Carmak

The 1:1 orange hauler was based on an early 60's Chevy truck and it was built during the "bobbed" era when the look was to shorten the wheelbase and completely remove any the rear overhang. I always thought it would be cool to use a couple bodies and extend it a little and give it back some rear overhang, but I never got to it. Too many projects and not enough time

I have owned a few 8-lug Pontiacs over the years and switching back and forth between standard brake drums and 8-lugs was and easy job and did not require anything with the axle. In the front is was the same as replacing a front hub/drum assembly and in the rear it was just 5 lug nuts (the rear drums just bolted to the axle and those lug nuts were hidden under the center cap).

The Revell 69 Camaro is hands down the best 69 kit out there BUT let's be clear about which "AMT" kit is being discussed. AMT: The original issue AMT Camaro was decent kit for it's time with decent proportions. The AMT kit was then modified into the Hugger Camaro funny car with modified wheel openings. Model King re-issued this kit a few years ago as "Camaro Funny Car". A note about the AMT Camaro, the RS headlight covers are molded as part of the body (the funny car kits are still this way). MPC: The original issue MPC Camaro was also decent kit for it's time with fair proportions. The MPC kit was then modified into the Harrell's Camaro. It was again modified into the Jegs Camaro dirt track car (this really cut it up bad). In the 80's MPC attempted to "restore" it to stock and the result is a bit of a mess. I suspect this restored MPC kit is the kit sold as the AMT Yenko Camaro. Disclaimer: since I am a survivor/rebuilder guy that is what I have available for pictures The pictures below are a green original issue AMT 69 convertible (really hard to get a picture of) and a yellow original issue MPC 69 coupe. In person the AMT wheel openings look better to my eye than the MPC wheel openings but both are much better than the current Yenko wheel openings. Carmak

Tim, That 70 Impala build really inspired me as a builder. I was a pre-teen when those articles were published, and it really pushed me to improve my skills. Thank you! Craig (Carmak)

Interesting, I had never heard about tool theft in the 70's. Everything I had heard was about mold theft in the last days of Seville. It does explain the mismatch parts. I always figured the custom parts were blocked off to save money (plastic).

It was in the 90's when it was noticed that Johan (Seville) was not paying royalties.

To appreciate some of the wonky colors and flash it is important to understand that Johan was operating on the edge for the last couple decades. They would acquire whatever plastic they could if it was inexpensive, so color was not a concern. They are could not afford proper mold maintenance which resulted in all the flash. It is my understanding that one of the car companies discovered they were not getting royalties which shut Johan down. The employees stopped getting paid, so they started taking and scraping molds as payment. Very sad.

I was partial to these two sitting next to each other downstairs

I am very curious to see pictures of the cars once they are stripped. If the paint actually crazed the plastic the surface of the plastic will no longer be smooth even after it has been stripped. Crazing is when the paint/primer reacts with the plastic. Removing the paint will expose the damage caused by the reaction but it will not remove the damage. If the plastic is smooth after striping, then I would look at a possible issue with the paint/primer.

I general I like Kindig design cars. Not everything about every car but in general I feel his designs look at least as good and often better than the original. There are a few specific things I like about Kindig designs: * He designs have cohesiveness, At Motorama I noticed the central speedo bezel on his Ridler Vette had a slight teardrop shape that reflected the shape of the roof taper and the rear license plate enclosure had slightly angled sides that lined up perfectly with the roof taper when viewed straight on from the rear. * His designs use chrome correctly, as a trim. I feel he has a good sense of how much to use and where to use it. The flush fit windshield trim of the Ridler Vette is amazing. * His designs incorporate some very challenging changes to achieve a subtle affect. I currently have a 67 Belvedere 2drHT. The odd tilt of the roof line in relation to the body is a strange quirk of these 66-67 B-bodies that was caused by Mopar’s desire to use the same door glass in all 2drHT’s (the roof line tilt is for the Charger’s fastback). Kindig’s 67 Coronet build goes to some effort to correct the roof tilt, It is subtle but makes the car look much better.

It is a little plain, but it looks fairly good built with a little color.

Just for reference that funky topper was molded in clear.

Round2 opened up all of blocked gates on the most recent issue of the 69 Galaxie which included many parts for the 68 Galaxie. If you watch the HPIGUY review/build you can see there are extra suspension and interior parts in the 69 kit that were parts of the 68 kit. The seller was partially correct that they came from the 69 kit but your good eye spotted them for what they were.

I also saw something about laws enacted against squatted trucks. Kinda reminds me of the way laws were enforced against hot rods and muscle cars (loud ones) back in the day. The same car that would have gotten me pulled over when I was 20 now gets a friendly wave from the police when I rumble by .

I don't have a ton of vintage (pre 1980) unbuilt like some guys here have, I am mostly into rebuilding/restoring vintage builder annuals. I store those in these nice cardboard boxes I get from work. I have 2-4 models in each box. The stack of vintage boxes was just for fun to get an idea as to how well they would stack if I displayed them in another room (my wife said no ). Most of my modern stuff is in the ceiling. It is organized by make, model and year.