Cord Sedan

[Eric Macleod]

Once upon a time All American Models did resin transkits for the Monogram Cord 812 kit. Later another company appeared to do some refinement,  or maybe remastered  them. Does anyone know who that was and if they are still offering transkits for the Monogram Cord? Thanks in advance. 

Eric

[duesie]

Eric

The Cord resin that you are referring to were reworked efforts that Lee Baker created and the supplier lived in South Africa.

He tragically died and all his resin production ceased I believe.

Art Anderson may have more description of the history on the gentleman effort to revive has All American Duesenberg and cords.

I was fortunate enough to acquire all of them as I am a Duesenberg nut.

contact me if you need some help in acquiring a model for a project .  Have some multiples of nearly all of the classic kits.

Looking forward to your next project as the six ford model Ts were great.

[peter31a]

A fellow, Bob Shelton, is often selling Cord resin bodies at NNL East and some other shows. I got to know Bob at the Great Salt Lake City contest but unfortunately I did not get his contact info.

[Art Anderson]

5 hours ago, Eric Macleod said:

Once upon a time All American Models did resin transkits for the Monogram Cord 812 kit. Later another company appeared to do some refinement,  or maybe remastered  them. Does anyone know who that was and if they are still offering transkits for the Monogram Cord? Thanks in advance. 

Eric

I mastered, and cast both varieties of the Cord 810/812 sedans.  A guy from South Africa had done both before (Guido Fieuw) but they were horribly inaccurate, and very crudely cast.  I did the flatback sedan as non-supercharged, the trunkback as a supercharged version.  Here's a pic of one of mine, built:  

[Art Anderson]

15 hours ago, duesie said:

Eric

The Cord resin that you are referring to were reworked efforts that Lee Baker created and the supplier lived in South Africa.

He tragically died and all his resin production ceased I believe.

Art Anderson may have more description of the history on the gentleman effort to revive has All American Duesenberg and cords.

I was fortunate enough to acquire all of them as I am a Duesenberg nut.

contact me if you need some help in acquiring a model for a project .  Have some multiples of nearly all of the classic kits.

Looking forward to your next project as the six ford model Ts were great.

Actually, the late Lee Baker (a long time good friend of mine, and an excellent modeler of Classic Era cars, I might add) had nothing to do with my three Cord resin transkits.  I had acquired, from the late Bill Harrison from California, a Guido Fieuw Cord 810 resin sedan, that had been slush-cast in fiberglass, but was hopelessly inaccurate and by reason of its very thick material section, pretty much unusable. Lee Baker also had nothing to do with the creation of any other other kits that Guido produced (more on that below).  I did use Guido's mold, and slush-cast a new body in polyurethane resin; then taking that, and cutting the roof (including the tops of the doors) away from the lower body, grafted that onto a fresh Monogram Cord body shell, which resin section included the entire rear of the body. (the trunk area).  Then using numerous photo's of the real thing from books in my library (this was before I had a computer, and certainly before there was much in the way of even rudimentary websites showing such cars.  The car pictured is my Non-Supercharged 810 Westchester with the "flat back" trunk.  I then did a second sedan, this time as an 812 Supercharged Westchester, with the "bustle trunk".   After these two were in production, I sent one of each to Guido, complimentary--and got my chops busted in return--he went on a tear, swearing that I'd merely copied his work directly, which was untrue.

About a month into the production of the two sedans, I worked up the Cord Convertible Coupe, A/K/A the Sportsman, from the Monogram convertible phaeton, which entailed completely reshaping the entire trunk area (much more slanted than the Monogram Convertible Phaeton), with raised convertible top as a separate piece.

Miles Lee Baker (deceased about 12-13 yrs ago) was a very close friend, going all the way back to our meeting and getting acquainted at an IPMS Regional Convention in Indianapolis in 1977.  I became a member of the Lake Michigan Model Car Club in suburban Chicago, and met with Lee monthly, every time I drove the 140 miles to Western Springs IL for club meetings.  When I started up All American Models in January 1989, Lee started contacting me about doing resin transkits of 30's V8 Fords along with transkits for Monogram's Duesenberg Model SJ kits.  I did several transkits for the Monogram Duesenberg, of which Guido did recast and sell (but never affected my sales at all), so I brushed him off pretty easily.  

While I did sell a fair number of the Duesenberg resins, the stars of the series of masters that Lee Baker created (most have a few of my touches in them) were the 30's Ford V8 cars.

Art

[Art Anderson]

A rear view of the Cord Westchester shown above:

 

[Art Anderson]

Guido Fieuw did acquire (but not directly from me, as I refused to sell any to him due to his vituperant online tirades, any of my Duesenberg transkits.   Those transkits included the Figoni et Falaschi boattail, better known in Classic Car circles as the "French Speedster", a reworked (for accuracy) Murphy Boattail Speedster (the one long-wheelbased car that was built for the biggest single customer of Duesenberg, George Whittel--the model that Monogram did with a diecast body and hood--but inaccurately as an SJ, which the Whittel car is not and never was), and at any rate long out of production; a generic Model J Berline (photo below of my current build project is below), and the fabulous Gurney Nutting Speedster, which real car was built for the Maharajah of Indore, India by the British coachbuilder, Gurney Nutting, and a Duesenberg Model J non-supercharged conversion parts set--both the engine parts and the louvered hood.

This is the Berline, as I am choosing to build it, with blind rear quarters.  Believe it or not, it's a blend of the Monogram Murphy Town Car body, with (yes!) the sections of 4 AMT 1932 Ford Tudor sedan bodies to make up the roof!  (the door handles are those thingies that are turned upward--I discovered that the sharp end of ordinary straight pins,  bent into a right angle, then slightly blunted, are perfect for those then-ultra modern streamlined door handles seen on numerous cars of the early-mid 1930's.  Hopefully, I will get back onto this one later this year.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2017 by Art Anderson

[dimaxion]

Art , you do nice work . I have the Cords and regret not having the money to buy the Duesy . Excellent .. most excellent . Your Cord Flatback , is it Real or is it Model ?   I like this WIP .. Thanx .. 

[br67]

Art and Larry,  for interest sake, I have recently bought about 600 of Guidos old kits on auction here in SA and there approximately 12-15 "in progress" Duesenbergs amongst others

Edited December 21, 2017 by br67

[Eric Macleod]

Art, Larry, Pete and John,

You are all providing some great information. I knew there was someone resin casting Cords out there but did not know who had taken the baton from Art. My interest is adding a Cord Sedan and perhaps another (better-I built a less-than accurate one in my early 20's) Sportsman to my collection.  If anyone out there knows how to connect with Bob Shelton he may be the person who I was trying to locate.

I can't help wondering if there is a market for Duesenberg, Cadillac, Bentley or perhaps Bugatti Royale transkits out there. While I don't get the sense there are a lot of us out there who are "capital C" Classic loyalists, those of us who remain are fiercely loyal. For me, building a Duesenberg, Packard or Cadillac in scale is the only way for me to step up from my 1:1 Franklins and Lincolns to "senior" classics.

As an aside, Art may recall being at the Gilmore Car Museum during the CCCA Experience many years ago. He and Lee Baker were engaged in a conversation about Lee's Duesenberg LeBaron Phaeton project. I overheard them talking about the model and Lee speculated that his was likely the only one in the world. Both were surprised when I interjected that I too had one that I had finished one week earlier. Later I would up entertaining Lee and his wife at my home and found Lee highly encouraging with regard to my Packard 734 Speedster Roadster and Speedster Sedan projects. Those are another story.

Thanks in advance for the help all.

Eric 

[Porscheman]

Here's the other body style Art did.

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki

[wku88]

This stuff is pure gold. Enthralling history of both the Classic 1:1 hobby, and of the icons of the cottage industry of scale autos.

More, Gentlemen... more!

[Art Anderson]

2 hours ago, Eric Macleod said:

Art, Larry, Pete and John,

You are all providing some great information. I knew there was someone resin casting Cords out there but did not know who had taken the baton from Art. My interest is adding a Cord Sedan and perhaps another (better-I built a less-than accurate one in my early 20's) Sportsman to my collection.  If anyone out there knows how to connect with Bob Shelton he may be the person who I was trying to locate.

I can't help wondering if there is a market for Duesenberg, Cadillac, Bentley or perhaps Bugatti Royale transkits out there. While I don't get the sense there are a lot of us out there who are "capital C" Classic loyalists, those of us who remain are fiercely loyal. For me, building a Duesenberg, Packard or Cadillac in scale is the only way for me to step up from my 1:1 Franklins and Lincolns to "senior" classics.

As an aside, Art may recall being at the Gilmore Car Museum during the CCCA Experience many years ago. He and Lee Baker were engaged in a conversation about Lee's Duesenberg LeBaron Phaeton project. I overheard them talking about the model and Lee speculated that his was likely the only one in the world. Both were surprised when I interjected that I too had one that I had finished one week earlier. Later I would up entertaining Lee and his wife at my home and found Lee highly encouraging with regard to my Packard 734 Speedster Roadster and Speedster Sedan projects. Those are another story.

Thanks in advance for the help all.

Eric 

Unfortunately, there's just not a large market for model kits of the great Classic Cars of the 20's through the 30's.  For whatever reason, that was true back in the 1960's (a decade when seemingly anything in a plastic model car kit would sell like sno-cones on the 4th of July)  and even more true nowadays.  The sheer cost of tooling up a new model car kit virtually precludes doing subjects that would require serious "missionary work" selling--at least here in the US.  Overseas, it's a bit different I think--although there really haven't been any newly tooled Classic era model car kits done in years, save for the ICM series of 1/24 scale Opel Admirals, and even those have wound up being offered at a discounted price in order for the importer(s) to clear space for faster-selling subject matter.  Heller and Italeri Classics sold reasonably well in their domestic home markets when first offered, but even today, virtually nothing in newly tooled subjects of such cars.  As for resin transkits--it takes an interest on the part of the resin-caster, enough so as to take that plunge, bearing in mind that they'd be chasing only a handful of sales while spending a lot of their time creating an acceptable master for casting.

Art

[waynehulsey]

Herb Deeks also did a couple versions of Cord sedans. He had a stock vesion and one with the open wheels and pieces to do the Ab Jenkins Bonneville car. Don't know if he's still doing them.

[Gramps46]

Art,

Thank you for posting the background on the CORDs et al.  I always admired Lee's work too.

I recently posted a thread about Guido on another forum and his catalog of resin casings was pretty amazing and unique but his personality was shall we say difficult.

Art thank you 

[br67]

Gary you are right about Guido - my dad and I were friendly with him in the 90's before his accident. Let's just say he was a very "unique" guy?

[jas1957]

On December 20, 2017 at 6:40 PM, peter31a said:

A fellow, Bob Shelton, is often selling Cord resin bodies at NNL East and some other shows. I got to know Bob at the Great Salt Lake City contest but unfortunately I did not get his contact info.

Bob Shelton,  PMB 140,  3116 W. Montgomery Rd.  #C,  Maineville, OH 45039 

Bob has several different Cord bodies available,. they are designed to fit the Monogram kit.

[peter31a]

Thanks, John, I appreciate you sharing this information.

[dimaxion]

Missing Link did a re-pop of the '11 Chevrolet . I did spread the word on 'another' Model Car Site . I did get a pair of thank yous from members there as happy recipients of that opportunity .  I did not ask Kevin how successfully these sold  . It is not any of my business . Yet , the first Toyad Corp Car , 1936 , is in the Marketplace . As for later later firsts , the DS 19 Citroen , as well; as the first ... ummm ..  Honda Cars  are current  offerings .  I keep up with these oldies .. IIRC , this is an AMM Conversion .  Thanx .. 

[Eric Macleod]

Thanks Peter, 

That was exactly what I was looking for.

Eric 

[peteski]

On 12/22/2017 at 12:19 AM, br67 said:

Gary you are right about Guido - my dad and I were friendly with him in the 90's before his accident. Let's just say he was a very "unique" guy?

Do you happen to know what happened with his molds and master patterns?  And photo-etched spoke wheels?  I would lover to get my hands on some of the master patterns for the tires he cast. His castings were full of huge air bubbles, but if we had the masters we could get one of our good casters to start producing those tires again.

I've bough bunch of stuff from Guido years ago - he was always nice to me. When I was looking for some spoke wheels for my MG TC, he send me freebie prototype etchings for the wheels he was going to do for that model.

[br67]

Hi Pete, I was offered some boxes of his molds(contents unknown) but passed on them

[peteski]

On 12/28/2017 at 5:04 AM, br67 said:

Hi Pete, I was offered some boxes of his molds(contents unknown) but passed on them

Thanks Brandon. You probably have no idea what happened to those (or if they simply got discarded)?

[george 53]

I did the casting on the last Cords that Missing Link produced. The molds belonged to a friend of Kevin's and returned back to him at the end of the run. I did cast a sedan, and convertable for myself before we gave them back.

Kevin would remember the gentlemans name I believe, BUT since these were a private run for him personally, I highly doubt that there would be any for sale. They came out very nice, if I say so myself.

[br67]

Pete, they may still be available