Mark

Rather than swap the front clip and taillight panel, I'd swap the lower half of the quarter panels. The new '65 body lacks scripts and windshield wipers, but the photoetch stuff can take care of that.

Ertl had a Customizing Series in the late Eighties, and the Thunderbird was part of it.

The top ones look like they are from the '40 sedan kit. Lower set might be from a '36 kit. The AMT '40 coupe had a different set from either of these.

I mentioned the Volare as, though the engine is much the same as those in the annual Duster/Dart Sport and recently tooled Demon, the Volare has an automatic transmission while the others are four-speed equipped. The IMC engine's three-speed could be used, you'd just have to rework the back of the transmission to a passenger car configuration. That could probably be done by lopping the tailshaft from a parts box manual transmission and piecing it onto the IMC part, after the mounting bracket is trimmed off. A lot of cars had three-speed transmissions back then, so that would be a legit option.

The IMC Dodge engine is a 273, so it should work. Accessories (oil pan, exhaust manifolds, alternator drive belt) are all probably different from what is needed for a Barracuda. The IMC engine has a three-speed manual transmission with a unique rear attachment setup for the pickup chassis. That will also need to be reworked or replaced for the Barracuda. The MPC Duster/Demon, '75/'76 Dart Sport, or '80 Volare engine/transmission might be better, with the intake and air cleaner replaced with earlier parts.

Hoods will be separate in both kits, and there will be some underhood parts like firewalls. The earlier '64 Chevelle and '68 GTO also had separate hoods.

The 1:1 '65 Fairlane is actually an inch or two longer than the '66.

The original issue Fireball 500 used a strange choice in tires, the front tires from AMT's Indy car kits. The AMT Mach I fastback Mustang concept car also used those. AMT had a few sand dragster kits out at that time, those used the taller rear tires from the Indy cars. My guess is that the mold for that style tire produced both front and rear tires, and AMT had to pick something to use up the front tires as well as the rears.

The body is longer than the stock '65-'66 Barracuda mainly up front, because of the nose extension. The chassis and engine in the Fireball 500 kit are actually the parts that had been used in the '65 and '66 kits, with different headers and with the molded-in exhaust detail removed.

The original HUG did have stock front suspension and a cross-ram Hemi. Like the Little Red Wagon, it was originally intended to be a racing package. The injectors went on both because they were easier to deal with in a wheelstand situation.

I don't think the '70 kit had the spoiler; you'll have to look for one of the '71-'74 kit pieces.

I wouldn't use that glass; instead, you can search for either another stock Cyclone clear tree, or one from the newer '66 Fairlane kits.

Though I never owned a GM product, whenever I shopped new vehicles I had one or more on the comparison list (through 2004). After the last time, nope. All four of my siblings did own multiple GM vehicles in years past...none of them have one now. They have lost generations of customers, and I have no idea what they could do to have another shot at getting them back.

The '66 wheel openings could be reworked back to stock using the '65 as a template. Sheet plastic, epoxy putty, and a little two-part glazing putty.The Dodge body is a Polar Lights piece. After piecing in a strip of plastic to build up the height of the body below the beltline, the wheel openings were reduced in size using an annual kit body as a template for the rears (and as a starting point for the fronts). All that is just sheet and strip styrene, and two-part glazing putty. This was done long before the Moebius kit came out. My educated guesses on the wheel openings were pretty good. The Olds is a Modified Stocker body; again the wheel openings were restored to stock using an annual kit as a template, with sheet plastic and two-part putty. If you have done custom work on a model car body, you can do this.

Boy, I'd bet a lot of people wish that those Tamiya slot car bodies would resurface, specifically that Plymouth Fury. The foreign companies weren't the only ones issuing anything and everything as a slot car. Monogram did some stopgap slot cars with kit bodies, like the '40 Ford pickup, '58 Thunderbird, and even a Duesenberg. AMT did a few 1966 cars in 1/25 scale. I have a Mercury Cyclone, and have seen fullsize Ford and Chevy assembled slot cars. Jo-Han didn't sell complete slot cars, but did offer four bodies: Toronado, Rambler Marlin, Plymouth Fury, and Chrysler turbine car. An operation called Paramount sold assembled Toronado slot cars utilizing the Jo-Han body. And, yes, the slot car was front wheel drive.

Oldsmobile was squandered. Rather than starting up Saturn, GM could have reinvented Oldsmobile, much as the division itself wanted to do in the Seventies. I guess GM wanted to sell new dealer franchises though. The different V8 engines was also a waste of money once smog and (later) fuel economy testing entered the picture, as each 350 V8 had to be tested separately. The engine switching deal happened mainly due to Cadillac wanting the Olds 350 for the Seville. This at the same time Olds was gunning for first place in sales with the Cutlass. Somehow GM couldn't build enough Olds engines, yet somehow they never ran short of Chevy engines. So some Cutlasses got Olds 350s while others got Chevy engines. They could probably have pulled off the switch had the Chevy engines been even slightly different in displacement; say, 340 or 360 cubes instead of the same 350. GM could even have called the 350 a 347 or something just to differentiate it, like the 402 cubic inch SS 396 Chevelles after 1969.

None of it happened overnight...various stages of it have taken place over the last 60 years plus. On one hand, there's the last minute de-contenting of the original Corvair, there's slapping multiple nameplates on the same car. They're still selling the same trucks with two nameplates. On the other hand, for some time they were building four completely different 350 cubic inch V8 engines. Over time, the original GM (actually the second one; it reincorporated prior to 1920 when Chevrolet basically took over the first GM) went from being a car company that loaned money, to a bank that built cars on the side. They now seem to want to just sell and finance vehicles, not build them.

The AMT mid-engine 'Cuda didn't come out until '67. It was issued first as the fictional funny car as the body had been converted to '66 spec for the promo and annual kit, and the Plymouth Dealers car was never updated to '66 trim (though it ran into early '67). The Hemi Under Glass packaging came later, it was merely AMT being opportunistic at the time.

I'm surprised someone hasn't stepped up for that one, though I'll still say that, as a Texaco station, it isn't that good. The sign is wrong, and the station itself is one bay. I can't remember ever seeing an actual Texaco station with one bay, most had two. I absolutely would not buy that kit for the sign. Instead, I'd buy the decal pictured earlier and scratch the sign to fit the decal. Besides the decal sheet pictured, Round 2 once made a separate decal sheet with Texaco stuff on it.

Doesn't hurt to try...if things don't work out, look for glass from a reissue '66. You might luck out and find someone on eBay parting one out. Or, try to find an open, started, or damaged one, and get a new interior, engine, and chassis too.

The Texaco version of the MRC gas station is hard to find now. I had one when it was issued, but sold it later when my brother turned up three partial Buddy L Texaco stations. The sign(s) in that MRC kit aren't too great. This was more than ten years ago, but I turned up enough loose items on eBay to complete the three Buddy L stations (except the sheet metal bases, which were often thrown away). Separate Texaco signs still turn up on occasion, that might be an option.

The '57 Corvette and '56 T-Bird are very good kits, if you are open to 1/24 scale. The '32 Ford roadster is actually what's left of the early Sixties Little Deuce kit, with a bunch of changes of course. The 1/32 scale semi trailers are puzzling...both Ollie's and Hobby Lobby carry these, but no trucks to go with them.

Radiator is a Ford unit, the two upper hose attachment points being a giveaway. I'm guessing Revell '48 Ford, with '40 Ford as the second choice.

Looks like a good fit, but did you notice that the Fairlane piece is a mirror image of the 1:1 hood ductwork pictured?

Years ago, I took my Dodge Dakota pickup in for new tires. This was my '88 which I had until 2004, so this was way over twenty years ago. Two wheel drive, V6/stick. Nobody asked me if it was a stick, and it didn't occur to me to tell them. Guy goes out to the truck to pull it in, gets in, sees three pedals and walks back in. The girl working the counter was the only one working there that day who could drive a manual.