CarCrazyinArkansas' Eclectic Diecast Collection [GO TO PAGE 16 for PICTURES]

[[KRAFTIG]]

I like the larger wheels LOL!

[CarcrazyinArkansas]

This 1:18 scale diecast AutoArt "wrecked" 1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS is what remains after blending two different Corvette SS donor cars, one bought at Goodwill and the other one from an avid collector in Belgium. A complete and wholly intact Corvette SS version resulted, and this "wrecked" version was made from all the leftovers.


The Goodwill model was missing both doors, front wheel and linkage, gear shift lever, and rear tire.

The Belgian model was missing its windshield, both seats, complete rear body fenders and the small twin coils in the engine compartment.


As you can see, there is no spare wheel and tire. Plus, the passenger side front tire is rather torn up. Since one rear wheel and tire was missing, the spare was used. However, AutoArt cut out about 1/2 of the spare tire to fit it properly in the model. The spare tire was filled with putty, formed and painted black to make it workable. The front tire was "rebuilt" to form it round and fill in large gaps in the rubber. All wheels roll and the front wheels are steerable. A strip of acetate was used for a windshield. Plastic sprue used as a roll bar. Parts bin supplied seat.

Thanks for looking.

[[KRAFTIG]]

In some wacky way I like it!

[CarcrazyinArkansas]

Picked up this 1/32 scale Signature 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Series 62 for a song. It had a busted chassis. With some detailing to the grille and interior and the chassis all mended, its up and running again.

Thanks for looking...

[CarcrazyinArkansas]

This is a 1:24 scale 1955 Chevy Stepside pickup truck by Jada from their 'Just Trucks' Series. The package includes an extra set of five-spoke wheels/tires on an orange tire rack, plus a Philips screwdriver for disassembly. I chose to keep the white wall tires and black rims (as it came in the box); they match well with the blackened out grille and black bumpers. The model is quite simple, but smooth and slick with minimal decoration. No door handles, no hood ornament, no chrome parts. To add more contrast, I added silver to the valve covers and exhaust pipe extensions and inscribed a red rectangle on the tailgate. Since there were no taillights, two round silver batteries with red-painted lenses were attached to the rear fenders. One thing is certain though, Jada got the low stance down, down, down.

Thanks for looking...

[[KRAFTIG]]

Not the best detail but very cool looking pickup!

[CarcrazyinArkansas]

In 1:18 scale, MotorMax makes two versions of a 1932 Ford Five Window Coupe. Their Coupes have steerable wheels, rear sprung suspensions, opening doors and large wheels in the rear and smaller ones up front. The interiors have a "rod and piston" gear shift lever, a bench seat, silver-rimmed gauges on the dash and a chrome-accented steering wheel.

Both Coupe bodies are "cut from the same cloth", apparently from the original mold, and are, in essence, identical except for one major difference. And that difference is huge. One body has no hood and an exposed, well formed engine. The other body has a fixed hood with a non-accessible partial engine block underneath. The version with the exposed engine has beautifully chromed headers, four carburetors and other nicely chromed engine parts. One the other hand, the hooded version Coupe is basically "sealed"; its hood is attached at the factory by a hidden screw under the chassis.






I really like the look of a street rod with an exposed engine. However, it wasn't until I actually removed a bought-on-line 1:18 scale MotorMax '32 Ford chopped top 5-Window Coupe from its box that my initial impressions were solidified somewhat. Before this, I had only seen the generic picture of it on the internet. And my impressions were not all that favorable. What struck a nerve mostly was the ride height and stance being too high, and secondly, a forward-leaning radiator grille which caused the car to appear contorted. Both of these aspects made the model look sufficiently "off", so much so, that after having the model in my hands and seeing some of the more toy-like and sort of 'cheesy' aspects of it, I was very close to returning it. However, I felt that with some modifications the car could possibly be redeemed.





The first step was to lower the front end as much as possible. Ideally, lowering the entire car would have looked better. Yet the rear end is supported by, surprisingly, actual working springs which, when depressed, lowers it. So I left the rear end as is.

Next, the radiator grille was realigned so that it was roughly parallel with the firewall, eliminating that distorted look. This short sentence of what was done belies the fact that it took many trials and errors to get the final finished result.




The model was completely disassembled so that the exhaust pipe tips could be silvered and the rear differential hub treated likewise. MotorMax should have chromed all these parts for an authentic street rod touch. Inside, the foot pedals and door handles were silvered and the holes in the steering wheel spokes blackened. Kudos to MotorMax for the gear shift knob in the form of a piston and rod, which looks the part. The chrome rubber gasket on the floorboard was blackened to add realism. The four slots in each chrome wheel were blackened; the radiator grille was blackwashed and the radiator cap silvered. Other engine parts were detailed and colored. Thanks, MotorMax for doing a good job with the chromed firewall, chromed engine parts and the chrome wheels. The chrome metal support rods running from the firewall to the radiator grille is a cool touch, too.






MotorMax could have and should have included big rear slicks and lettered tires on this street rod. They did make the rear tires bigger than the fronts to their credit. Two other faults are the vent opening on the engine cowling being merely a painted-on silver rectangle and the inexcusable sealing of the trunk lid eliminating the inclusion of a rumble seat or any trunk detail.



In conclusion, I had my doubts about this mpdel, but after doing work on it, I feel much better. It's no GMP by any stretch of the imagination, no matter how hard you try. But it does have some redeeming qualities to it after all the work that was done.






I also am fond of the slick look of the '32 Coupe with a hood, too. So this hooded version of the MotorMax model intrigued me when I found one on-line at a good price. How did MotorMax model the engine, if they even did? Would it be the same engine as in the hoodless version? What is under the hood is quite important if a street rod is the actual subject matter of a model. MotorMax left just one-half the engine (from the hoodless version) inside the model and screwed down the hood. The engine was destined from the factory to be non-existent and a non-factor in the model.















And not being able to view an engine, the heart of any street rod, that just doesn't sit well with me. Sure, AutoArt and other high-end model brands produce excellently detailed sealed models, and as such, they can usually get away with doing this because they are so finely made, look so good and cost accordingly. But we are talking about a budget brand here (MotorMax) that cannot legitimately justify sealing a model based entirely upon its quality detailing because, quite frankly, there just isn't enough detailing to warrant it. Which brought me to the point wherein I was compelled and duty-bound to free up the hood by unscrewing it from the chassis and cutting off the huge diecast mounting post cast into it. This overly-engineered post was poking through the lower engine half and had to be removed to allow work to be done to complete the upper half of the engine since the lower half couldn't be removed from the chassis. This also allowed the hood to now be positioned easily and repeatedly so that trial and error measurements of the upper engine parts could be made.




Since my 1:18 scale parts bin is no larger than a thimble, the upper half of the engine was all scratch built as well as the upper half of the firewall.The upper firewall is covered in metallic adhesive tape. Aluminum tubing was used for the velocity stacks. Distributor is from a random product packaging cap of some sort. Rubber sprue sections (from a diecast model kit with rubber parts) formed the headers as space was very tight in the engine bay. Cardboard served as the base for the intake manifold as well as the radiator fan. Plastic sprue was used to make the pulleys, the breather cap, the alternator, the radiator hose, and the parts on the firewall. A small metal bracket for the alternator came from a ball point pen clip. And the valve covers are from a split-in-two plastic ball point pen casing and age-old 1:24 scale AMT decals. The fan and alternator belts are black paper strip. The grille was blackwashed. Outback, chrome-plated brass tubing used for the two exhaust pipe extension tips. The suspension was lowered some. And the rear differential was silvered. And oh, a blue dot added to each taillight!






























Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed it.......

[CarcrazyinArkansas]

Before and After: working man's Cadillac Escalade

About a year ago I bought this 1:24 scale Jada Just Trucks 2002 Cadillac Escalade EXT model for a dollar at a Goodwill store. The model was essentially a shell with a dashboard without a steering wheel, no interior or seats, no engine or engine bay, no tailgate and no chassis! It sat on a shelf for a year all the while I had hoped some spare Escalade parts might surface somewhere. This never happened, so I decided to challenge myself to construct a chassis, interior, engine bay with an engine and a functioning tailgate. After having completed this project, I gained a tremendous amount of respect, admiration and appreciation for the truly gifted craftsmen, hobbyists and artists out there who are responsible for a great many absolutely incredible hand-made creations. These folks are true masters and artisans, skilled beyond belief. The diecast manufacturers also garnered a renewed personal appreciation for their models, too, by providing models at very reasonable prices considering all that is involved in bringing them to market. Consider the huge costs of research, development, capital expenditure, tooling, labor, packaging, marketing and transportation. Significant, indeed.



BEFORE:

My order for getting the Escalade back on the road consisted of, first, making a chassis and putting wheels on it. The initial cardboard template turned into the final chassis with some plastic credit card stock added along the way at key stress points. Many measurements, trial and error fittings and alterations were done to make certain that the wheels aligned properly with the wheels wells, that the wheels rolled, that a cool stance was achieved and that the chassis lined up accurately with the screw holes on the body shell.
























AFTER:


Second, interior work began by making a steering wheel. Then one bucket seat from my very limited parts bin was mounted to a scratch-built plinth. With no rear seat (planned or to be used) as an obstruction, it was easy to carpet the entire floor. My idea for this Cadillac truck was it was to be a single working man's "dream truck" that goes both ways: a roomy work truck and a WIP competition show truck with air suspension. LOL.









Third, the engine bay was built onto the chassis and a 2005 Pontiac GTO Ram Air pan engine was installed. The engine, side mirrors and interior foot pedals are from a 1:24 scale Welly 2005 Pontiac GTO custom.







Wrapping up the project included forming a tailgate from a small piece of sheet aluminum, covering black cardboard with brushed metallic tape for a reversible tonneau cover, adding a lower rear clip below the tailgate and applying a fifty-plus-years-old license plate decal, "Night Prowlers".










Final version of the 1:24 scale Jada Just Trucks 2002 Cadillac Escalade EXT with a scratch-built custom chassis, custom interior and custom 2005 Pontiac GTO Ram Air engine.











Thanks for looking....

[CarcrazyinArkansas]

This 1:24 scale MotorMax 1940 Ford Coupe is one of two MotorMax '40 Fords that I own. My first one, a little different in color than the one shown, was detailed and carpeted to improve its appearance. MotorMax did a poor job in recreating the original lines, proportions and parts of a true 1940 Ford. Notice the headlights, the angle of the hood to the windshield, the back window and the curvature of the rear. Even the taillights are wrong. With my second copy of this MotorMax model, I decided to lower the car as much as possible and to detail the engine more by painting the entire block, including under the chassis. The real glaring problems with these MotorMax 1940 Ford Coupe models can be seen clearly by comparing them to a 50+ years old plastic model AMT 3 in 1 kit car that I acquired from a friend in the 60s which he had built and that I will begin restoring. "Black Jack" looks like the real deal even though it needs an engine, be it another flathead or a modern overhead valve V8. Its lines are accurate. Its proportions are accurate. And its shape is spot on 1940 Ford.

Thanks for looking...

[CarcrazyinArkansas]

Two Maisto 1:26 scale Mercedes CLK-GTR street version cars. I was given one that was evidently a Maisto kit car. It was missing both doors and both front mirrors. It featured gold wheels. I have a stock Maisto CLK-GTR street version, so I used the two doors from this model as well as its two front mirrors to fabricate two doors and two mirrors for the damaged model. To make the doors operable was too big a problem and basically impossible due to the materials used. The gold wheels were swapped with the silver ones and put on the stock model.

Thanks for looking...

[CarcrazyinArkansas]

BEFORE:::::::::::::::








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AFTER :::::::::::::::

This is a real old 1:25 scale AMT 3 in 1 kit car (1940 Ford Coupe), I believe, that I got from a friend in the 60s who had built it. Since the original build included the excessive use of strong plastic glue, I did not disassemble it for fear of damaging critical parts. The car was missing its engine. The original model included a multi-carbuerated Buick engine which I did luckily find in my parts bin. A missing valve cover had to be duplicated with a homemade casting. Side pipes are obvious since I had no headers or any cool exhaust pipes that would work. A little detailing was done to the grille and other chrome work. Interior is still very, very dusty!

Thanks for looking....

[[KRAFTIG]]

Much better!

[CarcrazyinArkansas]

Ted's radical pickup truck- a tribute

It took over 50 years, but....

In the early 60s my late and older brother Ted and I built some custom car and truck models. Ted was the creative genius behind the design and execution of these models. He gleaned many ideas and concepts from the emerging hot rod and custom car magazines that were being published at this time. I have always wanted to complete a radical Ford pickup truck that he had started building back then to pay tribute to his skills, creativity and imagination as this truck emphatically epitomizes his work. Originally, the top was vented and chopped, the bed was changed and shortened, the hood was altered, and completely new front and rear ends were molded (with plastic aluminum) onto the body. The rear portion of the truck had fins molded to the sculpted sides. The dashboard was carved from wood and covered with corduroy fabric to mimic tuck and roll upholstery. The seats were also done this way as well a tonneau cover.

To complete the model from its original inception required a chassis to be built, an engine to be added, a new steering wheel and new wheels as these parts had never been determined or selected back then.

Ted's radical truck creation is now complete and it is a testament to his remarkable vision of what a custom show truck in the 60s would look like. Here's to you, Ted!

Thanks for looking...

[CarcrazyinArkansas]

BEFORE ::::::::::::

Found this 1:18 Maisto Ferrari 348TS at a Goodwill store for four bucks. The windshield was badly scuffed in one place, one front strut broken off and missing as well as both front wheels. There was no front axle, no steering linkage nor a gear shift lever. Also missing was a windshield wiper, passenger-side mirror and the spare tire/wheel.






















AFTER::::::::::::::


Windshield scuff removed with a number of rubbings with toothpaste. A bamboo skewer worked nicely for the missing front strut. Strong wire provided a good steering linkage connection. Both non-stock replacement front wheels and stock rear wheels were painted flat white. Model was lowered as much as possible. All wheels roll and the steering linkage moves the steering wheel. Window trim painted black. Engine was painted and detailed some. A fun project.

Thanks for looking....

[CarcrazyinArkansas]

Found this 1:24 scale Maisto Ferrari 550 Maranello at a thrift shop for two bucks and change. It was missing a front wheel, a side window and gear shifter. Was lucky enough to have a complete set of Maisto wheels from (?) that would fit, roll and steer. The car was lowered as much as possible, window trim blackened, interior detailed, a shifter added and the pan engine highlighted some. Thought about stripping and repainting the body, but I didn't want to lose the Ferrari badging. LOL

Thanks for looking...