StevenGuthmiller

That would have been the "Turista Turismo" version. Having it been re-released in the late 60s leads me to believe that the tooling may still exist for this car. Given Round-2's recent reputation for resurrecting these old kits, it wouldn't surprise me much to see the '62 Ford again. Steve

The AMT '63 Pontiac was a Bonneville, available in 2 door hardtop, or convertible. And yes, it is a great example for this subject. The Pontiac Tempest was also available in '63, in either hardtop or convertible configurations, and I believe that the only re-release was the altered wheel base funny car version. Sometimes I think that we forget how prolific some of the model companies were with their offerings back in these early days. As an example, 1964 was a banner year for Pontiac at AMT. Hardtop and convertible versions of the Bonneville, the Grand Prix, the Lemans convertible, and the GTO hard top were all offered in that single year!! As far as I know, none of them have been re-released to date. I'm slowly working on that collection. Steve

You can buy almost any color of embossing powder that you can think of. If you happen to need a color that you can't find, you can try mixing colors. You're not going to get orange if you mix yellow and red, but you can "alter" the hue by mixing some colors, like green and blue to get turquoise. I got all of these colors from 2 different sets from "Hampton Art". One set of solid colors, and one of metallic colors. The sets didn't include a turquoise, but I was able to do a fairly good job by mixing green and blue for this '65 Fury. Steve

I had a similar experience with a ‘71 Demon when I was about 16 years old. We had a “second” car that was designated to be driven by whatever kid reached the driving age at the time. My brother and sister had several “interesting” cars before I reached driving age, including a 64 or ‘65 Olds Vista Cruiser station wagon, and a ‘61 Plymouth Savoy sedan. By the time I turned 16, it was a ‘68 Buick Skylark 4 door sedan, but shortly thereafter, the Buick was due to be replaced. One Saturday, my dad took me to a Mopar dealership in a neighboring town to scope out the used cars. As we strolled around the lot, a “Panther Pink” 1971 Dodge Demon caught both of our eyes. It only had a 318, but it had white stripes, a white bucket seat interior with an automatic on the floor, rally wheels, and white letter tires. A 16 year old’s dream!! My father found a dealer who brought the keys so that we could check it out and fire it up. I was very excited as it was beginning to look like a done deal......until my dad started the engine, and instantly detected a lifter tick. That was the end of that! ? The booby prize wound up being a putrid green 1972 Plymouth Fury 4 door sedan with a green interior, green vinyl top, and a completely gutless, boat anchor of a 360. I hated that car more than anything!! I began wishing that I had the rusty, tan ‘68 Buick back!! ? Steve

I guess I’m a little confused about we’re discussing here. Both the Olds and Merc are pretty recent kits on the time scale, and will very likely be re-popped over an over again in the years to come. Likewise, there is always the possibility of seeing other variations of both of these kits in the future. When I saw the heading on this thread, my assumption was that it was about “true” once and over kits, of which there have been probably dozens, or possibly hundreds of examples over the years. Annual kits that were produced one time in the same year as the 1:1 and then disappearing, possibly forever. There are gobs of examples of these kinds of kits, so it’s difficult to decide where to begin I suppose as good a place as any would be somewhere near the beginning of the annual model kit craze, which probably began in earnest around 1958. For that reason, the AMT 1958 Ford Fairlane 500 would make a good example. Produced in 1958, and 1958 only, it’s a true unicorn, and just the tip of the iceberg as far as “one time only” kits go. Steve

Thanks Manuel. Johan had a ton of really cool subject matter that nobody else did, or has done since. I have probably at least a dozen more super rare gems, and a bunch of “USA Oldies” kits that I have yet to build. Mostly Dodges, Plymouths and Chryslers. Steve

Thanks, but it’s a ‘65 Chrysler 300, not an Imperial. I believe AMT did the ‘65 Imperial. Steve

And finally..... Steve

And, another batch. Steve

Where do I start?! ? Here’s just a few. Steve

I just stumbled upon it, knowing how badly Testors clear enamel yellows. I thought it must be useful for something. ? Steve

I understand, but the OP is asking where the hoods came from. You stated that the MPC Challenger didn’t come with a shaker hood, but I wanted him to be aware that the AMT kit did. That’s all. I don’t think it necessarily matters to him who the manufacturer was. Steve

The AMT ‘70 Challenger had a shaker hood. Steve

Yup! That's the direction that I would go! But then again, you probably already know how I feel about custom wheels, outside of a few like Cragar S/S, Keystone Classics or Torque Thrusts. Classic car, classic wheels is my motto. Save the giant chromies for your Escalade! Moving the rear suspension forward a little was a pretty straight forward operation. I just trimmed the mounting bracket off of the front of the leaf springs, and then added new ones further back. In my instance, I also added new mounting shackles to the rear of the springs to raise up the suspension, and filled the holes in the chassis with a "mounting plate". Keep in mind that the drive shaft will likely need shortening as well, depending on the engine you use. Should you decide to go with a Hemi, don't forget the torque boxes. Actually, they were pretty easy to replicate too. Steve

Nice work Bill! The Testors clear for aging those transparent steering wheels works pretty slick, doesn't it? Steve

I’m intrigued by the fact that the Charger chassis fit the Coronet body perfectly. Oddly enough, some mods were required with the fit with the ‘68 Coronet. I wound up having to move the rear suspension forward a hair and widening the track of the rear wheels slightly to get it to look right. I also raised the rear end a little, not so much because it was incorrect, but because I wanted it to have a more aggressive look, and with the large, resin Fireball Modelworks A-12, 15 inch tires I was using, a little extra clearance was desirable. I got a little scrutiny for the stance and wheel size on my ‘68, but that was the look that I was shooting for. To me, it gave that “ready to stomp in heads” appearance! ? As I’ve already gone through a similar project with all of it’s trials, if there is anything that I can help with, feel free to ask. I would be more than happy to contribute anything that I can on your project. Steve

Soak them in WD-40, let them sit for a day, and then try again. If it doesn’t work, I would personally just cut the chassis around the screws and then remove the screw posts. That’s usually one of my first operations anyway as I normally replace the chassis with something more detailed, and nothing kills a nicely detailed engine faster than those ugly screw posts on the radiator bulkhead. Steve

Can I ask why you're stripping them? Steve

I get it Kevin. Of all of the “ chrome paint” options, I just have the least faith in Molotow. It was never designed for this purpose, nor was it designed to be anything permanent. I just have a tough time using anything on my models that has no track record of any substance. Carry on. Steve

I know it’s not really fashionable anymore Kevin, but you might want to give Alclad chrome some consideration rather than Molotow. Yes, you do need to use a base under it, but it can be virtually any glossy finish at all. Doesn’t need to be black, or lacquer, or whatever. I use black primer with a coat of Testors clear enamel and it works just fine. The only reason that I suggest it is because Alclad is cheaper, can be shot directly from the bottle, and most importantly, as it is an actual lacquer paint, and not a graffiti ink, it’s been my experience that given a little time to cure, Alclad is much more durable than Molotow. I don’t think that I’ve kept any secrets about my thoughts about Molotow, but in the end, I want to help you. By all means, try them both and then make your decision, but don’t make it based on the flavor of the month. Steve

Yes, as Sledsel stated, be aware that it is indeed a ‘61 Ford. But that may be to your advantage in the parts search department. Parts could be obtained from the AMT re-pop of the ‘61 Victoria club coupe some years ago that should be still pretty easily available. Steve

Steve

Great reference! I'll have to try to save that for my next attempt. Steve

I've done several interior mirrors in various ways, but by far the most difficult for me was trying on several occasions to replicate late 50s/early 60s Mopar exterior mirrors. They're available almost nowhere, (about the only acceptable version that I'm aware of is in the AMT '57 Chrysler 300 kit) and they're a pretty funky design that's kind of a bear to duplicate. I can't really recount exactly how I did any of these as they were done some time ago, and attempted in various manners, but at least a couple of them came out okay, although over sized in a couple of instances. I don't think I'll shy away from another attempt on my current '59 Desoto project when the time comes. 1962 Chrysler 300-H 1960 Chrysler New Yorker 1964 Chrysler 300. Steve

I guess my thought is that a heavily metallic paint job like this is by definition a “custom” paint job. There are no norms or standards for the size of the metallics to be used, so everything is fair game. In other words, there really is nothing that would be “correct” for 1/25th scale. It’s all up to individual interpretation. Steve