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Jo-Han kits from the '60s

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  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: down South
Jo-Han kits from the '60s
Posted by ga.retread on Saturday, May 3, 2008 2:15 PM

I know I am dating myself with this question, but does anyone remember the model kits from a company called Jo-Han? We bought them in the early to mid '60s, and they produced fairly nice kits of cars that other manufacturers didn't, i.e. Buick Electra convertible, Olds F-85, etc. :-)

"Shoot low boys, they're riding Shetland Ponies!" - Lewis Grizzard, revered Southern humorist
  • Member since
    November 2003
  • From: Nashville, TN area
Posted by bobbaily on Saturday, May 3, 2008 3:43 PM
Yep-I remember them.  They also marketed some neat drag racers-Stock & Super Stock class vehicles.  And a Funny Car or two if I remember correctly.

Bob

 

  • Member since
    January 2007
Posted by the doog on Saturday, May 3, 2008 6:43 PM

They're all over ebay, but they go for big bucks usually. The AMX Javelin is on there for somewhere just shy of $80.00 I believe?

And to think I had that kit in the stash about 10 years ago, but sold it cuz it didn't have the stock decals, only funny car type....Sigh [sigh]

fox
  • Member since
    January 2007
  • From: Narvon, Pa.
Posted by fox on Saturday, May 3, 2008 8:20 PM

I remember them too.Shock [:O] I had a few of them. I believe the last one I had was A Plymouth. Not sure of the year or model but it was in blue plastic.

While we're at it, do any of you remember IMC Kits.(Industro Motive Corp.) On the boxes it said "Not for beginners, advanced kit." I still have 5 of their cars and one of their planes. I have the Volkswagen, Ford GT, Mark IV GT, Cougar II and Chaparrel - 2E. The plane is the 1/72 A1H Skyraider with "Extra battle damaged parts."

JimCaptain [4:-)]

 Main WIP: 

   On the Bench: Artesania Latina  (aka) Artists in the Latrine 1/75 Bluenose II

I keep hitting "escape", but I'm still here.

  • Member since
    April 2008
  • From: Maryland
Posted by cruz on Monday, May 5, 2008 11:45 AM

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l284/mmmdrc/barracuda%20project/

I am currently working on the Sox and Martin Cuda w/ a different twist. I also posted the link of the whole ongoing process. They need a lot of work but they are very nice kits when done correctly!!

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: Shell Beach, California
Posted by mojodoctor on Monday, May 5, 2008 1:23 PM

One of the coolest JoHan kits was the finicky, but highly detailed Chrysler Turbine!

Current owner Oakey Spaulding is making a valiant effort to keep the marque alive.

 

Here is the official site.

http://www.johanmodels.com/

 

Here is a Yahoo group for the resurrection of JoHan.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/johanmodelsresurrected/

Matt Fly fast, fly low, turn left!
  • Member since
    April 2008
  • From: Maryland
Posted by cruz on Monday, May 5, 2008 3:22 PM

I just bought this one for 14 Dollars in my last club meeting. It's missing the front bumper and the wheels and tires but I can always get that anywhere. Of course as you can see it's in  pretty bad shape but can be worked with.

  • Member since
    January 2007
Posted by the doog on Monday, May 5, 2008 3:57 PM

cruz, that engine is absolutely freaking AMAZING!!!! Seriously, one of the best that I've ever seen! The work on your link there is very impresive and instructive as well!

Looking good!!!! 

  • Member since
    March 2005
Posted by philo426 on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 6:17 PM
Yes I remember JO-Han quiite well.Here is my Johan Turbine.   
  • Member since
    September 2006
  • From: Baton Rouge
Posted by mr moto on Thursday, May 8, 2008 9:07 AM

JoHan kits were my favorites at the time. Here is my out-of-the-box 1960 Chrysler New Yorker painted with Duplicolor and using some of the customizing parts from the kit. I'm the original owner of this kit but I just finished building it a couple of years ago.

The modeler's rule of thumb: The worse it smells, the better it works!
  • Member since
    May 2008
Posted by zgator on Thursday, May 8, 2008 12:51 PM

We allways waited for the new releases from Jo-Han. They weren't allways a car that we liked but we bought them anyway. They were the best at the time. Went together very well. My favroites were and still are the drag cars. ( coment, Mavrick, AMX, Cuda, The dodge 330's ect) I wish someone would get thw tooling and remake these. The S&M Cudas aren't hard to come by. I bought a bunch a couple of years ago before the price started going up. The Coment and Mavrick along with the AMX are $$$.

Come to think of it I don't think Jo-Han made the 330's but their Petty Superbird is awsome!! I love the reversed steel wheels. Anyway they do bring back memroies. If you are doing the S&M get the slixx decals. They come with enough to do two different cars. Gold or silver lettering. I also used the 71 Cuda complete frame, running gear and engine for my 69 Cuda. Fits great. I did have to mod the interior tub but other than that it came out great. I made a what if 69 Motown Missile to go along with the 71 version. The slicks from the Jo-Han kits are great. I ordered 4 sets from Jo-Han and one of the 71 Cudas I got came sealed with two sets of slicks.

  • Member since
    June 2007
Posted by squeakie on Thursday, May 8, 2008 2:16 PM
 cruz wrote:

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l284/mmmdrc/barracuda%20project/

I am currently working on the Sox and Martin Cuda w/ a different twist. I also posted the link of the whole ongoing process. They need a lot of work but they are very nice kits when done correctly!!

just a note:

if you're building a hemi with the factory eight plug heads (often refered to as a sixteen plug hemi), the heads of that period are always made of aluminum. If it's from the 1969 and earlier era the heads were usually done by the engine builders, and many were made of cast iron. Almost never were aluminum heads ever painted. Also if the case of a twin plug hemi the norm was to use the magnesium oil pump assembly casting as well as the aluminum water pump housing. Once again as a rule these were not painted. The only time these two items were used in a stock car was in 1965 race hemis (as well as AFX altered wheel base cars), but often found their way in the Prostock cars in later years.

    With a 1970 prostocker, you will need to add crank triggered ignition to the harmonic balancer on the crank shaft nose (they were using it thirty years before the guys racing off brands discovered the advantages it had). Also the hemis were well known for holding huge amounts of oil in the top end of the motors, so they used deep sump oil pans (usually with a sump that was about 2 1/2" deeper if not 3"). The oil pan should have the -16 steel braided hoses feed into the outside (two hoses)of the oil pump (90% of all race hemis used a Milodon oil pump cover and swing pickups).

    All race hemis have the battery in the trunk, and most used the optional lead battery case (really heavy), and the 135lb. buss battery (another real dog to handle). The transmission shifter assembly (noticed you were using a four speed car) is not the standard Hurst Competetion Plus, but a highly modified one that has much heavier shifting linkage and is also relocated back by the tail shaft housing to make the shifting rods run parallel with the input shaft of the transmission. The actual location is about six to eight inches further back and of course sets lower. A 426 hemi used serious headers. Small tube ones were 2 1/8" diameter, and many used 2 1/4" tubes feeding into 3 1/2" collectors (16" long for a four speed car). The rear end should be a Dana Sixty and AFX leaf springs (they are longer and mount in a completely different place with the axle housing closer to the front spring perches). These are still the best leaf springs ever produced for a race car. They don't use the basic hemi motor mounts, but use what's known as a "block plate" front and rear. Being as it's a stick car; don't forget to install the chain (or cable) between the block and shock tower on the driver's side (keeps the clutch linkage and shift linkage from hanging up during the launch). And lastly it was the norm to tie in the front frame rails to the rear frame rails (Mopar actually sold a kit).

well I'm setting here watching your tach rock steady at 7,000rpm getting ready to lauch the missile!!

gary

  • Member since
    June 2007
Posted by squeakie on Thursday, May 8, 2008 2:32 PM
 zgator wrote:

We allways waited for the new releases from Jo-Han. They weren't allways a car that we liked but we bought them anyway. They were the best at the time. Went together very well. My favroites were and still are the drag cars. ( coment, Mavrick, AMX, Cuda, The dodge 330's ect) I wish someone would get thw tooling and remake these. The S&M Cudas aren't hard to come by. I bought a bunch a couple of years ago before the price started going up. The Coment and Mavrick along with the AMX are $$$.

Come to think of it I don't think Jo-Han made the 330's but their Petty Superbird is awsome!! I love the reversed steel wheels. Anyway they do bring back memroies. If you are doing the S&M get the slixx decals. They come with enough to do two different cars. Gold or silver lettering. I also used the 71 Cuda complete frame, running gear and engine for my 69 Cuda. Fits great. I did have to mod the interior tub but other than that it came out great. I made a what if 69 Motown Missile to go along with the 71 version. The slicks from the Jo-Han kits are great. I ordered 4 sets from Jo-Han and one of the 71 Cudas I got came sealed with two sets of slicks.

The "Motown Missile" was not a factory sponsered car, believe it or not! It was also the only prostock ever to use a "clutchflite transmission", and would launch like nothing else in it's class. Problem with it was the transmission drew a little more horse power than the the four speed, so the top end was reduced. When they renamed the car the following year to "Mopar Missile" the factory picked up the sponsership. The missile cars were well known for extreme lightening projects in the car itself (even the sides of the cylinder block were machined and left bare metal); thus making them somewhat fragile.

    Before NHRA banned them there was a sixty pound alloy block in the works, and two different heads also being designed. One was a twin cam affair and the other was what is known as the "ball stud hemi". The four cam motors were making 950hp in initial dyno pulls (almost 200 more than a 426" hemi with D4 heads), but the killer was the "ball stud motor". It was making over 900hp. and was pretty cheap to build. NHRA just hated hemis (still do), but the public always knew the hemi was "King."

gary

  • Member since
    January 2005
  • From: Portland, Oregon
Posted by fantacmet on Sunday, May 11, 2008 11:59 PM

Jo-Han kits were awesome.  The company is still around but nobody has really been able to put it back into swing.  Finally someone is currently releasing a few items, but everytime someone tries to get Jo-Han off the ground Chrysler Corp steps in and demands more royalties for stuff and they end up having to pay Chrysler all the money that was to be used for production, then someone goes bankrupt and has to sell the company off.  Blame Chrysler Corp for Jo-Han not being back in full swing, they've killed it many times.

 

I had that old Turbine car, yes it was finicky but once things were lined up right it fit pretty well.  It was a spectacular kit and I'd love to get ahold of one to build.  They weren't known for their detail overall but their kits were pretty friggin accurate.  I miss them.

    

  • Member since
    February 2003
Posted by Jim Barton on Monday, May 12, 2008 4:00 PM

Years ago, I found an old Jo-Han kit of a 1934 Mercedes-Benz Roadster and also at the same time, an old MPC kit of a 1932 Chrysler Imperial. (I think I got the models at an insulator show, if I recall correctly.) Vintage kit collectors will cringe when they read this, but when I built the Chrysler, I robbed the Mercedes kit of the chrome-plated wire wheels because the Chrysler kit had only plain (unchromed) wheels and some of my references showed Chrysler Imperials with chrome wheels which lookd really sharp and I wanted them on my model.

I've still got the Jo-Han kit, albeit without the chrome wheels. I suppose if I ever get around to building it, I could get aftermarket chrome wire wheels that "look right."

"Whaddya mean 'Who's flying the plane?!' Nobody's flying the plane!"

  • Member since
    March 2005
Posted by philo426 on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 4:21 PM
Here is another view 
  • Member since
    June 2007
Posted by squeakie on Thursday, May 15, 2008 9:13 PM

 philo426 wrote:
Yes I remember JO-Han quiite well.Here is my Johan Turbine.   

When I was a kid I used to hitch a ride in one a couple times a week going to school.

gary

  • Member since
    November 2007
Posted by Woxel59 on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 6:16 AM

Hello all,

I just found the interesting discussion about JO HAN models. A few years ago Okey Spaulding
bought the company from Seville Enterprises. According to JO HANs website, it was planned
to reissue some models. The first reissue was a 1959 Rambler as a 3 way kit, with an
interior (I guess made from resin). I also had seen announcements for a 55 Pontiac and
a 56 Oldsmobile as "Curbside Custom Cruisers" or so. They also should come with interior
(not correct, from a different model, mabye from 57 Olds). But I never have ssen them.
Some models (Promos without interior) are offered on their webside and also should be
sold on model shows and swap meets. I had ordered (and paid) a 56 Plymouth kit with
resin interior in august last year, but never received it. Upon my request, Mr. Spaulding
told me that he would send the model soon.  Further requests via email never got answered again. Has anybody made the same experiences ? The website still exists and the models
are still offered. Does anybod know more about the current state of JO HAN ? I wish that
a potent model company could cooperate with JO HAN to bring back more of their models.

Modellers greetings from Germany.

Axel Wolters        
  

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