Motor City

The point is that none of those items were standard. You had to order cowl induction to get the pins and stripes. A lot of people assume that all of the muscle cars typically came with all of the cool stuff, but that's not the case.

stripes, cowl induction, hood lock pins, buckets, tachometer and gauge package were all optional on the '70 SS

GM went to the thin-shell bucket seats for '66 on the big cars (Impala SS, Bonneville, Wildcat). The '66 Wildcat has always had the incorrect '65 interior. You might be better off starting with the Revell '66 Impala SS buckets. The dashboard, door panels and seat patterns were all changed for the '66 Wildcat.

I keep my old car magazines to use as reference for painting model cars or if I am considering the purchase of an old car. Internet searches of particular cars are full of incorrectly identified cars. Many overly restored cars in magazines or for sale on the Internet have chromed parts that should be painted, a firewall painted body color that should be black (most GM big cars and intermediates), wrong wheels or upholstery. Finding photos of a less desirable body style of a car such as a four-door will usually give better results since people don't tend to restore or mess them up in the first place. Obviously this approach doesn't work with cars such as a Corvette or pony car.

The '68 and '69 had exposed wipers, while the '70 and '71 had hidden wipers. Do you have a resin kit of the Mark III?

I think a lot of the cars back then used varnished wood for a look such as with fine furniture. It makes that area of the car stand out, whereas it would just blend into the background if painted. Check out this tulipwood Hispano Suiza from a later period!

Many cars from the muscle car era came with bench seat, idiot lights and no stripes. Probably most of us would have ordered buckets, gauges and stripes if we had the money or were old enough to buy one. People often assume all of these desirable features were standard. Most of the GM intermediate muscle cars came with bucket seats in the early years ('64-'65 Chevelle SS, GTO, Cutlass with 442 option (but not F-85 with 442 option), Skylark GS. After that, they started to cheapen what came standard.

that is correct; I didn't say or suggest that the Corvair had tri-power; what I stated was: "GM dropped the tri-power (excepting '67-'69 Corvette 427) and turbo engines after '66";

usual drivel in the article ... "bespoke" is used; who speaks using that word other than snobs?

I found this on the internet ...

While in Dearborn yesterday I saw 2 Bronco Sport in the same light blue color. I checked one out up close and it looked really nice. Any rumors about a kit of either the big Bronco or the Bronco Sport?

Mark, Thanks for the great explanation. That will be really nice when you finish it. My brother bought the Bonneville kit, and I bought the Dynamic 88 kit, in '65. It was the first "adult" kit I bought as a kid after a Pyro '37 Chevy coupe started me off in this hobby. I wondered even then why the window area was messed up on the Bonneville, and would have preferred a 2+2 model instead. GM's '65-'66 "B" bodies are my favorites, and I have all of them except for the '65 Bonneville.

Mark, Thanks for the detailed information and photo. As I recall, the Bonneville had a 124" wheelbase, and the GP/Catalina had a 121" wheelbase, and the conversion to a 2+2 kit didn't correct for that. You did a great job on the window area. It looks like you removed the quarter panel to shorten it. Did you also shorten the area between the trunk and rear window? I think the 2+2 kit had fender skirts, but that wasn't a standard feature on that car. I wonder if the interior pattern was changed from the Bonneville.

Mark, How do you go about fixing the roof on the Bonneville? If you open up the side window area properly, you would add material on top along the new window edge? How do you also add a new driprail? I was going to get a Bonneville convertible promo since the hardtop was never correct when it was first issued. The Wildcat and Dynamic 88 were done properly, and most of the Impala SS's were correct, but some Impalas are also messed up on the driver's half of the body. Thanks!

Snake, An original '65 or '66 kit is the ultimate build for stock. I only have a '63 promo.

This is great news about the '64 442 hardtop, and bodes well for what Round2 is doing with their old tooling. The '65 GTO promo isn't that great. They messed up the taillights on that, too! It should have just had the ribbed panel across the entire back and would have looked better!

The '65 and '66 Corsa had an optional turbocharged engine. The previous generation's turbo model was called the Monza Spyder. GM dropped the tri-power (excepting '67-'69 Corvette 427) and turbo engines after '66. But you could probably have a dealer install a turbo kit on the '67-'69 Corvair. The silver rear panel was unique to the '65-'66 Corsa.

See why I keep commenting on fixing the Dynamic 88 tooling to make the '65 and '66 Starfire, as well as the '65 Jetstar 1 (which Chris correctly points out has the Dynamic/Delta 88 rear end)? The '63-'64 GP and Starfire and '64 Jetstar 1 also shared a roofline. The exhaust ports on the '65 Starfire tend to get very pitted. The Starfire was cheapened for '66 with a vinyl interior instead of the leather that all previous Starfires had. The '65 and '66 big Olds was available with a factory 4-speed on the 88, Jetstar 1 and Starfire: Isn't that about the coolest shifter ever?

Mark is correct; I had forgotten that the distributor was in the rear on the first generation; the engine in the photo is a 1964 or newer; I only have deVille promos for '64-'70, so I don't know when the engine was updated in the kit, but it is decent enough for most of us

It may also be a 390 (used from '59-'63). I've only had 425, 472 and 500 Eldorados, which have the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on a machined surface on top of the block, just behind the intake manifold, on the passenger side. It may be in the same location on most of the 429s. I believe the VIN is also on top, at the front of the 390 engine, passenger side. The VIN format changed somewhat over the years. For example, through '64, the first two characters are the model year, and the third character is a body code. Starting in '65, the first character is the body code, followed by one number for the model year. The VIN went to a new industry standard starting in 1972. 390 (1959-1963), 429 (1964-1967), 472 (1968-1974), 500 (1970-1976 Eldorado, 1975-1976 other big Cadillacs) I don't know if the valve covers are interchangeable between all of these engines.

Steve and Mark, Thanks for the input. The Cadillac script was used on the valve covers for the 390 and 429 engines, but the 472 (starting in 1968) and 500 (starting with the '70 Eldorado) valve covers didn't have any writing on them. The valve covers on all of these engines were painted. I forgot I had a Jo-Han '63 deVille kit in addition to several Eldorados. They all have chromed valve covers with the Cadillac script, which is incorrect.

Since the topic referred to the '71 promo, I believe the colors I listed were the only colors produced for that model year. It looks nice in white. My favorite is the dark green '73 promo.

Steve, I've never built one of these kits and never knew that Jo-Han put the Olds engine in there. I'll have to compare it to my '68 Eldorado parked in the garage! Did the '68-'70 deVilles also use the Olds engine?

I know the Jo-Han Eldorado kits incorrectly used the early Toronado dual-snorkel air cleaner. Did the '67-'70 Coupe deVille and deVille kits use the correct single-snorkel air cleaner? I didn't see anything on Ebay, and was wondering if the other Cadillacs also used the wrong air cleaner. Thanks!

that's Mesa Sand ...