Memories. Yes. those old memories. One of my favorite cars of the ol' days was the 1962 Chevy Impala two door hardtop. I had a '61 Impala convertible when I was in university - courtesy of my older brother, who gave it to me when he got his new '68 Dodge Charger. But the '62 was my favorite. The lines had been smoothed from the similar '61 and the two door received a convertible look roof. In those days the cars usually had a two year design cycle. The second year sometimes improved on the design (in my opinion the '62 Chev) or messed it up (in my opinion the '64). Nowadays there are many more cars available, so each brand sells less and so no company can afford major changes every couple of years. Not unusual to see a design run for 5 to 7 years with minimal change. The good thing about it these days, is that you can have a car for four or five years and it still looks new. Back in the day, your new car looked current for one year only. The term was "planned obsolescence".
Keeping all this in mind, I was thrilled when recently a 1962 Impala two door plastic model was released, since for some reason, I never bought one way back when.......
Those with sharp eyes might notice that something is missing on this model and there is a reason for it - dusting! Making these models is great, but like everything that stands still, they collect dust. So what is missing? Actually, there is one error, but it was the fault of the model manufacturer, not us. Any guesses?
We liked this model so much, that we built a second one (the white original has a more contemporary vibe with no whitewalls and mag wheels). The white one was built first, but thinking we could do a better job, we then made the blue one. We were right, the blue one was a much better build.
Who else but the Car Modeling Cat could have assisted me with both models? Of course, she has no memory of the '60's, but she seems to share my love of the oldies. Or does she just like the smell of the glue? Either way, she is a great help.
Memories. By building these models, we can have any car that we want, but in a much more manageable format. Ah, the good life!
Until next time........
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