Mark

I'd just clean that GTO up, and in the display case it goes. I never did find a complete one, but did find a parts box with the roof from one in it.

They sell those same wheels as "rat rod" wheels now. They are semi-gloss black instead of chrome, and don't have the wire baskets. You're supposed to paint/pinstripe them to individualize them.

It's 1/32 scale, could be Pyro. Palmer knocked off a number of Pyro kits, it could be one of those also. One of them (Pyro I believe) was last available as a Lindberg kit.

I can't find it, but there is/was a YouTube short video showing a mechanic trying to remove the cam cover in (IIRC) a Chevy Colorado. The intake manifold has to come off to get to the cam cover, as it crosses over the top of it. Somehow that leads to the front cover coming off, and that incorporates the engine's oil pump. To get all of that off, the oil pan has to come off. To get to that, he's tearing into the front suspension. Someone mentioned the first-generation Colorado having been designed be GM and Isuzu. Actually it was mostly GM, as they reworked most of Isuzu's original work. I remember test driving one in 2004 when I was looking for a new pickup. Push the button to roll the passenger side window up/down, and see the interior door panel flexing. That was the first truck that got scratched off the shopping list. GM made sure to clear all of the S-10s off the dealer lots before sending out any Colorados (except crew cab 4 X 4s, as the Colorado equivalent wasn't being built yet). They would have been way smarter to just update the S-10 back then.

It's the cheapest way to do it. They might claim the "safety" angle if someone there actually thought of it while being asked about it, but it's the cheapness that's at the root of it. In other cars GM has shoved the battery and other items into other hard-to-access areas. There's at least one car where the battery is shoved under the front fender, and when the battery terminals corrode it actually shows on the fender.

I worked with a guy who was hit and miss when it came to keeping tabs on his cars. One day he complained that his car (late Seventies Ford V8) was running hot. He went to the parking lot and checked the radiator, it was okay. I mentioned checking the oil, he went back and did that. "It's four quarts low". "You do know that engine only takes five quarts, and nearly a whole one of those is in the oil filter, right?" Puts oil in, it doesn't overheat on the way home.

Volkswagen left the building for me back when I was considering one of those early Eighties Rabbit pickups. According to the owner's manual, 400 miles per quart was considered normal oil consumption. No wonder they were good on gas...

I believe it was '37 through '40 in the USA, though it lived on a lot longer elsewhere. It was probably a "delete option" here, meaning you got the 85 hp engine unless you specifically ordered the 60. The 60 brought with it a few unique parts, like the lightweight tubular front axle on 60 equipped 1937 cars that is highly sought after. I would get some good images of a 60 with transmission attached, then scratchbuild the thing. It's basically a miniature version of the regular unit, and those don't seem to be terribly complicated in terms of shapes needed to duplicate it in scale. I want to stick one of those engines in an Anglia or Thames, so when that happens I'll probably scratch the thing.

The 1/25 scale 60 hp V8 ends up being about the same size as a 1/32 scale 85 hp V8. The transmissions are about the same size relative to one another; that is, the 60 transmission is that much smaller than the "big" unit. So, you'd have to find a 1/32 scale part, or scratch one proportionally smaller to work with the smaller engine.

Haven't seen an aftermarket one; however, one version of Revell's 1/25 scale midget racer kit had a modified V8-60. No transmission though, only an in/out box.

Plastic parts and wet belts don't belong anywhere near an automobile engine.

The two are different kits entirely. The instructions for the Thames panel truck would be helpful for the Anglia. The Henry J and (Revell) Willys pickup use the same chassis as the Austin, so either of those instructions would work for it.

Of all of them, Packard WAS building cars only eight years prior. Of course, the end product was the Sixties equivalent of a Cadillac Cimarron, but it was only meant as a placeholder until Studebaker-Packard could get funding in place to build "real" Packards once again. Which, of course, never happened. Interesting that Exner didn't take a swing at a Cord, technically one of the most interesting Thirties cars. Glenn Pray did build a miniature replica...but if you really think about it, Oldsmobile did a better job with their attempt in 1966...

Those items were included in the AMT/Ertl Customizing Series kits from the late Eighties. There was a '50 Ford convertible, '49 Mercury, '66 Buick Wildcat, and '66 Thunderbird. Also included was some two-part putty in two ("A" and "B") packets. The two things on either side of the tweezers was a sanding stick. The two pieces snap together, you're supposed to cut a piece of sandpaper to wrap around the larger stick and then snap the smaller piece on to hold it in place.

The 429 version of the kit was done long before the 302. The towers must be correct for the 429, otherwise the engine wouldn't fit. The 302 is the incorrect kit, using the 429 kit's body unchanged in that respect.

Those aren't old tires. They are from a pre-Round 2 tooling that has probably worn out, as R2 has retooled that tire which looks a little bit different now. AMT introduced that tire with the '64 annual kits, and used them into the Seventies. Early ones didn't have wide whitewalls as auto manufacturers phased those out prior to then. AMT (the original company) never made those with wide whitewalls.

Not '57 Ford.

Gotta be Round 2, most likely a Fifties car. I'll guess '57 Ford, but I won't be able to check for a few hours. The original AMT company did print both sides on rare occasions, but always narrow stripes. I have had a set or two with narrow white stripes on both sides. Most often they were red on one side, white or blue stripe on the other side. But the one pictured is definitely more recent.

The promos often had updated chassis compared with the kits. The '69 and '70 GTX promos have correct underbody detail while the GTX and RR kits have a slightly changed '64 B-body piece. The Ambassador and Rebel kits all use a modified '66 Marlin underbody while the promos are more correct. Same goes for the AMC engines; all are based on the Marlin block, ironically that was the only kit for which the underbody and engine were 100% correct. AMC phased in a new V8 during '66, for '67 the earlier engine was gone. But to an extent, AMT and MPC tended to update chassis, interiors, and engines less often than the car bodies. Both were cranking out big-block Corvettes through 1977, and MPC's Barracuda and Challenger kits had Hemi engines right to the ('74) bitter end.

The '71 annual kit included the Air Grabber and louver inserts as separate parts. MPC probably just left both in the '72 kit not knowing about the change, or not wanting to spend the money to make the change.

Maybe it was repossessed?

Nobody has brought it up yet...the engine/transmission and underbody parts in the '71-'74 annual kits are carried over from the '68-'70 Coronet. Same short Torqueflite with the tailshaft molded as part of the exhaust/rear suspension piece, same headers, and so on. Alterations were made to fit it under the Charger body. The custom station wagon roof pieces are a pretty good fit on the new-tool '71 Charger. I was going to go that route, but lucked into a built '73 that had already been converted. The wagon roof was missing, as was the hood, but I did turn up replacements for both.

All of that older stuff getting scrapped was long before Round 2, or even Ertl, entered the picture. Ertl got pretty active as far as unearthing old tooling, and Round 2 is picking up where Ertl left off. They aren't going to say what is there or not there. That way, if something were to be found but later discovered to be not usable, they don't end up with a bunch of people mad at them for not bringing it out.

Tooling still in their possession had to be assigned a value. If, at the time, they didn't see any potential use for it in the future, they'd declare it to be worthless and "write it off".

Check the kit's parts against the instruction sheet. Moebius kits sometimes have open space on a parts tree or two that give the appearance of missing parts when there are none.