1931 Cadillac

Subject:
1931
Cadillac V16
Kit Used: Jo-Han 1/24

Review & model by:
Paul Romans
Pictures: R. Forys

[The Cadillac V16 is among the most collectable cars of the era.]

History: Cadillac has an innovative automotive history, being the first car company to introduce things like interchangeable parts, battery-powered starters, fully enclosed bodies, and the 1st mass-produced V-8. Most cars of the 1920's were either cheap, such as the Model-T, or playthings for the rich, such as the Cadillac. In the '20's, Cadillac had an excellent reputation, and driving one was more a statement of your financial status than an appreciation of its fine engineering. Cadillac had been building their famous V-8 engine since 1915, but as the roaring twenties drew to a close, they decided to up the stakes and enter into the realm of ultra-luxury cars by producing a fantastic V-16 engine, displacing 425 cubic inches.

[Cadillac premiered the V-16 in December of 1929.]

Their timing could not have been worse. The stock market crashed in October of 1929, and Cadillac premiered the V-16 two months later in December, just as the Great Depression was setting in and the market for ultra-luxury cars was evaporating. Nevertheless, the V-16 pushed Cadillac up into the front ranks of the world's finest cars, and prompted serious competition from Packard, Marmon, and Pierce-Arrow, who could only respond with V-12's. These were very nice, but nothing could match the V-16's velvety smoothness. Other cars were faster, but the Caddy's forte was torque; it could idle at walking speed, then accelerate away smoothly to 100mph, all in 4th gear. It was said that at idle, the engine was so quiet you could hear the distributor sparking, and at cruising speed the loudest noises were the fan and air being sucked into the twin carbs.

Many other luxury car makers went out of business during the 1930's, but the financial resources of GM kept Cadillac going. Even so, the V-16 was never sold in big numbers, and by the time it was discontinued in 1940, only 4400 had been built. Numerous coachbuilders supplied any number of specially built bodies for these cars, so it was rare to see two of them exactly alike. Needless to say, they are among the most collectable cars of the era.

Jo Who? Jo-Han was founded in 1947 by John Hanley ("Jo-Han" is just an abbreviation of his name), and they did well producing promotional car models in the 50's & 60's, but suffered (as did most models companies) in the '70's, and limped along living off re-issues of their old kits. In 2000, JOHAN got a new owner, and the new company is committed to restoring as many of the old molds as possible.

[This is quite possibly the worst model I've ever tried to build.]

The Kit: This kit was issued in the mid-'60's, and is another "I-had-one-of-those-once" kits. E-bay supplied this example, and good and bad memories flooded back; it was nice to have one again, but this is quite possibly the worst model I've ever tried to build. I don't know how tired the molds were when this kit was made, but I've never seen so much flash in my life. Some of the larger pieces, such as the big fender/floor unit, were so badly molded that I literally could not tell where the part ended and the flash started. There's also a complete lack of locating pins, so there's a lot of guesswork.

[The engine has a little too much chrome on it, but what the heck.]

The chassis has separate parts for all the frame members, and the engine has about 20 parts itself, so everything is well detailed, once you clean off the flash. I put the chassis together, painted everything semi-gloss black, and added a few brake cables and fuel lines. The flexible front brake lines are heavy black thread painted with steel. The kit is engineered so that the wheels turn and the fronts steer, but everything is flimsy, and I had to glue the wheels on to keep them from falling off. The engine has a little too much chrome on it, but what the heck. I added choke controls, fuel lines and tried to get 16 ignition wires drilled out on the distributor cap, but only had room for about 12. Sorry.

[The interior does not fit into the body.]

Next came the body. The interior does not fit. Period. The gymnastics required to fit the interior tub, the dividing wall with its window and frame, the front seat, the dashboard and windshield into the outer body shell were aggravating enough to nearly stop the project cold. I finally got it all in place (I think) and painted the interior light gray with some dark wood trim. I masked off the window openings and painted the body with about 8 light coats of Model Master enamel, thinned with regular mineral spirits. I shot the gloss black first, then waited a few days for it to dry. This was masked and the red was applied the same way. I avoided any clear coat, because a vintage paint job from the 1930's would not have that kind of depth.

[The lower rear body came with optional cane strips applied in a criss-cross pattern over the red paint]

The body style of this car was "Fleetwood #4264B", and was called a Razor-Edged Brougham. The lower rear body came with optional cane strips applied in a criss-cross pattern over the red paint, and the model has raised ribs representing this, which are (thankfully) rather well done. To duplicate this finish, I masked off the rest of the body and dry-brushed Floquil acrylic Old Concrete over the raised canework, building up the color very slowly. A few spots were overdone, filling in the red underneath, but I was able to touch these up with a very small brush. The roof of the body was supposed to be colored leather paneling, so I sprayed this with clear flat to tone down the gloss.

There's lots of chrome on this kit, but that fret had the same terrible flash problem, and by the time I cleaned off all the extra plastic, and saw-cut the parts off the sprue, the chrome was badly damaged. Some problems could be hidden depending on how the part was installed, but not all. Model Master Chrome paint was used to touch up some spots, and when this was tacky, SnJ powder was buffed into it with a Q-tip. It wasn't as good as the original plating, but it hid some problems. The radiator shroud had large attachment points on each side, and once these were cleaned up I had a big problem. I wound up covering both sides of the shroud with adhesive aluminum foil, with the seams even on both sides near the top. Again, not perfect, but better than it was.

[I painted the interior light gray with some dark wood trim.]

Final details went on, and the glass was installed. I made window cranks and door handles for the inside from soft wire, flattened with vise-grips, and then cut and bent to shape. The only weathering was a very thin dark gray wash on the interior to bring out some of the detail on the seats and door panels. The extremely vague instructions were little help locating most of the accessories, so I guesstimated most of those points.

I was pleased with the finished model, largely because I knew how bad the kit was. Actually, if the massive amounts of flash hadn't been there, uh... well, it would still be a terrible kit. I see now why I never finished it the first time.

[I see now why I never finished it the first time.]