Robberbaron

Man, that is impressive work! Never noticed the weird contours of the rear window opening until I saw you posting, but sure enough, you got it right. Did you source the hub caps from a '68 Impala promo? I don't know of any other source for those.

I agree: the Motor Max diecast is by far the cheapest alternative, $9.99 at my local Walmarts. Far from perfect, but seems pretty good proportionally, to me. For the bigger trucks, Ertl made a '57 Chevy 8400 stake truck in a whole bunch of different versions. I know you were originally asking about '58 or '59, but I figured this may be of interest. I believe it's a actually 1/25. These pop up quite a bit on eBay and can sometimes be had for mid-$20s in decent condition. I recently picked one up for less than $20 that had some play damage (missing mirrors and fender lights, and a broken leaf spring)

That's EXACTLY what they should be doing. Anything 1/24 brand as Monogram, anything 1/25 brand as Revell. Easy way to differentiate the brands and also let consumers instantly know what they're getting. After the whole bankruptcy thing gets sorted out, maybe the new ownership will have a better clue regarding how to brand and market their product.

I had the same reaction when I first saw it. Even though Round 2 is reproducing the vintage box art, it's a pretty lousy depiction of the '65 front end. It does look more like a '64/'65 mashup....

To each their own. For many of the Round 2 reissues that I couldn't care less about, there are others on this forum that are overjoyed, and vice-versa. I personally don't have any warm and fuzzy feelings for the box art, and never had an original "Polyglas Gasser" Bonneville kit. However, for me the kit was a great value because of all the custom parts and the three full sets of tires. The box was noticeably heavier than the average kit, and it was absolutely packed full once I got the box open. I was actually a little scared that some parts would be warped because it was so tight, but it seems like all's good.

Looks like it got 2 black eyes. At least they're using the Monogram name correctly, on a 1/24 classic Monogram kit.

The only question is: should it be aqua, pink, or peach? ? There used to be a monochrome peach colored 1980 El Camino (flat front) stomping around my hometown in about 1991, complete with limo-tinted windows and "chaos" graphics...

Wow! This is BY FAR my favorite build so far of this kit! You've pretty much improved or eliminated all of the Foose gimmicks that I disliked from the box stock version. Seeing this actually makes me consider getting one of these after all...

You here that? That's the bottom of the barrel getting scraped... C'mon Round 2: You mean to tell me that there's more demand for this than the 1959 Imperial or the 1964 Comet? Or even reissue one of the '90s Chevy C1500 or Ford F-150 kits before this, at least there's some interest in those. You guys still have all sorts of stuff that would sell better than this...

Guess it was big Pontiac week for me. My LHS finally got in the stock Moebius '61 Catalinas, so I got one of those (been looking forward to that one since they announced it). Then stopped at Hobby Lobby the other day and got the AMT '62 Catalina "Polyglass Gasser II". I already have a couple of the original issue stock kits, so I really didn't NEED one of those, but Round 2 gilded the lily well enough to get me to buy it for the custom parts/wheels/tires. I need to start finding a new way of hiding all these kits from my wife...

X2 About half the time that I start responding to a thread, as I'm typing I will then realize that I really don't have anything productive to say, so I delete it. This also often applies when I'm tempted to post a smart-a$$ response. Sometimes just typing the words is cathartic enough that you don't need to actually hit "submit", as long as you have impulse control. If you don't have anything nice to say...

I much prefer that an older thread be continued rather than starting a new one on the exact same subject, especially kit reviews and such. As stated, some of the older content can be invaluable, especially from members who are no longer with us. Consider that Round 2 is reissuing many kits that were previously reissued about 10 years ago. If a thread from 2008 already exists for the same basic kit (tool), doesn't it make more sense to continue that original thread, with further commentary/comparison with the new 2018 release? Among everything else that Harry did for the forum, he was very diligent about combining threads when multiples of the same subject popped up. Some other previous moderators were also very on top of this. That's not a dig at the current moderators, it had to take an awful lot of time to do it effectively, and I don't think I would be able to do it, myself. What infuriates me is 3 different ongoing threads started in the kit review section, for the exact same subject. Either because people were either too lazy or too ignorant to look further down the page or, God forbid, go to page 2 to see if there was an existing thread on the subject.

Sounds like a nice setup. My daily driver is also a white '06 Sierra that I bought new. Mine is a standard cab longbed, bought it as a Worktruck, but have upgraded it with a chrome grille, chrome rear bumper, chrome side moldings, etc. Aside from the regular cab and 8 ft bed, it pretty much looks like yours, except I replaced the W/T steelies with Denali 6-spoke rims. I always planned to do some additional mods, but I got married a year after buying it, then house/wife/kids ate up most of the previous free time. It's turned out to be a pretty bulletproof daily driver, though. I'm at 113K and the 4.8 still doesn't burn a drop of oil. Aside from routine maintenance, the only real annoyance has been blowing several brake lines due to road salt, since I'm in the heart of the rust belt.

The Revell kit has the upper grille trim correctly molded as a separate piece, to install on the hood. On the AMT it is just molded together with the grille assembly. I don't see any problem with the A-pillars on either of the '67 kits. The Lindberg '66 Chevelle is the kit that has the too thick A-pillars.

Notice this illustration shows the incorrect 1971 grille/headlight doors, like the old glue kit. Please tell me that the new tool snap Charger has the correct 1969 grille pattern and this is just an illustration mistake. Otherwise, why bother getting one of these?

Just right! Sure don't see too many of these built and posted anymore.

Back when they were still common daily drivers, I used to occasionally see the big mid-seventies Ford LTDs running Buick Road Wheels from the big Buicks, which always seemed really "wrong" to me, even as a kid. (To be honest, even now it kinda bothers me to see them on anything besides a Buick, even other GM brands.) Think there were quite a few different FoMoCo cars that used 5 on 5, probably for the same reason GM did on all their 71-76 GM full-sized: cars were just getting so huge at that time.

That mall has everything...

Thank you for the insight - I wasn't aware of all the differences between the fuel tanks/spare tire wells/frames. Proof once again that there's no substitute for first hand experience with a subject... "High school was a long time ago now" Ain't that the sad truth!!!

Yup, and I've seen resin 2 door sedan versions of both the Fairlane and the Mercury Comet available from a couple casters. Ford did some weird stuff. I believe the Fairlane & Falcon wagons shared the same wheelbase, just different front clips, and maybe taillights. The '66 Ranchero had a Falcon front clip, then for '67 they used the Fairlane front clip. I'd like to see someone bolt a Fairlane front clip onto a Falcon sedan body, just because.

In 1/25 scale, the chassis from the Revell Cutlass kits will have the best detail, hands down. IF I'm correct about the wagon wheelbase being 108" (see above), the Cutlass chassis should match right up, assuming Perrys correctly shortened the wheelbase from the El Camino that they based it on. The pictures I've seen of the Perry's wagons looked pretty good, but I know at least one other caster did a Malibu wagon that looked weird, I think because they didn't shorten the wheelbase. Of course if you use the Cutlass, you'll probably want to replace the Olds engine. The MPC El Camino small blocks are actually very good representations of late '70s to mid '80s SBC's, including very nice multipiece HEI distributors. You could either swap in the MPC engine into the Olds chassis, or just shorten the El Camino chassis. The MPC El Caminos do have separate drivetrain and exhaust parts, but it dates back to the 1978 annual, so it's not nearly as nice as the Cutlass parts. Another option would be the MPC 1980 Monte Carlo. I seem to recall the engine is about as detailed as the El Camino's, and the chassis should scale out to 108" wheelbase. Problem is that driveshaft/axle/exhaust are all molded in with the chassis plate.

Chris: First off, awesome collection of Malibus (especially the black one!) You obviously have a lot of first hand experience with them. I have more experience on the Monte Carlo side of the equation (daily drove a '79 Landau with pretty much every factory option), but between family/friends/co-workers I've had exposure to all of the different brands and most variations of the 1978+ A/G bodies. One item I'm not sure about is your statement about the wagon wheelbase matching the El Caminos. For previous generations of A-bodies (through 1977) this is correct, but I thought the 1978+ wagons had the same 108" wheelbase as the coupes and sedans, and only the El Caminos (and their GMC Cabellero clones) had the 117" wheelbase. That said, I have less experience with the wagons than the coupes (rode in a couple wagons, but never got my hands dirty working on them).

Probably my #1 item is Ansen Sprint style slotted mags, especially if I can find a big & little set like in the old Monogram '55 Chevy Street machine. These have always been my favorite 1:1 wheel style since I was a kid. By the mid-90s many older kits were getting "updated" with billet style directional wheels, 3-spokes, etc., so it seemed like it was getting harder to find nice slot mags in current kits. That's about the time I started hoarding the ones I could get. Ironically, I haven't actually used too many on my builds since I wanted to save them for the "perfect" project...

I always thought the AMT '58 Impala and '59 Elco Steelies were pretty good versions of factory stock, I've put them on a couple different beaters over the years

Truly great work! Everything seems accurate to how a well done 1:1 would look "back in the day".