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Johan 64 Polara HT Ramcharger


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I have a 64 Polara 500 HT Ramcharger builder that is in great shape, only requiring maybe some new decals, the hood scoop (which I've found) and general cleaning.  I got interested in the correct build for this car and have been stuck trying to find pix of the HT Polara Ramcharger while pix of the 330 based sedan Ramcharger are everywhere.  I even have the Ramcharger history hard cover (great book btw) that makes no mention of a HT and shows only the 330.  Was Johan taking liberties with the decal set by including them in their max wedge HT kit?  I think there may have been an altered wheelbase FX 64 HT that was run but nothing less that I could find. 

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There was a Ramchargers '64 hardtop, but it was never raced.  It was a display/backup car.  One of the East Coast car magazines had it for a couple of days, and actually drove it on the street!  The article was reprinted in one of the muscle car magazines in the Eighties.  The hardtop was a wedge engine car.

The Jo-Han 1964 annual kit had the wedge engine, with the cross ram intake and also the cast headers that didn't make production. 

Jo-Han reissued the '64 hardtop kit in '65, except the engine was changed to the Hemi.  The '65 reissue kit has all of the customizing parts, still has the Polara side trim on the body.  

They issued it again in '68, this time with no side trim and no custom or showroom stock versions, but with a complete early Logghe chassis included.  The annual and the first two reissues were in flat boxes.  A 1972 or so reissue went to the more normal (for Jo-Han) narrow/tall box, and eliminated the Logghe chassis, leaving only the super stock version.  The Ramchargers decals were eliminated also.

All of the Hemi engine versions have the wedge hood scoop and incorrect fenderwell headers.  Those headers weren't used with the Hemi, or even on all of the wedge engine cars.  To build the Jo-Han kit as the display car would require a switch to the wedge engine, and probably some tweaks to the interior and body side trim also.

 

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This must've been an original from 64 I'm guessing, just by the the look and feel of it.  It did have the side trim but it wasn't completely removed is still partially visible.  As you can see it does have the wedge engine.  I may try and gently take it apart to be able to clean and re-decal.  In keeping the car original I could try and source an original, useable decal sheet although that might be wishful thinking.  The Lindberg 330 kit uses the Candymatic decal instead of this kit's Candystick, plus the original had the front fender engine call-out decals and didn't use the stock eliminator fender decal.  Nit picking I guess as I'll likely have to settle for the newer decals unless I can find an aftermarket source.  Slixx didn't appear to have the originals, or any others.

Thanks as usual Mark!

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That's an annual alright!  Jo-Han really upped their game for '64.  All of their '63 kits had engines but they were simplified.  The '63 interiors all had front and rear seats molded as a unit with the bucket.  The '64 Dodge and Plymouth kits had separate front and rear seats, and a much better engine than the '63 kits.

That said, I'd leave that one the way it is, and build a Lindberg sedan as one of the actual race cars.  The Lindberg kit is a Hemi car, but the Color Me Gone sedan has the wedge engine.

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5 hours ago, Mark said:

Fake, fake, fake.

Lettering leans the wrong way.  Always leans forward on both sides.  The Candymatic lettering should be on the quarter panel, not the front fender.

Maybe they put the decals on backwards - left to right, right to left.

5 hours ago, keyser said:

I’d probably get a better trailer. 

I agree, looks overloaded and tippy as it is.

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