Mark

From what I am seeing, the actual eBay listing shows no "discount". When I want to go to eBay, I go straight there, never by clicking on a link in an e-mail...

Uh, I think the OP is referring to the two 1/24 scale kits listed...

Too, the round tube sections are conveniently the same diameter as a lot of parts trees (chrome or otherwise).

The headlamp lenses are carried over from the '68 annual kit. The '69 has molded-in lens detail. Likewise, the side glass shown on the box bottom is also carryover '68. Because the '68 had vent panes and the '69 doesn't, the full side glass won't work. But the quarter windows could be cut away from the door glass and used in the '69.

Not sure of the wheelbase but that frame was made to be easy to adjust. To get a longer wheelbase, cut behind the transmission crossmember but ahead of the rear radius rod attachment points, and lengthen with sections of aluminum tubing. The cut ends of the frame must be filed to slip into the tubing, and the tubing sections can be polished to match up with the rest of the chassis.

Don't know where that list came from, but the '55 Chevy sedan, '70 Chevelle, and '71 Duster have already been available for some time now.

I'm thinking the original opening-hood insert for the body wasn't found, forcing AMT to revise the closed-hood insert and tool a new hood. They did just that a couple of years later with the '61 Ranchero, because that kit didn't have a separate hood when originally created. It was a long time ago, but I did check a Prestige series '63 against an annual, and found enough tell-tale marks on various parts to conclude that both were produced from one tool. Not much carried over from '63 to '64 as I recall, just engine and underhood bits. Not having both out right now, as I recall the chassis are different (rear screw holes in different places). I'm going from memory on this though.

I'm pretty certain those slicks were first available in '70. Revell's '70 'Cuda Sox & Martin version has decals for the tire lettering, but it's incomplete as I recall (don't have that kit). The tires and slicks in the Chevelle kit are very well done IMO. They'll be good for early Pro Stock cars, before the wheel tubs and tube chassis came in.

They're probably the same ones as are included in the '69 Chevelle. Those slicks are the ones used previously for the "small" M&H slicks (the hollow ones, not the "piecrusts"). Front tires are the smaller hollow units previously printed as Goodyear Polyglas GT.

Good thing that cat didn't stumble into one of the restaurants up the street...

It's rare, but there are instances where there were more than one tool (mold) of one subject. The '64 Galaxie is one. Parts interchange between the two, but are not the same. The '63 Impala is not one. I thought there were two, but have been corrected on that. Some '63 parts were recycled into the '64 (engine and underhood parts). The recent reissue '64 has a fuel injection intake manifold that was never in the '64 kit but originated in the '63. The little chrome tubes that go with that manifold are in the most recent reissue of the '63, but are no longer used in that kit.

As for the Skylarks, both were produced from one tool (anyone I have communicated with at Round 2 calls them "tools" for the most part). The promotional model body was produced with a closed hood, for the 3-in-1 kit one section of the body tooling was changed in order to produce a body with a hood opening and a radiator wall at the front. With other bodies that were produced as hardtop and convertible versions, that was again done by switching sections of the tooling. One configuration would produce a convertible body, another a hardtop. Back to the Skylark, both versions used the same chassis. The full detail kit of course has a hole in the chassis for the engine/transmission, the promo and Craftsman kit used the same chassis with a separate insert to fill the hole and provide lower-half engine detail. Bottom line is this: when one version is changed (stock Skylark becomes Modified Stocker) the other versions (Craftsman kit) are lost because the shared tooling has been changed.

The cab on the "clone" appears to be a '60 Ford pickup unit, which has the wraparound windshield. Someone spent a few bucks building that copy: the large tires used only came in a handful of kits, and three sets were needed.

The book "We Were The Ramchargers" contains photos from the tech bulletin used by an outside contractor to convert the altered wheelbase bodies. Several were built by the contractor (a company that built ambulances) while many others were built by race teams and independent racers according to the template. Rear wheels were shifted forward 15", front wheels 10". The front and rear subframes were tied together also, creating in effect a full-frame car. The roll bar also stiffened the overall structure. The rearmost cut was made across the center of the trunk floor. Front suspension was moved forward. Some other Mopar book might have the bulletin photos, but the Ramchargers book is worth getting if these cars are of interest to you.

The lightweight cars didn't have the inner lamps. The grilles on those cars were pieced together from two grilles.

Pyro sold a bunch of those; they're all over eBay, and I see a lot of them at swap meets. Still, I wonder how well they would have sold (and how popular they'd be now) had Pyro done it in 1/25 scale...

I believe the recent reissue AMT '64 Impala hardtop kit has the convertible boot from the original annual kit included. If you see one, check the parts layout on the box bottom.

The '55 is still quite buildable, but has some quirks (one rear inner wheelwell is wider than the other) in addition to the flashing issues. The hinges in all of these kits are sloppy also. The '57 hardtop is the next "least worst": problems include poor rear glass fit, lack of headlamp buckets, frame mounts that are supposed to attach to the bellhousing miss by a mile, and so on. All of the old Tri-Five kits have post-'57 engine blocks with side engine mount bosses and ram's horn exhaust manifolds too. If you must have the '56 sedan, get a first issue kit. Later issues are unbuildable: windshield and rear glass fall through the openings among other things. Only a glutton for punishment should attempt the '57 Nomad.

The earlier AMT Pinto kits (through about '75) had an optional Boss 429 engine. Not exactly a realistic swap in 1:1 scale...

There were a bunch of those Crusader builds done back in the day; the various model car magazines' contest coverage articles are loaded with them. None really match detail for detail, for two reasons: none of the builders had access to all of the same parts that were used on the original, and the article itself doesn't specify every part used. The latter was done on purpose: the CAR MODEL writers didn't want builders to copy their car exactly, but instead just use the article as a jumping-off point to building their own creations. Contest coverage from back in the day includes a lot of attempts at copying the "El Matador" '40 Ford coupe also. AMT owned that car for a while, I think I read somewhere that they briefly intended to make a kit of it back then.

Looks like a Seagrave, which would make it a piece of fire fighting equipment.

He's just short for his weight....

The Arlen Vanke Duster kit was the '72 annual kit. Some of those had Pro Stock decals, but none had the parts to build accurate Pro Stock cars. The Challenger kit had decals for the '71 Motown Missile (the '72 car was a Barracuda, which MPC did a kit of in '73).

If you are thinking about doing something, and you can do it, and are well enough to do it, and can afford to do it, DO IT. If you wait another year, you'll be a year older, and still not have done it, and may not be in a position (health, financial, other) to do it. I'll turn 60 later this year. Right now, I weigh less, and am in better shape than I was when I graduated high school in 1977. I've got friends younger than I who are having health issues. That made, and makes, me think about how fortunate I have been, and that I should be more grateful for that and not squander the opportunity to stay in good shape. About a year ago, I was told that the position I have held for 14 years was being phased out. After a few delays, that becomes reality next month. My employer has been good to me, so I have wanted to finish things up there before moving on. Right now it looks like that will happen. I've only been looking for the next job for about three weeks. I've had one interview already, got another one on Tuesday, am waiting on another one, and sign up with two more agencies on Thursday. For the weekend, it's off to NNL East. On Monday, I'll get the details about separation from my current position. The first couple of weeks I was down about it, but now I'm actually looking forward to this. I'd have been perfectly happy to stay where I was until I retired. But that isn't happening, and I can't change that. But I can jump into something else with both feet, and that's what I'm going to do. There are things that you can't control, but there are others that you can. Grab the bull by the horns and take control of the stuff you can influence, and some of the rest will fall into line.

Other than the styling changes, I don't remember any "new" parts in those kits. The '71 had dragster spoke wheels for the front (as did the Pinto and Vega which used that same chassis), '72 versions had five spoke fronts. Other than that, I can't recall any other changes.