Project Update: Lesney #25d Ford Cortina

Good evening everyone! I'm being a very much atypical college student, and spending my Friday evening catching up on American Horror Story and working on some of my projects! I've been working on the Cortina, and I thought I'd put out a little update..

A quick reminder of where it started.

I haven't done anything major tonight, just stripped off the old paint and gave the other parts a good solid cleaning. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Off with the paint!

The windows are the worst part of this car. But a quick soak in some dishsoap and water...

And presto! Looks nearly brand new. I'm not so sure it'll even need a Future dip.

A bit of soap and water on the chassis made it look like new too!

A close up of the stripped body

So here's where we stand, ready for paint!

I broke one of the wheels taking them off, but I think I have a car that's a bit beyond repair with the same size wheels that should work. I'm still open to suggestions on straightening axles, one is quite bent. 

Just in case you want to check out the Original Post

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Frenchies! New additions from Renault

I bought these not long ago off of Craigslist. A guy had a massive collection of loose cars, all sorts of varieties. As many as you wanted, 3 for $1. Needless to say, I pretty much cleaned him out haha. I took home well above 100 cars. The Lesney 56a Trolleybus I recently restored came from this collection.

These are some of the more interesting pieces I picked up. From a French brand called Norev, they're quite uncommon in the States. I wonder how they ended up in Tennessee? Here's what I got...

Renault Kangoo

Renault Megane Estate

Renault Master Flatbed

Renault Master Van

They're very high quality, and they make lots of interesting subject matter. Having spent time overseas, I am pretty familiar with the cars we don't get here in the States. Norev pretty much covers all the French brands. Here's a link to their catalog: http://www.norev.com/catalogue.pdf

I think the next trip I make to the UK this summer, I'll be shopping for some more of these!

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New Project: Lesney #74b Daimler Bus

Good evening everyone! I bought several project Lesneys off an auction site this week, and they're arrived! I didn't intend to post them yet, but this one is special, I had to dig into it tonight, because it was assembled in quite a strange way..

This one really threw me for a loop. That rear rivet is set so far in from the body. Very strange. I'm ready to go to bed, but it was driving my crazy how to disassemble the thing!

This nifty little Dremel attachment did the trick!

Anyways... Onto the pics!

I'm really looking forward to digging into this one, I love old buses, and this one looks to be a pretty easy fix. Some paint and decals and she'll be good to go. 

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British Week Continues! Matchbox Jaguar XK

Good afternoon folks! I'm sitting here waiting for my physics class to begin, so I thought I'd continue our British theme this week with another favorite casting of mine, the Matchbox Jaguar XK. It came out back in 2006 and has been done in a number of great colors. Here's my collection of them.. I'm sure I'm missing some.

Thanks for reading. 

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The waterin' hole is dry...

This is genuinely depressing for us Matchbox collectors, and it seems to be getting more and more common. This photo was taken just a few minutes ago, at my local Walmart. For the holiday break, I left to go home on December 5th, I believe. The Matchbox pegs looked exactly like this then...

So nearly 2 months have gone by, and the Matchbox pegs look exactly the same. Of course the blue pegs are filled to bursting with the latest stock. Why is this? Are Matchbox cars really that unpopular? It seems like the other big box stores I visit keep the Matchbox section fairly filled and updated. But most Walmarts I've visited lately look just like this. Why?? If anyone can help me answer this question, please speak up. Do your stores look like this? Let me know!

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Model of the Day: Hot Wheels Mercedes 380 SEL

We've been looking at pretty much nothing but Matchbox stuff since this blog started, I think it's time to check out something from the blue brand. This is my favorite casting, the old 380 SEL. I have a severe addiction to vintage Mercs, so naturally this casting is way up there for me. I was quite sad that it discontinued back in 1999, and I wish it would make a comeback!

Here are some pics of my favorite example, and one of my most prized cars. You can see in the last picture why it is so special, it's a French casting! Quite rare and valuable. It was gifted to me by a member of the Hot Wheels collector community several years back, and I absolutely love it.

I won't show you every version of this casting that I have, but here are some of the coolest ones.

I'm missing all of the very rare and valuable ones, such as the elusive BP special editions. Feel free to share any versions of this awesome casting that you have!

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A Closer Look: More Classic British Metal

Hello everyone! Sorry for there not being any posts yet today. I am a college student and the semester is getting busy already! I'll do my best to keep updating the blog with new content, but school does come first..

While I was at work, delivering sandwiches, I saw this beautiful old Jag, and just had to stop. My customer didn't get their sandwich as "freaky fast" as they may have liked, but I had to spend a few minutes taking in this beautiful old car. There are all sorts of interesting cars lurking around the middle Tennessee area, but this one definitely ranks near the top.

As the license plate says, it's a 1957 Jaguar 3.4 Saloon, not a Mark 2 as I initially thought. These cars were never officially referred to as Mark 1s, but that title kind of stuck after the popularity of the car that replaced it, the Mark 2. It was equipped with the 3.4 liter version of the XK120 engine that we talked about in the last Closer Look. I know it's not a model car, but it was too cool not to share!

To keep it diecast related, here's a pic of the closest thing I have in my collection, the Lesney #28c Jaguar Mk10.

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