My Grandfather's Cadillac in 1:43

It is always so cool when you find (or make) a piece for your layout that has personal significance.  Now with some modifications you have two important cars from your past in your own little downtown.

 

Joe

That's a beauty Lee - great job.

As Joe said, it's really nice to create a piece of personal history for our layouts...

Can't find the shot with all 5 but here are two British sportsters I had as a young man back in New Orleans. The MGA was a solid car but relatively slow while the TR3 was much quicker although the fenders shook!

Great Job Lee, really looks good. I have also found myself concentrating lately on the die cast automobiles used on the train layout. Since I have kicked it up a notch, I have received lots of gratifying remarks. They do make a difference. 

I am an old car hobbyist as well as a railfan. I have many friends in both hobbies and you would be surprised how many car buffs are also train buffs and vice versa.
I would like to see as a regular feature or as a continuing or recurring thread, one that discusses 1/43 and other “O” scale motor vehicles.

I am an old car hobbyist as well as a railfan. I have many friends in both hobbies and you would be surprised how many car buffs are also train buffs and vice versa.

 

Count me as one of them. JD Motors on my layout features a model of most every car I have ever owned.  In many cases I had to strip and re paint these to match the colors of my own car.

 

 

 

 

 

First, I completely agree: I would love a forum here on O gauge vehicles (maybe including Superstreets?).  

 

J D Motors looks fantastic.  I see a lot of cars there I have owned - Karmen convertible, the Alfa, looks like a fiat 124 spyder over to the left?  Had an Aston but not like the one there . . .  very nice set up there!

 

I have three car related places on my layout a Ford Dealership, the Lucas Doolin moonshiners car garage I posted about a week or two ago, and this sports car place on the edge of downtown.  I've owned and rebuilt engines etc on most of the cars there except for the Morgan (with the weeds growing up through it).

Here is Garfield Studebaker, a Cornerstone kit.
I like vintage automobiles of all makes and eras, but I am partial to Studebakers. The automobiles on my layout represent vehicles you would see on the road during the 1950s

 

Atlas is starting to release former Walthers Cornerstone kits. I hope they get to this one soon.

JD Motors certainly is impressive!

Is the green Jaguar sedan a 1963-67 'Saloon' or the later XJ sedan? Can't tell anymore.  I had a '67 420G Saloon for awhile. Also several MGA's, a TR4, BMW328i that come to mind.

My Dad had a 1957 Mercedes 190SL bought in 1968 for $900 that he owned until a few years ago when he passed.

For those (few) of you that would be interested in a 1:43 Forum, just Google "Forum 43". I've been a member for a few years. A nice group of people from all over the world, including Russia. Only 1 or 2 are into trains, but some build very nice dioramas of dealerships, etc. to display their models.

Well done Lee.  Can you fill'er up on that model?  That would make a great Caddy specific scene.

Nice job Lee. Wasn't this the paint job for the 53 Cadillac? I think maybe you reversed it. Don

Lee why did you have to use two cars?

Someone mentioned the 1:43 forum stay with the idea of a 1:43 vehicle forum on OGR. The other forum is not as friendly like here.

Bob

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Looks greet Lee, wow a lot of great photos here.

It definitely had a dark green body with a light roof.  I have old photos, so I know the body of the car was definitely dark green and the top a pale green - although given the color fidelity of 50+ year old snapshots, it could have been white and the photos slowly went dark, etc..  I remember the top was green, not white, so I went with that.  

 

I looked at many images of '53 Caddies on-line and found a few in this same scheme green on green and white or green, and some with reverse (darker top, etc.) - I know at the time you could order a "reverse" two tone in which the factory would just switch the colors, as an option - my Dad did that on a '55 Olds.   The trim on the photo you have looks a bit different, too, the vertical chrome trim does not go all the way to the rocker panel - '55 model?  

 

Lee, I was wondering if you had a picture. That's great. We had a two tone blue olds 98 with wonder bar radio with a foot button to change stations. Thought that was so cool. My favorite was a glass top Sun Valley. Wish I still had it. Don

You car guys, why do you torment me?  I've started picking up some of the cars I've resisted for so long.

 

I loved the clear air conditioning tubes on the rear package shelf back in the early to mid-fifties.

 

Rolls Royce used GM air conditioning and power steering back then.  When asked why Rolls Royce was using GM products, the head of Rolls Royce said, "When the best is all ready built, why try to improve upon it."

 

Now those were the good old days!

 

By the way scale rail, that was a Wonder Bar radio.  How amazing were those?

 

My Dad had a '53 Buick Skylark convertible with wire wheels.  He was an exec in a company that thought that was too flashy and had to trade it in on something more respectable.

 

I once knew a parts manager that worked for Cadillac for somewhere around 30 years.  He told me that in the 50's there was a Chevy owner that ordered a Cadillac  V-8 for his mid 50's Chevy, replacing the Chevy.  He wanted a faster car.

There were a number of years between the mid-50's and the very early 60's when you could buy a Cadillac with dual quads. 

Lee, Nice paint job, and great to have something that means so much on the layout.

Very nice work Lee

 

Alex

The Skylark was one very cool car - particularly with the supercharged engine.  I've always wanted one, but . . . I have only a two car garage and have my two cars, so no room to even think about it.

 

Cadillac engines were used in lots of hopped up cars.  A company named Frick built the Studillac - a Studebaker Hawk with a Caddy engine.  In the James Bond novel Diamonds are Forever Bond's friend Felix Leiter has one and outruns police cruisers easily.  I have a couple of Hawks and may have to paint of detail one like that - not sure how it looked different than a standard one . . . 

Lee and scale rail, you guys are too much!

 

scalerail - My uncle had a '55 Olds Starfire convertible (light blue/white) with all that stuff, and as you can recall, when you placed your order, you picked each and every option and even the least expensive option for most, was weighed heavily.  He even had a remote control garage door which at that time was rare.

 

scalerail - when did your Dad move on.  BTW - I was probably one of the few that appreciated Edsels.  I built some Edsel AMT kits.    

 

Lee -  Studillac, I was never aware of those.  I will have to see if I can pick up a copy of "Diamonds Are Forever", one misses a lot if they never read the novel.  Thanks

 

 

 

Oh, man.  Talk about a dealership doomed to sink like a stone: Edsel and Borgward.  Only if they were selling the Daimler Dart (SP250 in the US) as their sports car could it get it possibly get any worse.

Lee..Really enjoyable thread..the more photos the better..The Skylark was way cool and your repaint is terrific. One regret I will never forget is turning down a Skyhawk...Color schemes had such panache back in the day..no gray palettes or pastels...then...brings back some great memories..

Lee:  The Studillac look the same as a 53 or 54 Studebaker Sterliner hardtop and Brooklin makes a nice model of both. Studebaker Hawks were made from 1956 to 1964 and although were based on the Starliner body, they had many styling differences.
Among the many cars I’ve owned, one was a 1956 Imperial with air conditioning. The air conditioning unit was in the trunk and the compressor was under the hood. One neat feature was a wonderbar radio with a button on the floor that would change the station. The car had a push-button automatic transmission and a 345ci Hemi V8 When you stepped on the gas it was like flushing a toilet. I sure wish I still had that car.
This is not my car but similar one including the color

Lee, needless to say there wasn't much under the Christmas tree that year. To make maters worst my Dad was on the Golden Gate Bridge on a demo drive and the customer asked about the push button drive system. My Dad reached over and pushed the R button and the car went into reverse. They were almost killed. It wasn't supposed to do that if you were moving over five miles an hour. The guy didn't buy the car and they had to put a new transmission in. Don

Wow- that had to be a bad day for him. Still, it had to be a great experience even if a disaster - kind of like watching the Titanic sink, even if the price was you got wet and cold, too- Edsel and Borgward.  OMG!

We had the first Edsel in the North Bay area (SF) and everywhere we went large groups of people would come to look at the car. It was a big deal for awhile. This was when a new model car was a very important thing to people. My Dad thought he was going to make a fortune. Only problem. No one bought. Don

I still own this relic, a 1956 Willys 4x4 wagon.

Shortly after I got it in 1975, I replaced the L6-226 flathead engine with a 307 Chevy V-8.

 

I have a Bachmann track-car version that runs (poorly) on HO track.

What's wrong with the Daimler Dart? It's a beautiful car, and is quite a sought after classic nowadays in Britain. The V8 engine gave them some quite impressive performance, and quite a few were used by the Metropolitan Police. Plus the bodywork doesn't rust. 

Oh Nicole, I didn't mean to beat up on the British.    I love many things British - some very dear friends, its Navy, and many, many of its cars: I've owned five Austin Healey 3000s in my time, and I loved every one.  A couple of Sprites, too and a MG Midget - feel the same about them.  And I have very fond memories of maybe the most satisfying car I ever owned, an Aston Martin Vantage.  Still wish I had that car . . .

But really, I'm assuming you never owned or worked on one, because you are coming to its defense.  I was not unfortunate enough to own one, but I had friends who did and that meant I ended up working on them - too often.

The Daimler Dart, or SP250 as it was called in the US, was wretchedly bad.  Truly among the worst sports cars ever. It was basically made on a TR-3 frame with a fiberglass body loosely (and noisily) mounted onto it and a wonderful little 2.5 liter, or in a handfull of cases, larger hulking, 4.5 liter, V8 installed a bit too far forward.  What was wrong with it, beyond its very marginal quality control and assembly was:

- Frame twist so bad the doors would open themselves on early models.  The TR3 frame would twist under engine weight and position it was not really designed for, and under power in turns the doors would pop open on early models.  This was fixed with a change in the door latch mechanism, but the chassis flex that made handling, uh, -- let's call it interesting rather than challenging -- never was addressed.

- It was ugly.  Really, it looks like a TR3 to which someone has added fins because - well, that's basically what has been done . . . this was made all the worse because Austin Healey 3000s, Jag XKanythings, were just gorgeous, as were some early Astons. The MGA was classic, the TR2 and 3 while not going to win any beauty contests, look purposeful and quite nicely done.  The SP250 looked like their ugly step-sister.

- The fiberglas was not good quality.  Yes, it doesn't rust.  But it sort of unraveled - the fiberglass strands would slowly work loose in panels and the panels would expand somewhat like plywood that gets old and moist, and become something about as strong as sheetrock.  Now, in fairness, some early Lotus cars, Corvettes, and others that used fiberglas also had problems with fiberglas quality. Way back when I somehow gained a reputation of doing good fiberglass body work I met a lot of people with these cars.  I did work on several friends' SP250s and it was the worst fiberglas I ever saw on anything but some really bad kit cars -- often it was easier just to throw away the original bodywork and make new . . . 

- for all its V8 power and light fiberglas weight got it, it did not have that much performance.  It was just very slightly faster than an AH3000 in a straight line, but it could not run with a good one on the track  . . . Again, I'm not beating up on British cars or even British sopecialty manufacturer's cars: TVR had some of the same quality and body problems that the SP250 had, but you could forgive those is a car that fast.

 

Sorry if I rattled your cage though. And for the record, if I found a 1:43 model of a Daimler Dart/SP250, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, and put it on my layout.

During the Ford/Chevy/Plymouth price wars of the mid '50s, they published low prices of around $1,700. However, you had to pay extra for a heater, passenger-side arm-rest and sun-visor, and, of course, a radio. Prices were FOB Detroit...meaning you picked the car up at the factory if you wanted the low price.

 

Lee, I had a new '64 MG Midget. Worse car I ever owned. My wife had a '85 Jaguar XJ6. Worse car anyone ever owned. No more Brits for us.

Hi Lee. Don't worry, there was no offence taken from here. I just wished to defend a sweet little car, of which I have some fond memories. I travelled quite a lot in one in the mid-70s, as a friend of mine had one of the last examples. (A late 1963 model.) The small issue with the doors opening on corners had been fixed by then, and the chassis had been strengthened to reduce the flexing. I think that it's a lovely looking car, with such a happy friendly face, and was wonderful fun to drive along the leafy winding country lanes on a warm summer day.  

 

If you really want a model of one, Crossway have a nice selection of 1:43 models available, although they are a tad expensive. http://www.crossway-model-cars...28curpage-2-28-c.asp  

I want one, but will have to find a supplier here in the states, or wait until, if ever, we make another trip to the UK (want to, but health issues and such . . . )

I listed some 1:43 diecast vehicles F/S on the OGR Buy/Sell forum.

Bob

I'm sure my grandfather never owned a Cadillac. My guess is 65 years ago in Italy it was more like a cart & donkey.

But, I did capture a a late at night shot of the next best thing.  Elvis filling up his pink Cadillac..

BTW, that salmon/grey 55 chevy getting towed in is an exact duplicate of my first car..

Joe

 

  

Very cool, particularly you '55.  So that is where Elvis has gone!

So that is where Elvis has gone!

 

He's out there.

 

This thread has cost me some money.  I've picked up a number of cars since this was posted.  One I had to order from Europe.

 

Here is an observation I made a few years ago.  At that time there was a commercial on I think, Turner Classic Movies which was some film from a grocery store parking lot taken in the late 50's or early 60's.  What struck me was how colorful the cars were.  There were many different two tone cars with different pastel colors, etc.

 

During that time frame I found myself waiting in an office on about the 14th floor of a building that was across the street from a shopping center that was built in the mid-fifties.  It had been totally remodeled and was much larger than the original.  Looking down on the large mall parking lot, two intersecting streets at the corner and all the traffic passing by was how colorless the cars were.  For the most part the cars were either shades of silver, red, black and white.  Back in the fifties and sixties, those cars would have been 100's of colors.  

Cars were colorful, and "glittery," too, back then, weren't they? Last night my wife and I were watching a show from the Nero Wolfe Mystery series (Timothy Hutton) from about fifteen years ago.  Last nights adventure was a particular show set in the late '50s early '60s, and were struck by that same thought, how colorful and just plan fun cars parked on the street were . . .

Just think of the great colors back then and oh what about having a brand new body style every year.