1:1 Scale Modified Reissues

[Chuck Most]

A lot of times, a kit will be reissued with new and revised parts, in some cases, even as an entirely different subject. It happens in 1:1, too! Often the 'tooling' for a 1:1 vehicle gets revised into something else, even if it's been gone a few years! Sometimes, a 'mid life' design is restyled, and the company decides to slap a new name on the existing (but revised) car while they are at it.

Here are a few "1:1 Modified Reissues" I can think of- can anybody think of any others. (Note, we're only counting times when a vehicle was 'rehashed' into something else and was passed off as an all new design... not when a new vehicle was released on an existing platform- Falcon spawned the Mustang, etc.)

Nash (later just Rambler) Rambler- Discontinued, then brought back with open wheel arches and a different nose in the late '50's.

Jeepster- Discontinued in the early '50's then reintroduced with a new front clip in the late '60's.

Crofton Bug- Take the out of production Crosley Farm-O-Road, change the grille and hood latches, and bingo! You have an 'all new' product!

Just about every late '70's-'80's AMC- The Gremiln and Hornet never died... they were reincarnated as the Concord!

1985 Ford LTD II- A slightly restyled Granada, (which itself was a spin off of the Maverick).

'05-'08 GM "U-Vans", '04- Up Ford Freestar/Mercury Monterey- Take the Chevy Venture, Pontiac Montana, and Oldsmobile Silhouette, slap on some butt ugly pug nose front ends, give them a trendy name like "Crossover Sport Van", and rename them the Chevy Uplander, Pontiac Montana SV6, and Buick Terraza! Unless you're Ford... then rehash the Windstar, rename it Freestar, and give Mercury a version to sell while you're at it. Boom! Way to achieve sales chart mediorcrity!

'04-up Buick Ranier- When rebadged Oldsmobile Bravadas are made, Buick will build them.

'08-up Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable- So the Five Hundred and Montego aren't selling as well as you'd hoped? NO worry! Just restyle the front, rear, and interior, do a little mechanical spruce-up, and re-christen them the Taurus and Sable... you know, the names of the designs they were originally meant to replace!

(Ex-Studebaker Avanti) Avanti II- This would kind of be like a Lindberg '34 Ford pickup kit in 1:1... somebody else did all the design and engineering work, but it wasn't the most recent company to manufacture it!

Caterham 7- How good an idea was the Lotus 7? Must've been pretty good... Caterham still makes them nearly five decades after Lotus gave up on them!

[Swifster]

Just about every late '70's-'80's AMC- The Gremiln and Hornet never died... they were reincarnated as the Concord!

1985 Ford LTD II- A slightly restyled Granada, (which itself was a spin off of the Maverick).

'05-'08 GM "U-Vans", '04- Up Ford Freestar/Mercury Monterey- Take the Chevy Venture, Pontiac Montana, and Oldsmobile Silhouette, slap on some butt ugly pug nose front ends, give them a trendy name like "Crossover Sport Van", and rename them the Chevy Uplander, Pontiac Montana SV6, and Buick Terraza! Unless you're Ford... then rehash the Windstar, rename it Freestar, and give Mercury a version to sell while you're at it. Boom! Way to achieve sales chart mediorcrity!

'04-up Buick Ranier- When rebadged Oldsmobile Bravadas are made, Buick will build them.

'08-up Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable- So the Five Hundred and Montego aren't selling as well as you'd hoped? NO worry! Just restyle the front, rear, and interior, do a little mechanical spruce-up, and re-christen them the Taurus and Sable... you know, the names of the designs they were originally meant to replace!

(Ex-Studebaker Avanti) Avanti II- This would kind of be like a Lindberg '34 Ford pickup kit in 1:1... somebody else did all the design and engineering work, but it wasn't the most recent company to manufacture it!

Caterham 7- How good an idea was the Lotus 7? Must've been pretty good... Caterham still makes them nearly five decades after Lotus gave up on them!

Chuck having grown up in Detroit (and I know you're not that far away), I have a slightly different take. In the model car sense, I look at a 'Modified Reissue' as something discontinued, repackaged, some changes, and back as new. I really don't see this in the automotive world on a one-to-one basis. Platform engineering, yes. Nameplate games, absolutely. But the ones listed above are not what it seems.

Just about every AMC small car made from 1970 until the Chrysler takeover, and this includes the Gremlin, Hornet, Concord and Eagle have their basis in the '64 American. If the platform form continues on, I look at it more as updating the 'Annual'.

The '85 LTD is a completely different beast. The Granada was built on two different platforms. The '75-'80 was indeed a modified Maverick. But the '81-'82 Granada is a Fox body car. This was the basis for almost every mid-sized Ford from 1978 (Fairmont/Zephyr) until the Mustang was reengineered in 1994. The '83-'86 Ford LTD (not LTD II) is a the Granada replacement on the Fox body. The LTD II replaced the Torino in 1977 and lasted until 1979. Cars that used the Fox body platform include the Fairmont/Zephyr, Mustang/Capri, 1980-1988 Thunderbird/Cougar, '81-'82 Granada, '83-'86 LTD/Marquis, '84-'92 Lincoln Continental Mark VII and the '82-'87 Lincoln Continental.

The GM minivans were a case of trying to take lemons and making lemonade. Ford and GM couldn't them, and still can't now, make a minivan to compete with the Dodge Caravan. So they tried something different.

And any SUV/minivan/other that was sold as an Oldsmobile, was given to Buick. Again, just namebadge engineering. But these vehicles all stayed in production.

The one I might conceed here would be the Studebaker Avanti. Production stopped in South Bend with the closure of all Studebaker production at that plant. Nate Altman was a successful Studebaker dealer in South Bend and he bought the plant, the rights, tooling and parts to start production back up and restarted production as the Avanti II. But with the engine foundry closed, he did what Studebaker themselves did in 1965 & 1966. He bought engines from GM (327's at first and 350's later). He would also let you order the car anyway you wanted it. Any color, any interior material, etc. But other than the engine, the car was all Studebaker under the fiberglass until 1983. He finally ran out of frames (and these were nothing more than modified Lark frames)! The company has been sold numerous times since 1983 and as far as I know is finished and done. The last few years in business, it was just an Avanti body kit on either a Firebird or Mustang.

Studebaker made Avanti's in 1964, and Avanti II production started late in 1965. Same car, same assembly plant made by the same workers. BUT Studebaker did kill production, and it did come back 'modified'

I don't know enough about the Super 7 to disagree with you on it. But at the same time, at least in the US, it's always been a kit car. You bought it, fitted your own engine and built the car up from parts. That is still done today.

Interesting thought on this though. Many vehicles had the tooling sold off to 3rd World countries to live on again.

[Chuck Most]

Tom- you are correct. The vehicles did stay in production... just not as what they were the previous season (or several seasons ago when they were last offered). And some cars did live on in other markets with new "identities"- we've all heard of old car tooling (US and foreign manufacturers alike) being sold off to third world and 'Red' nations. (If anybody can shine some light on any of these particular examples, feel free to chime in! )

Mark- I was refering to the more obscure '80's version of the LTD II (the one replaced by the Taurus). The only reason I even remember them is because my great aunt had one!

Yes- Mark, you're right about the LTD II. I was refering to the '80's version, (replaced by the Taurus) which nobody but me seems to remember! (My great aunt had one- otherwise I'd have probably never been aware of it.

Can't believe I forgot this... In '57, International introduced the "A" series. For '59, they added an optional V8 and a new nose and renamed it the "B" series, and for '63 another new nose and dash came with a new designation... "C" series, even though all three essentially the same truck (even though there were some mechanical updates and improvements through the years). I can't imagine Ford slapping a new grille on the F-150 and calling it a G-150! (Sorry... E-150 was taken! )

[Chuck Most]

Yep- I messed up on the "II". At least I didn't call it an "LTD Crown Victoria"! (That sounds like another interesting conversation... using the same name on several different car lines, often at once. Olds was the worst offender, with their endless array of Cutlass-Somethingorothers.)

A few years back I saw one which had the drivetrain from a Mustang GT- 5-speed and all- swapped into it. Looked like Granny's old car, but the guy who built it said it scared off quite a few of the other 5.0's in his area.

[Chuck Most]

Why would I hate you- it's a fact! I don't think they were called "LTD Crown Victorias" until 1983 or therabouts- before that they were 'just' LTD. The LTD prefix went away with the all new '92 model. The weird one with no grille.

[Chuck Most]

My dad always felt the same way about the seventeen varieties of Cutlass! "I wish they'd just pick one and stick with it!" The LTD name had a pretty good following... 'brand association' I guess they'd call it nowadays. But Ford did kind of run it into the ground! I think that's mostly why they started de-emphasizing it and tacked the Crown Victoria stuff on later.

Me, I've pretty much grown to accept all the weird model names and such, and I don't lose too much sleep when a long-standing old nameplate is put out to pasture. Well, okay, it is a pet peeve of mine when Chevy guys call their C/K series trucks Silverados, but I'm even beginning to accept that!

[Art Anderson]

Jeepster a modified reissue? Hardly.

The first go-round of the Willys Jeepster was built on the Jeep station wagon chassis, just had a sporty phaeton body (in fact, the last true phaeton produced in the US) instead of the upright boxy station wagon body shell. It lasted just 5 years, 1948-53, while it's upright brother station wagon hung around until the early 1960's.

The second Jeepster came in 1969, done off the long-running CJ-5/6 chassis, with modified CJ-5 styling and sheetmetal.

Two completely different cars, with different starting points, only the name stayed the same.

Art

[Chuck Most]

Jeepster a modified reissue? Hardly.

The first go-round of the Willys Jeepster was built on the Jeep station wagon chassis, just had a sporty phaeton body (in fact, the last true phaeton produced in the US) instead of the upright boxy station wagon body shell. It lasted just 5 years, 1948-53, while it's upright brother station wagon hung around until the early 1960's.

The second Jeepster came in 1969, done off the long-running CJ-5/6 chassis, with modified CJ-5 styling and sheetmetal.

Two completely different cars, with different starting points, only the name stayed the same.

Art

You're totally right about the chassis differences. Here's what made me list it as a "1:1 reissue"...I've read and been told by Jeep fanatics (is there any other type of Jeep lover? ) that the Jeepster Commando body tubs were stamped from the same tooling that pumped out the original Jeepster. Of course, there were differences (the rear fender openings being an obvious one), but what I've been told is basically the Commando's body was a hastily 'facelifted' Willys product, to the point that many of the structural panels will interchange between the two.

[Agent G]

Any of you ever drive a Fairmont?

How about the Fox bodied LTD, LTD II, Or LTD Crown Vic?

At one time all were used as police cars by us including the Mercury variant of the Fairmont, the Zephyr.

I'm so glad they are gone.

G

[Art Anderson]

You're totally right about the chassis differences. Here's what made me list it as a "1:1 reissue"...I've read and been told by Jeep fanatics (is there any other type of Jeep lover? ) that the Jeepster Commando body tubs were stamped from the same tooling that pumped out the original Jeepster. Of course, there were differences (the rear fender openings being an obvious one), but what I've been told is basically the Commando's body was a hastily 'facelifted' Willys product, to the point that many of the structural panels will interchange between the two.

Sounds implausible to me, frankly, as any comparison you do between the two era's of Jeepsters will show you that the only shared styling feature was the trademark Jeep 7-slot grille concept and that's it.

1948 Willys Jeepster: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/vintage-cars-classics-india/27788d1215665020-rust-pieces-pics-disintegrating-classic-vintage-cars-1948-willys-jeepster-cabriolet-462-vj2.jpg

1967 Kaiser Jeepster: http://cgoodwin.com/JeepsterCommando/images/Photos/IMG_1630.jpg

The differences are VAST, and easily seen.

Art

[Swifster]

The Crown Victoria came out in 1980 as a trim pkg on the LTD. It was made a full model in 1983. The Country Squire lasted until the body change over at the end of 1991. The Mercury Colony Park also lasted until the end of 1991.

The great thing about the Fox body cars was the interchangeability of parts from one line to another. I've seen Mustang engines and transmissions in just about every body style available. And in a Fairmont or LTD, it really catches people off guard.

[Art Anderson]

The Crown Victoria came out in 1980 as a trim pkg on the LTD. It was made a full model in 1983. The Country Squire lasted until the body change over at the end of 1991. The Mercury Colony Park also lasted until the end of 1991.

The great thing about the Fox body cars was the interchangeability of parts from one line to another. I've seen Mustang engines and transmissions in just about every body style available. And in a Fairmont or LTD, it really catches people off guard.

Not only that, but shared sheet metal stampings as well: 79-92 Mustang, the last of the square Birds, 83-88 Thunderbird & Cougar, Lincoln Continental Mk VII all have the same windshields, cowlings, and door skins. Fairmont and Zephyr door skins are extremely close, if not the same also. Ford was most definitely into "modular" car construction in those years it seems.

Art

[Chuck Most]

Art is correct... I hereby smite the Jeepster Commando from my original list until I see some actual proof they actually shared body panels!

[Harold]

Willys Aero- Kaiser shifted production of this car to Brazil in the late 50's.

Kaiser Manhattan- shifted to Argentina and became the Kaiser Cabellero.

The Jeepster was a whole different animal when reintroduced in the 60's. It shares no body panels with the original.

Willys, then Kaiser, then AMC then Chrysler Jeep Wagoneer.

Cord 810- 812 became the Graham Hollywood and Hupp Skylark with a shorter front end, and a rear drive chassis).

The Avanti II was different from the Sudebaker Avanti from '63- '64. Most notably, the front fenders were raised, eliminating the pronounced rake of the original. It also used Chevy engines.

Edited August 4, 2010 by Harold

[Harold]

The Fox bodies share plenty of metal parts under the outer sheetmetal, for sure, but the door skins are definitely not the same on these models

The Fox Thunderbirds from '83- '88 shared fenders, hoods and door panels. However, after their makeover for '87, the doors, fenders and hoods, while shared, are different from the '83- '86 models.

[Chuck Most]

Yes! The 'CORD' to Hupp/Graham! How could I have forgotten that one, as a lover of both the Cord 810, and the Huppmobile? (My dad has a '39, last year of the 'non-ex-Cord- Huppsters.)

[Junkman]

The most abvious for me is the AMC Rambler, which lived on as a Renault in France until well into the Seventies, and in Argentina as the IKA Renault Torino.

Most notably: AC Ace -> Shelby Cobra (thanks god they tossed the Lucas rubbish and replaced it with Ford stuff, otherwise we would push them around like old Ferraris)

Then the following come to mind:

Fiat 600 -> Seat 600 -> NSU Fiat Jagst -> Zastava 750

Fiat 124 -> Shiguli Lada Riva

Fiat 125 -> Polski Fiat

Fiat 1500 -> NSU-Fiat 1500 -> Zastava 1500

Fiat 1800 -> Seat 1500

Fiat 500 -> Steyr-Puch 650

Fiat Ritmo (Strada) -> Seat Ronda

Fiat Topolino -> Simca 5

Fiat 1100 -> Simca 8

Fiat Panda -> Seat Marbella

Renault 12 -> Dacia 1300

Renault 4CV -> Hino 4CV

Heinkel Kabine -> Trojan Bubble Car

Morris Oxford -> Hindustan Ambassador

Hillman Hunter -> Paykan

The 1961 Ford Falcon and the 1965 Ford Galaxie were built in Argentina until the mid Eighties.

The 1962 Valiant was built in Australia until when?

BMC Mini -> Innocenti Mini

BMC ADO16 -> Innocenti 1300

Austin Seven -> BMW Dixi

Citroen 5CV -> Opel Laubfrosch

BMW 327 -> Bristol 400

Opel Kadett -> Moskvitch 400

Simca 1307 -> Sunbeam Alpine

Audi 100 -> FAW Hongqi CA7200

Rover 75 -> SAIC Roewe 750

The Borgward Isabella and several Auto-Union DKWs were built in Argentina long after the companies had closed in Germany.

The Opel Rekord 'C' was built in Belgium and Switzerland as a 'Ranger' after Opel had switched production to the Rekord 'D'.

The Peugeot 504 is still being built in Nigeria, same goes for the Fiat 128, which has been reissued in Egypt on demand by the Cairo taxi operators.

Speaking of Taxis: Austin FX4 -> Carbodies FX4 -> LTI Fairway

Shall I start with Jeeps? Just as an example, the CJ3 was built by Mitusbishi until 1998. There are countless other companies all over the world who built Jeeps which were long obsolete in their home country. Hotchkiss, Mahindra, VIASA, Ebro, Steyr-Puch, Willys Do Brasil, to name but a few.

I could go on, and on, and on...

Edited August 5, 2010 by Junkman

[whale392]

Door skins the same on the Mustang from 1979-93 as well as on the 83-88 T-Bird and the Lincoln MkVII huh? WRONG! Sorry to disappoint you ART, but owning 5 of the FOX Mustangs and modifying the rest of the above mentioned vehicles, I can tell you the windshields, door skins, and fenders are most certainly NOT all the same between them. Lets see; 1979-90 Mustang fenders (front) are very similar and will for the most part interchange. 1991-93 Mustang fenders have deeper front wheelwell openings and shorter front lips to accomodate the 16" Pony wheels. Now, you can bolt them back onto a 1979 with no problems. Door skins the same? Almost. Ford changed the drip moldings on the 87-93 cars, as well as the door window felts......this required a slightly modified skin. Can the bolt to any year from 1979-93 Mustang...yeah. Heck, I'll even throw the 1979-86 Capri in that too. Can Mustang doors bolt to and work on a 1983-88 T-Bird or the Lincoln MKVII....not a chance. And while we're at it, the LTD LX (83-85 I believe) had the Mustang V8 and the FOX chassis. But will those fenders swap to the Mustang/Bird/Lincoln.........NO.

FOX underpinnings were fairly easily swapped back and forth (if you want to get technical, the 1994-2004 Mustang underpinnings will also bolt back into any 1978-1993 Fox, some with minor modding). I won't get too deep here as far as what will transfer, but you get my drift.

Edited August 5, 2010 by whale392

[Art Anderson]

Door skins the same on the Mustang from 1979-93 as well as on the 83-88 T-Bird and the Lincoln MkVII huh? WRONG! Sorry to disappoint you ART, but owning 5 of the FOX Mustangs and modifying the rest of the above mentioned vehicles, I can tell you the windshields, door skins, and fenders are most certainly NOT all the same between them. Lets see; 1979-90 Mustang fenders (front) are very similar and will for the most part interchange. 1991-93 Mustang fenders have deeper front wheelwell openings and shorter front lips to accomodate the 16" Pony wheels. Now, you can bolt them back onto a 1979 with no problems. Door skins the same? Almost. Ford changed the drip moldings on the 87-93 cars, as well as the door window felts......this required a slightly modified skin. Can the bolt to any year from 1979-93 Mustang...yeah. Heck, I'll even throw the 1979-86 Capri in that too. Can Mustang doors bolt to and work on a 1983-88 T-Bird or the Lincoln MKVII....not a chance. And while we're at it, the LTD LX (83-85 I believe) had the Mustang V8 and the FOX chassis. But will those fenders swap to the Mustang/Bird/Lincoln.........NO.

FOX underpinnings were fairly easily swapped back and forth (if you want to get technical, the 1994-2004 Mustang underpinnings will also bolt back into any 1978-1993 Fox, some with minor modding). I won't get too deep here as far as what will transfer, but you get my drift.

I stand corrected, although there sure is a commonality of shape and character lines in a lot of those cars.

Art

[Chuck Most]

Morris Oxford -> Hindustan Ambassador

I've actually heard of this one... I think they showed one in Car & Driver years ago, it was still being produced well into the 1990's!

Not sure if this would count as a 'modified resissue' or not, but weren't the early Datsuns iillegally copied Austin 7 models?

[Art Anderson]

Yes! The 'CORD' to Hupp/Graham! How could I have forgotten that one, as a lover of both the Cord 810, and the Huppmobile? (My dad has a '39, last year of the 'non-ex-Cord- Huppsters.)

With the Graham Paige Hollywood/Hupp Skylark, those were highly modified underneath. Incorrectly represented by Monogram as a body-on-frame car, the Cord 810/812 was a true unit body, with one of the very first uses of a separate bolt-in front subframe which carried the engine and transaxle, the entire assembly being removable by unscrewing just 4 bolts, disconnecting the fuel line, exhaust pipes, and electrical system. The subframes telescope into the main frame "boxes" which on the Cord body, form the lower body sills (rocker panels). Upon receiving the body dies through a somewhat convoluted deal, Graham (who built the bodies and front subframes for Hupp, whose bank account was nearly empty) designed a new front subframe for rear-drive, and a new floor pan with transmission hump and driveshaft tunnel. This made for a shorter wheelbase and overall length, making it imperative for them to style a new front clip to fit as well. Contrary to popular opinion, the Hollywood/Skylark does not ride appreciably higher than the front-drive Cord, as there was sufficient room underneath for a driveshaft, and of course, a rear axle with differential.

Graham-Paige produced all the bodies and front subframes for both cars, which carried exactly the same styling, the only differences being in the interior (dash and upholstery patterns) and of course badges and scripts. While the Graham-Paige Hollywood carried a fully chrome-plated grille up front, Hupp (quite probably for cost reasons) painted those otherwise diecast parts body color. What killed the cars for Graham-Paige and Hupp was the same thing that killed it for Cord--it was almost prohibitively expensive to build.

Cord Corporation lacked the capital to purchase, install and create a die for a one-piece roof stamping for the Cord 810, and neither subsequent manufacturer was in any better shape financially (although they both had stamped out "turret" or one-piece roofs). So, just as with Cord, this meant that the roof had to be assembled on a jig from 11 separate smaller stampings, welded up, seams leaded and ground down smooth--very labor intensive, slow and expensive.

When Auburn Automobile Company (maker of Cords) closed and liquidated, one Dallas Winslow of Detroit bought the factory buildings in Auburn, along with all remaining parts stock (Winslow's company was famous for doing this with failed carmakers from the 20's and 20's, and did likewise when Hupp, then Graham-Paige exited the automaking business by early-midyear 1941. All the remaining sheet metal parts were stored in buildings not far from the former Auburn Administration Building in Auburn IN (now the ACD Museum), and for at least a couple of decades, that stock provided NOS sheet metal for all three versions under restoration.

Art

[Chuck Most]

That explains why the Graham/Hupps weren't nearly as graceful as the Cord- with all the 'reproportioning' which had to go on.

[Junkman]

I've actually heard of this one... I think they showed one in Car & Driver years ago, it was still being produced well into the 1990's!

Not sure if this would count as a 'modified resissue' or not, but weren't the early Datsuns iillegally copied Austin 7 models?

It was plagiarised by Datsun, yes. So it goes like this:

Austin Seven -> BMW Dixi (licensed) -> Datsun (rip off) -> Rosengart (rip off) -> American Austin (branch) - American Bantam (buyer).