Ragtop Man

The very limited production Bill Thomas Fastback (think he might have done a handful of them?) would be a pretty interesting variant, with drag and road-race versions aplenty. Reference would be hard to come by, not sure if any survived. Or, if there was a convertible version, the FB top could be a toss-in-the-box item in the same manner as the Italien roof was in the '64 Thunderbird. Alertnatively, it would seem to be pretty straightforward to go early and possibly include the 4-cylinder granny engine, early grille and trim. That said, I'm far from a Nova expert, and it might be like moving a mountain.

Nailed it! Looks great!

Found a GG2 at the local automobila store a few years ago, partially assembled, so the price was right. Picked up a few Jawbreakers for parts, so it looks like pretty much everything I need to get from here to there is in the box, now. Just like those days of old, that box art literally jumped at me, over-ruling the inner adult saying, "What? This is going to take all WEEK to build." Knowing I need to be much more selective, now, I will probably move the project along in favor of some others that have surfaced recently.

With both Luc and Tim on this one - I blinked and missed a chance to get the predec drift GTO (which I did an ad for innaday...) Heck, if the two-and-done Firebird tool is still in the crib, and R2 could deal with the slings and arrows of the Rivet Police, I wouldn't mind it one iota. The custom Vette surfaced (and I still need to find one at a good price) so, stranger things have happened. IMO, it has the best true Pontiac of the early kits, shapes and features much more correct than any of the other AMT efforts; add a few accessories from one of the big Pontiacs and "Bob's your uncle." The early Keystones are excellent, too. Custom bits are meh, but it can be built into a 1/25 Hot Wheels replica with very little effort. I'd take it in a minue over another release of the savagely beaten tool of the '69 Firebird/Trans Am.

I second Tim's motion on the new kits - esp the new "retool" Craftsman plus subjects, which pretty well snap together. The only one that is south of the spec is the '66 Fastback, which shows the difficulty of trying to meld a new, CAD-designed body shell with a vintage interior and kit guts. I've fiddled with mine for a while, just put it back in the box for another day. Older tool kits - you just have to go into the build with both eyes open. They will be more work, particularly for '70s era kits, or the more detailed of the Trophies. Those kits separate the modelers from the assemblers.

W-409: Is the '62 that tough of a ticket to build? What are the differences that would be required to backdate a '63 R2 Stawag or a '64 Moby? Full transparency, I'm not a Chevy freak on the topic, looking for advice on this one.

Jaw on table - wow!

Think my point about assembly variation and quality may have been mis-characterized. Don't want this to stray too far from modeling, but the myths surrounding Smokey need some context. To the point, once GM had the assembly line cranked up and running, Fisher and the divisions typically did a very good job to get a presentable car into the showroom. GM were the masters of the "known" - perfecting paint, trim, hardware and accessories, landing new models in showrooms EVERY year. That said, there was a lot of 'slop' engineered into the system, to deal with shop-to-shop variation. So, the door was wide open for Smokey to clean up and enhance well beyond what the designers intended. He wasn't working with junk - he just had time to take it the rest of the way.

I no longer ask forgiveness for puns, allegory, alliteration ... That said, the Aqua Rod never really floated my boat. On reflection, the G-30 Van would make waves in my collection, and to your point, the waterslide decals do add a splash of color.

Steve Goldman would be able to give a (very) brief 101 about the challenge of 'updating' a tool to go from one model year to the next, say from a '67 Impala to a '68. The timeline of R2 kits goes back to the beginnings of the company, each generation of tooling reflecting the state of the business at the time of release. Alas, the records are few, and new technology to produce parts rarely aligns with the old. Short story is: unless the kits are designed to be updated or changed and the parts are baked in - Mobeius is masterful at this, and certain Revell?Monogram kits show the same forethought - they are what they are as you see them now. It is literally easier and more economically efficient to shoot a new '68 Impala, than to update a '67.

The correct Man-a-Fre intake (or something darn like it) is in the '63-4 Riviera annual kit, of all the places. I've cast it, just have to find the darn things!

I have a hard time seeing Round 2 going backward for something like a '65 Wildcat - a lot of incrementeal investement in an old tool with no significant future increase in the business. When we did the '65 (MLRC) there were a handful of orders even from the lunatic fringe at pre-pandemic prices. I Also seriously doubt any of the fiddly and hard to assemble IMCs resurface, they are a patience project even for the most experienced modeler. Absolutely agree on a '68 Impala of some stripe as a future product, and 2X on the lowrider contingent going loco for it. Were I counseling or kibitzing, I'd make it "simplified-bashable" so that it could be used with the existing '67 Impala to do a true, full-detail build. I'm not an engineer, but it would seem to me that conniving a post-sedan and HT from the same basic mix, were such a thing possible (Moby did it, tho) would be a win. Cos talk is cheap, I'd also stop by the $2 window on the way to the buffet and bet a revived MPC '69-'72 Grand Prix. Not overdone in the market, lends itself to the same treatment as the GTOs. Could easily see working a license arrangment with Hurst to build a neat little portfolio with the '69 442 and '65 GTO with very little investment.

At least! What a fantastic build. Well deserved award for a benchmark project.

Cha-ching!!!! Looks killer.

The "7/8ths" and "15/16th" are largely fiction to dramatize a point, not necessarly an empirical measurement. Cars of the day were built to fairly loose tolerances, not surprising considering production techniques and factories had not advanced nearly as quickly as the styling. Thus, gaps and fits could be fairly well camoflaged with trim and paint...at any plant in the '60s or '70s, as long as the car started, it was finished. "Paint it blue, send it through," as they said at the Ford Rouge complex just a few miles from where I grew up. Watch any of the modern online custom car 1:1 builds that start with 50s-60s bodies. Even fairly mild work requires gaps to be closed by adding metal around stock hems and flanges. Conversely, it would be no trick whatsoever to pick up an inch or so with no modification, much less a razor sharp race builder of Moody/Nichels/Yunick caliber. So... Smokey with his own agenda, and others more subtly, could pull in or reshoot gaps and move sheet metal around easily. He scooted the body back on the chassis, then channeled and sectioned what was left, perching it on the chassis just 'so' to balance downforce and Cd. "Didn't say you couldn't," as he was often quoted. The only hiccup was his chassis setup, years behind the field to the point where Vince Piggins had the Chevy chassis team build one using computer modeling techniques, the car that really put the inspectors over the top.

That there is a race car. Got all the feels right on it.

Those import kits can be a bear to complete, much less detail as well as you did! Great job. It is a shame that the 1:1 concepts never got to production; they would have made the rest of the industry seem "like happy amateurs."

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.