Lindberg '79 Caddy - Jo-Han mold or clone?

[ChrisBcritter]

Quoting oldcarfan27 on thatz4u's '78 Cadillac thread:

"FYI - look for the Lindberg 79 Cadillac hopper kit. The body is the old Johan tool, slight wheelbase adjustment for the hopper chassis. I know, because I have one and all the old Johan parts fit it exactly! Even has same tooling marks inside it.

At least we know this Johan tool still exists. We should ask Round 2 to restore this classic kit."

Never heard about this. What's more likely: Lindberg actually got the Jo-Han body mold somehow, or they cloned an original kit body right down to the tool marks?

[Oldcarfan27]

Whether they cloned it or not is irrelevant. As I said, the parts from the original kit DO fit the body. You would have to cut away the mounting posts inside to clear room for the glass, interior shell, bumpers and chassis - but it can be done! The only body alteration is the slightly shorter wheelbase at the rear wheel openings to fit the hopper chassis. It even has the hood emblem - and the Cadillac script (IIRC). That's a pretty detailed clone.

If it is a clone, my question would be - Why go through all the trouble to copy an old Johan body? Why not just do a new body of a more current Cadillac or some other more popular lowrider?

Either way, it is what it is and I'm glad it came out at all. I can use it to restore some old junkers I have.

[Jantrix]

Lindberg did have a way of coming up with other companies molds somehow.

Rumor has it that someone at AMT left the molds for this pick-up at a machine shop for too long, and they ended up sold to Lindberg. 

 

Edited August 3, 2018 by Jantrix

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 8/2/2018 at 12:43 AM, Oldcarfan27 said:

...If it is a clone, my question would be - Why go through all the trouble to copy an old Johan body?...

The Lindberg '40 Ford is an obvious clone of the AMT kit, but it's definitely positively not from the same tooling.

Why indeed?

[Oldcarfan27]

3 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

The Lindberg '40 Ford is an obvious clone of the AMT kit, but it's definitely positively not from the same tooling.

Why indeed?

Why do you think it's a clone? The story I read about, was that they simply acquired the forgotten and abandoned tool from a shop. It had been left there since the late 70s - early 80s, around the time AMT was in transition to Matchbox. The new owners simply forgot it was missing.

Glad it was never scrapped!

[Ace-Garageguy]

8 minutes ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Why do you think it's a clone? The story I read about, was that they simply acquired the forgotten and abandoned tool from a shop. It had been left there since the late 70s - early 80s, around the time AMT was in transition to Matchbox. The new owners simply forgot it was missing.

Glad it was never scrapped!

I have both Lindberg and AMT versions of the '40 Ford coupe and the '34 Ford pickup kits in stock, have compared them carefully, and I know a thing or two about tooling.

The AMT '40 Ford Coupe kit (which was the subject of my comment) is NOT the same tool as the Lindberg version.

On the other hand, the Lindberg '34 Ford pickup (which is the subject of the story you heard) IS the AMT tool.

Edited August 3, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[iBorg]

To throw more sand into the mix, the Lindberg Challenger body is a pretty good copy of the MPC  '73 or '74 Challenger. The chassis and engine, not so much.

[Phirewriter]

The Lindberg Challenger started life as a Palmer tool along with a Mustang and a '70ish Corvette.

[Eshaver]

Indeed , it did Michael !

 

[stavanzer]

The Lindberg '40 Ford was a Palmer Copy of the AMT '40 Ford. The tooling was never issued by Palmer, and Lindberg wound up with it. They did some work on it and have been releasing  now for some time. I really like the CHP version, it has nice decals and police parts.