Mark

Andy Warhol meets Red Green?

Are the Iceman items 1/24 scale? That right there will add about 2" in scale.

The Monogram kit was a snapper, but it had decals, not stickers.

The annual kit also had V8 emblems on the body, and had a slant six engine under the hood. I believe the MPC '68 repeated the error, with "340" hood inserts and a slant six.

Someone mentioned awhile back (here, I believe) that the exclusive Atlantis kits would be figures, not cars.

The fuel truck is 1/48 scale. I saw a few of those yesterday, hadn't seen them before. The same store still had quite a few of those Fireball dragster kits from about a month ago.

I'm surprised nobody has built a rat rod with one of those vertical engine setups...

There are a couple of YouTube channels where they open "unused" food, wisely not attempting to eat it. From the looks of some of those items, I'm glad we don't have "smell-o-vision"...

I just bought one of those '71 Cyclones a week or so ago. Nothing built, body and interior are brush painted and should clean up nicely once I get some new stuff to put in the dunk tank. The '71 annual kit never included the stock striping (the '70 annual did), good thing the Model King issue stock car has it on its decal sheet.

All are the same kit. I'd get the newest issue (pictured at bottom) or the one at the top. Some of the pre-Round 2 kits have poor chrome plating, and/or the convertible front bumper which lacks the W-30 air inlets.

The drag version parts were in all of the annual kits except the '77. They were in a lot of the reissues too. They are not in the original thrill show car, the IMSA GT racer, or the custom-only Python.

Never seen that before. If you've got plastic on the lower side, don't bust it out. I'd fill with two-part epoxy filler on top. The first layer would fill most of the divot (pack it into the corners, don't leave gaps), then grind or sand the edges of it to feather in the final fill.

Two-part filler of some sort, either glazing putty or epoxy. One-part spot putty from a tube will shrink over time, you don't want that in a prominent place. I didn't notice it was a hole, the same still applies but you must have something below to close that off. Use CA glue for the patch, solvent cement will take time to fully cure and, like the one-part spot putty, will shrink.

That's a rear bumper guard from a '51-'55 Kaiser. One can be found in the AMT '49 Ford coupe kit.

The chrome part is from a Monogram '57 Chevy. It's part of the stock fuel injection setup.

I don't know whether or not Duplicolor offers non-spray sealer, but automotive paint companies do. The smallest available amount is probably a quart...even if you split the cost with a couple of guys, you'll still have more than you will need. Cost will be way less than the spray cans too.

If you are going to decant it anyway, why not just start with a can (not a spray can, just a pint or quart) of sealer?

It may have been purchased six months ago, but how long has it been sitting in a warehouse or on the store shelf? The typical 60 second or so shake might not be enough. It's not thoroughly shaken until the agitator ball slides freely around the base of the can when it is lightly moved around. I'd make sure it is ready to go the day before, then give it the 60 second shake just before using.

I don't get the people slagging on Foose. The cars done on his TV show were light years ahead of the "flames and skulls" stuff done on most of the other drama fests. His dad was (is?) Sam Foose, a somewhat well-known customizer in his own right. Sam worked for Gene Winfield at the short-lived AMT Speed & Custom operation in Phoenix, where they built some TV cars. If I remember right, he built the Get Smart Sunbeam, worked on the full size Star Trek shuttle, and a '31 Chevy roadster that transformed into a Camaro convertible for a TV show. Chip Foose was a designer for Boyd Coddington, and was asked to run the wheel company after it went bankrupt (that's where the split between the two originated). Of all the TV show guys, there aren't many I'd hire to build a car for me, but he'd be on the short list.

Even some of the "name" customizers sometimes lost sight of the fact that the car was supposed to look better after all of the alterations were done. Sometimes they were just chasing show points for each change, other times they were making the alterations to the customer's vision. As to the latter, it was a menswear designer that said "when it comes to matters of taste, the customer is always right"...

For the '49, a Meteor grille could be converted from a Mercury grille, and the grille surround could be trimmed from the kit's custom front pan.

It must have varied depending on the assembly plant and/or time of year. One of my brothers had two '65 Belvedere Is at the same time. One was a low mileage original paint car bought from the original owner. Neither of them had that trim on the back.

The cheaper/smaller the TV is, the fewer features I'd expect, and those that are present can be expected to be cruder than on a more costly TV. Too, Walmart usually wants the lowest price on a particular item, so one bought there will likely not be quite as good as the same size TV of the same brand bought elsewhere. The appliance stores play a similar game: "nobody can beat our price on this item" because the larger chains get their own model numbers. The instruction manuals always list multiple model numbers...all may have the same features but only one store in a given area will have a particular model number.

A few of the bucks spent on all of the add-ons might have been better spent on a set of rear springs. Right now it's got long rear shackles and those clamp-on helper springs, and it ain't much higher than stock in back. Besides the paint mismatch, I'd be taking a long look at how those skirts are attached. I'm seeing what look like exposed fasteners, and that ain't good.

Some of the original issue kits were molded in black, some in light blue, but most were gray. The late Seventies Barris Cruisin' USA issue was also molded in black.