Mark

The four from the AMT Pinto should drop in. Both AMT and MPC put V6 engines in their annual kits, as '74 was the first year for those (and the lone year Ford didn't offer a V8 in a Mustang). AMT put a V8 in as the optional engine, MPC would do likewise starting with their '76 kit. But for a four, you'll have to go to the Pinto kits.

Are you arriving on the 24th? Thanksgiving Day is Thursday the 28th, with the day after that kicking off the Christmas shopping season. It's unlikely you'll find any shows taking place that weekend. From late October through mid December (excepting Thanksgiving weekend) some areas will have model/toy train related shows on the weekends. September and October (in my area, anyway) tend to have model and toy shows (revolving mainly around comic books and collector figures), then the train guys take over for the rest of the year. In my area, one guy is trying to establish a model car event, but held this year's one in August. The first one (last year) was in September. I think we might try to persuade him to go back to late September or early October. It's one thing to try to establish a date that doesn't conflict with anything else, but then again if nobody else is doing anything on that date, there might be a reason for that...

The thrill show cars didn’t have roll bars, they were pretty much stock. Some of the earliest ones (late Forties) had the gas tank moved inside the trunk if they were used to do jumps, but that's about it.

Are you building drag cars (modern, or vintage), street rods, pro touring, or ? The best reference material will usually be books on actual chassis building. You'll see designs that work, which will show you how to design and build in scale, something that would be workable as a real car. Depending on the subject matter, you don't necessarily need the most up-to-date books or catalogs. Example: traditional hot rod chassis haven't changed much over the years. Catalogs from suppliers of suspension parts often have detailed photos of what they are selling. Some have critical chassis dimensions for more popular cars. Vintage drag racing chassis could be designed with information from old rule books found online, with details taken from old magazine articles. Dimensions for things like roll bars, tubular suspension parts, and chassis tubing can easily be converted to scale for when you start looking for scratch building materials.

The people at the banks don't pay attention, and haven't for years. At work, whenever I had to rewrite a payroll check, I stopped payment on the "old" one. No exceptions. At one place, I got a call from an out-of-state bank. An ex-employee had apparently "found" a previously "lost" check, and cashed it. The bank (a different bank from the one the check was written from) cashed it. The guy apparently had had an account there but closed it prior to cashing the check. So the bank should have referred him to the bank with the account the check was written on. I told the person from the bank that cashed the bad check that payment had been stopped on that one. He still asked, "what do you recommend we do with this check"...my answer was "put some ketchup on it, and hold your nose..." He didn't like that. Hey, I did my job, your people failed to do theirs...

The Nova has far fewer important mechanical parts with wires connected to them.

I had one of those, it was molded in white.

I'm not aware of a Monogram (1/24 scale) '34 molded in black.

Monogram and Revell were competing companies when that kit was done.

The GMC straight six could be a decent seller for a 3D printer, especially if it had the GMC script valve cover.

That said, hopefully one or more of the 3D print guys will get going on a GMC straight six. The V6 has been done, as has the V12 version of that, so why not the inline six?

I might be incorrect on this, but I'm pretty sure the Fisher head in the '51 Chevy kit is actually a replica of a GMC setup, and there was no similar style head for Chevy inline sixes. The Wayne, Fisher, and Horning Chevy heads all look more similar externally to a regular Chevy six head, at least the ones I turned up. If you test fit the '51 kit parts, it appears the valve cover is cheated a bit on the underside to fit the shorter Chevy block. AMT probably did that so they wouldn't have to include two complete engines in the kit. The valve cover is about the right length to fit a 1/24 scale Chevy engine block (Monogram '53 Chevy hardtop, or '53 Corvette) though. Some work will be needed on the 1/24 scale Chevy block and oil pan to make them more closely resemble GMC pieces.

It might be a generic or composite design, to avoid licensing issues.

Not surprising, really...the Jeep was created in anticipation of something like it being needed for the war. From all accounts I have read, it did everything expected of it, and then some. The kids at home wanted models representing the planes, ships, tanks, and wheeled vehicles that they were hearing and reading about...and there were more Jeeps than anything else. More soldiers came into contact with them than any other vehicle, so they were the most talked about and written about.

That doesn't look like any '39 Chevy I've ever seen. I smell a rat...

I'd look at Jimmy Flintstone Studios, he might have the pickup cab. I doubt that anyone has done a chopped Woody wagon; those weren't really a thing back in the day, and the modern ones aren't merely chopped but usually just hint at the original design.

If there is one even slightly positive thing to say about prices rising on everything, it's this: the price gap between halfway decent quality food and absolute krap has narrowed considerably. I do try to avoid the cheap stuff, try to do my own cooking for lunches (usually the big meal of the day for me). I did spend a couple of hours yesterday on some Buffalo wing Mac and cheese that provided yesterday's dinner, and will also provide today's, as well as a half dozen or so lunches over the next few weeks. The narrowing price gap has affected dining out as well. I've been avoiding the fast food places in favor of a couple of local restaurants. Price difference is minimal (before the tip, at least). But if you become a regular, and leave a decent tip, every so often the waiter/waitress might "forget" to put the coffee on your tab. Friday afternoon's "soup and sandwich" special was cheaper than a burger and fries at the fast food joint. Same with beverages: for not much more than the watered down national brand beers, you can try something else, local if you've got that going in your area, that's a whole lot better. If I ever have any of the cheap stuff in the fridge anymore, it's usually set aside for when I'm doing the yard work. In short, we are pretty much where we are going to be...not famous, not multi-millionaires, and so on. May as well get whatever enjoyment we can, wherever we can find it. Life is short, don't drink cheap beer or eat cheap food. If something you like has changed for the worse (does it ever change for the better?) then find something else to like.

Not so surprising, really. The AMC V8 engine was about as good as any of the others (Ford had better cylinder heads), the AMC Trans-Am program had already gotten the engine ready for competition. The chassis was the same as what the Ford guys were using. NASCAR allowed the fabricated chassis (including the front stub) by then. As long as the suspension had the same configuration as the showroom car (coil springs all around) it was good to go. When Penske switched to Mercury around 1976, all of his Matadors were reskinned as Montegos. The Matadors that Bobby Allison ran were different cars built by him.

Of the annual kits, only the '77 had the grille on the plated tree. With the NASCAR version kits, only the earliest ones made by the original AMT company are actually NASCAR kits. Lesney made some changes to the kit to make the Bobby Allison Sportsman class racer around 1979. All Ertl and Racing Champions reissues are actually the Sportsman version. None I am aware of include a stock grille.

Well, this is the Model Cars magazine message board, so most would assume the conversation here to exclude non-automotive subject matter...

Backup lamps weren't required nationwide until 1967; possibly even cars produced as of 1/1/67. I have seen a number of 1966 cars without them.

You could apply, and trim, Bare-Metal Foil to mask around the opening, then use tape and paper to cover the rest of the body.

Never say "never" or "always" with this stuff, but every one of the multiple version '34 kits I have seen were all that color. Around 1965, most if not all of the multiple version kits were converted to "stock version only" with those probably being a different color. Some were used as slot car bodies in Monogram slot car kits. Those were probably yet another color, but don't worry about tripping over any of those in your travels! Then around 1973 these were changed over to the Early Iron street rod versions. Early production '34 Fords were molded in light green and included both coupe and cabriolet body parts. Later on the cabriolet was issued as a separate kit, in another color. I'm pretty sure those didn't include the coupe roof, and the coupe kit no longer included the cabriolet parts from then on. The "combined" coupe/cabriolet Early Iron kit came in a slightly bigger box than the individual version kits. I'm not sure if the '36 Ford was handled in the same way, as both of mine are in the smaller boxes and contain only the body parts for the version shown on the box.

Those were built on Corvettes. The chassis was stretched a bit in front. Clean some of the junk off, change the grille a bit, lose that windshield divider, and it would look pretty good.

Atlantis has been adding molded clear parts to the Revell kits that did not include them originally. Revell didn't provide the sheet material in the 1/32 scale kits back then.