My First Car
I got tired of building airplanes, but I still wanted to build models, so I though"Why Not A Car?" I went to "D-n-J Hobbies" in a nearby town and just wondered over to their model car section. Wow! There was lots of plastic car model kits for sale. I choose the 1/24 scale Monogram Cadillac convertible kit to buy.
The kit plastic was cast in "pink," so I thought for a minute that I did not need to paint it, but the idea soon vanished.
The kit went together just fine except the curved windscreen. I broke the first one, then the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ones. I bought my 5th kit and contacted a fellow car modeler who showed me how to attach the clear plastic windscreen after I painted the frame. Boy...did I learn alot about building wrap-around windscreen's for car models.
Pete, the car modeler, showed me several more things and said I should paint the car because there were too many things that showed up on the kit plastic that did not look right.
He suggested that I should add a gasoline line from the gas tank up to the engine, including brake lines and an emergency brake cable. Furthermore he said to add the spark plug wires and other hoses to the engine. Wow! what a job I had to do, which I never though of. I was ready to quit and just go back to airplane building.
My next operation was to mix up some of Dupont's automotive acrylic lacquer paint's and match it to the pink plastic. I added some red paint to my white and came up with what looked like the pink plastic. I had experience painting the lacquer on an airplane, so it went on the car A-OK. The chrome parts were painted with "S-n-J" Spray Metal Gold.
After the engine was finished with all the new parts, it just slipped down into the engine area, then I connected some hoses. The whitewall tires went on along with the hood. The car was done, so it was picture time on my white roll paper tape to my work bench. I even took a photo of it with my clients 1/24 scale P-51B Mustang that I converted from the P-51D kit.
I was happy with this kit and over the next decade or so I built another 29 car models.
Beautifully done. Reminds me of my brother's first car, a black '62 Cadillac Seville. I bet those mufflers kept a person's feet warm in the winter!
I bought a new 1951 Caddy hard-top in early 1952. It was a "demo" car for prospective buyer's to drive before they bought one. It cost me 3 grand out the front door with tax, title, and shipping charges from Detroit . I lived in Akron, Ohio at that time. I put 250,000 miles on the car before a friend crash it to bits. I'm trying to think if the twin muffler's helped heat the floors in the winter as we always had the interior heater on. Hell...it got to 20 below in the Akron winter, but 80/90 in the summer. I'll try and find my photo with my car, if so, I'll added it below.
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
I remember that model when you took it to the Nats...Beautiful
It was Omaha in the mid 2000's. As I was packing it up at the convention, a couple of car modelers came up to me and said: "Why don't you;( Rodney Williams) stay in the airplane category, as you took the first place trophy away from one of us." I replied that I would be back next year with another car model so if you want first place you better build a better car.
Wow, very cool. I see this and my first thought is Aretha Franklin
Pink Cadillac ! Nice!
To George and you Robert: What does Aretha F. have to do with the model?
Robert,,,,,,,no kidding, I found a real pink American "Jet" Bomber on the web a few years ago, so I built the model of it and painted it pink. Can't think of the name of it right now so when I find in in my airplane folder, I'll post it on this web site. RJW
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
I do remember the Clint Eastwood movie of 1989?
Mentioned in this song...
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
What a beautiful model ! This 1959 El Dorado convertible was my Dad's all time favorite car. I remember when I was a little kid, Dad had a 1962 Fleetwood that was a 4 door hard top... I think there was a 390 cubic inch V-8 engine in the car...Love those big fins ! He had a chance once to trade his 2 door Hard top 1962 Buick Invicta for a '59 Caddy convertible... but it wasn't an El Dorado so he didn't do the trade. I ended up taking my driver's license test driving the big Buick... It had a 401 "Nail Head" engine in it, and for such a big car it would move along pretty good...
Fast forward some years and I ended up purchasing a 1960 Oldsmobile "Dynamic 88"... It had the same style frame as your Caddy does... It was shaped in the form of an "X". My Olds was a 4 door hard top and had what they called a "Holiday" roof that had very minimal blind spots since the roof support pillar posts were so narrow. These are some cool cars. They don't make them like they used to.
You just gotta love classic Detroit Iron... and North American aluminum ! She looks real nice parked next to the Mustang...
"liked"
Really great car, I think there is one like that in Belgium, I remember seeing it once in my town as a kid. Never to forget!
ok to everyone...many thanks. I'll post some more cars soon...then it's on to some armor...