These are two 1/18 MotorMax 1958 Chevrolet Impala convertibles that I purchased a number of months ago on clearance at Wallymart. The pink "Mary Kay"
version was pre-built and the blue "Danny Kay" version was in an unassembled kit. The kit included quite a number of parts and a very lacking
instruction sheet inextremely small type, so I decided to unassemble the Mary Kay unit and do some up-grades to it while learning the assembly method for the
Danny Kay by taking apart the Mary Kay. I desparately wanted to lower both cars some but the complicated nature of the chassis and suspension system made me
back-off from doing so. Instead, I focused on heavily doctoring the engine compartments, improving the wheel covers and adding small touches here and there to
various parts. By the way, the grille on Mary Kay was blackwashed using India ink and Danny Kay's grille was done with black drawing ink. Also, both the
chrome side trim spears were color-filled with red for additional emphasis. Carpet was added to both interiors as well as to the trunks. The trunks were
especially difficult to do. However, this perked up both the interiors and gave the models more character. Blackening the steering wheel shaft, improving the
dash gauges and detailing the firewall also helped out with the models' appearances. Was considering removing the spare tire from the trunk as this creates
an arkward and unattrative protrusion out of the bottom of the chassis, a detail that is factory-molded into the rear passenger side of the plastic chassis, so
I scratched that idea as not worth the effort. Someday, maybe. Overall, the time spent on these helped a lot in the looks department, but the models suffer
from serious fit and finish problems (much flashing on the plastic parts). And the fronts of the models, from a side view notably, look to be skewed and
deformed. It is the side chrome spear on the front fender that is one of the culprits as well as the design of the models' entire front half. Perhaps
MotorMax had more than one design team working on the different body parts and they were just not coordinated when it came to combining all the body parts
together as one. Since there are not many 1958 Chevy models made by other diecast manufacturers, I will keep trying to improve these two models'
appearances. One idea down the road is to remove all the chrome trim, fill in the holes, and sculpt a smooth aero drag car. Will need some skinnies and huge
slicks plus a very LARGE blower. Thanks for looking!


