Well,
The Franklin Mint people showed up right at 8am as they had said they
would. (I wish they would have showed up a bit later as I woke up at
7:55am...) I had expected 1-2 people, but what arrived was 4 people and
an entire van full of equipment. Suprise! Time to make more coffee...
=)
Right away they asked that we take the car out to an open, level area
for photographs. To my suprise, the engine started quickly and
powerfully on about a quarter-second of cranking. The new battery has
made one heck of a difference. There's a lot more 'ooomph' in the group
27 battery (800cca) versus the old group 24 (600cca). They got the
photos taken in about 2 hours, and we brought the car back to my garage
for the rest of the work.
The majority if the detail work was done in sketches, rather than
photographs. They will be basing a majority of the model on their
sketches of their 1957 Fury and on 446 screen captures I made from the
movie, so the normal 2-3 days worth of sketches and photos were reduced
to about 6 hours. I spent most of my time explaining the differences
between 1957 and 58 Plymouths, and my '58 versus Christine.
Oh -- and here's my favorite part -- the model is going to be in 1/24
scale, not 1/43! Bigger is better, I guess.
I'll have some more "Christine" questions for some of you later, but
those will be directed primarily at Richard Zapata, Daniel Andersson,
and Larry Stanley. If there are any other Christine nuts out there,
just let me know, and I'll make sure you're included in on the
discussion. Please don't discuss the "Christine" items on the list
unless they're relevant to stock items.
Some discussion questions for 1957/8 Plymouth owners.
1) According to the Canadian shop manual, which has detailed
photos/illustrations, the frames on 57 & 58 Plymouths are identical
except for the front crossmember (which is slightly different in
shape). Was this a Canadian-only difference, or were U.S. cars also
different from year-to-year?
2) By my account, 1958 350 G.C. engines used dual AFB, not dual WCFB
carbs. Is this correct?
3) Were there any significant differences between a 1957 and 1958
Plymouth undercarriage?
The model should be available around June, 2000. Waiting is the hardest
part.... =)
-Dave
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