Mark

I was interested in the two-door sedan because I saw a restored '66 NHRA Stock class racer for sale at Hershey. I'm pretty sure it was a Biscayne with 427 engine. There were a few of those that were well-known in the late Sixties. Several New York Chevrolet dealers offered a 427 Biscayne package in '68 and '69. They were advertising it as a Chevy alternative to the Plymouth Roadrunner: cheaper than an SS396 Chevelle, and probably didn't weigh too much more. There were a couple of those around here, both were black but the Motion Performance book shows one or two in other colors. For some reason, the big-engine '67 combo seems to fall through the cracks.

For the '66, the Revell Impala is the obvious choice. But the four-doors use a flatter trunk lid than the two-door hardtop, so splicing in the upper portion of a '65 convertible decklid area would be the way to go. I looked at doing a '66 two-door sedan using a AMT convertible body (have one "in stock" minus the windshield frame) but other things got in the way. For a roof, I was looking at a '70 Galaxie police car roof, which will need mucho rework (but again, have one on hand).

Car is lettered "Boss 429", but has a 427 overhead cam engine (it does; I've got the kit)...

The molds dry out and become unusable over time, whether used or not. The heat generated by the curing of the resin dries out thin raised areas on the surface of the mold, in areas like panel lines and cowl vent detail. Early parts from a mold will have sharp detail in those areas, over time little pieces will dry out and pull off causing loss of detail on parts cast later on.

I've got parts of one of those '61 kits, but never had an instruction sheet so I don't know if a boot was included (or if a convertible building version was part of the kit). I'd suspect that it was a quick conversion to get the kit away from the promo's four-door configuration.

MPC issued some Airfix 1/32 scale sports car and vintage car kits in the Sixties and Seventies also. (One vintage car, the Darracq, is closer to 1/25 scale.) Airfix also issued some MPC car kits (Mako Shark, '67 GTO) in England. I've got an MPC catalog from the early Eighties that shows the Aston Martin as a reissue in their series of Cannonball Run kits. It never appeared though.

One other thing with the early Corvairs: the '61 promo was a four-door like the '60, but the trim was a little bit different. The '61 kits all had convertible bodies, but the rear wheel openings were carried over from the four-door and are incorrect.

MPC's Toyota 2000 GT kit was the roadster version of the Airfix kit. MPC never issued the coupe version. The 1:1 roadster was a one-off deal (constructed for the 007 movie) but the MPC roadster kit was not issued as a James Bond item. The female figure from the Airfix Bond issue was included in MPC's kit.

The Corvair is a '62; the Stylizing parts that are on it were included in the kit. The '60 kit was a four-door, '61 was a convertible with separate glue-on top. '63 was a convertible molded in turquoise or light blue, '64 was a coupe like the '62 but every '64 I have seen was molded in yellow. None of the early Corvair kits had engine detail, but the '62 did include a display engine. I've got a built '62 that someone cut the car up to put the display engine in. The display engine may have been incorporated into the parts pack with the Chrysler engine later on, I've never checked one against the other.

A quick search for '67 Impala windshields indicates one for sedans and wagons, another for convertibles and hardtops. That's the case for most cars, on occasion there are three different ones (sedan/wagon, hardtop, and convertible). Only one time did I find a car that used one single windshield across all body styles (sedans, wagons, and convertible). That was the '64-'69 Rambler American. Back to the Impala: though conversion work will be needed to get a four-door sedan, the SN body will have a flatter deck lid than the two-door hardtop, and the door lines will be there too.

Okey at Johan has offered a photoetch set for AMX kits. I can't locate mine now, but I am pretty sure it has some '70 items on it.

The Stude panel body is quite good, especially for the price. As others have said, removal of the mold release agent is top priority. Do that first thing, especially before any sanding or grinding. One other thing: often the lower body sides are further apart than the donor body. They are likely pulled from the mold core before they are fully cured, and "take a set" in that shape. If that is the case, after cleaning the body, smooth up the inside and lower edge of the rocker panels and fit the body to the donor kit chassis. The rocker panels can be pulled in and temporarily hot glued to the kit chassis to pull them to the correct formation. Leave the hot glued assembly for a week or two until the body stays in the right shape. The hot glue can be peeled and washed off. Rubber bands can be used too, provided you don't create collateral damage by pulling the roof or fenders out of shape. Correcting the lower body "spread" will usually fix other problems like poor hood fit. This is especially true with the '51 Chevy bodies like the sedan delivery.

Avoid pre-Round 2 reissues; they don't have stock decals or wheels, and most will have an incorrect instrument panel and single-exhaust chassis.

Yes, a 392. The street version has additional pulleys (alternator), carburetors, and a Torqueflite transmission while the Gasser version is a strictly drag setup with injectors and a Hydra-Matic.

That's what the kit was first time around. It was an easy way to get a fourth Kit Car into the series.

Correct: in MPC's universe, Hemi Challengers and Barracudas were made through '74, and big-block Corvettes were made as late as '77.

My '72 has the Challenger script on the quarter panels. The Landy kit (issued after the '73 annual but before the '74) has the Challenger script on the grille.

Yes, once the body issues (fender flare shape) are dealt with. For those building stock versions, the AMT parts pack Polyglas tires have (incorrect for this car) size designations on one side, and no size designations on the other. Not perfect, but close. Maybe Revell's decal sheet has tire lettering in the correct sizes?

Yes, pretty much everything about the design of sprint cars (even tire sizes on each side) is all about putting as much weight as possible to the left side of the car.

Being a former AMC owner myself, I hate to admit that the sales numbers for new AMC kits just wouldn't be there. The main reason we got them when the cars were new, was that AMC wanted promotional models and shouldered the bulk of the tooling costs. This was true even with the 1/20 scale AMX kit which was first offered as a mail-order deal and through AMC dealers before hitting store shelves. Jo-Han did a bunch of AMC promotional models that they never offered as kits. They had to have known that they weren't saleable at the time. On the flip side though, they did do a couple of kits ('69 and '70 Rebels) that were not made as promos. I'm not positive, but the '73 Javelin AMX may not have been a promotional either. So Jo-Han did eat the costs of those conversions themselves, but the bulk of those kits existed as previous versions.

In between the '64 annual with working headlamps and the bug-eyed Street Shaker and later issues, there was the late Sixties Super Street issue. That one had protruding headlamp detail also, but still had the "1964" license plate area detail. The lens detail is "clocked" (not aligned properly) on every bumper from that issue that I have seen. The headlamp detail may have been engraved on ejector pins that rotated out of alignment during production. That seems to have been corrected in the Street Shaker and later issues.

The Buick engine will likely be included, it has been in every issue of the delivery to date. Round 2's two prior delivery issues did have different optional parts however. The Gene Winfield large box issue was restored to original (Keystone mags, tubular nerf bar bumpers) while the Three Stooges issue had the flipper caps and ripple bumpers that Ertl put in the coupe and delivery kits in the Nineties.

The Jo-Han Mickey Thompson chassis is a one-off. There was no 1:1 Mustang; there is a HOT ROD "phantom" cover shot of a "see-through" Mustang funny car, but it is on the Pinto's chassis. The M/T Pinto chassis was indeed made of titanium tubing. It took much longer to build, and wasn't much lighter than a steel tube chassis, so the second one never got built. That one chassis was used quite a bit, as Thompson only had one Pinto funny car. The later Revell kit is actually the same car that Jo-Han made their kit of, just a later version. The Jo-Han Gene Snow Challenger chassis isn't necessarily a one-off, but it isn't a typical design either.

Use the entire chassis, and adapt it to the '66 floor. The Foose unit is an up-to-date aftermarket frame, with a modern crate engine.

Display base, not case.