Late '70s / Early '80s american boxy cars?

[shirakawaa]

Hello,

I need the help of USA GTPlanet users. This might sound like a strange request, but I need various examples (make/model) of late '70s / early '80s USA cars that are boxy and overall simple in shape. The reason is that I want to attempt modeling in 3d a car, and since I'm still a newbie in this field I would like a model that is simple (those with straight surfaces instead of curved surfaces are simpler to model) but also that isn't seen around very often.

A few prerequisites:
- There have to be blueprints in relatively good quality of the car at least in the front, lateral and rear view. Without these I can't model the suggested car. You can leave the task of finding blueprints to me, however.
- There have to be many high-resolution photos freely available on the Internet (for reference, etc.)

I don't care if the car you choose is a sports car, in fact, it would probably be better if it's an "everyday" car. A good example:

Jeep Wagoneer

Your turn!

* * *
I'll list below your suggested cars and if I've found suitable blueprints.

Buick Electra Estate ... no suitable blueprints found so far
Buick Regal (1st gen) ... Found, low accuracy (hand drawings)
Cadillac Brougham ... Found, low accuracy (hand drawings)
Chevrolet Caprice (3rd gen) ... Found, low accuracy (hand drawings) [Link]
Chrysler Cordoba (2nd gen) ... no suitable blueprints found so far
Chevrolet Malibu Wagon (4th gen) ... no suitable blueprints found so far
Chrysler Fifth Avenue (1st gen) ... Found, low accuracy (hand drawings)
Chrysler LeBaron (2nd gen) ... no suitable blueprints found so far
Chrysler LeBaron Coupe Found, low resolution, only lateral view
Dodge Aspen 4-door sedan ... Nice quality and resolution, no perspective distortion, all views. Potential inaccuracies. [Link]
Dodge Diplomat (6th gen) ... Found, low quality (photos from a scale model)
Ford Country Squire (6th gen) ... Found, low accuracy (hand drawings)
Ford Fairmont 4-door Sedan ... Fair quality, no top view [Link]
Ford Granada (NA version) ... Found, low accuracy (hand drawings)
Ford LTD (4th gen) ... Found, low accuracy (hand drawings)
Ford LTD Crown Victoria (facelift) ... Fair quality, no top view (and perspective problems?) [Link]
Ford Thunderbird (7th and 8th gen) ... no suitable blueprints found so far
Lincoln Continental Mark VI ... no suitable blueprints found so far
Lincoln Versaillers ... Found, low accuracy (hand drawings) [Link]
Mercury Cougar (5th gen) ... no suitable blueprints found so far
Mercury Cougar (6th and 7th gen) ... Fair quality, no top view
Oldsmobile 98 (9th gen) ... Found, low accuracy (hand drawings)
Plymouth Volare 2-doorcoupe ... Nice quality and resolution, no perspective distortion, all views. Potential inaccuracies. [Link]
Pontiac Bonneville (7th gen) ... Fair quality, no rear and top view
Pontiac Parisienne (5th gen) ... Found, low accuracy (hand drawings) [Link]

 

[Antonisbob]

Love these cars, here's a few;

Dodge Diplomat

Chrysler 5th Avenue

Ford Granada

Chrysler LeBaron wagon.

IH Scout

Chevy Malibu Wagon

Plenty of pictures on the net, hope that helps & good luck!

 

[shirakawaa]

'78 Dodge Diplomat

Nice! But let's add some photos so that it will be clearer and easier to see at a glance what cars we are talking about.

 

[Anna+Reece]

1977 Ford Thunderbird, maybe?

 

[Murcie_LP640]

EDIT: Ignore me, forgot it was American models.

 

[shirakawaa]

Good job with the suggestions, keep them coming. Unfortunately so far I've not been able to find many blueprints of them. I'm adding in the first post blueprint status for the suggested cars I've searched on the Net.

 

[Antonisbob]

I've got a few more.

1978 - 1983 Ford Fairmont. Blueprints? http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/cars/ford/24239/view/ford_fairmont_4-door_sedan/

1979 - 1991 Country Squire.

1980 - 1983 Lincoln Continental Mark VI.

1980 - 1982 Mercury Cougar.

1977 - 1984 Oldsmobile 98. 4-door blueprints? http://www.smcars.net/forums/attachments/oldsmobile/113468d1285518337-oldsmobile-98-regency-1980-1980-oldsmobile-98-regency.jpg

 

[Doth1s]

Do you want just cars? The F150's, Silverados, S10's and such were also very boxy during that period.

 

[shirakawaa]

Thanks again for the suggestions.

I found another suitable one:

1987-1992 Cadillac Brougham

Can you believe this car was still in production exactly as it looks above in the early '90s ?
By the way, these full-sized sedans all looked very similar to each other.

Do you want just cars? The F150's, Silverados, S10's and such were also very boxy during that period.

Yes, I'd prefer cars than trucks but thanks for the suggestions anyway, will look at them.

 

[disinfected]

Ford LTD 1979-1982

 

[shirakawaa]

Thanks again... unfortunately for most of these old american cars I can only find nicely drawn but inaccurate blueprints, which make the modeling task harder than I thought.

Anyway, seeing the photos posted above, it looks this Ford LTD it's got the same identical headlights as the Dodge Diplomat and the Oldmobile 98 of around the same years, which is strange because these cars were made by each of the competing Big Three (Ford, GM, Chrysler). Were they trying to copy each other or were there agreements because they all came from the same factory(ies)?

 

[Tornado]

That was just the style of the time. That's what this was parodying. Incidentally:

Chrysler LeBaron wagon.

Holy crap man. I did a double take.





It's the same reason why nearly every sports car after 1984 or so looks like a Porsche 944.

 

[Celicaas]

A 1980 caprice

 

[Tyger]

'77 Buick Regal:

Any later Regal/Grand National/GNX is pretty boxy too.

 

[shirakawaa]

A 1980 caprice

Another old american full-size sedan which remained in production virtually unchanged from the late '70s until the '90s
And again, unfortunately I've only been able to find hand-drawn blueprints.

By the way, I think I'm starting to understand why american car makers started to decline around those years, basically when the rest of the automotive world was going forward, they were using 25-30 year old bodies, chassis and engines which actually got worse year after year due to the manufacturers' failure to cope with emission standards with innovation. In the case of the Caprice toward the end of their life they had a 5 liters 140 hp engine - usually I don't mind the low hp per liter rating of older big USA engines, but that was pathetically low.

 

[Antonisbob]

That was the styling of the era. At least they all looked good. Nowadays every car looks the same (bad). Few more;

1977 - 1980 Lincoln Versailles Hand-drawn Blueprints; Missing Top view. http://carblueprints.info/blueprints/lincoln/lincoln-versailles-1977.gif

1977 - 1986 Pontiac Parisienne Hand-drawn Blueprints; Missing Top view. http://www.smcars.net/forums/attachments/pontiac/113381d1285369064-pontiac-parisienne-brougham-1985-1985-86-pontiac-parisienne-brougham.jpg

1977 - 1990 Buick Electra Estate Wagon

1980 - 1983 Chrysler Cordoba

The '80s (for me at least) was the last era of good looking automobiles, after the full-size RWD car was killed I lost interest.

Also, LTD blueprints:

 

[Celicaas]

FYI The1980 1984 caprice was rather have diffrences with 85 90 caprice

an 89

Another thing american cars are strong and solid and comfortable and reliable


unlike what you said in fact the chevy caprices nowadays which is actually holdens are weak same for the chevy impala

 

[shirakawaa]

'77 Buick Regal:
Any later Regal/Grand National/GNX is pretty boxy too.

For the 2nd gen Regal it's easier to find better blueprints because of the GNX
But that is a more widely modeled car than other ones depicted in this thread, which is nothing bad per se, but don't want to "compete" with others' models.

The '80s (for me at least) was the last era of good looking automobiles, after the full-size RWD car was killed I lost interest.

Leaving aside their technical characteristics, I think those cars looked unmistably american. They had personality.

Also, LTD blueprints:

Aren't the LTD and the LTD Crown Victoria "different" cars?
By the way, I think these blueprints have some perspective (though I'm not 100% sure), which is bad for my purposes.

1977 - 1990 Buick Electra Estate Wagon

Same headlights as the Buick Regal 2nd gen, something to keep in mind for easier modeling and reference.

 

[Tornado]

By the way, I think I'm starting to understand why american car makers started to decline around those years, basically when the rest of the automotive world was going forward, they were using 25-30 year old bodies, chassis and engines which actually got worse year after year due to the manufacturers' failure to cope with emission standards with innovation. In the case of the Caprice toward the end of their life they had a 5 liters 140 hp engine - usually I don't mind the low hp per liter rating of older big USA engines, but that was pathetically low.

To be fair, the problem wasn't with the full-sizers. Those were able to stay pretty much unchanged for decades because the people who bought them didn't want anything else. After they were all downsized in the late 70s, they were basically fine with small updates over the years; and the only reason they stopped making them is because the market disappeared when SUVs became popular.


The real problem was that none of the Big 3 (GM in particular) bothered to do much of anything with their smaller cars throughout the 1970s; and those were the cars which were their bread and butter and the segment was much more competitive from imports. They introduced smaller cars in the beginning of the 70s, and then they let those stagnate. Then GM made more "modern" FWD cars in the early 80's, and left those those alone until the mid-90s; which is where a lot of the stigma comes from. Chrysler and Ford actually put a lot of effort into their cars after the 80's (they built their entire companies around the K-cars and the Taurus, respectively), but GM represented the whole market and everything that was wrong with it.

Aren't the LTD and the LTD Crown Victoria "different" cars?

Depends on the year. In the late 70's/Early 80's, the LTD was a fullsize car, and the Crown Victoria was a trimline of it. In the mid 80's the LTD was basically a 4-door Mustang, and the LTD Crown Victoria was still a full-size car (and was basically the same thing that was still sold up to last year).

 

[Antonisbob]

Yes, if I remember the LTD was mid-size and then the LTD Crown Victoria was full-size, can get confusing sometimes, lol. I'm not sure about the perspective myself, it seems a little off.

EDIT: How could I forget the 1976 - 1980 Plymouth Volare/Dodge Aspen.

This one has nice Blueprints:

1977 Plymouth Volare 2-doorcoupe Blueprints: http://www.smcars.net/forums/attachments/blueprints-donation/133088d1327837930-plymouth-volare-2-ddor-coupe-1977-77volare_outline.gif
1979 Dodge Aspen 4-door sedan Blueprints: http://www.smcars.net/forums/attachments/dodge/111057d1280118482-dodge-aspen-4-door-sedan-1979-79aspen_outline.gif

 

[shirakawaa]

1977 Plymouth Volare 2-doorcoupe Blueprints: http://www.smcars.net/forums/attach...volare-2-ddor-coupe-1977-77volare_outline.gif
1979 Dodge Aspen 4-door sedan Blueprints: http://www.smcars.net/forums/attach...e-aspen-4-door-sedan-1979-79aspen_outline.gif

Thanks again. These ones aren't really blueprints, but ortographic projections of 3d models. This is not bad per se (actually, with these you can be sure that there's no perspective distortion), but one has to keep in mind that he is modeling from potentially inaccurate reference. To get the basic shapes right they're perfect however.

 

[Antonisbob]

Thanks again. These ones aren't really blueprints, but ortographic projections of 3d models. This is not bad per se (actually, with these you can be sure that there's no perspective distortion), but one has to keep in mind that he is modeling from potentially inaccurate reference. To get the basic shapes right they're perfect however.

I learned something new today. Interesting.. Also, no problem, this gives me a chance to look at the cars I love.

 

[mustangGT90210]

Anyway, seeing the photos posted above, it looks this Ford LTD it's got the same identical headlights as the Dodge Diplomat and the Oldmobile 98 of around the same years, which is strange because these cars were made by each of the competing Big Three (Ford, GM, Chrysler). Were they trying to copy each other or were there agreements because they all came from the same factory(ies)?

It's because they all used the sealed beam head lights. Back then no one had lasting housings with replaceable lights. It was just sealed beam, and when it burned out you pretty much got a whole new light assembly

 

[disinfected]

Looking back, I never realized how every single car back then looked like a variation of one another.

 

[Slash]

Sports car but meh, this is probably one of the worst models of the Mustang...



'78 Mustang II Coupe

 

[shirakawaa]

That Mustang Camaro looks kind of boxy, true (and I agree it's one of the worst looking ones), but not as quite as the typical american sedans of those years which had a simpler, standardized design that probably also helped keeping manufacturing costs down in real life.

 

[Slash]

That Camaro looks kind of boxy, true (and I agree it's one of the worst looking ones), but not as quite as the typical american sedans of those years which had a simpler, standardized design that probably also helped keeping manufacturing costs down in real life.

Mustang LOL. Actually you should have seen the Mach 1 of that era

But since we are doing boxy cars, I posted the coupe.

 

[shirakawaa]

Ahem, yes, Mustang. I was aware it was a Mustang (it was even written in your post) but for some reason I had the word "Camaro" in mind. That Camaro Mustang Mach 1 is in Gran Turismo 5 too.

 

[Slash]

An earlier version of the Mach 1 is in GT5, the 1971 version. The best and fastest versions were 1969 and 1970 ones as they had the best handling and max power for the time (for Mach 1's anyway, so many more Mustangs were better). That coupe doesn't look too bad compare to the 1965 version but definitely not the best one.

 

[mustangGT90210]

Sports car but meh, this is probably one of the worst models of the Mustang...



'78 Mustang II Coupe

That's nothing compared to the atrocity of the '78 King Cobra... Yet for some reason I dig the king cobra...