Ragtop Man

Ditto on the Mobys and Trumpeter kits, although none of those are what we would call a cheap date. Easy layup is the AMT '69 Cougar. While it does not have the shock-tower style engine compartment, the wheelbase is within an RCH, just knock off the rear upper wheelwells. The kit (Ranchero) core support and firewall work fine with it. If you are revisting this several months from now, DM me to see if I have made any progress resin casting the AMT '62-3 Fairlane engine compartment. While not an exact match for the Falcon/Ranchero, it's pretty close, and can be modified to suit the pre-66 AMT Falcons, Comets and '64-5 Fairlanes. In the meantime, if you want to get it to "3 footer" accuracy, the chassis and engine compartment from the AMT '69 Torino Cobra can be whittled easily to fit, too. Chassis is easy to section, exhaust pipes (hardest to paint) are separate and the chasiss is easily sectioned.

Jus Cos... A great source for accurate reference samples is SMS Auto Fabrics in Oregon. I bet you could copy a sample image, and then 'paste' the repeat a few dozen time and print. If you REALLY had the jones for a specific pattern, I bet you could order a sample swatch that could then be scanned and replicated. They don't have a scale to work from - and they are blown up quite a bit as well as being watermarked for SMS. A quick check on Ebay showed swatch samples... like this example for a 1962 Chevy. https://www.ebay.com/itm/395158158609

Love the thinking and the backstory of this. I think it would not have been rocket surgery to adapt the Pontiac 11" drums in 1:1 if you were of a mind. IMO the AMT Snapfast was the best and most accurate of the C1s... wonder if the tool went into the ether with the OBS Chevy Pickup tools, and presumably the Tahoe and other variants? Seems like a layup "Craftsman Plus" item.

Really nice! Marshall Griffin is a FB regular and always posting pix of the surviving Fastback sportsman car - he'd be very interested to see this!

Well damn! What cloth did you use? Not sure how this scales down (v. 1/12) but for some of the more elaborate interiors of the 50s and 60s (and did someone say 1/8 Camaro with "Conteur" seating and the repeating pattern?) this is a game changer. Absolutely cool and worthy of a mag article or how to!

Madonn! That is gorgeous!

There was a "Shelby" version for (I think) Ford of Mexico that looked pretty sweet. IMHO they were under-rated for street machine work innaday (c. 1980) ... we all wanted Cougars and Cyclones and Mustangs and Torinos. Part of the problem was the low cost nature of the platform, they rusted out immediately in the midwest after a winter or two of the salt and potholes. Not hard to imagine one with a warmed up Windsor and 9" taking plenty of tickets back then.

Sooooooooooooo... what would be the remaining missing items if a modeler were to score a deal on the Retro Deluxe "Mountain Goat" and the re-ish '72 Jeepster? Thinking that would be a pretty easy layup for the resing and or 3D community. While it's not my general-anesthetic strength happy hour cocktail, the MPC Jeep family is intriguing, and a good change of pace. Would really float my boat to find out the cammer powered Jeep wheelstander was in the cards, somehow; wasn't there a Car Model article on something similar? FWIW, my college roomie's father was corporate Secretrary for AMC in the 80's - during the 60-Minutes crisis - and now my sister's sorority BFF is General Counsel for Stellantis.

Was the reissue of this kit in the late '60s only in the "Flower Power" series... or was it also part of the Mexcian RR series? I recall both vividly; both the Westland Sears and the local Monkey Wards carried them. Had the Merc, Ranchero and Galaxie, pretty much the last of the cars before veering off to WW2 aircraft and ships for a few years.

Love this build, am always on the hunt for the annual kit custom bitsa and match car parts - which pretty well redeem the later issues of the kit that are dodgy for engraving and fits.

Just to heave a few MORE logs in the firepit... there were two other Mavericks that nearly came to be but got knocked out of contention. Ford built a prototype Boss 302 Maverick and made it look darn near production. But when the higher ups in marketing realized that it was faster and better handling than its sire, the Mustang as well as being much less expensive... that was that. I have some sympathy for FoMoCo in this case - they were positioning Maverick as "the Simple Machine" and egging on the $1995 base price. Suddenly turning it into a pocket muscle car would have it way out of position in the Great Scheme of Things. That would be a super simple build in scale. Second was a rather similar idea for the drags. Kar Kraft would buy "incomplete vehicles" and modify them to accept any engine in the Ford aresenal, up to and including the Boss 429, strictly as a roller for drag racing. They had a great deal of experience re-jiggering the unit front suspension, and once the package had been sorted it would be a simple matter to rinse and repeat. There IS a picture in the Charlie Henry book on KarKraft. Their development car had a 385-series SCJ, skinny fronts, and one presumes some sheet metal work in back to accomodate race rubber. That too went to glory when Ford announced their full and unconditional racing operation shutdown in November, 1970. Assuming that the car got crushed out in the cleanup...

That would probably be the plan - use some of the '64 inserts (engine, wheels, etc.) to get the '72.

It definitely was - I consider myself very fortunate to be in that place and time!

Gonna pile on the bandwagon, of "give me a Moby quality Maverick / Comet and I got the rest." Versions will come, Moby is exceptionally smart at this game. I'll throw a log on the fire and say, there wouldn't BE a newly tooled Maverick/Comet without race versions in the plan. The JoHans were common as dirt until one afternoon... they weren't and prices went from $15 a pop to $150 and more. I mean, it was a good kit, with incredible bash potential, but c'mon. Maybe this will take some of the air out of those sails and bring them back to relative earth. FWIW, I had an out-of-body moment at the Ford Racing Centennial back in '01. Was walking to a concession stand when I recognized Dyno Don walking about 10 paces ahead. I already had his autograph, and even the best of them get 'peopled out' so I just let him go without a fanboy moment. Then, an ear-splitting rumble came from around the corner: Dyno's Maverick SOHC Pro Stock, rolling into the show under its own awesome power. The driver sees Dyno; Dyno sees car. Both looked as surprised as you could be and remain standing. Neither knew the other was heading their way... total cosmic convergence. I don't know how long it had been since Dyno saw the car, but it appeared to have been a long time, and he seemed very impressed by the condition and the sound, and a small crowd gathered immediately. What I didn't know - noboby knew - was that Don was in the early stages of his Alzheimer's journey. Never glib, but always approachable, he struck me very reserved in the autograph sessions. But he looked as excited by the reunion as anyone in the crowd.

That was one of the toughest to get before this re-release. With care and modern paints/foil, etc, they are really nice looking. Pity they were not 1/25. Hoping they add the glass to the 1/32 Connie Mk. II - that is my favorite of the bunch.

To the early hemi fans: would the 2X4 intake from this kit interchange with the 'bonus' engine in the Nova Wagon or the Double Dragster kit?

Ha! I deserved tha edit. And yes, I think quote is attributed to Abe Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt .

I love it! Straight out of the 70s', like being at the '79 CC Street Machine Nationals, without the cops and tear gas. Loving these builds of the Monogram 1/24s great shelf presence!

That rocks.... or shall I say, Rockets. Superb build on an uncommon subject. The one-piece "Ninety Eight" logo came about when a bored and slightly ticked off Olds worker shuffled the individual letters ('58?) to re-branded the luxury car as the "Nighty Night." As my father often said, "Detroit never solves a problem they just trample them to death."

Dang! You had me on the Hawk - reading the AJ Foyt bio now.

Is this the 1/12? I'm not recalling a Revell Gullwing in 1/24...

Rocketfin showed the cover illustration - a street stock Grabber, illustration style looked familiar as if it were the box art main image rendering. Should be a very cool little whip! Hoping that the moby scanner got a picture of the JoHan I-6 200-250, which is hands down the best ever of this subject. I'd take a dozen of them if I could get them for a good price.

Stop it. You are using up all the cool. Fantastic build - simple and perfect.

Agree - looking at the custom interior and chrome reverse from the AMT '62 for the Moby Catalina. Gotta love that transitive property!

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the colors! The Monogram 'flatbox' series were long overlooked due to their scale and simplified assembly, but these really do justice to the subject. Wondering if anyone has reverse engineered a standard A pickup with parts from a stock version of the A (the Coupe/Cabrio come to mind) cos they are such elegant little subjects.