Well, this copy was not some of Ertl's better work. The car arrived in rather poor shape. The hood fit so poorly I had to take it apart to get the hood off so I could bend it back into shape. While I had it apart I decided to add the details they had left out. The chrome is hard to pick out on this light metallic blue car but I did chrome over the silver paint Ertl had added. You can see the most improvement on the wheel openings.
Getting the hood vents correct is a challenge on these cars but this one turned out quite well on the first try. The tough part is that the outer rim of the vent piece is body color, only the vent ribs are chrome. The white interior looks very nice. They did manage to get the dash and carpet appropriately black. The flocking to make the "carpet" was stuck all over one of the front seats. Luckily it was easy to remove. I added a dab of paint here and there on a knob or switch but most of the details are Ertl's.
The exhaust tips on my copy were quite troubled. One was off the car and the other had lost all it's chrome coating. I glued the one back on and chrome foiled the other. I shouldn't have to do such work, especially on a Mint. Well, it looks pretty good now. This photo shows the long chrome strip on the fender peak and door the best.
The chassis was well detailed but I did manage to add a few. I painted the shocks and steering components. Also, Ertl had painted the front fender liners red but of course Oldsmobile did not include those red liners with the W-32 package. So I painted them appropriately satin black. That has to be the biggest blunder on this car. I guess Mint doesn't necessarily mean accurate! It was an easy fix anyway.
The wheels have been detailed by Ertl, I may go back and perfect the black out sections but for now they are as they came. Here you can see the wheel opening trim, fender ridge trim and the side marker bezel chrome. I wish the W-32 and 442 badges showed up a little better.
I did manage to paint the underside of the hood and the front filler panel. You can see the correctly black fender liners. The rest of the details were there from Ertl. Between us we made it look pretty good!
