JS23U

The orange one is a pieced together clone, judging from the photos. The car wears Barracuda (not 'Cuda) nameplate, and that's what it probably originally was: A Barracuda. The funny looking shaker with black painted surround is wrong, the side marker housings are black instead of body color. The rear wing is a 1971 gull wing. The air cleaner is a 340 unit without snorkel, a 440 has dual snorkels. Nice looking car, but not original. The pink one looks convincing and correct except for the later steering wheel. But pink Six Barrel four speed 'Cudas are so rare that I'd doubt the originality of this car until I've seen the data plate. It is just to good to be true...

And hopefully they support the window frame with some removable plastic runner. I have two of the old kits, one with a broken frame, one with a bent frame. I once compared the Chevelle Hardtop with the convertible and the El Camino annual (not the newer tool 68). It seems to me they all came out of the same mold. There are some funny parting lines on the El Caminos interior where they omitted the rear passenger compartment.

While digging for 'Cuda shaker colors I found this: http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4480873&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1 Original poster asks for the shaker color for his B5 blue 'Cuda. But it goes on with exact argent color and texture, primer overspray on the inside (!), primer color and so on. On page 2 is an interesting post quoting one of the original painters at Fram. Long but interesting read. Edit: And this http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=A12&Number=6782246&Searchpage=2&Main=6779076&Words=%2Bshaker+%2Bcolor&topic=&Search=true#Post6782246

Were getting a bit off topic here with the 72 440-6 cars... but I love this kind of talk I can't add much to what Chris said. I have read of some more cars none of which seems to be proven. And I don't have any VINs of these. I heard 4 Chargers and 2 RRs had been built, including the three that were mentioned above. All of the cars are told to be automatics. One RR is said to be blue, but which blue is up to your guess. BTW the pic of the red Charger's fender tag is probably mine. John, an ex employee at Ron Slobe's R&R salvage in Missouri gave the original photos of that specific Charger to me when we visited the yard in 1999. The Charger was already sold, so I never saw it in person. Slobe had owned some buildings full of rare Mopars, of which we only saw the remains, because he unfortunately died in 1993 (?). To come back to the topic he also had a white 70 Cuda convertible 440-6 pilot car. IIRC the VIN ended 0B100006. But again, I didn't see that car either...

Tim, I don't say that there never was a blue shaker car. Chrysler surprises people every now and then. Just think of Hemi four doors or 72 Six Pack cars. Chris: You are right on vinyl tops and interiors. But for stripes there were both possibilities. On a 70 Challenger the longitudinal stripe was available in light (pale) green, this was V6F. On the other hand the strobe stripe on the 'Cuda was a high impact colored stripe, hence the J in the code, not F. John: If you see this red striped 'Cuda please try to make a picture of the fender tag (under the hood on the left inner fender). There should be a code like V6E (or maybe V6R) for a red stripe. But you probably know that...

The green strobe stripe should be V4J, shouldn't it? Like in FJ5 or FJ6 for Limelight or Sassy Grass Green, respectively. I doubt the accuracy of Peter Sessler's books. They are quite old and at least when I looked at them had a lot of errors. The Dana 60 axle was used on all RB-engined (440, 440-6, Hemi) cars with four speed transmission plus the same engines when they got the 4.10-axle ratio on automatic cars.

Does anyone have a pic of a 'cuda with a factory blue shaker? Also, I have quite a collection of fender tag pictures, but none of them shows V6W for a white (or even red) hockey stripe... They must be very rare, I tend to believe many of the restored cars with a white stripe got them because on that specific car the owner liked it better than a black one or whatever belonged on the car.

Nice build, Tim ! You know that white hockey stripes were not available from the factory? Concerning the wheel wells: Starting in about mid-January 1970 the Hemicudas got the wheel well trim (chrome) deleted. This was only on the Hemis, all others kept their chrome trim. Could be of help when correcting those areas on the kit. About the shaker colors I am pretty sure that the silver shaker was standard on early cars unless you ordered a red car. Later in the year black was available. My guess is that black replaced silver on the shakers as there was no option code to choose if you wanted silver or black. 71 shakers were all black, hence it would make sence to me that late 70 shakers were already black. Maybe someone knows more about the red shaker cars. As I know several red cars with silver shaker there must have been a connection to something else, maybe the colored bumper group or the painted sport mirrors. I would doubt any other color available than these three as Chrysler (or the manufacturer of the shaker bubbles) had difficulties getting them painted, as someone already wrote. AFAIK they found a solution but it was quite expensive, so they limited it to red. I have seen sevaral body colored shakers on Cudas as well as Challengers. But I'd doubt every single one unless someone shows me some good proof like a photo from the day of delivery or something like that. Even then the dealer could have painted it...

I just received my replacement glass parts from Revell. Took about six weeks but as I am overseas it is absolutely ok for me. Thanks a lot to those Revell people !

Jeff, that is my wish also. A regular wheelbase long bed truck is a beauty, a camper special with the lwb like the AMT seems to be quite exotic and not really appealing to my eyes.

A 72 kit should be white and should have t-roof along with metal axles. Some Javelin/AMX kits came with the 73/74 body (no t-roof) but the 72 rear bumper/grille chrome part. This leaves a gap around the rear grille. Another hint for this is the red plastic. Maybe your "72" is one of these? Johan didn't bother to change the box after the 72 model year. The 73 and 74 issues came in the same box. Just as the 74 to 76 Johan Eldorado kits all came in the 74 box. Your 71 sounds like being the Donohue kit.

From what I know: JoHan 71 and 72 kits (and promos) had the T roof, which is correct for both years and would be correct for Javelins (non AMX) as well. The roof of AMX and Javelin is always the same in a given year. JoHan 73 and 74 kits (no more promos) had a flat roof, which again is correct. The JoHan kits molded in color are kits that came on the market after the annual run. I don't know the exact date but I would guess in the eighties. Most of them are the ones with the 73/74 taillights and colored taillight bezel. Early reissues had the 73/74 body but the 72 rear bumper/grille which leaves a gap around the rear grille as the 73/74 bezel is bigger than the 72 egg-crate grille, like Raoul wrote. The 71/72 cars didn't always have a vinyl or contrasting color top. I'd say this was an option, but not sure. Except for grille, taillight and the T-roof body the JoHan kit stayed more or less the same over the years. 71 had a different steering wheel. Starting with the 73 the model got small bumper guards. The 71 and 72 promos had the wheels like the Rebel Machine, I don't know about the 71 AMX, but at least all 72-74 AMX glue kits had Magnum style wheels. Maybe the 71, too.

Are you sure that the box and the contents belong together? The box shows a 1970 car, the model is a (long nose) 69 car. I'd say the model is from a different kit. As I heard it both versions of the "Mach Won" were identical except for boxes. Maybe some small differences but nothing big. Also, the body of the Mach Won was more or less stock. Edit: At least one ot the Mach Wons was molded in yellow.

I once had that metallic blue version. Although knowing the age of the molds I was so disappointed of both the parts quality and the cab proportions (windshield, as Ed wrote) that I finally sold it and never again bought one. But I love this year's cabin because of the wraparound windshield. It is the most appealing year for me of all those "early" Ford Trucks.

@Gabriel, PM sent !

I bought a 70 Bonneville hardtop body (for the Model King convertible issue). That one is really nice and I had absolutely no problems with him. But it's a few years ago now...

I tried Dave as I mail ordered several items from him directly in the past. I am pretty sure I will get at least an answer. I'll try Revell if he'd neglect.

In my kit the front and rear window "glass" was broken from careless packing. Should I contact the Model King or Revell? Dave's email is on the box...

JoHan did a 68 Ambassador convertible. AMC did not ... AMT and MPC each made a 76 Corvette convertible, Chevrolet didn't. The 1961 Corvair annual had convertible/coupe building options. AFAIK Chevrolet brought a Corvair convertible starting in 62 or 63.

I would bet that at least the kit Hardtop and kit convertible came out of the same mold, just using different inserts for the roof section vs. sun visors. Maybe even the promo mold is the same one.

In my opinion the Revell wheels don't look deep enough. That's the reason I am looking for replacements, as well.

Anything new on this topic? Will the Demon kit be based on the new tool Duster?

The Challenger SE had the Code JH29, or JS29 as R/T SE. There was no JP. This was correct for the Barracuda, where there was no "29", but the different car lines were BH (Barracuda), BP (Barracuda Gran Coupe) and BS ('Cuda) with "23" being Hardtop and "27" convertible. The Power Bulge hood (twin scoop) was available on base Challengers starting at around mid year (Dec./Jan 1970), although it is quite rare. I don't think it was restricted to any engines, so technically even the /6 was probably available with it. The Challenger 340 had the PB-hood as standard as well. The Challenger 340 basically was an R/T with a smaller engine and without the R/T badging and some other options missing. The shaker hood had limited availability, as John said. That led to the fact that some Hemi Challengers got through with the black T/A-hood from the factory, if the original buyer wanted a fresh air hood during the time the Shaker was not available. Shakers might even have been available on some base Challengers, but I'm not aware of any for 1970. In 71 there were several. But AFAIK the least engine must have been the 340, as the shaker base plates were all different for the particular engine because of carburetion and height of the engine. Chrysler probably didn't tool up any parts for a combination of /6 or 318 with the Shaker option. How many would have been sold ? Jens

The one from the top of the scalemate-page is the Marui-kit which I also have. Here are some pics of the body, excuse my lousy photographing abilities The body is one without the bolted on flares. It is a GTS version but is lacking decals. I think the one on the lower left of the scalemate-page is an older version of the Marui kit which has decals. This Pantera came to a US-car meet over here in Germany on the last weekend. Seems to be an early US-version with its side markers (usually no side markers on European cars) and the small bumpers. The valve covers and air cleaner have "DeTomaso" and "Pantera" scripts which makes me think they might be original equipment. The valve covers were very thick and looked like aluminum die-cast parts that were polished afterwards !

Hi Jeff, yes, I have the kit with black plastic. Is from the late 80s, I think. I can post pics, but it would take a while...