charlie8575

Wow. It's held up very well. Good work indeed. Charlie Larkin

Nice-quality build. Charlie Larkin

I concur. This was a real Cadillac wagon. Hess & Eisenhardt made about a dozen or so of these. All though the 1950s-60s and into the '70s, Hess or one of the other coach-builders would build a few Caddy wagons, usually from off-the-shelf GM wagon parts on special order. For the most part, they looked pretty good. Charlie Larkin

Nice, Doug. What did you use for the color? And yes, a blackwash on the wheels would make it look really great indeed. Charlie Larkin

Hmmm... I had an HHR for a rental. Kept 65 on the highway without any trouble at all and cruised quietly. Handled nicely, comfortable. Returned between 25-32 miles a gallon quite regularly. Very usable, well-laid-out cargo space. If I needed a small car, I would buy one without too much second thought. As to your assault on the B-bodies. The Roadmasters didn't come out until 1991. If your parents had a 1980s Buick Estate Wagon (based on one year of Citation ownership you stated,) it would've been an Electra or a LeSabre, depending on the amount of money spent. The Electra had a nicer interior and a slightly different grille. Some years, it also had different woodgrain than the LeSabre. I had several of the square wagons, all older ones running 350s (either Chevy or Buick) and a '77 Buick with the Olds 403. The 350 cars could return about 20-21 mpg on the highway, the 403 about 18. The city mileage was between 14-17, dpending on traffic and weather. All these cars did not have the benefit of 4-speed automatics or fuel injection- 4-bbls. one and all. The 301/305/307 cars could be a bit thirsty, mainly because they were a bit underpowered. That said, 305/307 cars could still get that low-20s on the highway without too much effort, providing they were driven intelligently and in proper tune. For the '91-ups, I've had four. Three Roadmasters and a Caprice. The Caprice and TBI Roadmasters could achieve an honest 25-27 miles a gallon on the highway. My '94, which has the LT-1 and towing package, gets between 20.5-22 on the highway, and about 17 in-town/suburban. If it had the 2.73 axle instead, I could do a bit better, but I do like having Posi. As to the largest car- no. The 1971-76 B-bodies were much larger. I will agree that the dash on the 1991-up cars is ridiculously deep. On to the main topic.... Loser cars are cool because they show you what people can come up with when, in many cases, they have to be creative with resources available. Does that mean that the cars are losers? Not always- many of these cars paved the way for the future of automotive design. Were they cool? Depends on who you ask. I loved our Aries. A lot of people make fun of K-cars. Without K-cars, there would probably be no Chrysler right now and all the neat stuff they're making. Gremlins, Chevettes, Pintos, Vegas, Omnis, H-bodies. They filled needs that needed to be filled, and, for better or worse, provided a competitive product in the market at the time. These were designed to be economy cars. Economy cars were not designed (and usually still aren't) to be sports cars with blistering performance out of the box. Sometimes, people forget that. I love these automotive experiments, and having grown up with or around many of them, I have fond memories of these cars. Charlie Larkin Charlie Larkin

That '59 Park Lane will be interesting to see come together with the color combination. Everything else is up to your usual high standards, Steve. Charlie Larkin

Spectacular. Charlie Larkin

If it can be built as a U.S.-spec consumer car, (or can be with little headache,) I'm in. Charlie Larkin

Don't get too close to one of those or you'll have parts falling off! Looking forward to more of this, Dan. Charlie Larkin

Nice start so far, Julian. It never ceases to amaze me how popular American subjects are overseas. Charlie Larkin

Dozens with 3-5 truly active at any time. Charlie Larkin

VERY nice. I'd build mine with the sunroof filled in, but that's a gorgeous rendition. Charlie Larkin

That is pretty neat, Dave. I wonder if my dad might like one for his birthday? Charlie Larkin

Boy, that came out nicely. Charlie Larkin

Very nice, Steve. Are the decals for the seats Scale Motorsports? (PLEASE tell me you didn't do that by hand!) Charlie Larkin

A 6/stick Impala sport coupe? Now that's different. Very cool. Charlie Larkin

Interesting low-number plate on that car. Does MOT allow the family to retain a registration number or does it go with the car? I also thought all their license plates were sequential from the early 1900s up? Charlie Larkin

I've been told straight Windex and 70% alcohol do a pretty decent job by themselves, too. The 90% might be a bit strong, at least to my thinking, as that's usually reserved for stripping. Charlie Larkin

That is a pretty color. '64 had Heritage Burgundy, which is a little lighter, if I remember my paint chips right. Either way, great color choice. Charlie Larkin

Neat conversion, Stan. Looks as though the Australian Falcon and American Falcon shared a lot of the stampings? Makes sense. Charlie Larkin

I like that. Very neat idea and great execution. The OWL tires on a Class 8 truck are a cool idea- almost too bad you can't get them in 1:1 (at least that I've ever seen.) Charlie Larkin

Looks great, Al. I think I saw you toting that box around when we met up. That window tinting looks good. Is that the spray transparent blue you used? And if so, how many coats did you apply? Charlie Larkin

Looks good. The two-tone helps hide the "height" issue. Charlie Larkin

That green does look nice on that. Maybe I'll do that on mine. Some colors weren't available on the Riv, some were Riv-only, but in those days, GM would be happy to paint it anyway you wanted for a small extra charge. That one may not have been, I'll have to look. A very nice build. GM was using rectangular mirrors by then, I think, so if you find one of those, you'll be all set. Chris also has a good point- with a guard-rail (which you can make removable,) the shade of grey-white on your deck rail and the nice scenery in the background does give a very convincing depth-of-field for a roadside scene. Charlie Larkin

Greasy fingers and kit parts don't mix well... Hmm....actually...I wonder.... Uh oh, now I'm thinking, and those that know me know how dangerous that can be. Charlie Larkin