Mark

It's a much earlier issue, before the body got sliced and diced for the NASCAR Daytona versions, and cobbled somewhat back to stock to churn out millions of General Lee kits.

A couple of drivers back then did have, let's just say, "incidents"...

I've made the column longer, drilled a hole in the firewall where it's supposed to go through, then cut off any overhang on the other side of the firewall after it's in place. All that, providing there's some detail on the engine compartment side that connects to the column. If it's an old annual kit with a tub style interior, and the location of the column end is vague, I'll do something similar like drill the end of the column and insert a pin, then drill a hole in the interior bucket to provide a definite location for it.

Might be the closest thing out there to a perpetual motion machine...

Fiat? Must not be in a hurry for it to get there...

I wouldn't bet on anything from one fitting the other without a ton of work. Each company probably designed their car with a different parts breakdown. And, though the 1:1 cars have a bunch of parts that interchange, or are even the same, every company's designer or researcher seems to measure them differently, making everything just different enough to be frustrating.

Talk about turning you-know-what into gold...

Just checked...the front loop IS a separate part. For the twenty cents difference ($.69 vs $.49) between the Mooneyes chassis pack and the basic Dragmaster pack, you got an additional parts tree with a seat, an X-member for the bottom of the chassis, a flat panel that went in between the body side panels (body wrapped completely around the frame), and two fuel tank mounts. Plus, a small decal sheet with the necessary markings for the Mooneyes version. The extra twenty cents was money well spent.

I'm pretty sure the front bar is a separate part, so by leaving it off you end up with a more garden variety Dragmaster chassis. The Mooneyes chassis was sold by Revell as a parts pack, if I remember right besides being molded in yellow (vs. red for the Dragmaster chassis pack) it included a small extra parts tree with that extra bar, and some other part. I've got both packs, will check later on when I'm home.

Reminds me of that MAD Magazine cover, with an illustration of a huge neon sign: "MAD Magazine is leading the fight to conserve energy!"

Nope, those front wheels were probably cheaper/easier to tool, seeing as this was a 49 cent kit.

I've got a couple of pieces of that stuff, I always thought it was Mylar or something similar. Definitely not BMF or anything in the same neighborhood. The original Marlin has the 1966 upholstery pattern on the seats, USA Oldies kits have a different pattern, possibly from one of the later Ambassador kits. Jo-Han recycled a lot of parts from earlier kits into later ones. They tooled that chassis and engine for the '66 Marlin kit (there was a '65 promo but no '65 kit). Jo-Han reused both in several later AMC kits, but they are correct only for the Marlin! AMC phased in a new engine during '66 and introduced a new Unibody in '67.

Worse yet, later RC2 kits sometimes don't have all of the parts for any one kit. Some of the '71 Charger kits had '66 Riviera bodies in the box along with the bagged parts, chrome, tires, and clear parts for the Charger. I'd imagine there are RC2 Riviera kits out there with Charger bodies as well.

Those post-2000 RC2 reissues are a gamble...box shows one thing, what's inside could be something else altogether. There was: -the AMT '76 Nova reissue that showed the stock version on the box but had the Pro Stock kit inside (the stock version has never been reissued) -a Mustang II reissue that showed a stock MPC kit on the box but the AMT kit was inside -a '72 Chevelle reissue...MPC kit on the box, AMT inside, and with a terrible retooled front bumper/grille to boot -private label DTR issue '32 Ford coupe with Trophy Series original box art, but many of the parts shown were not in the box And there are others... Best to either avoid sealed kits from that period, unless you already have one and know what to expect, or just search out other issues where you know what you are getting.

Only if you have access to one of each, you can inspect and compare both to see if any major die castings like frame and fender units are shared between the two. Things like location of assembly screws will give you an idea. Die cast models are sometimes designed one at a time, different from kits which often have three or more variations, sharing major parts, designed in from the start.

The way those parts are arranged, I'd bet that in the earliest issues of that kit, the cowl lamps, radiator shell, and fuel tank may have been brass plated.

I'd go with a combination of colors as Snake has described. The car wasn't around long, from what I have read about it, the 'Vette was put together for Vern Smith to drive, and it turned out he wasn't a particularly good drag racing driver...

I've got the previous issue of this kit, the decals got damaged so I might see if I can get the new issue decals from one of those eBay "break up a kit and sell the parts" sellers. As for tires, I'd definitely look at the Fireball stuff, particularly the tire lettering decals. Those big, blocky lettering styles like the Super Stock Formulas would be perfect for a Seventies van.

Are there plated parts in that kit? A number of people have mentioned right here that the "chrome" in late production kits is all just silver plastic...

Just looked at my copy of the book about Bill Jenkins' cars, the lettering on each of the Old Reliable cars is a different color! The red '61 Biscayne had white lettering, the white '62 Bel Air had blue lettering (matching the interior), the short-lived white '62 Impala had red lettering (again matching the interior), and the '63 Impala had black lettering with a touch of yellow shadowing. The pictures of the '63 in the book aren't particularly clear where the interior is concerned, but I'm pretty certain it is black. That said, if I were building the (again short-lived) Corvette, I'd go with black lettering and coves that matched the interior, probably stock Chevrolet colors.

Lettering (all of it) looks like black to me, if I remember right the lettering on the white '62 Bel Air and the '63 Impala was black. The 'Vette would likely be the same. The interior seems to be the same, or similar, blue as the side cove. For that, I'd first look at stock 'Vette interior colors and go from there.

We might see new tires in this kit, as the existing tires that might have been used had Revell reissued this kit are also used in other kits for which Revell has kept the tooling.

Revell. The Aurora engine really isn't very good anyway.

The box art isn't going to make or break this particular kit. Someone with no interest in early Sixties dragsters wouldn't be swayed by even the best artwork, and anyone who knows what is in the box won't be deterred by poor artwork. It's going to sell X number of units, regardless of box art.

The original double kit did not use the dragster chassis speed equipment pack, it used the roadster chassis equipment pack. Since the new issue will build one car, hopefully it will include the dragster chassis equipment pack.