DEL

It was (is ) an award. Five recovery AND arrest of stolen vehicles and that made you an ACE. Be the guy who did it the most across the state police for a year and you got the VERY coveted award of "BLUE MAX" plate. If you look at the front fender of the car you will see little red lightning bolts by themselves, and then a couple of lightning bolts through the state outline circled by a blue oval. If I recall right the single bolts were vehicle recoveries, and the other one was recovery with arrest of perp. Back in the late 70's & early 80's you sometimes saw a unit qith the whole front fender covered with them, and I even saw a couple that started to bleed into the leading edges of the DOOR. The program is still in use but they only issue the plates now. So some troopers have a small stack of them. La. was (is) not alone in this kind of program, there are some other state lice/highway patrols that do it too. I think Indiana or Illinois or Idaho also do it. Oh, they also have special plates for there for SWAT and K-9 and other specialty divisions. Al the talk about Celebrity's (shudder ) The only comparable thinga round here were the poor MP's at Ft. Polk, which is in my parish. In the early 80's they bought them Chrysler K-cars, God forbid. By the time about 4 years went , they had almost 150K, and were just beat all to s**t. Some you could actually look down through the floors and see the road going by. Just to show you what the feds were doing not 100 miles down the road in Beaumont, Tx. the GSA at that same time yearly was disposing of fully loaded police package loaded 1988-1996 Caprices and LTD Crown Vics that the FBI had used for about two years. Street colors, unmarked, no radio holes not a blemish on them. Every one looked like it was still on the showroom floor inside, out underneath and in the engine bay. The highest mileage I saw was less that 20K, the lowest like 1,800K. Usually there was like about ten at a time. We bought them off sealed bid (privately) for around $2K each for re-sale. Made a killing! Poor MP's. But they got way nicer stuff NOW. Still FWD Impalas but better than the horror K's.

"Agent G: I recall the Dip's seats being slabs of smooth vinyl, no pattern, no stitching, nothing. Gutless is a polite way of expressing the car's performance. Still we laughed because the county cops had Diplomats with six cylinders" That was THEM! The state had nicer seats than ours, they got this kinda hounds-tooth patterned burlap cloth. But we had that exact same stretched vinyl not a single stitch in the surface flat bench seat. Our inmates on the washrack would clean the cars between shifts and sadistically pour on the Son-Of-A Gun, that vinyl 'protector' but was really a just a milky lubricant. IF you managed to get up to a high speed on a call and came roaring around a curve and didn't have your seatbelts on the driver or the passenger could easily wind up in the other's lap depending on whose side the curve was. Between the rubber floor and that flat vinyl seat lathered up with that stuff it was next to impossible to get a good handhold or dig your boots in and get purchase. Forget it! I'd forgotten about that. The old-timers complained they hurt their backs too as I recall. But at 24 you can sleep on rocks. Six cylinders?? Oh, that is just SAD. I saw them but not as copcars, I saw civvie versions of them. I think the NYPD had those kind too. Poor devils. Oh, well, we at least had 8 cylinders and the AC worked.

Thank you G! I too drove the Dips in the early part of my career. They were a tough looking copcar, but even with 318 4bbls gutless wonders. They only cars I ever drove that actually went slower when you floored them! The Fords and Chevy's of the day not much better but at least they went up a bit, if slooowly. And to answer you're tire question Jefropas, no I did retain those sad thin tires that came on the model as I didn't have any in my parts bin that would work without either making it sit a tad high or low. Still, for a static display in a case I figured I could get away with ONE thing not being changed. I may do a color one. Like the dk blue SSP's you mention that they used from 88-91, the 81 Diplomats were bought in about five basic colors, a yellow/gold,(bought one) something called Heather Gray (I bought two of those), a metallic ruby red, and drk blue and black. Same markings I equipment but man, could they nail you. When you're programmed to look for white with a Twinsonic and the Jabsco spot on top making a kind of chrome teepee coming down the highway, those color cars with blacked out equipment you just did NOT see them until they hit the lights just off your left front fender. Sneeeaaaky!! Probably do one of those.when I clear out the other bodies I'm trying to do. Just felt like I should finish SOMETHING since it's been awhile. Thanks again for the good words guys. BTW: Attached is a pic of one of those Dips back in the day. I took a lot of copcar pics in my life but the only ones I have of the LSP dips are unmarked except this one. The one in the pic was hit by traffic on a stop on I-10 near Lake Charles, La. in 1983.

Me again, Margaret. Just to let you good folks know I really am still working on the 1991, and it's still job 1, but I just had to finish another that had been around too long. So over the Labor day weekend I took a breather and finished a 1982 Diplomat of the Louisiana State Police. If anyone cares to have a look it is over on the worrkbench forum or can be found below. It has many sigular police parts built just for it.

A few more of the scratchbuilt parts. The wheels were also cast and added as well.

Here is a project I have been working on from time to time. I always wanted to do a model of the Diplomats the Louisiana State Police fielded from 1981-1982. The '81's were different colors which was great for sneaking up on folks, but the 82's were the standard white. For this model I created a custom scratchbuild model of the Whelen 8000, or 80H lighbar. Just the process of building the ase and the buck to vacuform the lens was a ordeal. But I have never seen this bar represented in the police modeling world before. It was widely used coast to coast but it was while Fed Signal was still king and Whelen was it's more affordable competition. This bar has the inboard strobes each side of the speaker grille front and back, along with outboard halogen rotaters. The Jabsco spotlight on top is also scrachbuilt as are the bump bars and the seat console fed signal PA70 modular console complete with tiny maplight. It might show in the pics if you look. Thanks for stopping by!!

Here is a project I have been working on from time to time. I always wanted to do a model of the Diplomats the Louisiana State Police fielded from 1981-1982. The '81's were different colors which was great for sneaking up on folks, but the 82's were the standard white. For this model I created a custom scratchbuild model of the Whelen 8000, or 80H lighbar. Just the process of building the ase and the buck to vacuform the lens was a ordeal. But I have never seen this bar represented in the police modeling world before. It was widely used coast to coast but it was while Fed Signal was still king and Whelen was it's more affordable competition. This bar has the inboard strobes each side of the speaker grille front and back, along with outboard halogen rotaters. The Jabsco spotlight on top is also scrachbuilt as are the bump bars and the seat console fed signal PA70 modular console complete with tiny maplight. It might show in the pics if you look. Thanks for stopping by!!

Thanks AV, It looks even better now as it has been raised just a tad bit more and thus it looks even better proportioned te the bottom half of the model. I apologize to all who are patiently waiting but Greg W. knows I have a few issues I'm dealing with plus having to wear the mantle of Lawn Ranger or Grass Assassin almost every day. The days are longer, but here in La. you spend them living on a mower or a tractor on a daily basis I'm afraid to say. I only have to cut about 2 1/2 - 3 of my 6 acres and by the time it's done it's pretty much time to start over again. So glad I didn't buy the ten or twenty acres option 25 years ago! On the 91CV I am down to doing the door window frames and the roof drip and chrome edge moldings. It's tricky though to get such small thin pieces of styrene to weld where I need them to be. Made worse because the A, B & C pillers have been welded so much they now all but reject normal Tenax, Lacquer Thinner, etc. The welders I normally use. So I must use superglues and others with kickers. Takes longer. Thanks for asking. I'm plugging away! D

Well, I've been asked by message and assured all that the 91, while in ICU is allright, I feel compelled to show proof of progress. Taking the roof off one is (for me) a rough thing to do because it rarely goes back on perfectly. This one was no exception I'm afraid. Add to that styrene that has been welded and pushed almost to it's limits and I had issues where it no longer wanted to 'melt' when I tried to join sections. That calls for stronger contact glues,cyanoacrylates or other means. All that plus the added time to allow it to fully harden is taking more time than I care for. I am sorry it is so. I did need the feedback to find what I needed to address, I never meant to tease and not come through. Anyway, here is a couple of pics, just remember the final fine detail work is yet to be done. I've had symmetry problems I've finally resolved. Thanks again to all

I am over a year late to this thread but I am the guy who found this car, bought it from it's original owner, and then sold it to a good friend of mine who has an equal love for all things police car both current and classic. I am a deputy sheriff in Vernon Parish, La. I became a deputy in 1980. At that time I crossed paths with our coroner of the time an old fellow named S.J. Jones. Somehow we got to talking cars and he mentioned he had the above car. A 1972 Ford Custom 500 station wagon with the full police package including the 429 Cobra Jet engine complete with finned aluminum valve covers! He had bought it to use in his coroner duties but the parish balked at reimbursing the expense of running the car to calls so he got pissed and parked it. When I saw it first time in 1982 it was ten years old and was garaged, always had been, in excellent condition and only had around 33K on it. The doc had ordered it special for these duties and it was delivered through a dealer in Dallas, somewhere in Texas. I told him if he ever wanted to sell call me first, but he would not entertain the notion of doing so then. About fourteen years later (1996) I was driving through a city forty miles south and saw a red SW in a driveway. I did an immediate u-turn. It was THAT SW. I was blown up. The old coot had died and someone just disposed of the car and I never had a chance. Sadly the guy who had it had plans to drag race it or something else sickening and sad and AGAIN he would NOT part with it so again I left my info. Even put extra in the glove box and said call me. Almost another 8 years or so go by and cleaning out old an rolodex I found the guy's contact info and so I thought what the heck so I called him. Yes he still had the car and had done nothing with it at all. I asked if NOW he would sell and he allowed as how he never did anything with it he guessed so. I made a trip there, made a deal for $1200. and snatched it up onto the trailer and away we went. The car pretty much presented the same way I saw it now some 23 years before except sitting out in the sun had burned the clear coat on the upper flat surfaces, and bleached out the front carpet. That's when my friend got involved. He wanted it bad. And he had done many many things for me over the years so I sold it to him for what I paid for it and he set to restoring it. He went through the engine and tranny and re-gasketed everything and cleaned all the stuff that needed it. The front carpet was replaced but the rear was still like new. Believe it or not only the upper surfaces were repainted, the sides were saved by buffing and waxing. It still only had about 34K miles on it too. He replaced the lightbar that had once been on it, overhauled it also. Put in a heavier electric motor and it SPUN those light heads FAST. For a seven thousand pound tanker it really had some guts. I had been going to find a four door sedan body and switch all the police stuff. That would have destroyed the singular nature of it. A check with Marti showed it was one of only SIX built that year nationwide. So that's it's story. Only took about thirty years to come around. Sometimes I still wish I had that car right now. ... I'd SELL IT!!!!

Hello, Tom! While the car was modeled as a 1991 at the outset with that particular 90-91 style dash, I have also already built the 88-89 dash for the kit as well so you will be able to replicate your grandfather's ride down to a "T". Thanks for looking in and check back. I hope to finish up a few tweaks I had to do soon. (In between work, yard work & dodging spring storms! )

M. Pace: Yes, Greg did describe that metal stress point procedure to me. I'm thinking about it and may incorporate a version of it. Say maybe rods, or strips as you've shown there, if they can be buried in the body itself. Sort of battling with the thin thing right now. in trying to keep it as much like a production kit I've purposely kept all body walls and roofs/hoods as thin as possible on such a kit. I've had resin kits with REALLY thick bodies in those places. Shouldn't matter, you can't see it, but it bugs me a bit. It may have to be a bit thicker to incorporate those strengtheners. Plus I'll have the foreknowledge to work such things into future masters. Thanks!

Thank you for that, Greg. Yeah, I hadn't quite expected that to be honest. Everything I ever read about casting said that molds after so many pulls will always deteriorate, so the master had to be maintained to be ready for re-molding when necessary. In truth the only one I ever gave over for casting was the 78 LTD and far as I know it survived the molding process. In my own experimentation of casting bodies I had two great experiences and one extreme failure. The first two made several perfect copies and the mold RTV did not hurt any of the three one bit. The last one I went skimpy on the RTV itself and it made that mold problematic. I then wasted a lot of good resin making wrecks. But I learned my lesson on RTV's. After getting as close as I did on this 91 it was hard to tear into it again. HARD. But it had to be done. Done it before and so far I've always been able to fix what I wrecked so I have some confidence I can bring it back out of ICU. It's just time consuming. As I said I thought it was pretty sturdy, I handle it all the time and while careful I am not exceedingly gentle with it. But those A & B pillars snapped like twigs and showed that while visually good structurally this is what happens when 'welded' styrene gets pushed a bit too far. especially while sawing through it. Anyway I'm sure it will all work out. Thanks for the comment 67RMP, I do try. I want it to be right as much if not more than a fellow modeler. Thanks!

Just a few photos to depict this past weekend's carnage. While necessary it was in no way easy to do. I am actually a fair bit past the work depicted below, but for now these are the latest pics I have. Just to show that the Qyburn "the work continues" mantra is really happening and not a brushoff or stalling tactic.Thanks!

Gator: I would say the blue one is a 84, and the yellow one is a 81-82. Both Impalas. The distinguishable differences tend to run 77-80, 81-82, 83-84, 85, 86, then 87-91. the 85's and 86's being one off's either by grille/header or taillight treatment.The 77-80's also have a very distinct appearance and sorta 'look' smaller than those that came after it. At least by body panel appearance. as AV405 said, Modelhaus had a serviceable 84/85 (?) I cannot recall but it was right in that space time frame. Hopefully whoever is taking over that company will retain the kit. Ok, update on the 91: A bit of bad/good news. I did decide to raise the roof & corresponding w/s and door window heights. They did look a bit short though I thought I had obtained decent measurements for conversion. So I went nuts and got levels to use to re-measure exactly those specs. As I told Greg W. this morning it was a good news bad news thing. Good: the bottom half was dead on. Bad: The top was short by 1-2 inches 1/24 scale-wise. A tiny thing but it was making a difference. So up it had to go. I've done this a couple times before and it's never pretty especially when done to what I considered a 'finished' master but it could not be avoided. Subsequently it kinda tore up the A & B pillars and had to re-do all three of them with the C's anchoring it all. The vast majority of that work has now been done (60-70%) or so, and laid to one side to allow all solvents and fillers to gas out a day or so. What remains is the final resurfacing to bring back the body contours up there and the re-application of the final trim, the window frames, moldings and such. I spent a large amount of time on it this past weekend. I did also take a few pics, but neglected to bring the camera to transfer. Not pretty to look at anyway, but I will try to remember to bring and show the butchery in all it's glory. That is where it is. As I told Greg I'm anxious to finalize it so I can move on to the next one. This one has really taken a lot. Nothing exists that in any way is usable as a base for the body shell though I did heavily rework one just to get at that base. Probably the biggest part other than the grille. I often recall an old 'funny' I saw in MAD magazine way back when I was a kid about model kits; on one page it showed a beautiful pic of the cover of a model box of the USS Constitution and at the top it said :"Intricately detailed model of the USS Constitution. At the bottom; Detailed instructions inside". Then you flipped the page and it showed a box shaped block of wood with a knife stuck in it, and an instruction sheet that simply said "Cut away everything that does NOT look like the USS Constitution" It gave me a hoot at the time. Yeah, that should be easy, right? But I never forgot it, because to me that has always been a bit of what it is like to build something that doesn't yet exist in the 1/24 or 1/25 medium. Please bear with me. Thanks!

Yeah I shot my mouth off far too much. Can't we all just get along? (says the registered s**t stirrer) I've spoken with Kevin on the PM side and offered my explanations and apologies. He requested any photographic evidence I might have to back up my assertions, I provided what I had and to his extreme credit he acknowledged it. I've hit folks that just said NUH-UH, and God knows I CAN BE WRONG, so I wind up questioning my judgement/sanity. I was greatly gratified by his integrity on my observation . I have a lot of personal issues over the 78 model, as well as my first original 1:1 version that kind of let the 'evil' DEL go nuts occasionally. I've tried to let it go but barring that I usually I keep it bottled up inside and use it to help the ulcers grow. Much better that way. I made a sweeping generalization based on the ONE copy I had and another I saw online somewhere a couple years ago. I'd have copied and kept that pic but it was one of those copyrighted deals where you couldn't save it and I'm not savvy enough to get around it. When I ragged on about resin BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH I was mostly thinking of some really, REALLY shoddy resin kits, lightbars and wheels I purchased years ago for which the sellers thereof should've been stood up against a wall and executed. No blindfold, no cigarette. Kev has responded as a good caster should and offered to make right to anyone unhappy. That's the kind of provider I want to be as well I might add. Sorry I brought it up. I have little recent experience with other casters besides AAM and the excellent Modelhaus. I thank you for the reference offer Dimaxion, but at this point I have decided to let Greg Wann have first crack at the 91 Crown Vic as soon as I get through with the final step of creating a windshield master so it can be cast in clear resin. I'd like to try that anyway before I go the vacuform route but I don't want to kill Greg either on the project. So we will see. I am about 75% done on that score and will then be moving it on out to him, and then we can all start leaning on him for when we can get our copies, and I can move on to the next project. Then it will all be as my father in law used to say, goody goody god^^am gumdrops. (apologies to the gentle folk) Keep it here. Same Bat-Time, same Bat-channel.

Below is an example of what I meant. Perhaps some or most all did come out straight. All I know is that the ONE copy I have is a bit bowed. I saw another pic online where someone had converted it into a LTD Landau with a vinyl roof and everything and I saw it in that one too, but I couldn't save he pic. The pics below are some I took last night just to try and illustrate what I alone think I see. The built up is the one copy I received from AAM in 98 or 99. The unbuilt is the ML version I received in 2010 or 11. Not trying to start a peeing contest, just have a look and see if you see what I see.. or anything or nothing at all . (I'm no good at a'' with photoshop or Paint but I tried to put some lines on the pics to show what I see. Like I said, maybe the one i have got warped afterwards or something)

The history of the 78 LTD up to now is that I gave my master to AAM around 1998 for use in return for a certain amount of copies for myself (a standard arrangement I was told by Terry Jessee of SAE Light Commercial at the time). So some some replicas were made, I don't know approximately how many, but then a year or two later the company went out of business taking my master with it.(AAM still has possession of my original 78 master as well as the first master I did of a 1985 Diplomat) In the early to mid 2000's a fellow 75-78 LTD Police car enthusiast/restorer in Ct. who had bought one of the original AAM versions sold his 1:1 and gifted the buyer with his built up model as well. (I know both these guys, they are friends of mine) Around 2008-9 two unbuilt copies of the AAM version surfaced on eBay and brought just, astounding money (to me anyway: $800-900.00+ each respectively. If I had ever received the other five copies I was promised for the use of my master instead of only the ONE I also could have made a bit of coin of the realm at that point it would seem. Anyway..) Noting that sensation and there being a subsequent clamor for more copies on other hobby boards, the then current owner of the fore mentioned builtup contacted Missing Link and offered his copy to use for a re-pop or continuation. From what I understand (and you're stated ownership of two of them backs this up) it is one of their most popular offerings. Still the copy used for re-offering must have either gotten warped at one point... I'm guessing, or that it happened in the casting. So around 2011 somehow the fellow who gave ML the builtup in 08 was given or received a copy of the ML re-issue, and he turned and gave it to the first guy who had given him the AAM one years earlier. That fellow surprised me by sending it on to me as a secret surprise gift. He later stated on our copcar resto hobby board at the time that since I had done the master he felt I deserved at least one more copy. It was kind of him to think of me in that way. Yet when I opened it up I immediately noticed a warp to the body. Now I have heard you can warm resin and straighten it but you really have to know exactly what you're doing or total ruin is a short few degrees away, so I decided not try it. It is a pretty big thing to try and correct I would think, for me to do anyway. So I will just re-make one for myself at some point and it will serve as base for both the 73-78 LTD and Custom 500's.. The original 78 was was also done at a point in my scratchbuilding skills, if you figure say on a scale of 1-10, 1 being a tube glue bomber and 10 being best you'll ever get, I'd say my skills were 4-6 at that point. I THINK I've become somewhat better since 1998. I hope so at least. (EDIT: I have removed earlier derogatory comments made on this kit offering as they were made mostly using a narrow minded focus and a single example I had in my possession and one I saw a couple years ago online. I'm sure most of the others did not suffer the defect I described. See explanation below and revised comments) On a final note I know whatever I may end up offering will quite probably have it's faults, (I'm NOT perfect) and some who get them may also find things to criticize. But large defects I can see won't be tolerated, or I just won't offer them.. Ah, well as GoT's Qyburn once said.. The Work continues...

Go for it Fred! The 78-79 LTD II is another one on my overall list to go at it at some point but I don't know when that will be. As said before if it was used as a police vehicle between 1969-2000 give or take I want to try and do each one. The ones i will do first are driven by requests here and by what I saw in my life being used a good bit as primary cruisers by the city, parish and state. Hey Fred, on another note, is your ML 78 LTD suffering from 'hogback"? In other words does it bow upwards about near the front A-pillar? Like an upside down banana? Most of the ones I have seen that were re-popped from the old original AAM offering seem to have this oddity. Anyway thank you for your kind words and keep an eye here for updates. D

Thanks Foxer! And you're right I guess the hint gave it away. I've had dogs all my life but my wife finally persuaded me to let a kitten come home. So I am a recent convert to the world of cats but they are cool as they can be annoying. Doesn't matter what I'm doing. Something delicate or with the potential to explode, he wants to lay down on it and go to sleep! The 91 is mostly finished,, I am making the windshield now and that will be that. I hope to make it like the clam shell w/s's that come in regular kits and so that it can be cast in clear resin. If that proves too problematic for some reason we'll just fall back on the old stand by, the vac-formed one.

Sorry to be so late in my responses here but as I said before I'm not around a computer on the weekends due to my being on one for work m-f. That said let me answer a couple of your questions. AV405: You are absolutely right. The police version of the Chevy was the Impala up till the Shamu the killer whale overhaul in 1991 whereupon it became the Caprice or Caprice Classic. Gator: The taillights unfortunately are not all that changes. All LTD/LTD Crown Victoria's from 79-91 share the same fenders, doors, quarter panels & roof lines. After that everything else changes. The changes are in the front & rear header panels, the grilles & front park light and taillight treatments. Then the hoods, trunks and bumpers change. Changes in all those last parts were done in 79-82, 83-84 & 85-87 increments with a tweak here and there. BUT my hope is with the '91 done mods can be done to create the others using copies of it. Agent G: Yes I am well aware of the Mercury versions of their police offerings. A sheriff's office here in Louisiana, Lake Charles, used Police Package Mercs for all of the 70's and on up into the 80's at least so again, I hope to do those too. Once I have these other big ones I have started done. To that end along the way I've collected MANY different kits to use as donors for parts or for modification. And finally, AMW: not sure just yet what they will cost, I need to see how hard it is for Greg and how intensive it all is. I hope to make it no worse than a good Modelhaus kit in cost. If it can be done for less even more's the better. Thanks again to all for the positive responses on the car so far as soon as another hurdle is cleared or it is finally done I will update. Thanks, Guys!

Oh, like Garfield he has been the cause of many a nap attack on my part. Nothing like staying in on a rainy afternoon and letting a cat point the way. Except models don't get done. Thank you Greg. I truly hope to finish it off this weekend and then we will talk about getting it out your way and getting all this started up! I will take a bit of an informal poll of other members: of the following projects I list next which is the one you would mostly like to see done next? Bear in mind I will list them top to bottom as to where they stand in the process, first is closer to done, last is closer to having just having been started. So as Sgt. Angle would say; "Fire up the roof!!" 1976-77 Pontiac LeMans "Smokey & the Bandit" Enforcer, (80% done) 1971 Dodge "Walking Tall" Polara, (65% done) 1986-1990 Chevy Impala, (60% done) 1980 Plymouth Gran Fury./ 79 Dodge St. Regis (40-50% done) All are started and in various levels of completion. Thanks to all and have a safe weekend!

And a couple more.. Oh, and the last pic shows my assistant without whose invaluable guidance and confidence I'd...probably have finished a year ago.

Ok, guys. It's done. Psych! No, I'm just employing strained humor based on a bit less sleep than normal. Do not adjust your set. The revolution will not be televised. Or finally, "Where's the BEEF?" Enough. In all sincerity it is not totally done, I just have a few more tightening up things to do but I wanted to share newer pics of the progress as previously requested to prove the work does continue. The earlier pics I originally posted were somewhat dated and a lot of refinements have been made since those were taken. Some were the things mentioned by others, and a few more things stuff I saw that jumped out at me after a fairly long hiatus from modeling. One of the main things mentioned by someone was that the roof line was too low. It does appear that way and still does a bit despite my having raised it up a tad. I may tweak it one more time but to the one that pointed it out I have just a few things to remember when looking at the overall scale model vs the 1:1 version as follows; I made an architectural drawing of the vehicle (I do this for every one I do) and on it I measured each and every statistic you can see. Door height-rocker to window, door top weatherstrip line to top of window frame, rocker height, roof height from door frame top to top surface, then overall height bottom of rocker/frame to roof surface complete. Door widths. Fender length from door edge to end of fender/start of header, then header length. Etc, etc etc. All measurements were reduced to 1 2/4, and the Lindbergh 97 CV chassis was used as a baseline since the panther platform wheelbase length as instituted from 1979-2012 has remained right at 114 inches. So since the 97 chassis is the same, this 91's new body can make use of that. It gives you the pointers as to where wheel well openings start and end, shows you your measurements are right or wrong, and you extrapolate up and out from there. It keeps you 'honest' as it were. Changes were made to header length/height along with the hood. The hood itself was opened up and is separate so an engine can be added if so desired. the bumpers were separated from the fascia/wraps so they can be chromed along with the H/L & grille assy. It still assembles using the same four screw points promo style that the LB 97 CV has. Steel wheels and the button hubcaps (chicken-feeders, dog dish, poverty caps. Whatever nomenclature preferred) will be supplied as base, or I suppose an option will be offered to allow the end builder to supply their own chassis/wheels/tires from the LB 97 CV with the full covers that kit provides. Those are accurate back to 1988. There are two different dash choices as well, both the 79-88 version as well as the 90-91 two year only version would be chosen by asking for the 88-89 or 90-91 version. The master was built with the 90-91 C-pillar chrome pillar to QP separator that did not appear on the 88-89, but that is easily sanded off to make the 88-89 version. Well, that is it. I hope those of you that have been looking for this like what has been done thus far, but as always, I'm open to suggestions if you believe you see a major mistake or another issue. Enjoy the pics!