Chuck Most

The AMT reissue is essentially the same kit, except it comes with some options this one didn't, probably parts from the old Color Me Gone version. The AMT kit also comes without stock tires. It has the Goodyear NASCAR tires from the Petty Belvedere. It also has more warp than a typical episode of Star Trek. I bought it mainly for the decals and so I could use the other photoetch grille included in the MCG set.

2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of Pierce Trailer Sales, and the final year of ownership by John Pierce. This summer, he will be stepping down and putting the dealership up for sale. As a means of celebrating, and giving the old man something to have fun with in his retirement, sons Dan and Jason and daughter Andrea arranged a gift. John started his trailer selling business with a 1964 Dodge 330. The pale blue slant six sedan was nothing special, but it was as reliable as the tide and more than powerful enough to pull a lightweight and handy size Haul-Away trailer, so it was his first "company car", and delivered and demonstrated numerous trailers for customers. Time eventually caught up with the old Dodge, and it was sold, it's current whereabouts unknown. So the kids searched for another '64 330. Thanks in no small part to Andrea's connections in the local antiques market, a disassembled but buildable 330 was found and purchased from an auction in Indiana. The car was hauled to Pierce Brothers Fabrication, the shop owned by Dan and Jason. In 2003, Dan and Jason had done some work for a customer. Unfortunately for the customer, he ran into financial problems and had to "pay" them with an item in place of money. The item? A 426 Hemi. Granted, it had seen better days, but it was a 426 Hemi above all. The boys rebuilt the engine in their spare time, and kept it on a stand in their lobby, occasionally wheeling it outside and firing it up for people. The plan All along was for the Elephant motor to end up in a "special project". All these years later, Dan and Jason figured it should end up in this project. To back up the healthy Hemi, the Pierce Brothers built a 727 automatic and a Dana axle. Period style traction bars help transfer the torque. The Hemi exhales through full dual exhaust with cutouts. The boys kept the interior simple, just replacing the front bench seat with buckets, and moving the shifter from the column to the floor. A Pioneer head unit supplies tunes. Aside from the hood scoop and Pierce family trademark Allis Chalmers Persian Orange paint, the body remains mostly as it came from the factory. Modern radial tires and American Racing wheels replaced the original 14" steelies. Finally, though the original '64 is long gone, the original Haul-Away hitch it had was saved , and spent five decades in the corner of a shed on the Pierce family farm. It was cleaned up, repainted, and installed on the finished car. The Mighty Mopar front plate was swiped from John's office. It was previously on several Rams and Ramchargers he had owned over the years. Johnny is still pretty sharp at 74, but even so, he didn't even notice it was missing until he saw it attached to the bumper. The kids presented the Dodge to John in April, and he's spent a little time behind the wheel so far. Dan says if there are any bugs that need to be worked out, John should find them quickly, and he (Dan) will get on Jason to sort out said bugs. They hope to have everything up and going smoothly by car show season. If you're at any car shows in the central Michigan area, and you see this big orange Dodge, say hello to John and Jill. And wish Johnny a happy retirement! And that original Haul-Away trailer it's towing? That's on loan from Andrea's Tried And True Antiques. You might see it being towed by the 330 when John isn't boiling off the back tires. The model is the Lindberg kit, and boy howdy did it not go together smoothly. Practically nothing fit together in a positive way. Ironically the parts brought in from other kits and the aftermarket actually fit better than the Lindberg parts! I don't remember the kit giving me this much grief when I first built one twenty odd years ago, but back then I probably wouldn't have known any better. My original plan was just to use the wheels and tires from the Moebius Satellite on an otherwise box stock 330, but obviously I ended up going a little further. The engine is a Ross Gibson Hemi with Mickey Thompson rocker covers from Morgan Automotive Detail. Wheels, tires, shifter and seats came from the Moebius 1965 Plymouth Satellite, and so did the section of exhaust with cutouts. The traction bars and hitch came from the MPC 1968 Coronet, and naturally so did the Haul-Away trailer. A Model Car Garage photoetch grille and instrument panel were used, along with the front plate from Best Model Car Parts. The scoop came from a Revell '68 Dart. Standing in for Allis Chalmers Persian Orange is Tamiya Orange. The electric fan is meant for an HO scale locomotive but looks perfect as a 1:25 scale radiator fan. Not the best experience I've had building a kit but I'm reasonably pleased with how it came out. Might be time to tear into the similar '64 Belvedere kit next time I'm in the mood for a passenger car project.

My real hangup is the purple. That's a shade of purple that just doesn't seem to exist beyond the Big Al. 🤣

Not sure how I missed this originally, but nice old Dodge. One of these days I want to model a Big Al engine. I think an AMT Cummins would get me about 75% there. I've got an Illini Big Horn that I need to pay more attention to.

I've never had quite as many problems with this kit, but you did and still got a great looking result. Just goes to show that sometimes a little skill and a whole lot of patience is all it takes.

This was just a fun project, a kitbash between the (now) AMT Dodge L700 and the AMT Ford C900 Garwood packer. The rear frame rails were grafted onto the Ford chassis to get the wheelbase to 153". Basic large subassemblies were mostly out of the box, though I added a winch cable made from leader line and added some work lights. Line-O reflective tape was used in place of the kit waterslide decals. The paint on the packer body started the entire project. I found a can of Rust-Oleum Satin Moss Green in the garage, and thought it was an appropriately hideous color that would look good in a garbage truck. The same green was used for the wheels, bumper, and grille.

Late to the party but.... I've been poking around online because I be had a similar project in mind. I've found photos of exactly one on all of the Internet, from an episode of The Fall Guy. Things I keep going back to. 1. I'm not 100% sure if it's a functioning garbage truck or just something a television studio threw together, but, well, it existed in full scale. 2. I'm also not 100% sure that's a Garwood 900 body. Sure does look close to me, though. 3. The Garwood 900 went into full production in 1972, while the L600/700 went out of production in 1971. Any combination probably would be a later refit, assuming there was ever more than one L700/Garwood 900 in existence in the first place. Still thinking about moving forward on the project though.

If it were a little more beat up looking it would resemble a real one that used to lurk around my area.

You were right the first time. It's a Ford cab. Budd stamped it, but Ford designed it and paid for the tooling. Any manufacturer who wished to use it needed approval from Ford.

If he's the actual AMT Kat, I can't claim that was my intention. I just wanted to incorporate the Kat logo for whatever reason.

I swear it's medicinal!

My favorite thing about the tail end of Johan was the chrome sprues. As has been mentioned, they would just run the parts in whatever colors they had handy. And since the plastic would be covered in chrome, sometimes they'd just throw whatever odd bucketfuls of colors that I imagine they'd swept off the floor. If you ever strip the chrome on a later Johan part, be prepared for anything. It might be the same color as the raw plastic. Or not. Could be several colors. I've seen a few that were a treat of psychedelic swirls of color once the chrome came off. 🤣

Oh... Don't think for a second that basically that same idea HASN'T crossed my mind. 😁 I don't think there'd be much Australian about it, more like Chrysler wanting a cut of that sweet sweet Ranchero/El Camino market. I always thought it was odd that Chrysler didn't get into that market until the Rampage/Scamp.

I don't think so. I got my M months mixed up.

I asked my local shop a couple months ago and they said their supplier was saying late March. Well, I think they blew that deadline. 🤣