Mark

The front of the roof (over the windshield) on the Monogram flip-front '66 does have that "dip". Sometimes those kits are assembled with excessive amounts of cement, installing the windshield that way could accentuate the problem. You wouldn't be using the body from that kit for a serious build with the other kits that are out there. The AMT '67 body has thicker A-pillars than other kits replicating '66-'67 GM midsize cars. The Revell '67 is pretty good in that respect. Years ago, I combined the Revell '67 roof and engine compartment with a sliced and diced Monogram Hurst Hairy Olds body to create the master for a resin '67 4-4-2.

I too have an old Monogram '66 that I started converting to stock, using the chassis from their '70. All those parts are paid for, some of the work is done...might as well try to make something out of it...

If you are in this far, may as well go all the way and bring in the Revell El Camino and the old Monogram flip-front '66. The Revell El Camino and wagon bodies are different widths. I want to say the El Camino is narrower, not 100% certain though. I do seem to remember that when the wagon came out with the SS hood, some folks tried the El Camino hood on the wagon and found it a loose fit. The old Monogram kit is 1/24 but seems to taper off to 1/25 at the ends. There might be something useful there, the taillight panel for one piece. If the front clip rises up towards the front, maybe take a thin vertical "wedge cut" to tilt it down a bit? If you are set on going further, I'd probably start with the '67 hardtop body and graft the '66 styling onto it. The size/width thing has happened often. Of all the kit manufacturers, seemingly only Jo-Han has been consistent in getting different cars on common bodies right. I've bought kits with cracked windshields guessing that the piece from another kit would fit, and I haven't been disappointed yet.

Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure the Jo-Han decal sheet (unused ones can be found on eBay) has the white area around the side panels. There might be a Slixx sheet for this car too, if so it will probably have everything.

Maybe two layers of shrink tubing over the original parts? Sand them smooth, apply one layer of shrink tubing, wrap with wire, then apply the "top" layer of shrink tubing?

I too never got around to putting together a "master list" of "needs", nor did I get an order in after the initial retirement announcement. But I did think of a few things when the "last call" was announced last year. Of the things I did want, I only got two, one being a Jo-Han '72 442 rear bumper. I had a complete kit, but the place that replated the original bumper flubbed it, so I bought another one.

Looks like a Lindberg kit from the early Sixties, though it could be a later reissue if it has vinyl tires. I believe the early issues had plastic tires.

There might be some additional work involved, as the Lark is larger than 1/25 scale.

It will be more a scratchbuilding project than a conversion. The Waldorf Nomad was built on a '53 Chevy car chassis. The kits you will likely start with would be a Tri-Five Nomad (roof, windows), a '53 Corvette (trim pieces, portions of the body) and an AMT '51 Chevy (chassis is very close to the '53). I would try to use some of the Nomad lower body (mainly the sides and tailgate area) and adapt portions of the Corvette body to it to get the Waldorf Nomad styling. Any way you approach it, short of lucking into a resin body (none exist that I am aware of) this will be a lot of work, and will not be an easy project.

Losing the separate taillight lenses in the Craftsman series kits meant no tiny parts tree floating around in the box. Remember too, the parts weren't bagged in those days. One less step in manufacturing, one less molding machine tied up. They started doing this with the regular kits in the Seventies, again to eliminate personnel. They also tried plastic rod axles, those didn't work too well because they were the same gauge as the wire ones. AMT wasn't alone in this. Jo-Han got rid of wire axles (and metal screws) in the early Seventies, and substituted plastic ones. Small additional amount of plastic, easily cut tooling to produce axles and chassis pins. The USA Oldies kits also eliminated decals and (in all but a couple of kits) optional parts.

Palmer is Palmer, except for a couple of 1/32 scale cars they did which are outright copies of other companies' kits.

The Pinto and Vega suffered from their manufacturers' not really wanting to build small cars, because they felt they would make less profit per car with them. HFII's popular remark was "minicars, miniprofits". Apparently they felt that younger folks would buy Toyotas and Hondas, then switch to GM, Ford, or Chrysler products when they wanted or needed a bigger car. Where they whiffed was in thinking that Toyota, Nissan, and Honda would never build bigger or more expensive cars.

The downsized GM intermediates (particularly the station wagons) were bad in respect to rear impacts too, particularly in areas where cars rusted. The frames would rot out behind the rear wheels because of the winter slop tossed up by the rear tires, leaving the rear part of the frame separated from the rest. The Pinto was worse in that it had no "frame" back there. A book I read about Ford awhile back blamed the design on cost-cutting, or "thrifting", as directed by the guy who was running Ford in that period. His own book distanced himself from the Pinto, of course. Where they really screwed up, is when someone at Ford weighed the cost of fixing the design against the estimated number of accident claims, and decided it would be cheaper to pay out the accident claims. The cost per claim was supposedly based on guidelines established for use after plane crashes.

HL "resets" their stock twice a year, usually around September and March. Round 2 hadn't received the second shipment of Dodge pickup kits until after the last reset, they had none to sell anyone until that second shipment arrived. HL on rare occasions replaces an existing item midway between resets, but not often. If they do decide to carry this kit, they probably won't do so until the next reset.

There were two versions of that '57 Chevy supercharger: one eas called S.C.O.T., the other Italmenica (sp?). One was a refined/perfected version of the other. Not sure which came first. The first version didn't work well, nor did it last long. The second company straightened it out and started selling the improved version, only to be undercut by someone dumping the original, poorer version at a much lower price, which wrecked the reputation of the good one. If I remember right, there was an article in Rodders' Journal about them.

Yes. The 9-1/2 box contained 11 boots. No 11 box or boots marked 9-1/2 to be found.

OCD should be called CDO. Put the letters in alphabetical order as they ought to be!

All of us have pretty much the same work bench...it could be 50' x 100', and we're working in the only clear space which is about 6 square inches....

I'm far from being a "people person" but still prefer to do my shopping in person, and see what I'm getting. One guy I work with buys clothes online, I can't see it. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a pair of winter boots. I wear a size 9-1/2 shoe, went to the store, grabbed the box marked 9-1/2, tried the boots on, they fit just fine. I then looked for the size as marked on the boots themselves, and they were actually size 11. Had I ordered 9-1/2 online, I'd have had to send them back and wait another week to get something that fit.

I'm the same way, but with tools, paint brushes, and putties. A couple of weeks ago, I bought another brand of two-part epoxy filler, even though I've already got a couple. I was using some Bondo two-part glazing putty on a project...while looking for something else, I found an unopened package of that. Same with tools. I've sold off duplicate sets of files that I bought by accident, no foul there because I actually resold them for what I had spent. I've got tons of paint brushes because I'd buy packs of them whenever they turned up at closeout stores. I'll buy every X-Acto knife I see on the "ten cent pile" with the blade busted off in the handle, then take them home, soak the blade end in penetrating oil, and stick a new blade in. Can't help it...

AMT made the '70 promo models, coupe and convertible. The convertible had the correct smooth trunk lid, but I believe it had coupe quarter panels as did the MPC convertible kit. If i remember right, both convertibles had incorrect upper windshield frames also.

AMT didn't make a '68 Impala, hardtop or convertible. MPC made those, as they had the promo contract that year. AMT made a "for 1968" "Chevrolet SS427" hardtop, basically a '67 Impala hardtop minus stock bumpers, exterior trim, and rear window opening.

Did the Courier pickup have a Ford engine? The truck itself was built by Mazda, I always thought the Ford version was the same except for trim and badging.

AC Moore did have some decent stuff outside of model kits (which were expensive compared to Michael's and HL) but lately there has been nothing that would make people go out of their way to go there instead of those other places. They did cut back by a couple of stores around here when HL set up shop. As a smaller chain, they probably haven't got the purchasing muscle that the other chains have.

I bought a couple of those Road Runner kits when they were new, they did have the dirt track tires and not the Batmobile tires. It was the '67 Chevelle that had the Batmobile tires.