I'm taking a break in building a very large O'guage model railroad to build an Ertl 1:24 Ford Fairlane GTA. This was the car I owned from 1966 through 1968 when I was at Michigan State U. It was the car I owned when I got engaged to my wife (50 years in April).
There's a story about this car. While working at a manufacturing plant during Summer break, I was told about a 1932 Ford 5-Window Coupe hot rod that was for sale at a local Hot Rod club. It wasn't quite done, but was drivable and very, very cool. I was in love with hot rods. We lived in Philadelphia which is about 700 miles from MSU. I took my then girlfriend to see the car, but she wasn't very happy with it. The car was severly channeled so the seats were almost on the floor. It wasn't conducive to getting into with a skirt (this WAS the mid-60s). My parents were also not very happy with it. I doubt that the car even had a heater (Michigan Winters..) and it had little to no luggage space. It wasn't a car to make the trip to and from E. Lansing to Philly 4 times a year. But I was very insistant.
We were having dinner at my house and my future wife was there. My brilliant father opens a discussion with, "You know... you only have enough money in savings to a) buy the hot rod, or b) buy Michele an engagement ring." I was dumbstruck! What the heck! Michele was sitting right there and I hadn't even asked her to marry me yet. Needless to say I didn't buy that car. But my parents realized that my aging 1959 Olds 98 convertible had seen better days and needed replacing. They bought me a new 66 Ford Fairlane GTA which was significantly more expensive than the hot rod, but it did have a heater and a big trunk. It also had a 390 cu. in V8 putting out 335 Hp and could lay rubber as long as you had you foot on the throttle. It was very fast, didn't handle very well and eventually burned oil. We traded it in shortly after getting married, however what we replaced it with was awful and that's another story.
Here was me, Michele and the car during a camping trip at Muskegon, MI on Memorial Day weekend 1966.
We don't look much different today as we did then...
The car was sunshine yellow with a black interior. It was the first US car to have Firestone Wide-oval tires. It was the beginning of the low profile tire revolution that continues to this day.
The engine is "Ford Blue". I mixed it up with Tamiya blue, white and a little green. The kit didn't include chrome valve covers so I painted them with Tamiya Bare Metal spray and then used AK Interactive real metal cream to brighten them up.
The kit is a bit crude and I haven't built a car kit of any kind since the late 50s. I'm more used to the sophisticated models that are available today, but I'll make it work. I found some light yellow lacquer and wet-look clear at the Scale Reproductions today which is a close match to the car's light yellow. I will use Bare-metal foil where appropriate and will try to add some piping and wiring to the engine.
I put Micro-sol liquid mask on the areas of the engine that will receive other parts so there will be bare plastic glue areas for the remaining parts.
The styrene doesn't seem to respond to the Tamiya solvent cement as quickly as I'm used to. I don't know if it's due to the age of the kit, or just the composition of the material.
Stay tuned...