1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner

[THarrison351]

The 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner is an incredible car.  A fully automatic hardtop convertible! I've watched videos of a Skyliner in action and it is an impressive marvel. According to the Wiki page on the Skyliner, the top has seven reversible electric motors [only six for 1959 models], four lift jacks, a series of relays, ten limit switches, ten solenoids, four locking mechanisms for the roof and two locking mechanisms for the trunk lid, and a total of 610 ft of wiring. From what I know about today's automatic convertibles, if one of those switches or relays are out of sync, the whole thing fails. Danbury Mint and Franklin Mint have both produce a few versions of the car. DM having a much higher detailed product due to it coming out at a later time period. The DM has a fully operational and retractable top and it can be deployed by pushing on a hidden button in the spare tire cavity on the chassis. The interior is nicely detailed with movable seatbacks and visors. A fully detailed, wired, and plumbed Ford 312 Y block is under the hood. When you open the trunk lid to raise or lower the top, the small storage compartment in the lined trunk is exposed along with simulated lift cylinders and plumbing.  The gas cap door opens too. All in all a beautifully executed diecast. When I won this, the only obvious thing wrong with it and it was disclosed by the seller the RH vent window glass was missing which I fabricated and replaced. However, when it arrived it was quite worse. The seller placed it in the Styrofoam shell as is without any protection around it. It proceeded to beat itself to death inside the Styrofoam. The rear axle springs were broken, the windshield was loose, a door was askew and the door sill underneath had come unglued. Fortunately, nothing was so bad I couldn't fix it. The biggest disappointment has been the top. It won't fully deploy. Nothing appears to be bent or broken, I just can't get it to come all the way forward to the windshield header. It misses it by about 1/32". I don't think this was from shipping. I think it was built that way. Oh well, here's the pictures

Tomorrow I post the 1964 Aston Martin DB5

[randyc]

That's a beauty.   I shopped for it and the FM version.  Ended up with the red/white FM version.  No one that sees my cars has noticed the inaccuracy of the paint on it.  Yet.  LOL.   I was really wanting one of these just for the green paint scheme.  DM really did a better job, but I can't remember the timeline - probably later than the FM?   Or just done better?   Seems as if in most cases, DM did a better job in general for whatever reason.  Sorry to hear of the shipping damage.  Crazy that it could damaged so much in the original styro.

Are the skirts removable?

I have mine in a case with the top half deployed so you can see the marvel of that top.  

[Gramps46]

Very impressive model.  Thank you for sharing.

[Geno]

I have this one as well, I display it top down because that interior is so beautiful I don't want to hide it lol.?

[THarrison351]

12 hours ago, randyc said:

Are the skirts removable?

Now that you ask, I had noticed they seemed like they might, but I hadn't tried. So, to answer your question. Yes, they do.

[Sam I Am]

That is a beautiful rendition and color for this car.

[randyc]

Sweet! With the removable skirts that's even better.    And that green version is awesome!