As the restoration of my 1958 Plymouth Belvedere neared completion, I received an email from the Danbury Mint. They had seen pictures of my car on the internet and were interested in creating a scale model !
In early 2008, the Danbury Mint was looking for another car to add to their already impressive collection of highly detailed 1/24th scale die cast models. I had earlier purchased their 1957 Chrysler 300C convertible and was impressed not only by the level of accuracy, but also by the working steering linkage, doors and trunk lid
The email from the Mint said that they had seen pictures of the Plymouth on my website and wanted to photograph it for possible model creation. They already had the body shell from their very popular 58 Fury and ‘Christine’ models, so they were going to reuse that shell for a third 58 Plymouth model. After gaining assurance that this wasn’t a scam, and that they really were from the Danbury Mint, a date was arrived at that would work for me as well as the rep from Danbury and their photographer.
Over an hour was spent photographing the car from every angle, using a sizing stick to make sure that the scale was retained as they scaled it down to 1/24th size. There was a lot of time spent on the interior and the engine, as those would have to be made special for this model. I was asked to keep this quiet until the project had been approved and the model had been produced.
Because of overseas production difficulties, creation of the first prototype was delayed until December 2008. I got to see a subsequent prototype in March 2009. They asked me to identify any problems that I noticed with the model. I was already aware that they were going with the Power Pak (4 bbl carburetor) with dual exhaust for the 318 engine. My car has a 2 bbl carb with single exhaust. I wrote up a page of discrepancies, which they appreciated and sought to correct before the final models were created.
The June 2009 production release was a happy occasion for me. It was gratifying to see that my twelve year restoration project had been given some recognition.
источник http://home.comcast.net/~ronbo97/Danbury_Mint.htm
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