Mark

There was a PSM '71 Challenger kit, there may have been a '70 also. The '71 body's grille area is the same as a '70, the '71 grille is an add-on.

Unfortunately the time for a Project X kit has long since passed...PHR no longer exists, and how often does Hot Rod drag the car out?

Pretty sure all Halibrand wheels back then were magnesium, so the plating needs to come off anyway. If they are plated, that is; the wheels weren't plated in the original double kits, though the parts packs were plated. The availability of these wheels (as in: nobody will ever tool them again) far outweighs any flaws they might have. Because Atlantis is issuing individual car kits instead of double kits, they're throwing us a bone or two with the extra engine and wiring pack. Hopefully they won't mess with the individual parts trees and will leave all of the parts on each one. That will make these kits gold mines for early Sixties drag racing parts.

I'd bet the engines in the first couple of kits will be chosen from the four that are known to be ready to run; that is, the four that Revell ran in the late Nineties. Ford 427, small block Chevy, early Cadillac, Pontiac 421.

"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..." or words to that effect... Having a long term, big picture goal to accomplish just might take a lot of peoples' minds off of more petty, self-centered pursuits, and get more people pulling in the same direction...

Are you sure it's from Instagram? If the e-mail sender put a link in the e-mail, it could just be someone trolling for suckers who use the link. I get those from eBay every so often...

You've got that segment of the population (and it's growing) who figure out the bare minimum for what they need to survive, and they'll work only when necessary for that, and not one minute more. It has always existed, it's just getting bigger.

J.C. Agajanian's "Willard Battery Special" (the car Parnelli Jones drove to the Indy win in '63) was a Watson roadster. Watson and other builders cribbed Frank Kurtis' design heavily in that period. But there were differences, like the other builders using fiberglass nose and tail sections where Kurtis' cars always, or nearly so, used aluminum for all body panels.

I'm thinking those tires aren't big enough (compared to the Pirelli fronts, which are really small) to be the AMT Coronet rear tires. I'll stick with the Revell Willys as a guess.

Wheels and tires on the Dodge are from the reissues of the MPC '69 Charger Daytona (500 had them also). Everybody likes to bag on that kit, but it does have a lot of good parts in it. I bought one of those at the last Ollie's kit dump, to get the wheels and other parts. (Chassis, interior, and windshield will go into a straight resin '69 Coronet body that I snagged at the '19 NNL East for five bucks...the bumpers were in my parts box!) Those rear wheels could be narrowed enough to fit within the quarter panels. Figure out how deep the spokes are in the wheel, cut the wheel in half down the center (don't hit the spokes or center cap), then file each half to true up the cuts and make the wheel narrower. Before reattaching the outer ring/half, you can paint the spokes. I do that a lot, sometimes making two sets of wheels into one set with plated inner rings made from a second wheel. In other instances I'll cut apart an out of fashion "billet" wheel because the outer ring is nice, then fit a center from a damaged mag wheel that I like. I've even cut down damaged wheels and cast duplicates to use in this way.

Body is heavily altered, it could be based on either the Monogram or Revell '30/'31 Ford coupes, or could be a resin piece based on one of those. Front tires are Pirellis from a Sixties Revell kit (SWC '41 Willys, Miss Deal Studebaker, Anglia/Thames, and others). Wheels could be a combination of parts. Rear tires look like the ones from the Revell pro street '41 Willys. Rear wheels again could be pieced together from multiple sources. Basic engine looks like the pro street Willys piece also.

Both companies made kits. MPC made both the hardtop and convertible, AMT made only a hardtop kit despite having made the convertible as a promo. MPC's convertible kit had the (incorrect) hardtop deck lid, with the recess in the center. Basically a hardtop with no roof. Same deal for '70: AMT made hardtop and convertible promos, hardtop only kit. MPC made HT and CV kits, the CV was the "Bat Machine" molded in glow-in-the-dark plastic, try finding one of those now! MPC got the Impala promos for '71, AMT quit doing Impalas at that point. '71 promos were both HT and (incorrect) CV, kit was HT only. CV had incorrect upper quarter panels and windshield header.

The '69 Impala promos are AMT. Like the '70, my '69 convertible promo has the correct "no recess" deck lid. Apparently Impala kits were still strong sellers, as both AMT and MPC each offered at least one from 1968-70 (AMT's lame "for 1968" effort included). AMT started tapering off with convertible kits as early as 1965 (not every promo became a kit) but they hung on with full size Chevies and Fords through '67. MPC stuck with the drop-tops a couple years longer.

Only one company made a promo in a given year. The contract might be split between two companies in the same year, but each company would manufacture a different promo (example: AMT '66 Barracuda, Jo-Han '66 Fury). I haven't looked at my '69 Impala promos in a while, but I believe they are AMT. AMT definitely did the 1970 Impala promos; their convertible (never offered as a kit) had the correct deck lid without the recessed area down the center like MPC's kit body. Both still had incorrect upper quarter panels, basically the same as the hardtop.

MPC's '68 convertible kit included a pretty radical custom version. Their '69 convertible was even more radical, it had a bubble top. AMT's "for 1968" kit was called a "Chevrolet SS 427". Basically the '67 kit with the stock bumpers, wheels, and seats deleted, and with the body detrimmed and with no rear window opening (rear glass was still included). The chassis got reused in their '69 and '70 Impala kits, that "for 1968" body tooling probably hit the scrap heap before it had a chance to cool off...

I'm surprised it hasn't been brought up yet...but with this issue still including all of the "other" parts, it will be possible to build other Bonneville versions including other classes of cars with front fenders and/or the six cylinder engine.

Even the Prestige Series issue is nearly 35 years old...

I've done just that, it's pictured in the thread regarding how to fix the roof drip gutter mismatch. I also used the deck lid area from the GP body, as I don't like rescribing panel lines.

If you want to build a 2+2, look for one of the two issues of the 2+2 kit. Ertl took the Bonneville and re-engraved the body and interior trim to 2+2 spec. The wheelbase is wrong (too long) but it would be a better starting point.

The Corvette kit was modified quite a bit for the Greenwood GT IMSA issue: some new engine parts, new hard top, different wheels.

That might be the Lotus kit I was thinking of. Anyway, my bet would be on the AMT kit, which was quite good by 1963 standards and would still be pretty decent today.

Only the Minilite wheels were added (replacing the original mag wheels). But the Minilites were in the next couple of issues also. The original issue of the Chevy (and the Salty Dog issue Studebaker) included only the parts needed to build the version shown on the box. The new issue Chevy will have all of the stock/custom/drag parts, but you'll have to download the earlier issue instruction sheet to use those.

'68 Corvette was reissued, twice! Once as the AC spark plug promo kit "ACcellerator", and again around 1973 as the John Greenwood GT racer.

Those are the same kit. Ertl was boxing AMT kits as MPC, and vice versa. I believe MPC also did a Lotus kit but it was a simplified one, and was never reissued.

The Lotus is in all probability the one AMT first issued in 1963, alongside their Parnelli Jones Watson roadster kit. The Lotus has been reissued several times over the years, with different decal schemes. Tires have changed too; originals were solid vinyl with tread detail but blank sidewalls, later issues have two-piece tires with no tread detail but Firestone lettering.