[Closed] Has anyone had any issues with metal fatigue and paint

Lloyd, I have had no problems so far with my 1952 4-door DeSoto from FM.

Thanks, Mike. I just noticed a few days ago that the door to my

V-16 Caddy fell off!! it appears that the metal just cracked and let go. I then noticed that the other door looks bad, including paint damage. We had an earthquake on Easter and it shook pretty good, so I assume that is when the door fell off. I haven't really looked at these in a few weeks. I will post pics momentarily. I just re-set door with white glue until I decide what to do.

PICS

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And, it is only the doors. The rest of the car is perfect.

Hmmmm, that looks quite like a diecast 1971

GTX in 1/18th scale from Ertl that I have had since 2002. In recent months, it suddenly developed inter-granular corrosion (aka diecast cancer) but only apparently (so far) on the drivers door, which developed a large bubble and a cracked area of paint, and then, with only a light pressure the entire metal door cracked easily like a stale cracker !

This has been documented with several models so far in 1/18th, but can seemingly happen in any scale with a metal car. Tiny amounts of impurities within some batches of Zamac/zinc alloy used in diecasts appears to be the initial factor, but it perhaps could happen to any metal alloy under certain conditions.

Thankfully, although a number of cars have been affected, it doesn't (yet) seem to be a really widespread or common condition, taking the amount of models produced as a whole over the years.

I've noted metal fatigue on a few old diecasts from Japan and Russia

The Brits saw this problem many years ago, and the big guys enacted strict quality control so post-war Dinkies and Corgi Toys are pretty safe. I have a Crescent Ferrari that has a wrinkled nose, and once owned a Mercedes with similar problems in the base. I'm watching my 1970's era Russian diecasts because two had problems, sadly one was a MiG-15 that was truly a beautiful piece of casting. I just sold a Cherryca Phenix Model Pet Daihatsu that had the beginnings of the problem, but the buyer didn't seem to care.

No paint crazing issues, but serious metal fatigue ones. Or maybe it was due to poor casting technique, but two FM 1/43 Packard Caribbean
convertibles bent like bananas while they were stored in their boxes. It was
so noticeable that the cars couldn't be displayed. The center of the car was
higher than either end, and it actually forced the doors open to accommodate
the body's desire to deform itself.

I gave one away and disassembled the other one for parts, of which there
were a lot. I had no idea that so many parts went into the car.

I had the same thing happen to two 1/24th models as well: one was the
Danbury Mint '58 Impala convertible that bent in the middle the same was as
the smaller Packards did. I can't remember which other model bent like that,
but there was a lot of discussion about it at one time on the BB.

I'd be curious to know if others who have owned, or now own, the FM 1/43
Packard have experienced the problem with their model. If it's packed away,
you might want to check. Then again, you might not want to.

No problems on the 11 FMs I have.

Rick, I had two FM Packards that bent while on display.

Slightly off topic; bent FM in a larger scale that someone tried to pass off as "rare" a couple
of years ago...said it came that way from the factory.

So we know it applies to others in their ranges, as well.
Must've been from their "Parallel Universe" series...

TG

That's it! That's what my 2 FM Packards and the DM 1:24 Impala looked like!

Its just a bad bondo job. Obviously it was wrecked prior to you getting it & was not disclosed !

Sure not! Just a different Zamac batch for body and doors.

Diecast junk

Good reason to stay with white metal models and not complain about the price.