Search the Community

Jimmy worked at a Ford dealership. Every two years Jimmy bought a new Galaxie. You would think he might be a sales rep or some bigwig in the company to buy a new one every other year. No, that was not the case. Jimmy was the shop gofer. Jimmy, go pickup parts. Jimmy, go drive this customer home. He did all the odd jobs around the place. In 1966 Jimmy bought his last Galaxie. A Burnt Amber 2-door hardtop with a 390. I worked on Jimmy’s car many times with my father. Anything from brakes to tune-ups. And every time we worked on the car we were rewarded with a spaghetti and meatball dinner prepared by his wife Annie. Homemade meatballs and gravy (don’t call it sauce) and Vermicelli pasta (Ronzoni). It was a tradition up until the 80’s. And always a Saturday night and always started with a shot of Black Berry Brandy. I still use the recipe today, the pasta, not the brandy. Jimmy loved that car and Jimmy loved Annie. They went everywhere in that car with their dog Feefee in the back seat. They celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary with that car. There was one thing funny about Jimmy however. When he first met Annie, he was too embarrassed to tell her his real name. It wasn’t Jimmy, it was Joe. But for the rest of their time together she always called him Jimmy. So, this is really the story of Joe’s 1967 Galaxie. This is a project I first started planning for back in the 90’s when I found a rather sad AMT Galaxie Promo at the Hershey AACA fall meet. I paid $3.00 for it and purchased a number of other sad promos from the same dealer on the White field. When I recently got the idea to start on this model, I went through my stash to find it. I found I have four 67 Galaxies; guess I had the idea of building this more then once. Well, they won’t go to waste so let’s get started. This is what we are starting with. Pretty sad, huh. I think I have my work cut out for me.?

Started with a MPC promo from eBay, I added the vinyl top, side trim, transparent signal lights with acrylic sheet and some chrome details. Also casted the side mirrors from a 1/24 Greenlight Monaco cop car diecast. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi guys ! Sharing today my latest Cadillac to enter my collection. Again, converted, detailed and restored from a rough promo model. Jo-Han only made the Coupe so why not feeling summer air with a top down version ?. I gave the Caddy new paint, hand sanded clear coats, thin accent stripes, larger white walls, mirrors, wood-ish interior panel doors, carpet etc etc... Hope some will like her!. Thanks for watching.

Guys, what is the best type of glue to use on a mid 1960s promo. I guess these are ABS? I have one that may be saveable, but the body is broken. I am thinking that 5-minute epoxy and reinforcing the back side? Car was destined to be stripped and repainted anyway. TIA

Hi, back after a few years! I have a few hundred diecasts - original issue Corgi, Dinky, Matchbox - and a promo car collection which was my dad's - and although they were stored in enclosed glass display cases, many suffered from oxidation. My mom passed away recently and I'll be needing to move the collection to my own house. I'm looking to ultimately keep and continue displaying some of these, photo-catalogue each piece and probably sell a number of them. I'm trying to decide A) how to clean them, to the extent they can be restored, and then how to best research for accurate pricing. This project sadly has been neglected as I didn't have the necessary time to devote to this due to life in general... but now I am basically semi-retired and looking to focus on working on this. Because of imperfect humidity environment, many of the Jo-Han cars in the 1/25, 1/24 collection have oxidation residue. I've got a sampling of some of the worst in the attached photos; tho they aren't extreme close-up. If there's any sort of best practices or protocol for dealing with this embedded dust, I'd really appreciate any advice...as well as suggestions on how to move forward on appraisal of this collection. I started macro-photographing most of the smaller scale diecasts and now am looking to finish those and shoot the larger scales, as I figure that's probably the first step to getting the entire lot of the collection properly evaluated. I know there's many different ways to go as far as appraisal and selling. My brother has a friend who is an online auctioneer who has regular vintage toys/cars among all the other categories of collectibles...but I'm more interested in connecting with people who specialize specifically in diecasts and promo cars. Would be glad to get any recommendations as far as that goes, as well. Thanks for your time reading through all of this! : ) Mike in Detroit

Had a little surprise when I was repairing the windshield header on the '67 Chrysler vert a while ago. The header had a break which I drilled out and pinned to make a strong fix, and I dabbed on a small amount of Zap-A-Gap CA glue. When I was dabbing I noticed the green color of the plastic was coming off on the toothpick I was applying the CA with, and indeed the plastic melted a little bit when I put the parts together, just like regular cement does with styrene. I always thought CA didn't do that; is there something in Zap-A-Gap that affects some types of plastic? Over to the experts...

Question: I see a 1968 Chevrolet pickup promo for sale, $110 asking price. It has a nasty crack in a bed side, missing fender logos and gas cap (I can make a gas cap). I saw a nice one for $185 at a model show. Would the AMT bed fit ok on this? Is the price out of line?

I am working on a Buick Reatta promo with intent of creating a detailed curbside from it. I am struggling with getting the windshield out of the assembled body, as the way it's mounted with the "vent" windows lock it in place. Anybody ought there know how to get the glass out without cracking it?

HI! This lowrider model is based on a 1/25 promo which had no information of model company that has made it. Promo was packed in white cardboard box with color prints of drawn pics of red Regal and large Buick- logos. Maybe it´s made by Brooklin or MPC or AMT... I don´t know. Same company has obviously made the Buick Reatta promo bcause it it so similar to this Regal. But on to model: I Disassembled the promo and painted it with tamiya paints. Body has: Surfacer white + Light pearl red + lame flake ( PS) + clear + metallic orange ( thin mist layers ) + clear Some modifications to rear subrame was done also and finally I added Pegasus wheels. Pics:

I have had this old chassis and it has all kinds of phrases molded into it. Looks like a Promo to me. Says Thunderbird on it. It does have a full frame,so I know it's a later T-Bird,but I cannot seem to find out what it came from. Anyone have any idea on what it is or who manufactured it? Thanks for any help. Brad

I have just purchased an old promo that was customized and painted at some time. I'd like to strip the paint off, but not harm the old plastic. This promo dates from 1959, so I am not sure how fragile the plastic is. I've read up on the various techniques for removing paint from an injection plastic model, and from a resin model. But are there any special considerations that I need to take in mind for a quite old promo? Any help at all would be much appreciated! Thanks!

I've had this 74 Caddy for a number of years and noticed the a-pillar had broken and the model looked rather sad and dirty, so i cleaned it up and detailed it with bare metal foil and detail touches, like the tail lights. it's a Johan promo. i've not detailed the interior or chassis, but i did replace the chassis securing tacks with screws. a bit of Novus polish really brought the metallic green plastic to a nice shine.

Hey. I got this promo in a package deal a while back and I couldn't just let it go to waste. There was a big crack in the roof, no chrome (other than the headlights), missing pillars and it had no chassis. Thanks to The Modelhaus, my parts box, and my wife's nail polish collection, I was able to give it a new lease on life. It has a '69 front bumper/grille but I can live with it; I covered the rear "1969" license plate with a custom plate. Thanks for lookin'. I'll post more pictures later. Before... After...