Mark

I had a '69 Wildcat kit in the mid-Seventies, and have another one bought on eBay in the last twenty years or so. Both kits had/have the sheet pictured in this thread, the one with the black panels.

'69 Riviera (annual issue only) had lace panel decals.

I've got X-EL '56, '57, and '58 Olds repop promos. '56 has no interior but the others do. X-EL mentioned some of their promos did not include interiors "as originally made"...that was not true in all cases, some of the originals did have interiors where the repro did not. The '56 Olds did not have one, ever. I was lucky enough to score another '58 Olds awhile back, wish I were as lucky finding another '57.

I've already got one, so I'm not looking for another, at least right away. LHS has a couple of them, priced with the recent Moebius F/X and pickup truck kits. Haven't checked them on eBay, but what little I saw points to "what the market will bear" pricing for now...

Give them a shake today, and again tomorrow, and again whenever you remember, until you try it. Solid colors likely won't work (permanently settled) but metallics and maybe candies ought to be good provided you can mix them to the point where the little ball rolls around the bottom of the can without resistance. Propellant is another matter; either there's enough there or there isn't. I've got two or three cans of Hot Rod Primer...got them mixed as much as they're going to be...just waiting for the right project, like an early Ford coupe...

The Road Runner, and the Load Runner!

Asking price, selling price...two very different things...

Nope, no '66. I don't remember ever seeing a resin one.

The original Showboat issue from 1967 has only the more basic custom parts. The Carson top was cut down into the half top for that issue. All of those parts were blocked off to turn what was a $2 kit into a $1.70 kit. The decontented Showboat kit fit into the narrower box that AMT used for some kits back then. The handful of drag version parts (plastic slicks, raised front axle, and exhaust dumps) were added for that issue and didn't resurface until the Round 2 reissue.

Those illustrations (and those on some other original issue kit boxes) take considerable liberties compared to what is actually in the box. There were fins like that in the original kit (they aren't in any other issue) but the kit pieces are canted outwards and not straight up. The taillight pods are still in the kit. The rest of the rear styling is pure fiction, nothing like that was ever included. The Victoria roof was in the original issue, but it is gone from the reissues. The rear glass for it is still included though.

The '50 convertible includes nearly all of the custom parts from the original issue. Chopped windshield, two custom front end extensions (both with quad headlamps, one with canted lights), another more basic front pan and grille surround, custom taillight pods, rear pan, rear license plate pod, and multiple sets of grilles and chrome bumpers. Not included from the original issue are: fender skirts, chopped Victoria roof, chopped Carson top (it was modified into a half top which is in the kit), fender extensions to provide hooded stock headlamps, custom wheel covers, rear fins, and a couple other parts. Speed equipment consists of finned heads and a dual carb intake, which should drop onto the '49 block (which has no axle hole). The '50 convertible also has a parallel leaf raised front axle setup.

Among other things, the section with the window openings should be taller. The adjoining area of the roof needs to be opened up, and a new, thinner drip rail made up and sandwiched between the roof and (new) window opening section.

USPS tracking is hit and miss. In my neighborhood, all of the mailboxes had bar code stickers that the mail carrier would scan upon delivery. The sticker on my mailbox lasted about a month. I think they're somehow tagging the deliveries in bunches, probably one block at a time.

Eighty or so 1/25 scale models (even heavy trucks and trailers) should fit in all but the smallest of cars, even with a passsenger along for the trip.

I've thought about building one too (should work with a floodlight to heat the plastic) but the 5" x 5" dental unit should do for anything I might want. Anything larger that I'm thinking about can (and likely should) be broken down into smaller pieces anyway. Lately I'm revisiting things from the past, this will be one of them.

.020" is available in rolls also, it's a matter of how much of the stuff you want and how much room you have to store it. I used to sell hoods and conversion parts. I didn't produce them, I had them run by a company that made packaging for commercial products. That shop (at the time, not sure about now) made the blister packs for McGard wheel locks. They had a huge machine (plenty of vacuum and heat, much more than a home unit) and used .020" sheet styrene by the roll. They'd stick my molds on the side of other jobs, in areas that would otherwise go to waste. My stuff would be in the cutoff area, after they ran off a job they'd pile it up and the owner of the company would give me a call. I then had to cut everything out of the sheet and package them. Molds were made of two-part epoxy. The guy who ran the parts sold me a can of the stuff. I'd make one master out of kit parts, putty, etc. and he'd stick it in the machine before it got hot enough to damage the master and run me a few. I'd then put the epoxy into those, however many molds I wanted (usually just one), and then work on the epoxy molds. Those were epoxied to a wooden base, polished, and drilled with small gauge drills through the epoxy and wood so the plastic would pull down in critical areas. Later I made the molds in reverse by pouring the epoxy over the master, like making RTV molds for resin casting. I had it figured out to where I made masters for the upper and lower sides of a hood, and the finished pieces fit together when trimmed. In the reverse molds, when the machine really heated up, the details came out pretty sharp, in some cases as sharp as a molded piece. It would pick up detail from the drilled holes (they would show up as tiny bumps on the part) and even sanding scratches in the waste areas. Remembering how good the industrial machine was made me give up on the Mattel unit pretty quickly, even after adding the upgrades. There is just no comparison between the two.

I'm hearing and reading that FedEx is busier now than they are during a "normal" Christmas season. I'd imagine USPS is no different. Patience, patience. Actually I'm surprised that items I have bought lately have arrived so quickly. Last Tuesday or Wednesday I ordered a set of interior kick panels for my Fairlane...they were on my porch early Saturday afternoon.

The dental unit uses 5" x 5" sheets. You might be able to find a plastic supplier locally, and buy sheets up to 4' x 8'. You can get plastic sheets on eBay, and probably Amazon too. .020" and thinner can be shipped rolled up in a cardboard tube. Get a razor knife/"carpet cutter" and a long straightedge, and you're in business.

Reuse, as in take one off of something and put it on something else? Don't see that happening, no way, no how.

6 hours one way...do it. Start during the night, have breakfast near the destination, take as long as you need to check everything in person, pay in cash and load up. Stop for lunch/dinner right after, hit the road, be home before dark.

Does this kit include clear parts? All of the glass would be flat, no big deal either way. Anyone know which kit has a 1/48 scale Allison engine?

The supermarkets will also move things around every so often. They don't want people to walk directly to the items on the shopping list, and walk past everything else. The longer they have you in the store, the more they can sell you.

Actually, they didn't have very many in stock. They'd have had to order one for me anyway. That was even more the case with the Dodge dealer...this was a large dealer, and they only had two Dakotas, both of which they wanted to keep as demonstrators. They did do a search before placing the order, they found one in Ohio with the options and powertrain I wanted (V6/stick) but I didn't want the color it was in. I ordered the first three new vehicles I bought, the most recent one I bought off the lot because there really aren't any choices beyond trim level and color anymore.

I just checked the brochure that I got when pricing the truck in early 1988. Looks like the salesman was trying to stick me for an extra thousand dollars or so, by saying the automatic was necessary. I ended up buying a Dodge Dakota, which I kept for 16 years, so I guess I didn't go wrong in passing up the Chevy.

Nope, New York. NY does now have California emissions standards (nothing but the best, when the taxpayer foots the bill!) but that was not the case in 1988.