vamach1

Yes it does Have the Ram-Air and also the fold down rear seat. Those darn government emissions regulators would not let Ford offer the Ram-Air with the 4V (which seems odd) so since most Mach1’s came with the 2V heads I guess someone figured they may as well use them on something. My 1st 72 Mach (bought used in 76) was also a 351C 2V but without the ram air. I guess I was not impressed with the 1974 100hp V6 Mustang II Mach1 enough to buy one used Instead.? As I was 18 and had friends with muscle cars I thought the yellow 72 Mach1 looked so cool and while certainly not a tire shredder with the 2bbl Cleveland it got me hooked on them for now going on 44 years. The blacked out hood and spoilers and side stripes add a more aggressive look to the one I have now versus the first one I had that only had the stripes and front spoiler. I painted the front bumper and trim black which is still not as embarrassing as that blue tuxedo. ? Ah the 70’s. I sold that one In the 80’s and bought the Ram-Air one I still have today.

Thanks for the update. I will keep this in mind as we hopefully get past this COVID by next spring and I would be interested in buying 100 sets of your best sellers to resell via Ebay to the US market. With shipping here only a few dollars If you sold them wholesale at a discount so a reseller could change the same retail price you do I am guessing your overall sales would increase significantly. Something to think about as I like your work Very much and I think the shipping cost is a big deterrent to customers in North America which of course you have no control over.

Well there are several movies with 71-73 Mustangs in them. Imagine if the John Wick movies had one. I hear F&F nine has a 71 Mach in it. As many of you may or may not know I have owned two 72 Mach1’s, two 72 Sprint convertibles and one 73 convertible in the last 40 years. The only one I still have is the 2nd 72 Mach1 I bought in 1981.

A few other areas you may want to consider The rear quarter mold line should blend in to the body a little smoother and should be sanded down before it reaches the rear quarter window. There’s a little lip on the edges of the area at the bottom of the windshield posts. That “extra” lip that is not on the real car does not bother me as much as the mold lines. Keep up the good work and you are still in the club. I’va attached a picture of a body I painted a few years ago but obviously it has not been wet sanded as I see some “dust” in the paint.

I think a lot will depend on the level of research they get their hands on and if they can find some concours correct cars and engines. I’m working to Tim and getting him as many contacts as I can round up to pass on to Revell.

Let me search for some names to see what I can come up with. The video I posted about the 71 Boss 302 prototype shows a warehouse and if there is anyone that would know where a Boss 351 engine or 429CJ on a stand it would probably be Bob. I will send you his info. Does the region of the country matter assuming they are looking for one is the US but there could be a few in Europe too.

True but a little of this an a little of that and before you know it you’ve got $50 invested in a kit and parts that are coming from various sources. Fortunately I have gotten resin parts made for many of the incorrect and/or missing or better versions of the kit parts.

Yes I have done that one a few kits but I cannot think of any other product where you can sell the same thing for five decades without any improvements and people will keep buying them not expecting eventually someone will come along and offer something better. The older Ford’s had distinctly different inner fenders and shock towers and bracing whereas it seem the 55+ year old chassis have those semi-circle inner fenders that are common in GM cars of that era. Pretty annoying you have to use two kits just to make one nice one. Maybe that is why I have so many. ?

That should be a fairly easy swap. Or how about a phantom 71 Boss 429 Mustang? ?

Thanks for the link For the completed Shelby team car. There were a lot of differences between the 69 and 70 rules and paint scheme etc. Ford did niot both to use actual Boss 302’s since a race engine would be installed so some cars did not ever have a VIN.

Yes it’s a shame it seems so hard to get everything right with the bodies with the newer molds. It’s to the point of older kits that I just want to leave the hood shut because they are just ridiculous looking compared to the actual engine compartment.

Now if they could find all these parts they could concentrate on getting the body right. ?

Oh yeah - love to see the 429 Mach1 or sportsroof instread of having to raid a Torino Cobra kit just for the engine. It’s crazy there’s no newer Mustang either - people got spoiled with the ‘Annuals” back in the day. I did not mention promos in a previous post but I would also not pay $300 for a 71 Mach1 promo which is basically the exact same mold as the AMT kit. I have not even seen many different colors but that is just stupid money for a hunk of plastic, metal axles and rubber tires.

That’s not a good sign.

How is the decal business going? Any chance that you will sell them in bulk to a supplier in the USA to keep shipping cost reasonable?

Agree 1000% but one wish at at time. ?‍♂️ It still amazes me that people will pay over $100 for an old AMT 65 SHelby kit that had a one piece chassis with single exhaust and an engine that is no different (no tri-y headers) than was thrown in every Ford kit for the next seven years but people will scream because is trying to offer a modern tool of kit that the molds even predate the 71 Mustang yet they are mad because they do not do a new mold of something that’s not been done before. Just maybe there is reason for that. I assume Revell has done some research and will ignore all the whiners. I could care less if they come out with another Camaro or whatever but I’m not ever going to complain about their choices of what new kits they make.

Try scalemates.com It is not an auction site.

Model sales in general have probably gone from I’m guessing 25% of “kids” (mostly boys) building and buying several a year in the 60’s and 70’s to maybe under 5% in the 2000’s. Video games, Lego, and a lot of boring new cars That all look the same are all responsible as is the demise of ToysRus and Walmart selling kits and Hobby shops disappearing every day. If there is any hope of reaching the younger market they need to find a way to reach them or you may see mostly re-issues and diecast cars to keep them in business for the next 20 years which by then all our old unbuilt kits will end up on Ebay all at once and drive prices down.

That would be awesome. Insert Matt Foley Motivational Speaker picture here. I am buy no means an engineer or know much about 3D printing but I would assume a car that was disassembled would be a great resource to scan some individual parts versus trying to make a model from a restored car that is intact, Somehow Danbury Mint seemed to get the Boss and Mach1 Diecast in 1/24 that were right on the money so it can be done - I just do not know they did it from “scratch” about 15 years ago since no other company had ever made a respectable and accurate 71-73 Mustang Diecast ever.

Well there’s one thing - you can finish this one and compare it two the Revell one which at this point no one has mentioned a possible release date - maybe for the Boss 351 anniversary in 2021? I would have no problem with a Revell version in “diecast” like the 70 Torino or 67GT500 as long as it is correct.

Yeah - I’m going to insist on that. ?

If anyone is a glutton for punishment to build one before the Revell kit comes out here is a build from the early 90’s by Geoff McDonnell. It was in the Mustang Issue of Plastic Fanatic in 1993 and also appeared in a 1997 issue of Scale Modeler. I will not rehash the SM eight pages describing every detail he modified or added but needless to say when someone says MPC made a 71 Boss already it’s like saying straight six Mustang Fastback become a GT350 because of some decals and a box art drawing. So naturally this one has those hubcaps that seem to just not go away and I will point out a few more things. The honey comb panel and chrome trim should have been cut out from the taillights and the “aftermarket” lovers came in the kit probably because someone at MPC assumed Ford would offer them for the 71 (which they didn’t). Of course the kit did not have the standard chrome bumper on the 71 Boss so the builder used the 71/72 Mach1 front bumper In the 71 annual “Mach1” kit. It’s funny how many Real 71/72 Mach1’s I see with the chrome bumper which is because NOBODY makes a reproduction the OEM “rubber” ones. He used a NASCAR T-bird engine but states the 70 Boss 302 contains a nice Cleveland engine. That isn’t really true because the real Boss 302 only used the 4v Cleveland heads from the 70 Mach1. By 1970 the 351 Windsor was being phased out and there wasn’t a Boss version of that engine. Geoff did a heck of a lot of scratch building under the hood and I commend him on getting all those details added. One glaring omission in the AMT and MPC kit is the lack of the shock tower braces that connect to the firewall. It just looks goofy without any so he either got them from another kit os scratch built them like he did to replicate the Ram-Air plenum. He mentions using the 70 Boss 429 air cleaner housing which is pretty close to the 71 Boss assembly that fits flush with the round opening in the plenum that is bolted to the hood. Seeing as how this build was almost 30 years ago I would say he did very well given what he had to work with and his building skills are very good. Does anyone one if he is still around - I think he is from Canada but that’s just a guess. He did not mention how long this build took but I am thinking at least 40-60 hours and perhaps and double that counting all the research and writing the article and photo session.

I guess big is all relative as the Mustang of course got a lot smaller and by 2006 was the same size as the 1971-73’s. Glad to see you are not using those weird kit decals. What was someone at MPC thinking? Fill in the hood vents and at least the build will actually resemble a 73 Mach1. I built a Sportsroof (Brown color) just to see how the kit goes together from an older MPC kit and one thing that annoys me is the body sort of floats on the chassis. Please excuse the Teddy Bear wheel covers but if painted correctly they are not that ugly. It makes you wonder if the Japanese can get the body pretty spot on 50 years ago (Otaki kit) then surely by now the ALL NEW Revell tool should be pretty nice. The yellow Otaki kit represents my 72 Mach1 but since it’s a Japanese kit there is not engine at all and it’s probably closer to 1/23 scale. I used a set of those Magnum 500’s everyone has extras of instead of the kit wheels but otherwise the build is stock and I noticed I need to redo the argent/silver 351 Ram Air Decal on the hood on one side. Also, those Ram Air hood decals were either black or silver - never white. The interior close up shows the non-stock steering wheel that’s on my real car but I have since added a rear spoiler that was not originally on my car so I need to add one to the model. Since it is battery operated (for the lights) I need to get those batteries out of there asap as I see green corrosion growing in the interior. For comparison I tossed some in pictures of the Testors Boss/Mach 71-73 thing with the ultra high rear spoiler and that vented hood so that Boss 429??? Engine that came in the kit can breath.? My apologies to the forum viewers Via their phones- I hope the pictures do not slow down you opening up the post to a crawl. As always Cobraman keep building how you want and ask any questions you have. I hope to build more starting in January when I officially retire from paid work. I forgot to mention one thing about the decals. The kit has the Mustang script on the front fenders which is correct. However, you should remove them if the decal has the script in chrome on the decal itself. Otherwise the decal will cover the molded in script. If you do not have a Mustang script they can be found on many of Keith Marks 71-73 Mustang decal sets and there’s a seller on Ebay that makes a very nice and inexpensive set of Mustang scripts and emblems for many different Mustang years all on one sheet.

As nice as this build And the grabber lime is AWESOME is it does show some of the inherent issues with the older molds which although they can be corrected - it’s a lot of work. The front reflector is too far forward. The builder added the Missing link grille and chrome bumper which of course are not in the kit. The stipe is too wide and should taper towards the back of the car. Not sure if these are Candy or MPC decals or neither. The kit does have the twist hood “locks.” The door panels are basically flat although they are supposed to represent the molded deluxe ones. The honeycomb rear panel was not present on the Boss 351’s. The kit rear spoiler brackets are too high which is really noticeable on the Testors versions which of course none of which have anything resembling a 351C and ditto for the AMT and MPC kits that have a chassis dating back to around 1968. The Boss 351 also had the standard gas cap and not the 1971 only Mach1 “pop-off” gas cap. The builder has added the under hood ram air plenum that is NOT in the kit. I could list more things but I think we get the point that to make an accurate Boss or Mach1 you have to replace and rework a lot of parts if the builder cares about these things. I have never built historic military planes or tanks but I can bet those builders scrutinize every last detail to represent an accurate model. I have even missed some of the “flaws” in the AMT and MPC versions but I decide on a model by model basis whether it is worth my time to correct everything to my liking. The less things I would have to “fix” the more likely I would buy several of the new kit.

The short answer is yes for the engine except for the intake, carb, valve covers and air cleaner. Here’s the long answer from another site which points out the other differences which are mostly internal. It will make a great base engine for a Detomaso Pantera if ANYONE ever makes a kit with one with an engine.