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Mark

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  1. 9 hours ago, Robberbaron said:

    Never knew that some of those Catilinas used the GP grille.  I thought the original kit already depicted a lightweight?

    Did a little looking and found plenty of pics of both types, but not an explanation.  Does anyone know if it was something they did later in the model year, trying to shave off a few more pounds?

    The GP grilles were installed by individual racers.  NHRA class rules allowed for "mild" customizing in the stock/stock-based classes.

    No lightweight Grand Prix were built, but I believe one was built with the dual quad 421 engine and four-speed transmission.

  2. The Firefighter reissue body is pretty much all by itself when it comes to hood fit.  Long story...

    The original Firefighter kit was a '74.  The kit body was revised for '75; though the 1:1 cars all look the same, Ford made numerous changes for '75.  The hood is different, grille is taller (all of this was done to fit the V8 which wasn't offered here in '74).  The fuel filler was moved also. 

    The MPC pro stock kits all used stock bodies (why else would they have windshield wipers?) so the body was changed each year to use in the annual kits.  So it ended up as a '78.

    RC2 modified the hood opening back to '74 spec, but unless you have any '74 kit hoods there's no way of telling whether or not they will fit the reissue Firefighter body.  Best to keep the hood that came in the kit, and change the scoop to whatever you need.

     

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  3. 42 minutes ago, Motor City said:

    Why is that?

    Because of all the junk they foisted off on family members and people I knew in the Seventies and Eighties.  Substituted parts (not just engines and transmissions) that made it difficult to ID needed parts (even down to getting a key made), endless corner-cutting and penny-pinching, dealers that didn't take care of their customers (but were quick to boost prices when something new hit the showrooms), outright lying to me about availability of power train combinations in a vehicle...the list goes on.  Never owned one, never will.  Haven't had one on the shopping list since 2004, and that one was the first to get scratched off...

  4. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool GM hater, but that Nova looks great.  GM handled the Seventies regulations better than most other manufacturers when it came to styling.

    Take the Monza versus the Mustang II for example.  Endura bumpers versus somewhat clumsy looking hang-on bumpers, rear view of the Mustang gives you a muffler and gas tank half hanging out.  Mind you, I do like the looks of the Mustang II hatch, but those elements (plus the multicolor tail lights) do detract somewhat.

  5. All of those were made during the Second World War.  Prior to about 1950, there were few, if any, plastic model kits.  When they did appear, they took a while to catch on, as older modelers dismissed them as unassembled toys.  To them, real model making required working with wood and sometimes metal.  Of the companies we are familiar with, Monogram hung in with wood in some kits the longest, the last ones going away in the early Sixties.

    Model kits were made of wood back then.  They didn't change much during the war, as wood and cardboard to produce them was still readily available.  Other hobbies were affected.  For example, Lionel trains were not produced during the war because they were made of steel, and all of that was commandeered for the war effort.  Lionel did produce a non-powered train set made up of cardboard and wood items.  Those turn up at toy and train shows from time to time.

    Had model kits been made of molded plastic as they are now, the steel tooling that would have existed then might have been seen as non-essential and melted down so it could be repurposed for war materiel.

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  6. Probably a later version of the Hands wheel, or a copy.  I wonder what those were used on in the past, the 5 on 5" pattern is pretty much limited to 2WD pickups and fullsize passenger cars.

    On a similar note, Sears carried Cragar S/S wheels when they first came out, only theirs were named A.J. Foyt wheels!  They did have Foyt center caps (I have seen a couple of those).  Sears wound up swapping the Foyt center caps for the normal Cragar ones to clear the wheels out, the Foyt caps are probably really tough to find now...

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  7. Those later Novas have been gaining in popularity over the years.  The '75-'79 cars are essentially a second-generation Camaro under the skin ('68-'72 have the first-gen Camaro front subframe and suspension/steering layout).  The MPC kit is converted from the '75-'77 Pontiac Ventura and still has a Pontiac engine, but the body proportions have the AMT '76-'77 kit beat all hollow.

    The Cougar kit can't be built 100% stock unless you swap in a correct engine or leave the hood closed.  Its engines, chassis, and wheel covers are carried over from the MPC '69 and '70 kits.  Unless the engine is a real focal point for you, just stick the hood shut.

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  8. The Dart body was updated from '69 to '70, then altered again for the LA Dart wheelstander.  The Ramchargers' 1:1 Dart funny car was a '67, not a '70.  That car had a narrowed steel body (with fiberglass roof) and a one-off chassis.  Their '70 funny car was a Challenger as depicted by the Round 2 reissue kit.

    MPC did make a Dickie Harrell '69 Camaro funny car kit.  That Camaro body was all over the place; after that, it became the Jeg's dirt track body, then the black street machine with the Pontiac engine, then the convertible.

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  9. I don't soak brushes in such a way that the cleaning solution gets all the way up to the ferrule on the brush.  That way, nothing gets on the portion of the bristles inside the ferrule, which could build up and dry causing the bristles to fan out.  I only dip the brush in the paint a third of the way up (if even that).  I'm notoriously bad with cheap brushes, but pretty meticulous with the good ones.

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