Motor City

1970 cyclone at DuckDuckGo

Round 2: Your Collection. Our Passion. scroll down the link for the video ...

I didn't know there were so many grille variations over the years.

I believe all of the '65-'68 Fury III hardtop and convertible kits have bucket seats. I only have the promos, which have the bench seat. Bucket seats would definitely appeal more to kit buyers than a bench seat. Jo-Han provided bench seats on the Cadillac deVille promo models and most - if not all - of the '64-'68 deVille kits came with bucket seats. Buckets were optional on the deVille through 1968 and on the Coupe deVille through 1967.

it does look nice; as I recall, you could only get bucket seats on the Sport Fury

There should also be a small, rectangular VALIANT emblem on each front fender of the '70.

My take on it is that you could order a lot of speed parts from the parts dept. of your local dealer: heads, cams, dual-quad or tri-power carbs, ram air package, ram air hood, different axle ratios.

That block has changed dramatically since I graduated from Dearborn High School over 50 years ago. It had been a series of old buildings on Monroe, with the 1896 Wagner Hotel on the SW corner of Michigan Avenue and Monroe. Ford Motor Company renovated the hotel for office and restaurant space as part of the revitalization of that minor portion of the shopping district. Many of the buildings have been fixed up with new brick veneer, windows, lighting, electrical, etc. It looks better than it did when I was going to school. Thanks for posting the photo, Dave!

No, I don't recall that hobby shop. It must have been by Adray's Appliance. Dearborn had a few good hobby shops in the 1960's such as Harb's and Joe's Hobby, as well as Kresge and ACE Hardware. Some of the drug stores like Jack's carried a good selection. I bought most of mine there since I lived just West of Telegraph and would walk there.

I bought the '75 Ventura kit at the Detroit auto show and just couldn't get a good result filling in the hole in the hood where the hood scoop was supposed to go. Too bad the correct flat hood wasn't included.

I don't know if you still live in the Detroit area, but the strip mall was demolished several years ago, and the Sears was demolished a year or so ago. I just drove by it a couple of weekends ago to attend a funeral and it is fenced off for redevelopment. There used to be so many good hobby shops and retailers that carried kits back in the 1960s and 1970s.

H-1200 1955 Cadillac Eldorado H-1201 1955 Chrysler New Yorker St. Regis H-1202 1955 Ford Fairlane Sunliner H-1203 1955 Buick Century H-1204 1955 Mercury Montclair H-1200-6 1956 Cadillac Eldorado H-1201-6 1956 Chrysler New Yorker St. Regis H-1202-6 1956 Ford Fairlane Sunliner H-1203-6 1956 Buick Century H-1204-6 1956 Mercury Montclair H-1206 Autorama (Century, Eldorado, Fairlane, New Yorker) H-1209 1956 Continental Mark II H-1229 Ford Customizing Kit H-1230 Buick Customizing Kit H-1231 Chrysler Customizing Kit H-1233 Mercury Customizing Kit

AMT did make promotional models of the 1950 through 1956 Studebaker coupes.

It looks like the body had a hard landing before it was even assembled into a stunt car!

I have the original '69 promo in a pinkish color with a darker painted and textured vinyl roof. Maybe Buick wanted the promo made with a vinyl top since it started to become a very popular option in the 1966 model year for many cars.