Carmak

I was at the meeting where he showed it "as a survivor??". I was waiting to see how bad it looked under the paint.

So, you ended up with Chuck's nasty green Malibu! You are the perfect person for this. Do you have a plan for the rear? If not, you are welcome to dig through my stash of vintage custom front and rear ends. Craig

My thought on Round2 buying Hasegawa's tooling is that could involve a lot less capitol and resource time than a clone tool. I would rather have a readily available but flawed 66 Bonneville than hold out for a clone 66 Bonneville that my never come.

An interesting option: Round2 could attempt to purchase the Hasegawa tooling for the 66 Bonneville (and 66 Cadillac). The Hasegawa kit needs improvement (interior, chassis, interior and interior 😊), but the body is a fairly nice copy of the original MPC body.

Let the record show that I am a full size (B-Body) Pontiac guy. I have owned multiple 65-69 Pontiac B-bodies over the last 30+ years and I still have a garnet red 69 428 Bonneville convertible. The only kit I would like to see more than a 66 Bonneville is a 67 Bonneville (or a 2+2). With my business hat on I think a 67 Galaxie would sell better than a 66 Bonneville.

I would also say the Lindberg body and interior are comparable to MPC kits with the following exceptions: * Super nasty hood shaker thing. Harts Parts has a nice twin scoop hood for this kit. * Caricature of the front fender side trim. Just sand it off. * Oversize/oddly shaped taillights. You can live with these or get a trans-kit from Harts Parts. In general, the body lines and proportions are good. The attached picture is a PSM 71 Challenger. The Lindberg kit is a modified version of this kit. The engine and chassis kind suck but it you are building a shelf model they will work. If you would like a better chassis the AMT 70 Challenger is a good source.

Round@ was showing the MPC 72 Chevelle at NNL East. This is completely different tooling than the AMT/ERTL 72 Chevelle. This is the tooling used for the 72 Chevelle promos. This body was modified into a stock car in the early 70's and restored to mostly stock in the 80's (SSlasher kit molded in black and another version molded in red). This kit correctly has a portion of the fender extension between the headlight bezel and the hood.

I would love to see a 70/71 Cyclone clone but.... My concern with the 70/71 Cyclone is that was no promo and the kit has a fairly complicated chassis/interior/engine compartment (the chassis and engine compartment are similar to the 71-73 MPC Cougar). The complicated aspects of this kit require more engineering and tooling investment than some of the other clones. Additionally the complicated chassis/engine compartment in the Cyclone kits is less than great. Effort is required to eliminate the wheel sag and to get the car to sit correctly. I have a 71 rebuilder in the pipeline and it will sit on a Revell Torino Chassis.

To anyone looking to make a correct 68 Super Bee - All 68 Super Bees were 2dr. post sedans with pop out rear qtr. windows and bench seats. The 2dr hard top and the 2dr post sedan shared the same roof and window opening shape but a post as shown below would need to be added.

Chuck, Your love of subjects with a load beds would point me towards recommending a Aussie phantom UTE build. I am not talking about an El Camino type build which typically has flowing stylish lines. Chrysler UTEs typically have a chopped off roof look as they were meant to work. I know There were never Aussie built B-bodies so this would be a phantom. Bonus points if you use the Aussie only (non-slant) straight six.

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).