Mark

I found my GG kit (in a different box; at first I thought I had the original box). The roll bar is not shown in the instructions. The 1:1 bar would have been tight to the inside of the body, maybe the Ramchargers kit piece was oversize and wouldn't have fit within the GG body. With the clear canopy in place, it wouldn't be seen anyway. MPC's show rod and drag car kits usually approximated the look of the 1:1 cars, but were often "off" in many ways. Sometimes they doctored the box art photos, to change the wheels on a funny car or add windshield wipers to a Pro Stocker. When they used an illustration instead of a photo, you could count on the kit to be WAY off.

The metallic plastic does seem to be more brittle to start with. I've got an MPC '65 Dodge 880 convertible kit, the gold body is broken into three or four pieces. The Revell mid-Seventies metallic plastic is really bad...the bronze '56 Ford pickup in particular. That stuff doesn't take cement very well either...

The "stock" colors on most promos are probably a fair amount off from the actual car colors. Other details often differed too. I've never heard of anyone claiming the 1:1 car was misrepresented.

These kits are easy to mess with, putting a Ford mill (or anything else) in won't be too tough. The Y-block from one of the '57 Ford kits would be a good choice...just need to scrounge a neat set of headers (or rework the SBC pieces from the roadster kit)...

The company that did that windshield wasn't around long. They first opened up selling windshield wipers in ex-Fotomat kiosks (remember Fotomat?) and branched out into insurance jobs doing windshield replacements. They also had kiosks in a couple of shopping malls, and there they'd always have someone glad-handing and handing out flyers. The couple of times that poor unfortunate person managed to corner me, I'd make sure he/she, and a few others, heard about what they'd done to my truck, and how I made sure everyone I knew heard about it. Between the overpriced windshield wipers, (probably) pretty high overhead on their locations in spite of not paying employees too much, and all the screw-ups, they didn't last long. Someone else put a windshield in my next pickup, they did a great job that time.

Hey, if they only crank out one of these a year, and it's as good as reported by those who have seen it, then that's okay. I'd rather buy one chock-full issue than get six semi-mediocre ones in the mail.

With some parts (and some kits) you have to measure what you intend to use, and see exactly what scale it is. Some "1/24 scale" engines have parts that fit 1/25 scale versions of the same engine. Jo-Han used to promote their car kits as all being 1/25 scale. Their promotional model boxes for AMC items say 1/24, and the couple of Jo-Han AMC car bodies I measured work out to 1/24. Their Studebaker Lark kit body is more like 1/23. The IMC (later Lindberg) Dodge A-100 (Little Red Wagon) kit scales out to about 1/25.7. So everything is all over the place, the only way to know for sure is to measure...

That's because no real development had been done in the meantime. GM experimented with a steam powered car in 1970, they couldn't even build one as good as the handful of Stanleys and Dobles that were still in use, their owners tweaking them over the years. If, when the first automobiles went on the market, eveyone's home was electrified and homes were all on one standard system for electricity, we'd probably have had electric cars all along. But we were pumping oil out of the ground to refine it for kerosene, for lamps. Gasoline was a by-product to the point of being a nuisance. Some was sold as cleaning fluid, the rest was burned off or even dumped. Automobiles burning it off was the logical thing to do at the time. Who knows, if we'd have had electric all along, someone might have figured out how to process nuke waste, and getting more electricity for everything wouldn't be a problem...

Gee, did he want his tools back or not? If I had pulled that bonehead play, I'd be grateful that: (1) whoever had them contacted me, and (2) they weren't asking for anything. I can see your trying to be helpful, but that should be within reason. One of those installers put a windshield in my first pickup a bunch of years back, they proceeded to gouge the paint on the A-pillar down to the primer. They then put blue tape over the scratch (and in a few other places) and told me the tape was necessary to hold the windshield in position until the goop cured. I then got the runaround from them when I called about the damage...

Is it a promo (detailed chassis) or a friction model? People (especially sellers) blur the line separating them but they are two different things. Friction models were sold as toys, and were often made in non-stock colors. That said, metallic finishes will be oversprayed. I looked at my friction Imperial, it is a solid color and does not appear to be clearcoated. The tooling was probably highly polished as Monogram did with many of their kits, particularly the classic cars. If you intend to paint it, a soak wouldn't be a bad idea.

The 1:1 was always a '70. AMT issued that kit after they were finished with it as the '72 annual kit.

I wonder if the Henry J will have the wheels pictured...it'll sell better if they go back to the original parts and junk those awful Cragar Super Tricks, that too-dropped front axle, and that goofy looking quick-change rear end. Be even better if the frame looked like something that someone actually used...

Thinking about it, I wonder if one of those cleaners for yellowed car headlamp lenses might do the job.

I've never seen vacuform clear parts on a diecast, but the plastic used for windows is a lot more flexible than what is used in kits. The diecast body won't flex, so the windows have to, otherwise they wouldn't go in. You can try polishing the clear parts, but I'd bet there is little chance of undoing the yellowing. You might be able to get rid of some of it though.

Nope, all Chrysler Corporation cars except the Imperial switched to Unibody construction in the 1960 model year. (Imperial switched for 1967.) So, any Mopars prior to 1960 should have a frame. '57-'59 should have torsion bar front suspension detail.

Not many annual kits had them: Jeepster/Commando (some, but not all), Pontiac Grand Prix ('69-'70), AMC Pacers. Beyond that, some Jeep kits. I don't recall any Chevy pickup kit with them.

AMT '58 Plymouth might be a bit closer, as the Plymouth and Dodge were basically the same car under the skin, while the Chrysler was a bit bigger. But if you already have a Chrysler kit on the shelf, go ahead and try it.

If you have a couple of "favorite" drill sizes, think about getting a pack of each size, and also getting extra pin vises or mandrels to hold each "favorite" size bit. Getting a pack of ten of a particular size bit really isn't that expensive. If you use the pin vise for one, and only one, size bit won't make it sloppy for smaller size bits later on. Look on eBay (or elsewhere) for industrial bits, the hobby oriented bits sold in sets or at Snap-On East (Harbor Freight) won't be as well made, and will wear out faster. You'll probably break an industrial quality bit by accident before it wears out.

You'd have to wonder if anyone actually looked at those cards, unless they got piles of them asking for one specific item. That may actually have happened back then, probably not often though. It's probably more like that little button you push at a street corner pedestrian crossing. You push the button and wait, and the light changes on schedule anyway...

Check the home improvement stores and hardware stores...many sell empty quart paint cans. Leaving leftover paint in the gallon can will result in either the paint drying in the can, or moisture getting into the can causing the rust. I will dab a bit of paint on both the lid and side of the can to show the color of the contents.

This whole mess is going to be used in some quarters to lower overall expectations, and get you used to the idea of even poorer service than what there was before...

They probably designed the kit before II was built, and just stuck the II graphics on the existing kit. Revell did the same with the old tool Stone, Woods, & Cook Willys kit. The kit is modeled on the car when it had the steel front clip and Everflex exhaust tubing grille, but the lettering matches the revised car with the fiberglass front end and '58 Ford grille mesh. The photo of the car on the box is doctored to match the contents of the box. The same, or a very similar, photo of that car appeared in Rod & Custom coverage of a drag meet, with no change. The canopy was probably a "car show only" deal.

Slixx has sheets with lettering in two sizes. (One size per sheet.) The boat's registration numbers on the sides might be done with the smaller size, the name on the stern with the larger size.

Depends on the detail level of the kit involved. I'm coming to the conclusion that it really doesn't make sense to even do plug wires on an engine that has a gaping hole with a wire axle passing through it...

There is a very slight, uniform gap (about .020"-.030") in that area. Are you sure the interior is fitted all the way up, and the chassis is located properly? There are two pins on the top side of the chassis that go into two bosses on the bottom of the interior. You do have to test fit everything (windows, interior bucket with instrument panel, and chassis) and everything has to be fitted correctly.