Mark

I remember seeing an early Omni at a new car show. The hood was open; plain as day, the front of the engine block had a VW logo cast into it. The Omni had a carburetor instead of the Rabbit's fuel injection though. Around the same time ('77-'79) AMC was using a four cylinder engine based on a VW/Audi design; if I remember right the long block was pretty much the same engine as used in the Porsche 924. Those early Omnis seemed to be rough runners. My mom was car shopping and wanted to test drive one...all of the local dealers were telling her they ran a bit rough because the demo "just came off the truck and weren't set up yet". None of them would volunteer another demo, or even a used one, for a test drive. They were all expecting her to take their word that the as-delivered car would somehow be better, and just sign on the line without really knowing what the car would be like. Needless to say, she didn't buy one.

With these kits (like any other) a potential reissue would be whatever it was the last time it was issued. The Cavalier and EXP were only issued for two years and with no alterations at all. But others like the Fiero and Camaro did get updated, sometimes incorrectly. The MPC Fiero is now the '87-'88 with the reworked roof (clear panels in the rear pillars) but the suspension parts weren't updated to match the body. The Camaro would now be the 1992 25th Anniversary version.

eBay typically has higher starting prices, higher yet with Buy it Now involved. At shows or flea markets, most items are priced already and you are negotiating that price down. With eBay, bidders are negotiating the price up. The smart Buy it Now seller will put that price just above what the item typically sells for, to rope in a buyer who has to have it NOW.

If you want a Cavalier, Beretta, or Ford EXP, you can pound the ground and find as many as you want, for well under "current kit" prices. I've got two or three of each, most bought sealed. I don't think I paid more than $5 for any of them.

I'd like to stop over at the LHS (was last there about three weeks before this all started), and maybe drop in to HL. Both still closed here though, and even if they did open "early" I wouldn't think of skating on the edge of any orders in effect. I'll keep my opinion of state/local leadership to myself, it's more that the health care personnel are still stressed and I'm not going to add to their burden right now. I have paid more attention to eBay lately, have bought a few items and supplies there, and will drop a few bucks (and then some) locally when the dust settles. Then too, there's NNL East in September, right around my birthday...

There's an article in Rod & Custom about another car built by AMT Speed and Custom. It was built for a TV show, by swapping a number of lightweight parts it converted from a '31 Chevy roadster to a '68 Camaro convertible. It obviously wasn't a runner but it did have an engine in it (no radiator as I recall). All of the body panels just set in place, the Camaro wheels were discs that overlaid the roadster tires, things like that. The conversion took place during a musical number on the show. I remember seeing a photo of the AMT facility (maybe in that same article). Winfield did have a yellow '40 Ford sedan delivery that was painted similarly to the first issue of AMT's kit. The Ala Kart (owned by AMT since the early Sixties) was stored out in Arizona too. The Rodders' Journal article mentions it having been sold when that operation was closed down.

The Snake-Eyes issue was supposedly short-lived because the tooling was damaged during its production run. Bits of info about that surfaced in the old CAR MODEL magazine. The tool was repaired for the mid-Seventies Street Rods series reissue, but that and subsequent reissues omitted most of the original optional parts. Those may have been casualties of the repair work. Ertl unblocked a few things, but other parts never did resurface. The Collectors Series issue may have been produced concurrently with the Snake-Eyes, as it is the toughest one in that series to find also. Same parts, optional parts not mentioned in the instructions, no slicks, no decals other than the "plaque" for the clear display base (the one thing not in the Snake-Eyes version).

DTR is probably still sitting on some of the coupe kits, because RC2 (not Round 2) ran off a bunch of them for Walmart's budget series that sold for under eight bucks. DTR probably paid more than that for the kits they were trying to sell at the same time. Then again, DTR's sales strategy wasn't the most brilliant. Some of those kits had the original box art when few of the optional parts pictured were actually in the box, others had the "jalopy" packaging that again showed parts that were sold separately.

I never had one of those, it like the Tow'd was a very short lived thing, probably one production run and gone. I remember seeing an unbuilt one in a junk store in the mid-Seventies, even at one dollar it was there a long time.

I haven't seen the spray cans anywhere, either locally (only one hobby shop in the area) or with any show vendors. Their brush enamels are light years ahead of Testors, they cover very well and also flow out well leaving no brush marks provided you don't drag the brush through it once applied. I haven't had any luck airbrushing them, but am well satisfied with them in brush applications.

The MPC flip-front '57 Chevy has a set. The flip-front '53 Ford pickup kit uses the same chassis and engine, and has the same headers also.

The Rally wheels were indeed added to the Pace Car kit. More trivia: the "for 1968" Camaro was altered into the "for 1968" Firebird. Different hood and bumpers (custom only), Pontiac engine (actually a pretty good one for the time), some slight alterations to the body. Same custom only interior, same separate glue-on vinyl roof.

Just an opinion, but if the exact size can't be had, go undersize as opposed to oversize. Paint, especially if primer is part of the deal, will be thicker than correct for 1/25 scale, and will make up the difference (if not exceed it...)

That's from the AMT "for 1968" Camaro. Not 1968, but "for 1968", as in "MPC had the promo contract, and GM wouldn't tell us how the '68 differed from the '67, but we wanted to get something out there". It's a '67 with no scripts or emblems, custom upholstery pattern on the seats, and slightly altered grille. Still had '67 rally wheels and vent panes.

If anything, Jo-Han's Pro Stocker kits were the most accurate available until Monogram's early Eighties releases. MPC issued a couple with full interiors including rear seat and console, and a couple others had full stock exhaust system detail molded as part of the chassis! The original Bill Jenkins Vega kit had the stock exhaust detail, and the body had rear wheel openings that were radiused like an old Gasser. (The new Round 2 kit will not have either of those mistakes.)

The biggest problem with the sedan is the fender unit, it is narrower than that of a Model A or '32. I never tried the sedan body on the 5W coupe fenders, that may be an option. The sedan body is too "squared off" though.

The wrong time to ask is after it's sold. You might not like the answers you get!

Did the nose actually open, or was it removable to get access to the engine? My older brother spotted one of those Fiat nose sections sitting at the curb on trash day...he snagged it and put it on eBay. If I remember right, he got around $500 for it.

I remember the car, but not that it was his.

The '62 Dodge grille in the AMT parts pack is a pretty good fit on the Revell body. I never cared for the look of the Revellion funny car body, so I found a set of bumpers and tried the AMT grille.

They could make those with the GEICO gecko on them now...

Big tires don't fit those Novas unless they're tubbed, jacked up in back, or have the rear wheel openings cut out. "Rolling" the fender lip might buy you one tire size, but those cars won't fit anything like an L-60 in stock form.

Another alteration that can be done to "tub" interiors is to stand the side panels straight up. As molded, they have a slight taper, that is to ease removal from the tool during production. The simplified tooling is also why the detail on the side panels is on the sparse side. Standing the side panels up straight will make the interior look deeper. Material will need to be added to the floor at the outer edges, but it'll be worthwhile. Too, check the depth of the bucket. Some kits have too-shallow buckets that leave a gap between the floor and the top of the chassis. An extreme example would be the AMT late model Corvair...if you have one, stick the body/interior/chassis together, then look through the hole in the chassis under the rear seat...

MPC decals from that era will definitely need to be sealed!

There's an article on thrill shows in an early issue of the old Special Interest Autos magazine. The AMT illustration showing the '49 Ford jumping over the '50 duplicates one of the photos in that article. That particular show did use '49 and '50 Fords, but all of the cars would have been from the current year, whichever it was. They did use a convertible or two, but they used sedans and not coupes.