1964 Cadillac 'Superior Coach' Ambulance

[PlasticWagens]

This is absolutely fantastic!

[Drake69]

NICE WORK! Love to see another caddy hearse/ambulance being worked on. This is going to be GOOD!

[crowe-t]

Thanks a lot guys for the compliments!  

I'm waiting on some half round styrene rods to show up and I'm straightening everything out at the moment.  I'll try and have another update soon.

 

[MrObsessive]

WOW! Some FANTASTIC work Michael! How did I miss this??

Your conversion work is really good, and you've made the cuts in the right places on the body.

 

[crowe-t]

Thanks Bill!  I have a bit more done and will post some pictures soon.

Mike.

[charlie8575]

Thanks guys!

Aaron - I did find out that they were painted a GM Special order color called 'Root Beer Metallic'.  However no one knows what the paint code is.  I'll most likely use a '66 Cadillac color called Autumn Rust Metallic that looks very close.

In Testors' lacquer line, there's a dark brown metallic that is VERY close to the brown there; might need a drop of white to lighten it. The Autumn Rust is much too orange. The dark brown is airbrush-only, but I believe the equivalent color is in the enamel sprays, along with Classic White, which will be a decent match to the white.

Very nice work.

Charlie Larkin

 

[crowe-t]

Thanks Charlie!

In person the 66 Autumn Rust doesn't look too orange.  It's a dark brown color that turns a golden brown in sun light which is how a root beer color should look.  I've looked at a lot of pictures of the Schaefer Ambulances and they go from a dark brown to a golden brown in sun light.  It has an almost cinnamon look to it and the paint in person looks to be an almost exact match to the screen shots I made of the ambulance from the TV show.  

The metallic in the Testors paints is out of scale and looks like 1970's metal flake.  The MCW paint's metallic is much more in scale.  

[charlie8575]

Thanks Charlie!

In person the 66 Autumn Rust doesn't look too orange.  It's a dark brown color that turns a golden brown in sun light which is how a root beer color should look.  I've looked at a lot of pictures of the Schaefer Ambulances and they go from a dark brown to a golden brown in sun light.  It has an almost cinnamon look to it and the paint in person looks to be an almost exact match to the screen shots I made of the ambulance from the TV show.  

The metallic in the Testors paints is out of scale and looks like 1970's metal flake.  The MCW paint's metallic is much more in scale.  

Don't confuse it with the Custom Lacquer. The particular paint I'm referring to is in the Model Master line, which has reasonably-scaled metallic components. The "Root Beer" in the Custom Lacquer line isn't too bad, either, although many of those colors, I will agree, are a bit over-scaled.

Charlie Larkin

[crowe-t]

Don't confuse it with the Custom Lacquer. The particular paint I'm referring to is in the Model Master line, which has reasonably-scaled metallic components. The "Root Beer" in the Custom Lacquer line isn't too bad, either, although many of those colors, I will agree, are a bit over-scaled.

Charlie Larkin

I thought you were referring to the Custom Lacquer line.  I did a lot of research and looked at a lot of pictures and some video from the movie The Disorderly Orderly which has 2 Schaefer ambulances.  I'm confident that Autumn Rust is very close and in person it looks amazing.  The metallic flakes are so small it almost looks like a pearl.  A true root beer goes from dark brown to a golden, almost red-orange look in the sun.  Besides I had to have the Autumn Rust custom mixed and it was $18 just for the two 1 ounce bottles so I'll be using it.  Some people confuse regular brown metallic with root beer.  However just having metallic in brown isn't necessarily root beer.

I've seen pictures here of cars painted in Testors Root Beer and they look red.  The Autumn Rust looks more brown in person but does photograph a bit on the red-orange side.  I would love to have a real 1:1 car paint in the Autumn Rust.  When the sun hits it, it looks deep and has a nice warm golden color. 

Mike.

Edited August 6, 2016 by crowe-t

[charlie8575]

I thought you were referring to the Custom Lacquer line.  I did a lot of research and looked at a lot of pictures and some video from the movie The Disorderly Orderly which has 2 Schaefer ambulances.  I'm confident that Autumn Rust is very close and in person it looks amazing.  The metallic flakes are so small it almost looks like a pearl.  A true root beer goes from dark brown to a golden, almost red-orange look in the sun.  Besides I had to have the Autumn Rust custom mixed and it was $18 just for the two 1 ounce bottles so I'll be using it.  Some people confuse regular brown metallic with root beer.  However just having metallic in brown isn't necessarily root beer.

I've seen pictures here of cars painted in Testors Root Beer and they look red.  The Autumn Rust looks more brown in person but does photograph a bit on the red-orange side.  I would love to have a real 1:1 car paint in the Autumn Rust.  When the sun hits it, it looks deep and has a nice warm golden color. 

Mike.

I have a Jo-Han '64 to build. You're selling me on this color. I might do just that.

Charlie Larkin

[Custom Mike]

Michael, did you consider House Of Kolors Root Beer? I've used it, and it's a great color, but I'm not sure how close it is to what you're wanting, here's a couple of pics of it. This is over a Copper base, with Silver for the stripes and side coves.

 

 

[crowe-t]

Mike,  I did look at the House Of Kolors Root Beer but it's a candy color and doesn't appear quite brown enough.  

The color I chose, 1966 Cadillac Autumn Rust, is a metallic and more brown in appearance.  In the sun it appears more golden brown like a root beer color.  This color is almost spot on to the color of the 1:1 car.

If you look at the 2 pictures of the actual car I put in my first post you can see the color is more brown and is a metallic not a candy.

BTW, the House Of Kolor Root Beer on your Ferrari is beautiful!

Mike. 

[Rdkingjay]

Very impressive so far Mike. If I could offer one piece of advice that you may already have, but worth repeating due to the complexity of this build, it is to document everything!! Pictures and text. When I was building my 1/16 GL, I did this.  I documented 55 different changes in 4 catagory's , including scratch built stuff. 140 build photos in all.  I'm quite certain, had I not done this, I would have forgotten some of them by now. Primarily because many of them are done for accuracy and don't necessarily stand out.  Best of luck on this build.

[crowe-t]

Thanks Jay!  I've been documenting all this.  I have a bit more work done and will post some more pictures soon.  I just haven't had the time.  

Mike.

 

Edited August 24, 2016 by crowe-t

[crowe-t]

The body of a 1964 Cadillac Ambulance has a taper.  It widens at the doors after the A-Pillar(as Brian Austin mentioned earlier).  The Polar Lights Ecto-1 body doesn't have the taper. I narrowed the front fenders and added the taper to the front doors.  I checked reference pictures and feel it looks more correct now.   

 

I widened the front(Jo-Han) section of the chassis to blend in with the rear Polar Lights chassis.  The front of the inner fender wells were cut off and extended to meet the radiator support which is how they are in a '64 Cadillac ambulance.

 

Since I removed the front of the PL chassis I decided to use the fender wells for the rear of the chassis to close it up.  It may not be 100% correct but I think it looks more complete this way instead of having no rear fender wells.

 

I still have to add the rear window pillars and the trim moldings which I should get to in the next few days.

 

Thanks for looking in! 

 

Mike.

 

IMG_7741 by Michael Scarola, on Flickr

IMG_7743 by Michael Scarola, on Flickr

 

IMG_7764 by Michael Scarola, on Flickr

IMG_7750 by Michael Scarola, on Flickr

IMG_7751 by Michael Scarola, on Flickr

 

IMG_7757 by Michael Scarola, on Flickr

IMG_7758 by Michael Scarola, on Flickr

IMG_7759 by Michael Scarola, on Flickr

 

 

 

Edited July 1, 2017 by crowe-t

[Zarana-X]

You are a master graftsman!

[crowe-t]

Thanks Jason!

I can't seem to make the pictures appear.  I've been at this about an hour now.  I copied the pictures from Photobucket and am having no luck.  

Edited August 24, 2016 by crowe-t

[MrObsessive]

Michael, are you on a free account with Photobucket? If so, you may not be able to post anymore pics as you've reached your "limit" for a period of time. Frankly, I'm not a fan of PB AT ALL as their site is incredibly buggy and slow on my end. I use Fotki, and while some don't like them, I have a paid account and haven't had trouble 'cept very occasionally when they're down for maintenance.

I tried to bring a couple of your pics here, but it's not letting me either. Everything's lookin' good either which way!

 

[crowe-t]

Bill,  Yes I'm on a free account with Photobucket.  I'm up to 89% so I should still have 11% more space for pictures.

I'll try using another photo sharing site.

BTW I have this build on another forum and the pictures are showing there. 

Mike.

[MrObsessive]

Hey! Whaddya know?? The image button on the board works now! Michael, I copied the "direct" link that was next to your pic and clicked on the pic icon in the text area here. Pasted the URL and BINGO! Your pic showed up!

FINALLY it looks like that was fixed as it was not working for many months! Anyway, some very nice bodywork going on there!

 

[crowe-t]

Thanks Bill!  I just used the image button and the pictures look squished.

[MrObsessive]

Thanks Bill!  I just used the image button and the pictures look squished.

Yeah, I'm not sure why that does that here as it looks that way on my monitor also. When you click on the pic though, the true appearance shows up that way.

[crowe-t]

Yeah, I'm not sure why that does that here as it looks that way on my monitor also. When you click on the pic though, the true appearance shows up that way.

This must be something new.  I was posting by copying the pictures in Photobucket and it was working fine until I posted these pictures today.

Edited August 24, 2016 by crowe-t

[crowe-t]

I forgot to include this picture in the post above.  I shortened the front doors by re-scribing the seam between the doors about 2 mm forward.  The front doors on the Polar Lights Ecto-1 are too long for a 'Superior Coach' ambulance.  I believe the Miller-Meteor ambulances, that the Ecto-1 was based on had longer front doors.

Mike.

IMG_7749 b by Michael Scarola, on Flickr

 

Edited July 1, 2017 by crowe-t

[Rdkingjay]

Unbelievable work Mike.