1/16 Danbury Mint 1953 Cadillac

[randyc]

So I bought a couple of these busted in hopes of making one good one.   I had to to reconstruct the lower spindle mount and tie rod connection.  Both cars had busted front wheels.   So I took one of the extra wheel backs and cut a section off of it.   

[First a note I learned about "welding" plastic - you can use a soldering iron/gun to weld plastic together.  Not the cleanest method, but joins it more solidly than adhesives, especially when the plastic in question doesn't take adhesives predictably.]

I sanded the broken areas sorta flat, held in vise, and sorta melted all the parts together.   I had a big blob of pretty solid plastic.   I filed down the high spots and got it to fit.   Then I filled the voids with CA and baking soda just to hopefully give it more mass.    See photo for semi finished backing plate. 

 

I didn't have a hole in the bottom, so I studied the unbroken one and guesstimated the positioning of the new hole.   I got close.  It doesn't have any worse camber than  most diecasts.  This seems to be storng enough, so I painted it black and installed it.  The tie rod screws into the attachement, so I didn't drill it till after I installed the wheel and could get the toe in close.   The tie rod screws to the attachment, so drilling and screwing that in was a bit nerve wracking, but I got it working.   THe steering still doesn't work from the steering wheel - the steering arm on both cars was broken  the same way -  the whole design was too light and rife with poor design.  Steering arm should have beem cast brass like the worm and pinion gears in the box.  Or at least diecast.  I have poseable steering.

I had the body off the car to get to the rear wheels because the sidewalls of both cars werr yellowed.  I was going to swap in the best four tires, buth the sidewalls are glossy, so I popped them out and sprayer them all flat white.

The upholstery of one car was coming unglued - car must have sat in window?  SO I used best of each car to reassemble and here it is.   It weighs a lot - shipping weight of car, stand, and original box and packaging was 10.7 lbs.   And it is a beutiful and impressive piece.   HOWEVER, it is no better detailed than the Franklin Mint 1/24 version.   I couldn't get it down easily for comparison.   But I did include the 1/24 56 F100 and a 1/64 55 Caddy for comparison.   

 

[kilrathy10]

Now, that's impressive...1/16 scale, huh? Man, I could use one of those...

[THarrison351]

Nice save Randy! I like the big Danbury Mint cars. I've been looking out for a decent looking Cord L-29.

[cobraman]

That's one good  looking Caddy. 

[Motor City]

I attended the Cadillac LaSalle Club's Grand National Meet in Dearborn in 2002 with my 1977 Biarritz.  That was Cadillac's Centennial year.  As I recall, there were four 1953 Eldorado's there.  They were impressive to look at and that's a nice looking model car!  

[randyc]

On 9/25/2020 at 8:14 PM, Motor City said:

I attended the Cadillac LaSalle Club's Grand National Meet in Dearborn in 2002 with my 1977 Biarritz.  That was Cadillac's Centennial year.  As I recall, there were four 1953 Eldorado's there.  They were impressive to look at and that's a nice looking model car!  

THanks.   And yes, that car just looks like 50's luxury.  And very imposing.