did back 20-some yrs ago, and still very good kis) were molded in a factory in Northern lower Michigan, when the brand was owned by Jody Keener--who ran the stuff into the ground. Round2's AMT etc. stuff is being molded in China nowadays. Art

To bring this thread back into perspective: With every age group, every generation--many things come in, and go out of favor--and that includes car colors. While many of us can wax fondly about the cars, and their colors, of our youth, the real truth is, "Time Marches On" and for many of us here (I'm 72 yrs old--an old fart to most of you!) time has marched well on over the years. The upside? We as model car builders CAN relive those times of yore, of our youth, in miniature, and in some cases for those with the $$, in a restored or rebuilt car from your youth), by building models of the cars we remember, in the COLORS we remember. But to criticize automakers for their following the whims of consumers? Uh, A silly, eccentric Spaniard went jousting at windmills centuries ago, at least in an early novel--and all he got was a windmill blade upside the head. Art

Not to mention that the tape itself will be WAY too thick to look right on a 1/25 scale model (think door lines here). I've done some wood-graining on model cars before--it's NOT at all hard! I used a tan paint (Testors gloss Wood Tan) and once that dried, used some artist's oil paint (the stuff that comes in tubes!) and simply streaked that over the tan paint with some of those little foam "eye shadow" applicators you can find in the cosmetics section at any drugstore or Big Box store (got mine at my local Walgreen's). With artist's oil paints, you DO have to wait for several days after application for the stuff to dry--it does not dry by evaporation, as it's linseed oil based--linseed oil has to "oxidize" by reaction with the oxygen in the air--but once it's dried, l I coated it with Tamiya Clear Yellow, to give it a rich, warm look. For the darker, mahogany panels on woodie station wagons, I would use Testors Brown gloss enamel, and streak on one of the darker brown oil paint. Art

Well,in 5 yrs, a night out with your special other will mean two double cheeseburgers at McDonald's with fries and a small drink! Bob, that's a great perspective!

AMEN!

Of course, Harry: Who knows if any of the colors used on these restorations are at all accurate? Why? Because paint chips for cars much earlier than 1928-29 are scarce, if not non-existent. Many illustrated advertisements showed cars in colorized images, which is true--but were they at all accurate? (Color photography at anything like we know it now, didn't come about until circa 1940, give or take a year or two. Case in point here: Most contemporary photos and film footage show mosty cars and trucks painted in rather dark, muted colors aswell. Of course, with the cars you've shown pictured here, they are not your "run-of of the mill" mass produced cars--they are for the most part, luxury cars, some even with custom coachwork--and I believe a majority of those, save for the two Kissel's, were probably much darker colors when first built. Art

They do (at least domestically) pay a lot of attention to price points though! They do know that there are limitations as to the final MSRP--and then work to provide as much as possible within the expected price point. But you are quite correct, Harry--model kits, just as with any other product, are priced based on covering all the costs (from design & tooling to production and distribution costs) with an expected profit margin added on top of those--it's called being in business to stay in business. Art

Well,in 5 yrs, a night out with your special other will mean two double cheeseburgers at McDonald's with fries and a small drink!

Charlie, I see, from the instruction sheets for the kit you have that they call the plastic used ABS. My advice still stands--any of the "higher tech" liquid cements such as Tenax will work just fine on ABS (after all, if one looks at 1962-later AMT Promo's, those were molded in ABS, and they used liquid cement to fix such as the interior tubs in place on those on their assembly lines back then. Art

True, of course. One other thing to bear in mind--modern mass-production doesn't allow for the ease of color changes on the painting line, due to the much faster pace of production, or so it seems to me. It almost means a change of colors in the robotic spray painters, then a run of a single color to get the color wanted for inventory. "Back in the day" it was lots easier I think--I remember my tour of the St Louis Chevrolet Assembly Plant, and seeing an array of spray guns in the spray booths, one for each color--all the painters had to do was pick whichever color gun the build sheet called for, and they were on their way. So, modern robotics may have a lot to do with the smaller color selections today, and the upcharge that comes with some lesser-used but wanted colors? Art

It probably will look better. In the bargain, you ought to be able to extend the raised moldings onto the Duesenberg cowling with Evergreen strip styrene as well. Art

DO NOT click on that "You have a new message"(or more than one) spam ad at the top of pages here on MCM! It's "ransom ware" that tries to convince you to go to their website, pay a fee to unlock your computer! GREGG, please take steps to remove this! (if anyone does click on that, get the ransom ware screen--the only way out of it is to shut down your puter manually (push your on-off button), then turn your computer back on--when everything reloads, you can resume using your puter with no payment to any internet thug--I learned that months ago, and even tested it here just now--the technique works.) Art Anderson

Pat, you might consider doing what any coachbuilding firm (even a competent body shop) of that era of wood-framed metal skinned coach built car bodies did: They changed the cowling (firewall back to the A-pillars) to match the hood contours--this was done numerous times when Duesenberg owners (generally 2nd or 3rd owners of used but very serviceable Model J's for example). There are numerous photo's of such conversions (more in the books I have than online) clearly showing this. One compelling reason this got done when moving a coachbuilt body from some other make to a Duesenberg J chassis was simply due to the fact that with the Model J, the firewall was a cast aluminum piece, and structurally far more a part of the chassis than the body--and that firewall tended to dictate the shape and contours of the cowl, often even the forward, perhaps 25% of the body. Often this worked pretty well--but sometimes, due either to costs or a lack of restyling skill on the part of the particular shop doing the body swap, such conversions did not come off well--but when done on a brand-new chassis, by a reputable coachbuilding firm--certainly overseas--British and European coach builders did make very successful blends of the Model J's signature radiator, hood and firewall into their otherwise significantly regional body styling. Art

Automakers have almost always chosen, and still do choose,colors they believe will sell cars. The car public buys cars in colors they like for whatever the reason-"Make A Statement", "Follow The Crowd", even to just "Blend In". (Believe it or not--the 1960's saw the same sort of "conformity" we see today with the masses of seemingly bland neutral metallic colors--in the years 1963-at least 1968, the most popular car color was........."White"! Not that there weren't other color choices, there were--but white was the best selling color of that era, to the point that even the Wall Street Journal observed that the best-selling car in the US (this was about 1965 or 1966) was a white 4-door Chevrolet Impala Sedan. Sure, there were other colors out there, but white ruled--which could have been a carryover of the middle 1950's almost "fad" that if you ordered your new car with a white roof, it would be cooler inside in the heat of summer (it may have been, but my then boyhood body apparently didn't notice any difference--a hot car interior was a hot car interior!). Of course, the 1950's and 60's were still the era when a large portion of new car buyers traded perhaps every 2-3 years, well before whatever color their cars were painted, noticeable sun-fading had yet to be visible (certainly away from the Sun Belt)--but people who tended to keep their new car purchases significantly longer, there was a prejudice against brighter, louder colors, and even a prejudice against metallic colors by many people due to UV deterioration of the carrier (this exposed the metallic powder or chip, dulling the finish badly, and upon frequent waxing and polishing, actually exposed the metallic pigments to the point of giving the car a prematurely worn appearance--the years before UV blockers in automotive paint). Some here have mentioned that a century ago there were brightly painted cars--yes, there were a few, but the vast majority of pre-1942 cars were painted darker, muted colors. Prior to DuPont's developing a sprayable nitrocellulose lacquer (and the introduction of true paint sprayguns right after WW-I), cars were painted in a labor-intensive process that could literally take weeks of drying before any secondary colors or even polishing out could take place. Those early enamels were varnish-based, and anyone who's seen older homes with old varnished wood trim in their interiors should remember how that varnish tended to shrink, split and crack with age. To be sure, there were cars of those years whose paint seemed to defy age, but then very few people parked those cars every day out in the elements--garages for the middle class, carriage houses for the well-to-do (who also had household staff to keep them clean and shiny. Still, not all that many contemporary photos or even films show but a very few cars that were painted in lighter, brighter colors. Enter the 1950's: After more than 30 years of world wars, interspersed by a great economic depression, people of all ages wanted something more than dark colored cars (and white-lead painted clapboard houses (or white trim on brick or stone houses). The darker, more somber interior colors gave way to lighter and brighter, seemingly overnight, people started painting their houses in a near kaleidoscope of colors, mostly pastels to be sure but nonetheless, colors never before considered entered the scene--in just about all aspects of life. Fast forward to today--it's not often you see any houses (for example) in new subdivisions painted any color other than some shade of "earth tones"; the pink with grey or black accents (middle 1950's), or the wilder colors of the 60's, the moss greens circa 1970-75, have petty much gone away. Tastes change, as tastes have always changed, with regard to colors people choose for the surroundings, the trappings of their lives. Art