Restoration Playart: Fiat Dino, Toyota Corolla Sprinter SL, 1978 Honda Accord, and 1973 Mitsubishi Galant GTO MR coupe

During my Playart purchases over the last few years some are playworn and are ok by my standards, and then there are cars that are really worn and require a repaint and this is what you see here.  Four Playart castings last year were repainted to return the cars to its former glory and in better shape with additional details (though the paint kinda hurt my Sharpie tips) and some of them are rare, even super rare.  Let’s take a look at them:

Fiat Dino

The Fiat Dino is indeed related to the Dino 246 that helped Ferrari gain traction in a new mid-size sports car area.  In fact, the Dino was all started by Enzo Ferrari who needed a new DOHC V6 to qualify in Formula 2 racing; however, Mr. Ferrari would refuse to put his name on a V6 powered car so he used his late son’s name, Dino, and with a contract from Fiat produced the engine and the mid-engine sports car all without a hint of the Ferrari name.  Meanwhile Fiat wanted a piece of the action so they created a stylish coupe and convertible also wearing the Dino name.  The coupe shown here was designed by Bertone and featured a sleek fastback look with canted forward front-end, sweeping up side windows, and a slight coke-bottle rear fender design that would be imitated by others later on (see the Playart Isuzu 117).  The engine is the 2.0L DOHC V6 that produces 158 horsepower to the rear wheels by a 5-speed manual transmission and unlike the mid-engine Dino the engine is up front.  The spider appeared later with styling done by Pininfarina and has a much lower front-end with visible front fender humps.

As mentioned before this is an uninspiring model as it looks too close to the Isuzu 117, yet still it’s a great-looking car.  The front has a chrome mesh grille with round headlights and a lower bumper, while the sides show off the sleek fastback look and a beltline that expands away from the roof over the rear fenders.  The rear has rectangular taillights in a rounded arch trunklid design and a chrome bumper that wraps around the rear, while the wheels are the same Playart 5-spoke design that make the car sit too high.  There is no opening doors or rear quarter windows, but the interior is nice with light blue seating for four, black 4-spoke steering wheel, and a rising center console where the center stack controls and shifter reside.

Toyota Corolla Sprinter SL

On the other side is this econobox from Toyota and while Playart has released the first-generation Corolla with a smaller front grille and rounder headlights, this is the second-generation SL model with a different grille design and larger headlights.  The Corolla featured coke-bottle styling for 1970 yet still looked very typical Toyota with styling shared with the Corona.  A wagon was also offered until the arrival of the LiteAce van in the next Corolla generation.  Unlike later Corolla’s this one still has rear-wheel drive layout with a 1.6L SOHC I-4 that produces 75 horsepower through a 4-speed manual transmission.  The interior featured seating for four with a canted forward dashboard design that has the controls geared toward the driver.

This one looked in pretty bad shape with a crack on the grille and the rear bumper almost gone, along with a rear axle that bottomed out.  After supporting the rear axle to get it into normal position, adding a custom rear bumper (that went slightly crooked) and a fresh coat of paint this Corolla is ready to go.  The front has a chrome grille that is large and features round headlights with square grille surrounds for a unique look over the earlier Playart Corolla versions, while the sides show a fastback look on this coupe to a typical coupe profile and 5-spoke Playart wheels.  The rear has square taillights and a license plate area that sticks out past the body and the body is rather thick compared to the sleeker Dino sports car.  Like the Dino there is no opening doors and the red interior does not have much of details aside from the four seats with the rear seats sitting a bit too far forward.

1978 Honda Accord

At Honda the success of the Civic was a given as it was fuel efficient with its innovative CCVC system, but over time people and families do grow and thus was a need for a larger car.  In 1978 that would be the Honda Accord, a larger four-seat hatchback with a sedan version also offered while the coupe became the Prelude.  The styling carries on with the Civic, but with four headlights up front, a longer wheelbase, and horizontal taillights.  Inside the interior had a modern dashboard layout with everything except the gauges lower than normal, 4-spoke steering wheel, and a digital clock mounted far back in the center than normal.  The engine is a 1.6L SOHC I-4 with CVCC that produces 70 horsepower through a 4-speed manual transmission.  This car would become the first Honda built in the U.S. and would be the best-selling Honda in the U.S.

This is the latest that I’ve seen a Playart casting and it looks pretty good for a change.  The original paint was green, so I changed it to blue with my own added detailing and it looks much better now.  The front has a chrome grille with round quad headlights and the tall front bumper that is part of the base, while the sides have a clean hatchback profile with 5-spoke Playart wheels that somehow work here.  At the rear is the horizontal square taillights and lower rear bumper that is part of the metal base, while the hood has a visible hood scoop near the cowl.  The doors open up to an interior with similar qualities of four seats, no dashboard, 4-spoke steering wheel, and lack of a shifter.  Still, compared to other first-generation Accords in 1:64 this one is pretty spot-on.

1973 Mitsubishi Galant GTO MR Coupe

The last Playart restoration is the crown jewel, a rare one: the Mitsubishi Galant GTO MR coupe, or as Playart would say on the base Hip Up GTO MR Coupe for some strange reason.  This is the Japanese sports car designed to play with the U.S. Muscle Cars in style even if it’s a half-cylinders short.  The Galant was Mitsubishi’s newest car entry that was larger and ready to take on the Toyota Corona and Nissan Bluebird with dynawedge styling and a fleet of bodystyles and engines to choose from.  The GTO was the fastback version of the Galant and was styled with American Muscle cars in mind with bright vivid colors, side decals, twin hood scoops, blacked-out headlights, blacked-out wheels, louvered side windows, and blacked-out rear valence panel.  The interior has a driver-oriented control layout with 3-spoke steering wheel and floor shifter, while the engine is a 1.7L SOHC I-4 that produced 97 horsepower through a 4-speed manual transmission.  Eventually this wild graphics package would subside to increased wedge shapes in future Galant models.

There was originally orange paint on this Playart casting, but much of it was long-gone, so I repainted the orange and also added my own detailing to really make this car pop out and be true to the original 1:1.  The front has a chrome twin grille next to blacked-out headlight frames that are part of the metal base and conceal a first for Playart: clear headlights inside that are part of the window trim.  The lower bumper is silver and has attached signal lights, while the hood scoops on the hood are hightlighted in black trim.  The side profile has a nice coke-bottle design with fastback roofline, 5-spoke Playart wheels, and detailed side window louvers and I added the black side hockey stripe.  Note the chrome trim on the lower beltline that was impossible to see as the chrome faded to the same orange as the body so during paint prep I accidentally started to grind on it with the Dremel that I was using.  Same thing happened at the rear, but thankfully I was able to avoid further damage and finished the areas back with a silver Sharpie.  The rear has a lip spoiler on the trunklid and on the valence panel the taillights and rear plate area are part of the chrome trim as the bumper, though I painted the taillights red for a more realistic approach.  Man does this car look cool now!  As usual there is no opening doors and inside no dashboard, but it does have a black 4-spoke steering wheel on the left-side, seating for four, and a center console.  This GTO was one of the last Playart castings and is much harder to find than any of the others, so I was not only lucky to find one I was able to bring this one back to life and make the cool-looking exterior pop out again.