Roger Zimmermann

To glue the letters on the trunk lid without a guide would certainly be very difficult; therefore, I had to do something. The picture is the result of my thinking; I “just” have to glue the letters now! Before I got to construct that guide, I had to brood about the spacing of the letters. On the left side, there is an “I” which is narrower than the other letters. The “N” in the middle of the word must be in the middle of the car, therefore, the distance between each letter on the left side will be larger than on the right side. Unfortunately, I don’t have any more a Mark II to check, but I see no other alternative. Maybe it will not be noticeable; we’ll see.

Thanks you, faithful followers! I just hope that my way of telling the story will be entertaining, despite my English limitation; I hope that Pat will not be disappointed! This time, the story will be like a book: I means the story is all there, but you cannot go to the last page to see if the hero is still alive! I will just put a bit at a regular basis, just to keep the interest. To John: the '56 Cadillac color was called Bahama Blue. The paint from the Mark II is darker and it's (but don't tell further) a VW color, a company for which I have no great sympathy, but that color was the best for my taste.

This is the new "home" for that poor thing...

This story was published first for 10 years in the CadillacLaSalle forum. I will adapt the text if necessary. Please understand that all pictures are scans from paper pictures; therefore their quality is not the best. I bought the car unseen; it was in transit in England, coming from Virginia. As I had already at that time (1986) a '56 Sedan de Ville, I was not too anxious as I had a good base to look at, even if some details are different. So, I did the gamble; however, it was more like Russian roulette with just 1 missing cartridge. I mandated a transport company to pick up the "car" from England and to deliver at the village where I have my shop. The first picture was sent by the seller, it was taken in Virginia. The second one show the thing at arrival. I had a bad sleep the next night... After the triumphal arrival, a friend was kind enough to tow the "car" through the village. The drive did not stay unnoticed by the inhabitants! I could not begin immediately with the work on that ruin: I had first to finish my '57 Brougham.

Where is the next update? Don't worry, it will come soon! In between, I may have something for you: the story about the restoration of my '56 Cadillac Biarritz. It's in the same forum, with the title: 1956 Cadillac Biarritz: to restore or not? Comments and or questions are welcome!

As it can be seen on my signature, I not only have 1:12 scale car models, but also real ones. After making for many years the 1:12 Olds Toronado, I had enough. Almost by accident, I found people in the region where I'm living who had US cars from the fifties. At that time, I just drove an US car I bought new: a 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais, but I would never had the courage to think about a restoration without the "help" of those young men. After a while, I bought a 1956 Cadillac Sedan de Ville in a garage near Geneva (Switzerland). It was not entirely finished when a 1957 Cadillac Brougham came home. Closed cars are nice, but convertibles are nicer! (at least it was my thinking). A friend from England a Mr. Bedford (yes, yes!) told me once that he knows somebody who is importing cars from the US, mainly to sell them in Sweden of Finland. At that time, among other cars, he had a 1956 Cadillac Biarritz. After some discussion with the seller, I paid the car and ask a Swiss company to transport it to the village where I'm restoring my cars. I will relate it that story from the arrival to the completion. I had 7 years to restore it, but that report will not take so much time to be published!

Not quite: the Continental letters are still not glued on the hood and trunk. It will be done during this month; I have to do a guide first. Therefore, the completion is near!

Ah! Mike, age and good health are rarely associated, unfortunately. I really admire that at your age you are still restoring cars. After restoring 3 cars, I decided that it was enough. Sure, my cars are/were a little larger and parts heavier than the one you are working on. So I came back at what I did in my youth, scale models!

Thanks Gary and Pat! I had to play with lamps to do the pictures (outside would be good, but it's too cold); some undesirable reflections are apparent on the windshield; I could not avoid them. Fortunately, despite artificial illumination, the paint problem I related a few days ago are not visible. It depends greatly how the light is illuminating the body.

Hi Mike! Thank you for watching this post. If you intend to see all the pages, you need some spare time, time which cannot be used on your own 1:1 scale project!

Happy New Year to all! For the first day of the year, we will no overdo ourselves. Therefore, there are just some pictures showing the hood emblem and the license plate at the back. I’m glad that I have not to do another plate for the front!

Thanks Nelson! I'm glad if I can add a little dreaming in the mind of people; the world is full enough from ugly things. @Jeff: You maybe don't want to see the paint problems! To help you: have a look at the surfaced encircled in red: do you see the lighter spot on the hood and the almost white lines on the fender? They are the issue I'm trying to explain. Fortunately, this appear only with artificial light. I forgot to add that my nephew is working as a painter in a body shop.

Many viewers are thinking that this model is perfect. Unfortunately, it’s not: if I’m proud about some parts I did over the years, the windshield wipers are not among them. I attempted to put a spring to keep the blade on the windshield; the spring is too small (because the space is narrow), the wire I could use too thin and I had about ½ hours to connect both ends…The result is with or without spring the pressure on the window is about zero! Well, as it’s a nice weather car, we will not care too much. A paint problem was apparent since some time: with the day light, it’s good (it cannot be perfect). With the flash from the camera or with a lamp, a strange phenomenon can be seen, it’s like dust but it’s not. The LH front fender is affected on almost the entire surface and there is a spot on the hood and a tiny one on the trunk lid. The small spots are where I did a surface repair (do you remember the tiny holes or pores before my eyes were repaired?) and the LH front fender was repainted. My nephew who saw that thinks that the metallic pigments did a migration into the clear coat. Maybe…Anyway, the paint will stay that way. Both attached pictures are showing the problem: the first one with flash and the second without.

Well, I don't know if I published all pictures I did: there are more than 1000! Promised, I will do some with the finished model. Thanks for your interest!

When a music show is good, the public is asking for one or two titles more (I don't know how it's called in English). I will do the same with a small bonus: the story of the Avanti model! It won't take so long as the story is ready, I just have to translate it. It will come after the last Mark II picture will be published as I will continue with the same post (if it's allowed).

Thanks for the comments! Most probably, some of you thought, when I related the tire's making, that I would never go till the end as most of the people on earth would like to have the project finished before its beginning! @Martin: when you go to a theatre, you know that the show will have an end; are you really in a sad mood at the end (it depends of course if the performance was good or miserable!)? @Nelson: you have to find a way to get 12 times smaller! Unfortunately, the contact switch is just a fake; it will be difficult to start the (fake too) engine!

At first, I wanted to paint the license plate a darker blue from a spray can supplied by a friend. I was not able to spray that tiny plate properly, I had always dust particles. While I often doubt about my capabilities, I tried anyway different paint, the same as the one for the body. Strange, no dust this time! The next problem came with the clear coat: the can I used for the body was empty; I had another one from Dupli Color but the can had a leak at the bottom. Result: loss of pressure and the coat was uneven. I’ll let time to get the paint totally dry, then I will sand it; this is the explanation why the plate is not yet ready and attached to the rear bumper. In the meantime, I attached to the body the lower molding at the windshield; the results are not what I expected: the curve at the RH side could have been better; it creates a “large” gap between the molding and the windshield. To minimize that issue, I will put some black silicone between the molding and windshield; the gap will be less obvious. I have the same issue at the molding from the back window, fortunately less obvious; I will apply the same solution. I did also a test with another glue to attach the letters to the body. The last product I tried is called Araldite, a 2 components glue. As the results were encouraging, I glued the emblem at the front fender. I believe I will attach the CONTINENTAL letters with the same product. Contrary to the instant glue, this glue let the time to correct the letter’s position; after 5 minutes, the glue is setting.

The snow went away almost as quickly as it came! We have not a lot of rain with temp. about 8 to 10°C. The rain which did not come in Summer/autumn is coming now! There should be snow in the mountains but I don't care what is happening there, it's not for me! Randy, thanks for the wishes, enjoy that time and I hope for you that 2019 will be without incident, good health! As it seems that my littles stories are of interest for people here, I will relate the adventures of my Avanti scale model. Unfortunately, I will not be able to do the same for the Toronado, I have just a handful pictures on paper. What I will do too, is the restoration story of my '56 Biarritz. This was the last car I restored. I wrote already that story in the Cadillac LaSalle forum as it was more or less still "fresh". For the two other ones, bad luck: it's too far away in the time and I could not do an interesting story.

It's a 1963 Studebaker Avanti; the Avanti name is in the text. When the Mark II will be done, I intend to tell the story from this model, if people agree.

Thanks Nelson! A scale model is like a house: almost never finished for whatever reason. Those days, even if the Mark II is completely ready, my mind is sometimes in another place. When the Avanti model was finished, I noticed later that one piece was missing: the cover over the fuel tube. It's a small part, but without that, the interior is not complete. As the silicone for a molding had to cure on the Mark II, it was a good opportunity to look at this missing piece of trim. Without the rear window, shaping that part would have been very easy. Now, I had to do with the rear window, working from the LH door aperture. Fortunately, I still had leather from the proper color and I could finish the cover. The next question was to find a way to glue it to the existing parts. A daub of silicone was helpful, it sticks at the fuel pocket without marring the surrounding leather. Now that model is really complete!

The script is ready. That “K” gave me trouble; I had to do a second one. At first I wanted to soft solder the script to the base or license plate and paint the whole with a dark blue paint and, once dry, to scrap the paint from the script and polish the characters. I will do differently: paint the base and when the paint is dry, attach the characters with transparent silicone.

Thanks for all to ask questions, I like it! As I don't know how to handle multi quotes, I'll answer the easy way: @jpage: the chrome thickness is about 0.01mm (0.004"), not very important. If I know that 2 plated parts are coming together, I can put some play before plating. With the 3 models I did, I had not too much trouble with the chrome thickness. However, at each model I have more problems with the paint thickness! @Martin: whenever possible, I have studs to attach plated parts or I can fix them with screws. It's not always possible, like the window reveal moldings or the belt molding. They were glued with silicone and the quantity used is important to not have too much everywhere. An advantage of the clear silicone: it can be cleaned rather easily when cured. @keiser: soon! those parts will be glued with instant glue. at another forum, somebody told me that those instant glues are not good with the time. Can be; but the name plates/letters on the Toronado are still on after about 10 years. The person who tol me that said it would be better to attach the letters with silicone. So, recently I did a test on a painted surface: 2 letters with silicon and 2 with instant glue. After 2 days, I tested how easy or difficult it was to remove them: the one attached with silicone went away almost just be looking at them while the ones offered some resistance. As the surface is tiny, that resistance is small too. This is the reason whey the letters on hood and trunk lid will be attached when everything is OK. @Jeff: compared to the letters which will come on hood nd trunk lid, those are very large! However, their shape is not easy to reproduce.

The script is slowly going forwards; the letter “K” is not yet done. All is done with a file; therefore some details are not 100% identical from one vertical element to the other. Hardly to be seen in reality, obvious when enlarged on the screen.

And now? No more updates? Indeed, I did almost nothing recently, slow enough to finish next year and not in 2018! I want to do a nameplate instead of a license plate, of course with the script “MARK II”. I had the stupid idea to choose a script art with “feet” which is making each letter very difficult. Indeed, I cannot do them in one piece (except both I I) but in 2 or 3. The letters M and A are requiring 3 parts silver soldered together; probably I can do the R and K in 2 pieces. We’ll see. As you can see, the “A” is still missing an element: I had to fix the /\ at the top to be able to adjust the missing element. My letters are maybe too fat; it’s hard to see the results before something is done.

In my opinion, not very wise to have the front fender installed when the door must still be sanded!