Mark

And the Revell 1/16 kit was a '34. I never had either of the 1/16 kits, but they looked really good. I'm surprised neither has ever been reissued (the tub would look good with the sedan's fenders and less trendy looking wheels and running gear). The AMT body, with some tweaks, would look okay on its original fenders and chassis. I'm surprised nobody has done a more accurate one in resin to fit the newer Revell '32 though.

The AMT and MPC phaeton bodies are pretty much the same width at the back. Both seem a bit narrow back there. There's a decent photo spread in the December '72 issue of Rod & Custom that seems to confirm this. So neither body would be completely satisfactory as-is.

I've got an MPC body adapted to the "1996" Revell fenders/chassis. I too was looking at joining it to a Revell highboy roadster front half, but might set the MPC tub aside and start over with an AMT phaeton body. None of the manufacturers seem to agree on cowl shapes and contours, which makes fitting a hood problematic. The Revell highboy roadster cowl would solve all of that.

MPC did do a phaeton, in the Switchers series. It was a combo kit with their two-door sedan. The MPC body is a bit taller at the cowl (not "sectioned on a slant" like the old AMT bodies). It does fit the Revell "1996 kit" fenders and chassis with some work. The MPC interior is weird however, it is very shallow because it is designed to be used in both the channeled and full-fender versions. The currently available Round 2 sedan delivery kit does NOT include the phaeton body. It was in a reissue of the Switchers kit about fifteen years ago.

The Tyrell F1 car used the four front wheels to get more contact between the front tires and the track surface, for better handling. The four smaller tires probably gave a better contact patch than two larger tires. Kenny Youngblood sketched several four-front-wheel cars, I believe they were in HOT ROD. As I recall, he drew up a '34 Ford coupe that looked pretty cool...

The front clip swap has certainly been done with these trucks. When that is done though, the engine is mounted a bit further back in the clip versus where it was in the donor car. My older brother put a small-block Chevy in a '51 pickup over the course of two or three days during a work week, and drove it from Buffalo to Detroit and back that weekend. The only failure was a manufactured part, the voltage regulator in the alternator (he switched from 6 to 12 volts along with the engine swap). He cooked the battery on the return trip. New alternator and battery, and he drove the wheels off of that truck over the next few years, year round. He left the steering box in its stock location, as I recall he said one spark plug was tough to get at. The choice of exhaust manifolds might be slim in order to get everything to fit. Depending on the level of detail and accuracy in the kit, that might not matter so much in scale. One of my cousins had one of these trucks too. First swap was a 348 Chevy, followed by a '60 Cadillac engine and transmission out of my grandfather's car. With those bigger engines, the steering column and box get moved to the left a bit, no small thing in that relatively cramped cab. If I remember right, the Cad powered truck was a rough riding, ill-handling beast, but he drove it that way for a number of years. It might still be sitting in his yard, I saw it there about twenty years ago.

Hair Club for the dead...

I was with Allstate the first couple of years that I was driving, mainly because my mom was insured through them, mainly because she hadn't changed since my parents first had a car. Switched away in 1982, never going back. As for the other two, I figure all those commercials and billboards have to be paid for somehow, it's either being tacked onto my bill or deducted from a potential payout...

I don't know if they still do it, but GEICO used to give out grants to small-town speed trap police departments so they could upgrade their radar equipment. More tickets written, higher rates, more money for GEICO. The big three for me to avoid would be GEICO, Progressive, and Allstate...

I can't stand Walgreens. If you don't have their special card, you may as well walk in there backwards and bent over...

That looks like a Round 2 product number. ALL of their issues of the '25 T (two with the chopped coupe body, two with the stock height coupe, the Fruitwagon, and the Paddy Wagon) contain parts to build two cars. NO Ertl issue, or any AMT issue from the Seventies, contain two bodies. Some have both the stock and rod chassis, but all had only one body.

How do you get two cars with one body?

That's just it...it hadn't been a double kit since the late Sixties. The stock height coupe was issued in the mid-Seventies, the roadster a few times, but none had all of the parts for two cars.

Those classic car kits don't get much love. A couple of weekends ago, I bought a Seventies issue Monogram '41 Continental for $6. I know the guy I bought it from, he described it as a parts kit because he hadn't bothered to check it. I did check it, it's complete, all plated parts on the trees, and the windshield frame on the body is unbroken. On Saturday, I snagged a Seventies issue MPC '32 Chrysler roadster kit for $5. The parts bag is still sealed, though the hood was apparently packed separately and is outside the bag.

The Edsel kits were AMT. SMP did the Chevrolet and Chrysler products (Imperial, Valiant). SMP was a separate company but with some backing from AMT. AMT acquired it in mid-1961. A handful of '62 Imperial convertible kits got out in boxes with the SMP logo on them, as did about half of the '62 Styline Valiant kits. '62 Impala kits have the SMP logo on the custom license plate on the plated tree.

The Surf Woody was brought back by RC2 earlier, but Round 2 did it right. They also brought back the MPC Cosmic Charger dragster (though based on another kit, it has a lot of unique parts) and the 1/32 scale car kits that last appeared in '67 or '68.

As already stated, it's basically a 1/25 scale promo model, miniaturized a bit. Two-piece plastic tires, but also a one-piece body, plated parts, clear windows...better than most 1/32 scale car kits.

The Black Arrow is a good choice for Jenkins, as he won his first NHRA title as a driver with it. He was to some extent angling for a factory deal with Chrysler, but was never going to get one unless he gave up tuning Chevrolets for the lower Stock classes, which is something he wasn't likely to do. He was in with Strickler on the Dodge deal in '64, but his name wasn't on the contract nor did Chrysler mention him in any of their ads or promotional material. They split towards the end of '64. The Black Arrow has history after Jenkins too, it evolved into an altered wheelbase car over time.

Dr. Burgess (a veterinarian) owned the Black Arrow Plymouth. Jenkins set the car up for him and took it to the first meet to test it out. Grump pulled a fast one by putting his own name as the owner of the car. That is an interesting car, a good choice for a build project. The interchangeable Cyclone and Cougar bodies should work. I picked up an extra Cougar to put under a '66 body, tried it and as I remember it's a pretty good fit. The '66 body I have has a few flaws but will be perfect for this. Bumpers and hood can come from the junk pile because the bumpers are painted silver, and the hood has to be smoothed over anyway. The '66 body is a Comet (plain hood), not a Cyclone. Went to the twice-a-year train show today, actually bought two kits. AMT Collector Series '32 Ford coupe (the one with the display base), I believe that is the toughest kit in the series because it was in production at the time the tooling got damaged. Also got an MPC '32 Chrysler roadster for five bucks. The guy with the Deuce coupe also had a built AMT '68 Cougar, but he wanted $30 for it and wouldn't budge. That's too much considering it didn't have a hood, rear bumper, or taillights among other things. I wanted it more for the box that opened at each end, as I never had one of those. He did sell it, it was gone when I walked by prior to leaving.

I'd check the two kits against each other. The Monogram kit is 1/24 scale and AMT's convertible is 1/25. The Revell Challenger (the one based on the diecast) is supposed to be 1/25, but isn't much smaller than the Monogram kit. The Monogram kit's interior is likely way better anyway.

Some of the younger folk are getting into the vintage hot rods and speed equipment, like the "Race of Gentlemen" type of thing where they stick to period (pre-1950 or thereabouts) equipment. They're putting that stuff together and running it, whereas a lot of the older guys seemed to be content to hoard it or bring it out on a trailer and push it into a display spot.

Each works great for their intended purpose. I use the bottled primer a lot, as I apply it only in areas where bodywork has been done. I use cheap throwaway brushes and wipe them clean with a rag immediately after use, that way I get several uses out of them. Brush marks won't matter if they occur as you're sanding most of the primer away anyway. Using the bottled primer means you're not blasting spray primer onto areas where you don't need it yet, leaving you to apply it only after the entire piece is ready for primer and finish paint.

Yes, you will have to spread the body sides to get it over the roll cage. These parts originated with the 1973 annual kits, and are in most, if not all, Camaro and Firebird kits (except the Trans-Am with the separate T-roof panels, that's a different kit altogether).

The Model King issues are set at a certain number. Dave has to commission the production run, set up the licensing deal (for the racing team), and arrange for the artwork and packaging himself. When they come off of the boat, he's got to pay for them, and probably store a fair number of them until they are sold. That's why the numbers could be lower on these than the usual Moebius production run. The price might be a touch higher too, depending on how difficult it is to get licensing or permission to do a particular car. The AWB cars have a smaller (but devoted) following, and Dave probably has a good indication of how many he can sell profitably. So if you like subject matter like this, get them when you see them. A particular subject may not be popular enough to warrant a second production run.

Aurora also did a Ferrari, but the consensus on that one is that it's not very good. Same level of detail as in the others (including opening doors) but the body is a composite of two different series and not too accurate to either of them. There was also an Aurora Studebaker Avanti, but from what I have heard the AMT kit is far better.