Mark

My mom would buy them for me...she thumbed through them too every so often, she said they were well-written. She even bought the one with the "finger" cover, which some places didn't put out for sale because of the cover.

Well, no painting required provided you could live with the tan color the body is molded in. Or, as was printed in the old Auto World catalogs, "molded in color, so you don't have to paint it if you don't feel like"...

Most likely better quality back then. I only used one particular bit (forget the size) in a Moto-Tool to drill holes in vacuum forming molds. I did go through a fair number of that size bit, and did buy them by the pack.

Too, the drill bits bought in bulk are more likely to be industrial items and should last a bit longer than the hobby items that were in the original set. With the smaller bits, it's usually the side thrust when using them in a pin vise that does them in.

Have you disassembled it yet? Stripping the paint will undo the putty. If any balsa was used in the body alterations, stripping the paint will create a real mess. Not sure who did that 1:1 custom...might have been Starbird, maybe Dave Puhl or Dave Stuckey. I remember the R&C article...the bench seat was put in for the three brothers that rode around together in that car. Wonder if it's still out there somewhere.

Buy in bulk...where else, eBay! I probably have four or five sets of 61-80 bits, the same ones were missing from all of the sets. eBay, decide which ones you need, buy 'em ten in a pack, buy 'em from one vendor and usually get a discount. I think I bought seven packs (70 bits) for $35, delivered to my door. I probably won't have to buy any more drill bits, period.

Wonder what steering it is like, with that huge contact patch out back and those skinny front tires...

The Nova has mono-leaf rear suspension, nothing near the three-link setup Jenkins used. Front suspension is way off too. Jenkins' first Vega started out with stock front suspension, except for Pinto R&P steering (left more open space for header routing). You can get that from an AMT (not MPC) Chevy Monza kit. You'll probably have to scratch the rear suspension setup.

I'd keep the fenders but lose the side mount spare tires...doing that will make the car look longer in front.

Round 2 has reissued '74, '75, and '76 Gremlin kits, all with the simulated denim interior (Levi's name wasn't used, probably to avoid licensing issues). The Denimachine is a longer van than is represented by the AMT kit.

They aren't "sweaty", they are "game worn"...

I've only seen a couple of them mint in box. Builtups are sometimes missing the engine, and often missing the rear grille (because the instructions advised that it and the engine could be removed to display the engine on a stand). Usually the working steering parts are glued solid, and the clear bubbles messed up with cement as well. On the other hand, few of them are painted.

Looks like it has the custom parts from the Phantom (originally "Vantom"), which were not in the Cruising Van nor the Coca-Cola issue.

The front tires are the smaller wide tread tires used in kits like the '75-'76 Dart, with no printed lettering or stripe. MPC likewise used the equivalent annual kit tire in the original version of the kit.

Not $5,000 based on the license plate, so either 5,000 Euros or 5,000 pounds. Insurance regulations there may prohibit fixing the car yourself...perhaps it has to be inspected afterward? Even over here, in some states if you rebuild a "total" you cannot get the same insurance on the car after the repair.

There was a second release around 1966, in a different box from the one pictured. From what I have been able to piece together, the second issue was available until around 1970. Never released again, no parts of it surfaced in some other kit, nothing. The 1:1 car was pearl white, not yellow. It was damaged in transport, Starbird used parts of it to build another car (as he sometimes did).

Windshield is likely a rear window from something ('53 Studebaker chopped top, maybe?). The roll bar might be just a section cut from another 'Vette body, from the B-pillar area. Maybe the MPC '67 that gave up the hood?

If the 'Vette body is from the T.H.E. Cat issue, it would be a '67 but would have had the separate/rotating headlamp doors like the '63 convertible annual.

They appear to be from the '57 Chevy. The number on the tag at one end looks the same.

That custom '62 is neat too. Could be a good use for some leftover parts, after I swipe the windshield frame from one to fix a '61 body...

I don't have the kit in front of me, but I'm 99% certain that hood is from an MPC '67 'Vette annual kit. The rest appears to be AMT, with lots of individual initiative added in. Every Dream Rod or Mako Shark builtup that crosses my path has always, ALWAYS, been missing a small part or two. Exhaust pipe, headlight pod, headrest, knockoff, you name it. I've got one complete Dream Rod, between three or four builtups and maybe a partial kit.

All of the Lindberg Charger kits have engine detail. Unfortunately they are 1/24 scale, likely that is what limited their sales. Revell's Challenger kit did have an engine, as did the AMT late model Chrysler 300. Both are 1/25 scale. Anyone I have talked to that knows much about the "new" Hemi engines seems to think the Revell piece is the better of the two.

If, with any of the Chevy kits, a Pontiac version had been included as part of the initial plan, then of course we'd have seen one. Adding one after the fact is probably as much work as just starting from scratch.

Pontiacs (and other GM divisions) all used different chassis from Chevrolet. The Safari interior is quite different too: except maybe the '57, even the way the rear seat folded was different. Other than the roof and inner body shell, there really is very little in common between the Nomad and Safari wagons.

The '49 coupe kit does not have that front axle.