The Phantom Menace

Added 3/22/05

Chrysler Corporation never produced a Dodge sedan delivery in 1959. Can you say Phantom.

Added 5/7/04

This attempt at adding to someone's product line was ruined by using what appears to be a slightly modified 1970 Ford 4 door sedan roof on this altered Chevy body. What ever it is, it's not even close...for $45.00

Added 5/5/04

Chevrolet's only 2 door wagon, a Brookwood had the same single spear trim on the front fender and the door that was used on the Biscayne 2 door sedans. While the photo above isn't very clear, it's obvious that it has either Kingswood or Nomad trim. Deleting the trim while retaining the correct front fender contour will be a major headache. Adding back the correct trim would be only slightly easier.

This 1957 Chevrolet 150 model has 1955 Bel Air side trim (Picture at lower left), not the proper 150 trim (the other one :-). Not an easy fix.

Both 1959 Edsel Villager station wagons were only available with Ranger side trim, not the Corsair trim shown on this kit. Correcting this kit would be a major undertaking.

Added 1/30/04

This 55 Pontiac is being auctioned off on eBay as a 2 Door sedan which was never offered in the Star Chief line.

While there was a 53 Ford sedan delivery, it was not available with the Crestline trim you have to add to this body from your Lindberg donor.

Below are the original postings to this page. If this is your first time here, be sure to look them over
1953 Studebaker...the closest Studebaker ever got to building a sedan delivery was offering metal panels that covered the rear side windows on 2 door station wagons.
1949 Ford...would have been nice, but it was never done. The closest Ford came was a panel delivery which used a passenger car front clip until Ford redesigned it's light trucks for 1950. Ford began building sedan deliveries as we know them today in 1952.
49 Mercury...this wasn't done either, but in Canada, Mercury panel deliveries that used passenger car front clips were built from 46 to 49.
55 Chevrolet...I'm splitting hairs on this one since Chevy actually made a 55 S.D. This particular kit however, is a converted 55 Nomad. The caster left the Nomad eye-brow trim over the headlights along with the side molding. It could be converted, but getting the front fender contour right would be extremely difficult. Look for the real thing and save yourself the hassles .
62 Buick Special...This body shell, also shared by Oldsmobile as the F-85 and Pontiac as the Tempest, was never even considered for sedan delivery production.
51 Chevrolet... Chevy & Pontiac (yes, Pontiac offered a sedan delivery) station wagon and sedan delivery bodies were produced for GM by an outside source, but unlike the sedans and coupes, did not receive the rear fender restyle in 51. Fenders were bolt on with a thin chrome strip separating them from the body, for the entire 49 to 52 model run...52 shown below.
1934 Ford... Yes Ford did produce a 34 Sedan delivery, but it sure didn't look like this. Below is a 1/25 die-cast representation of the real thing.
What follows is what prompted me to add this page to the Realm. With one exception, the resin kits shown below could easily be mistaken for production models, only none of them were. I can see that there are times a resin caster has to take poetic license with a kit, but these go far beyond that.
49 Ford 3 Place Coupe...Cute but never saw the road.
1956 Pontiac Safari...This one really jacked my jaws. The only thing that's 56 about it is the grill, otherwise it's pure 55. Opening bid on this one was $45.00 which is a lot to pay for something that isn't what it's advertised to be.
1959 Dodge 2 door Hardtop Station Wagon...Not! A Plymouth, yes, but it wasn't a hardtop. Opening bid on this one was $40.00
1962 Buick Special 4 Door Hardtop...This body shell was never produced in a 4 door hardtop version, but how many modelers would realize that? Opening bid on this one was $40.00
1963 Chrysler 2 door Hardtop Station Wagon...Another NOT! Chrysler wagons were always 4 door models. Opening bid on this one was $45.00
1965 Pontiac Tempest 2 Door Hardtop Station Wagon...Like Chrysler, all Pontiac wagons of that era were 4 door models. None were ever built as hardtops. Opening bid on this one was $40.00
1953 Chevrolet Nomad...while this is a pretty obvious phantom I've included it just in case there's someone out there who isn't in the know.



	Be Patient, lots of pix to load! 9/25/05 No this has nothing to do with the movie, it's just that I couldn't resist the obvious connection. I'm talking about resin kits..."Phantoms"...just as fictional as the character on the left. A Phantom (at least by my definition) is a kit of a car or truck that cudda, shudda, or wudda been produced (had there been enough demand), but never was available at your local dealer. What made me decide to add this page was a recent deluge of new resin kits recently offered for sale at eBay. About a third of them were phantoms, but not labeled as such, and close enough to cars that were actually produced that you could easily mistake them for production models. Sooo...consider this page as a guide for those of you who are into "Strictly Stock." The model that started all this is the 62 Buick Special below. Cool, I thought, but something about it didn't seem quite right, so I started digging in my reference library to see what was bothering me about it. It turned out to be the "B" pillar, or rather the lack of it, that was nagging at me. There never was a 4 door hardtop built on this body shell which was shared by Olds as the F-85 and Pontiac's Tempest from 61 to 63. On the other hand... The wood trim on the 48 Chevy Fleetline fast back above (it's also available at eBay as a convertible), while not a production item, was available on all 2 door models from any dealer right off the showroom floor or as an after delivery add-on. I know the picture below is pretty small, but I've included it because the wood colors are pretty accurate in case you get the urge to build one. The car was never available in yellow. So, as you can see, the "Phantom Menace" can work both ways. I personally feel phantoms should be labeled as such, and some resin casters, F&F Resin Casting and Modelhaus, for example, do so, but most don't, and while the onus is usually on the modeler to research a project before they buy a model, there are times where that isn't possible. At a show for example, where we are all tempted to buy on impulse, and you may be hundreds of miles away from your reference materials or internet connection. The word "Phantom" on the label would provide you with information you're entitled to know as a buyer, enable you to ask the caster/seller pertinent questions, and certainly would prevent disappointment and buyers remorse. I think it would be good for the hobby. Jerry