Ragtop Man

Cool idea! Like the contrast between then and now. FWIW, the 1:1 '64s are frequently high mile cars. They were built about as well as a Ford ever got at that time, and just kept running on those FEs and Cruisomatics. So your weathering is just how they look in Marketplace or CL.

Nothing but net - a box art quality build. Great job!

Was listening to XM the other day and what was on..."she's the terror of Colorado Boulevard!" In my mind's eye, I'd always seen the LOLFP as a '64 Polara, but this works just fine, too. Really looking forward to these, Moby is killing it with the Mopars. Question to the other kids: How well would these roof swap with the Satellite sport hardtop to get a really good '65 Coronet HT for all manner of builds? Or is it in the queue for later? The original 'feels' the best; the PL went wide of the mark but some will debate. A slam dunk replacement for the painfully expensive originals would be great.

Outstanding work and great use of the other kits - really sweet build.

I had to scroll all the way down to realize this was a model and not a picture posted from one of the hotrod books as your "inspiration" - !!! Incredible work and detail, completely had me. So good I got nuttin' - that is just amazing.

Cat was out of the bag on the Chevelles a while ago; I will probably need to score a few from my LHS that tends to price them well. I can see them getting some traction out there in the market, given the decades of '65 Elcos and Wagons out there since the '80s. Don't sleep on the NASCAR and Sportsman racer types, either, cos this was THE car as the '55-7's started to age out. Get your dremel out, and this pops on the AMT '65 Chevelle Mod Stock chassis, or grab the '72 Monte Carlo re-release (MK, Allison/Coca Cola) and you are in bidness. Of course, MPC GNs and the near-throwaway 90's NASCARs are good donors, too.

Can you post a link or more info on Rod's story? BTW, this looks great.

Feel free to put up pictures of the model any time. Oh, wait... Stunning detail - my jaw is on the table. Fantastic build. Any in progress shots to show what you were doing to get to this point? It is incredible.

Definitely, one of the Cadillac lover's Cadillacs. Truly, the best car in the world at any price in 1949, with the outstanding OHV 331 and war-proven Hydramatic. With only light updates, one of these is a very comfortable daily 'reacher'. The build looks great, kicking myself for missing a few of Don's later items including this one. Have yet to drop the dime on TMP, but, something like this would definitely put me over.

More than one observer (no less an expert than Ken Miles, IIRC) felt that the coil-spring Cobra chassis with the FIA-spec 289 would be the fastest Cobra around most courses, very few tracks where the 427 can really unwind for long enough to pay for the penalty in weight and braking. The build is absolutely great, the narrower fenders are a definite improvement. Sits just right. Now to win the lottery and get a 1:1...

Great color combo and ditto about this kit fighting like mad. I just gave one away that was fighting me like nobody's business. Glad to see you got through this baby to the end!

Best speculation IMO are line extensions of the new-tool Charger and Bronco. They go together very well, leverage existing license agreements and have good market momentum behind them. They are can't-lose product, easy sell through the channels right this moment... if it is NOT in the plan, I'd be shocked. I'm following that with a wild guess - some sort of current Jeep Wrangler, or a Ram pickup. Either one would be a smash. Given the heat in the older truck segment, I think they would be very wise to look at a 2WD re-release of the annual Squarebody (c. '78/9?) that would have a very minimal tooling investment to bring a very rare kit back to market. A 2wd/4wd similar to the AMT '76 Ford "Super Stone" would be welcome, and a great seller. Long ball from the black tees: MPC '66 Bonneville HT. I know Steve G. is a Pontiac guy, and if anyone can dig this one out and make it shine, he can. He seemed to downplay the Galaxie speculation a while ago.

Sorry for the dumb question, but, what model year is the Revell Blazer - ? I know they had a few out there. And Daddyfink, God help me but those MPC Street Funnys were a lot of fun to build. Never quite looked like the box... but really didn't care, either. It was a time when we judged the quality of the kit by the width of the slicks!

Bookmarking this because it is just so right on perfect. All kinds of gotcha!

That looks GREAT -serious Hot-Roddy Rodness. Great from every angle.

Really nice, I kept scrolling the pics waiting for the top to come up!!!

For all the issues you identified, this is a great looking build, excellent color choice, too. It feels just like a Chevy pickup (a good thing.) Question for the wider board, though: is there some way to catalog the build issues for these kits to help other who will likely be facing the same thing? I wouldn't want a slam book, with ugly venting ("This kit is BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH...") but methodically collecting the data gathered from dozens of builders could help the rest who follow to get more out of the project. Again, a really sharp build and I applaud the work!

Very cool - should have most bits fairly close in size and shape. SBF engines are a dime a dozen; the new Revell B351 Cleveland (with tweaks) is excellent, and Revell has nailed the 428 in a couple of issues.

Surgical - that is crisp as new money.

Great job, love the wheels and stance!

Nice job on the Pantera, my dream car for many years. Bought that kit on a whim... never got around to it. I do have a few of the Airfix small-fender cars, and one of the GTS wide fender, still sorting what to do with them.

Good job, Mikey.

Oh, baby. That is dead solid perfect. Much straighter than they ever left the factory! Nice job.

Jaw. On. Floor. This is great. The interior is a model unto itself!

The wheels in 1:1 (and scale) can be changed out by changing the brake drums, which is to say removing the 8-lug wheels by unbolting the rear drums (with a 5/5 pattern inside the hub) and simply switching out fronts. The Pontiac spindles, axles, backing plates, axle flanges, yadda yadda are all common regardless of wheel selection. Nice to see them in a kit, might put me over the edge to chase another '62. FWIW, in the day, it was not uncommon for racers to have standard rear drums with the slicks in the garage and change them out on race day. Much wider selection of tires and wheel sizes that way. There was only a factory 14" 8-lug steel rim at a set width, which tended to limit tire selection. IMO, this also juices the choices for your Moby bubbletops - have a box of AMT parts including the diamond tuft interior "sittin' in la-la waitin for ya-ya" to knock out a custom '61.