For those of you who Bleche-Wite your own resins...

I recently had to replace a body for a customer that had accidentally stayed in the Bleche-Wite too long while we were dealing with hospital stays and convalescing. Evidently, while Bleche-Wite removes mold release agents in 24 hours, it also leaches at least some resins over longer periods causing a major thinning of parts. In the case of my customers body, a 49 Mercury Woody Wagon, it was toast and would have cracked at door and fender seams with the slightest pressure. Better I should discover this than you!

Just thought you'd like to know.

Happy Modeling

Jerry

They're Baaaak!

That's right! Sunday June 26th series 17 of Top Gear begins with it's wonderful cast of goofballs. Check your local guide for time and BBCA chanel number. You can see some previews at finalgear.com which also lets you download any Top Gear episodes you may have missed. While you're there be sure to check out other automotive programs you can download.

Jerry

I just finished updating STAR Models Styrene kit pages...

Steve added another collection to his inventory and the first 140 kits are now posted at the STAR Models Plastic Models pages. Check them out for some really rare items.

Jerry

Here's something you road racers will like...

Steve at STAR Models just sent me a heads-up that he just got in a 52 Lincoln 2dr htp from R&R yesterday. These were some of the best handling cars ever produced by Detroit and won several road races in central and South America. A few moonshiners also used them because they didn't have to do much to them to beat the Feds on the back roads of the south.

Steve only got a couple of them so grab one quick.

Jerry

Say Hi to Iggy and Seb...

brothers and creators of a great web site, modeljunkyard.com  and its supporting blog all about detailing, dioramas, and scratch building. Inspired by their grandfather who owned a junkyard in Argentina, they're bringing a whole new batch of display ideas to the hobby. You're really going to enjoy keeping up with these two sites.

Here's a teaser photo...

Enjoy!

Jerry

About the AMT/ERTL 1966 Olds 442s

A few months back there were some questions raised as to the accuracy of this kit and its box art on one of the forums. Having sold many and owned a couple when they were brand new, and since I've made my living using Photoshop, I thought I'd offer some data you might find useful about this kit and the box art...

First thing: the car on the cover and the car in the box are different models. The car on the cover is an F-85 Holiday Coupe, model 3617. The kit car in the box is a Cutlass Holiday Coupe, model 3817. Both equipped with either 4-4-2 performance option L69 which came with 3-2bbl carburetors, or option L78 which included the more common Quadrajet 4bbl carburetor. Both of these packages included the red line tires shown on the box along with heavy duty wheels. A no cost white line exchange option was also available.

As for the box art 1:1 photo, the rumors that the top was either a different color or had a vinyl top are true, it was was definitely Photoshopped. The tell-tail clue is the two-tone/vinyl top chrome separator between the windshield and the vent windows that they forgot to remove when they were making changes. From my sales experience, average buyers bought 4-4-2s with a vinyl top. Boy racers on the other hand skipped the vinyl top but equipped theirs with heavy duty items for weekend fun at the strip.

Just in case you're interested, the following interior colors were appropriate for both the coupe and convertible versions of this kit.

Parchment Pearl (Opalescent) white with matching headliner and Black carpet, Black with Ivory headliner and Black carpet, Red with Parchment Pearl headliner and Dark Maroon carpeting and Blue (matches 66 Olds color code D Lucerne Mist) with matching headliner and Dark Blue carpeting. All of these had vinyl seating surfaces.

Vinyl tops came in Black and Beige (actually an off white)

Convertible tops came in Beige (Khaki comes real close), Black, Blue (a bit darker then the interior Blue) and White.

I'll be posting the actual paint chips and swatches of everything on the builders guide page at the Resin Realm shortly.

Hope this has been of interest and/or helpful to you.

Jerry

Back in the day...Mine anyway,

seat covers were very popular and available in a wider variety of colors and textures than factory interiors. In 1953, Ford for example, had 14 different styles of factory seat covers available in 3 or 4 colors. If you didn't want seat covers you got your choice of 1 pattern for each model in 2 or 3 colors. Below is a factory brochure spread with a couple of examples and the style list.

Click on either photo to see a larger version.

Here's an interesting fact I'll bet you weren't aware of... Fingerhut, the catalog sales folks, got their start in 1948 making seat covers to fit most makes and models of American cars. Below is the interior of their 3 fold brochure for 1953 featuring a Ford Sunliner decked out with one of their seat cover sets. Pretty Spiffy, aye what?

Seat covers got so popular that you could buy them via catalog or in just about any major retail outlet back then. Sears, Wards and other catalog companies were good sources as were auto parts stores like Western Auto and Firestone Tire outlets.

These covers are not very difficult to make. I'll be posting a bunch in color from another source to give you some examples to work from. If you've got one of the newer printers that uses pigmented inks you can make some really nice covers for your models using decal paper and a softening solution.


Hope you enjoyed today's post. Your comments are welcome

Jerry K

We're back!

We've been away for a couple of weeks due to a death in the family. Posting to the blog will resume this week. Thanks for your patience.

Jerry K