Lindberg 1/32 1976 Ford Granada

[Maindrian Pace]

After a few years of auction watching, I gathered up all three Lindberg 1/32 '70s Fords; the Granada, Monarch, and Thunderbird. I Started with the Granada, the other two will be coming later. It didn't make any sense to do a build thread on a kit with 25 parts, so here's the last page of the story.

These Lindberg '70s American car kits are all nice little units, well proportioned and reasonably accurate bodies with minimalist interiors and little else. But it's rare to see one built and detailed, they mainly go into the collector stashes. The Granada started as a box of light yellow plastic with a light tan interior insert. The interior had no side panels, so you would see the inside of the body looking through the windows. I made the side panels - no detail, just to carry the interior color to the sides.

Wheels were swapped for the Magnum 500s from the Monogram '69 Charger kit, (optional on Granadas in the day) and those whitewall decals are the very first set made in 1:32 scale by Vinyl Nation. Darrell didn't offer them, so I asked if he could make them, he said "Sure", I gave him the specs, and there you are. Great product he offers. Paint is Model Master Italian red base/clear lacquer rubbed with a polishing kit and Treatment wax, roof is Classic white without the clear, interior is white primer, carpets brush painted red, and the whole assembly semi-gloss cleared. The white rub strips in the middle of the side trim are self-adhesive model airplane Monocote cut into strips with a straight edge. You really haven't lived until you've BMF'ed a 1/32 car with a lot of trim, at least the Monarch will go faster.

-MJS

Edited November 3, 2013 by Maindrian Pace

[Pat Minarick]

Very cool , I like it!

[cobraman]

Looks great !

[1930fordpickup]

Neat little model .

Brings back a few memories .

[slusher]

Thats sharp. l never knew they made this kit...

[ChrisBcritter]

What a nice job! I've never had the Granada kit; it really captured the car's lines better than I expected. I built one of the Grand Am kits but it was an SPFX miniature for a friend's Godzilla movie, so it was short-lived...

[PappyD340]

Very NICE build Mike, brings back memories for me too, I owned two 77 Granadas one was white the other was dove gray. Yours looks great!!

[Tom99]

Great looking model, I'm looking forward to seeing the other two when you get them built.

[cortinanut]

Great to see such a modest kit brought up to such a standard. Fantastic work!

[bbowser]

Really nice work, especially considering it's 1/32! I remember there being a LOT of these on the road back in the day.

[Harry P.]

Beautifully done!

[Dave Van]

WOW!!! Cool work! I remember those kits....never picked them up...other than the 77 T-Bird. Call me odd but I'd buy that kit or a cloned 1/25 version today!

[Chris White]

I really enjoyed seeing a showroom Granada again. I don't think they looked that good when they where new. Thanks for sharing

[1972coronet]

Mike , that is one spectacular 1976 Granada !! The 'Magnum 500' wheels look spot-on .

I've wanted one of the Monarch kits since they were new !!

In spring , 1976 , my parents bought a new 1976 Monarch 2 door ( Ghia 'package' , 351W two barrel , A/C , etc. , etc. ) . It was silver metallic with a silver 1/4 vinyl top , and 'cranberry' red bucket / console interior .

The dealership had those Lindberg Monarch kits available through thier parts department ( almost 40 years later , and I can still see that display behind the parts counter !!). I wanted one in the worse way . My pleas and beggings went unrequited ( ).

Now , it's on the "the 'bay" , in search of one of these 32nd scale Monarchs !

[Harry P.]

Remember when Ford ran ads comparing a Granada to a Mercedes?

[Maindrian Pace]

Thanks everyone, this was a fun stress-reliever between bigger builds.

Mike , that is one spectacular 1976 Granada !! The 'Magnum 500' wheels look spot-on .

I've wanted one of the Monarch kits since they were new !!

In spring , 1976 , my parents bought a new 1976 Monarch 2 door ( Ghia 'package' , 351W two barrel , A/C , etc. , etc. ) . It was silver metallic with a silver 1/4 vinyl top , and 'cranberry' red bucket / console interior .

The dealership had those Lindberg Monarch kits available through thier parts department ( almost 40 years later , and I can still see that display behind the parts counter !!). I wanted one in the worse way . My pleas and beggings went unrequited ( ).

Now , it's on the "the 'bay" , in search of one of these 32nd scale Monarchs !

John,

Funny you should mention the 1/4 top, both the Granada and the Monarch come with full tops (and some pretty deep sink marks in the front fenders):

I wanted to differentiate the Monarch, so I added trim and sanded the vinyl off of the front of the roof to make the 1/2 top:

And believe it or not, I was planning silver with maroon interior and top. The Monarch will take longer, because it isn't exactly accurate. Monarchs used different fiberglass front header panels, headlights, taillights, grilles, and marker lights. Lindberg just changed the scripts and rear trim panel, tooled up a new grille, and called it a day. It comes with the incorrect Granada headlights, and since they retained the Granada header panel, the grille was made to fit the hole, and is too narrow. So some plasticology will have to take place there.

-Mike

Edited November 3, 2013 by Maindrian Pace

[Guest]

Very nice, would like to get these.

[realgone58]

Wow, you really made this kit look fantastic! Can't wait to see the Monarch! Oh how I wish these were 1/25.

[CSMO]

Thanks for posting this. I owned an '80 Granada ESS two-door coupe. It was one of the last of the original body-style Granadas. It was Silver-Gray Metallic with a matching Vinyl landau top. It had the basket weave 15" wheels a Burgundy interior. In my opinion it was one of the best looking cars that I ever owned. I kept it for 5 years and traded it in on an '86 Ford Mustang 5.0 ragtop(mid-life crisis upon turning 40). Well done on your build. Adios, Larry.

[Porscheman]

Beautiful build!!! I remember these but never built one.

[Dave Van]

I always thought the Thunderbird was the worst of the 3 but I did not know the Mercury had the incorrect front end!! Great work!

[blunc]

Nice work, nice to see those wheels worked out so well.

Can't wait to see the other two done.

[Erik Smith]

Very nice model. I like 1/32 scale kits - different subjects and they don't take up much space!

[S. Svendsen]

Neat. I had one of those Monarchs when I was a kid. In fact I had pretty much all those 1/32 Lindbergs. Then I sold them all because I wanted all my models in the same (1/25th) scale. Yours is the nicest one I've every seen built.

Edited August 26, 2013 by S. Svendsen

[stevehansen]

Excellent, fun memory lane