1930 Packard Model A Roadster Die-Cast Model
Last updated 10/11/02
A guy I used to work with bought this old Hubley die-cast model back around 1965. It sat in a box for 30 years before he gave it to me to put together. It had no assembly instructions, so I had to figure out how to put it together. That wasn't too hard to do, even though I had no idea where some of the parts went. It became apparent as I proceeded to build it.
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Here is a front view of the completed model. The original body was just bare pot metal with lots of rough edges to file. I think the filing took longer than building and painting it! I chose black because that was a very common color in the 20's and 30's. It's hard to find information on the original color schemes available on the Packards. |
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Here is a view of the interior. The steering wheel turns the front wheels. The top is textured plastic. |
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Here is a view of the "rumble seat". Whitewall tires were hand painted with white paint followed by a brushed-on coat of paint thinner to get it to smooth out and to have a realistic looking texture. It actually worked out very well. |
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Here is a view of the bottom. The floor board in this car was wood, which I tried to simulate by painting a tan color. Bumpers and wheel spokes are chromed plastic. |
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Here is a close up of the engine, a straight eight. I had to fabricate part of the spark plug wiring that was missing from the original part. To do this, I heated up some model plastic sprue and stretched it to just the right thickness and then let it cool. Then that got glued to the original. |
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Here it is on a display that I made from a broken ceramic statue's wood base. It was just the perfect size for this model. |
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Nice addition to my computer desk... |
This project turned out pretty well. It's the only die-cast model that I have ever built.