espo

Welcome to the Forum. I think you will find a lot of interesting build styles here and some great ideas.

I knew of a few of these in both styles. Many of us with little or almost no money trying to buy a first car and had to shop for the least expensive and often least desirable secondhand vehicles we could find. This was during a time when many companies and utilities would buy fleets of the least expensive cars to be had and the ones with the rear seat delete where often what they would order. The same basic body style but with a more complete interior was also offered as a low-price leader type car. Since the difference in price between the small coupe and what was referred to as a two-door sedan was not all that much and did offer better room for anyone who would need a back seat leads me to believe that far more of the sedan style were sold to the general public and with large fleets of the stripped-out cars flouting around with no back seat and a ton of miles made them affordable for those with little financial recourses. A lot of these got picked up by racers since they were cheap and weighed less than other similar year model cars. I do recall at least two people that I knew that owned a coupe from the '49 to '51-year models with a back seat and a couple who bought old Phone Company cars. The Phone Company cars I recall were a '55 Chevy and a '56 Chevy and they were under the basic 150 series, and I think they were even called Utilities and had the same shape as a two- door sedan at that time.

Yas, I realize that but was just offering the information as to when AMT started offering a trailer and that is why I also mentioned the differences between them in hopes that it wouldn't be confused as being the same. Without a doubt the later trailer is a superior design.

I for one am glad to see the '62 Bel Air being reissued as I'm running low in the stash. The drag version had a raised suspension, and the original issues had the standard height front suspension. Maybe they will give use both. I'm not a big die cast collector but the '61 Corvette is very appealing to me, so I get at least one of those. Having owned two different '56 Ford pickups that is a maybe depending on the price.

Great looking build. Takes some dedication to get this appearance even if you're starting with a fresh unbuilt kit let alone a glue bomb like you described. Very smooth custom look and great looking paint.

Great looking body conversion. The close coupled coupe design could be had with or without the back seat in the Chevrolet. The Oldsmobile would have had a back seat. Many drag racers using Oldsmobile bodies would often switch out the trunk lid and even the dolor in some cases since the Chevrolet parts often would weigh less than the ones on the Oldsmobile.

Both are well-built to represent what some cars fall victim to. Great finishes on both.

One possible source for a Chevelle body would be one of the old "Days of Thunder" series offered by AMT. The big problem would be finding one since to my knowledge they have not been reissued and when last I checked they were wanting a king's ransom for one. They were issued to represent the race cars in the movie and had only a basic race car interior.

I think the bases for these trailers go back to the late '60's with AMT. In some of their annual kits they offered what they called a display stand along with a few car show type do-dads. They also gave the builder the option of an axle to go under the stand and turned it into a trailer. The treads where the tires would rest were done in a solid pattern much like a diamond plate surface. As I recall this type of trailer is in some of the reissues of the '74 Chevrolet Impala/Caprice from Round2 / AMT.

Excellent in-depth information on tires in general and Good Years especially. Many years ago, I worked for Good Year in their retail stores in SoCal. That experience along with several years in auto repair and service seems to make minor details even in scale, and it seems that tires especially I find frustrating when you see something so obviously wrong in its presentation.

Always liked Delbert, he would tell it like it is.

Great looking build on all three of these. Nice sharp looking trim details and good paint work on all.

Beautiful looking paint and the trim all looks cleanly done. Great looking engine and detail.

There are other kits out there with white wall tires use could use if that's what you're wanting. Nice looking paint color and finish.

Got to respect a builder that is willing to jump into the deep end of the pool right off the bat after being away for a long time. So far it looks like you're getting the frame figured out.

As for learning to drive, that was in my mother's '49 Ford. I was twelve at the time and where we lived there was a large vacant lot next door so she would let me cruise around there but not go out of the yard. Driver's training in high school was in a '61 Rambler that the local dealer supplied to the school district. I remember having the instructor having me drive while he explained the finer points of how a 3-speed shift pattern worked. He even had a visual aid that he made in the woodshop. He had an H cut out of plywood and had the gears written on it. He was riding in the passenger front while he had me driving us on a country road. He was turned facing the three riders in the back seat and didn't notice how fast I was driving. I don't recall going much over 40 mph maybe, but he felt that was to fast so my driving time for the day was over.

I have enjoyed seeing all of the pictures of the snow. Here it's 50 degrees now and I just got back from the car wash, and we already have golfers on the green behind our place.

I like the lifted look. Nice clean looking paint and trim.

The dusty windshield treatment adds a great deal to the appearance.

Great looking street machine. The bumpers look straight in the picture. Paint jobs can be a very fickle thing at this time of the year with weather conditions changing hourly.

Glad you mention the roof swap. While it looks almost normal you somehow something is different. Looks like it should be this way. I agree with the others on the paint color, looks great.

I like the new color scheme.

I would hate to see this happen. I have always enjoyed looking at your builds and have always found any interaction with you to be pleasant and friendly.

The amazing thing is looking at the body now and not being able to see all of the body work you did to get this finished. Great looking paint and finish. all the trim is so cleanly done. All of the hoses under the hood make that look kind of busy, but that is how it was.

These cars had the "Pro-Touring" look from the factory before there was even such a term. They all look great, but I like the Maroon one.