Mark

This kit is based on the MPC Garlits dragster kit, not the Ramchargers'.

It has a few newly tooled parts including the injector and scoop, but has a 426 engine and not the 392 as pictured on the box art and the info card included. Still, many of the needed ingredients are here, particularly the decal sheet. Round 2 can, and probably should, do more items like this.

Because if they had reissued the hardtop, people would be asking about the convertible...

The bumpers from the AMT '65 El Camino, or the station wagon, will fit the AMT hardtop body also.

If you use one of the newer Revell kits as a starting point, keep the frame and modify it back to stock. The outside of the frame rails form the outer "sill" between the bottom of the body and the running boards. It's going to be extremely tough to make some other frame fit that area as well as the kit piece. The AMT '32 engines all have the exhaust manifolds molded as part of the block. The AMT '34 5W coupe is the earliest model year kit that has separate parts. I'd check the parts in all of these kits, as few 1:1 '32 Fords (even restored ones) still have a '32 engine. Who knows what was in the car(s) that were measured and checked to make the kits. Wheels will be another problem. The AMT '32 kits all have undersize wheels. Best ones out there in plastic are probably the Monogram '34 Ford units...good luck finding a set though. Next best might be AMT '34 Ford 5W coupe, but something about those doesn't look right to me...

If you want a custom Continental, check out Jimmy Flintstone's website. He's got one, maybe two of them with a different roof already grafted on. Hang on to the stock one, either to rebuild or trade.

That, and the "custom" version with the top probably isn't readily available now. I'd guess most of them were bought specifically because that top was included, so the chance of finding a "loose" one would be pretty thin.

I have only seen a couple of tops in resin, none for the Chevelle though. The top from the Revell '72 Cutlass might work...just a matter of finding one...

The mirror in that kit is one of the first things I noticed; like the rest of the kit, it's as nearly perfect as anything Revell has done in recent years.

Those two aren't numbered, but seem to be variations on one edition. I've got one with that style cover, but have five different un-numbered catalogs prior to the first numbered one, #6. Here's the first one...

The first one was 1959. I've seen a grand total of three of them, including one I have now and another I sold a couple of years ago. If you're looking to build a complete set, there was no 13th edition.

When the AMT-labeled series was reissued, Ertl had a booth at one of the shows I had set up at. I won one of the '32 Chevy kits in a drawing, and opened it up to find the street rod version parts. I asked the Ertl rep why they didn't mention or show those on the box, he said it was because the Chevy had street rod parts while the Chrysler and Lincoln had the gangster stuff. Had all of the kits in the series had similar optional parts, they would have included the info on the boxes. It's too bad MPC didn't offer any of them with closed body styles (coupe or sedan). But back when these were created, the closed cars were mostly looked at as parts cars to restore roadsters or phaetons.

Looks like a '72 body. The 1:1 was a '70, but the kit was always a '72.

I'd say $110 is way out of whack for a busted one.

Reissues usually bring a barrage of "let's see if I can unload this before word gets out" listings...

That's definitely an AMT body. The tool that produced the body started out as a 1970, from which the promotional models (and a $1.00 no-engine, no optional parts kit) were manufactured. The promos and $1 kit would have had that molded-in radiator wall. The Red Alert kit was run so many times over several years, that for one run someone may have set the tooling up incorrectly putting that radiator wall into the body.

When the question came up on the (then) Hobby Heaven board, the first guy I thought of was Don Prudhomme. McEwen would have been right up there because he and Prudhomme were joined at the hip for so long. Nicholson was certainly up there too. A lot of other guys/teams don't seem to get past five or six, if that: Garlits, Sox & Martin, Ivo, Montgomery. Bill Jenkins only has three, though I wonder if he held off for a long time due to the lousy job MPC did on that Vega...

I was able to find ten Tom McEwen cars without getting away from 1/24-1/25 scale... MPC 900/12 '69 front engine dragster MPC 855/12 rear (mid) engine dragster Polar Lights 953 Barracuda funny car Revell '57 Chevy funny car Revell H1455 Demon (likely the Navy sponsored Duster) Revell H1463 rear engine dragster Monogram 6763 Hot Wheels Duster Monogram 5695 Hot Wheels front engine "coffin body" dragster (reissued later by Model King) Monogram 7529 Hot Wheels rear engine dragster Revell H1455 English Leather Duster There might be another one or two 1/25 scale cars among the Revell "tin box" Nineties funny car kits, as they did issue several cars in that series that had not been issued in the Seventies. The Graham books don't go beyond 1980. There are at least two 1/16 scale kits, and one in 1/32 scale also. There's also a HOT ROD series double kit with a dragster and a funny car, but I believe both of those are already counted here.

While you're at it, fit the engine lid to the opening...

Got my car insurance bill last week...it went down. Six months' insurance is now only $10 more than I was paying on a fourteen-year-old pickup. Opened today's mail, and there's a refund check for the difference on the previous six months. Not a huge amount, but it's better in my pocket than theirs...

The Barris Rolls did not have flared fenders. It did have the open sunroof. The stock body in the first issue "3 in 1" kit I have has a mold line on the roof where the sunroof would be. I'm pretty certain both bodies were produced from one tool, and the flares were added to that body later. The convertible body would be another tool, and the cut-down Baja sedan yet another. Not sure if it has been mentioned, but the sedan versions all lack inner door panels. I have that last version of the sedan, tried cleaning that thing up but it is a lost cause. The body tooling is thoroughly beat.

Yes, but since the markings don't match up, the idea of that kit being a "Nicholson car" is a pretty long stretch IMO. Your mileage may vary...

I had the Gunze Ghia kit; as I remember it (could be wrong) it had some vinyl parts including seats. I've still got the oval-window Beetle with all that vinyl stuff, and am not wild about the idea of having to use all of it. And WHEN will someone do a split-window Beetle in 1/24 scale? The lack of one is absolutely baffling...

But Nicholson never campaigned the car with the STP livery. It would have been repainted to the Eliminator scheme, of which there were two: the MPC version, or the Slixx decal sheet version.

Did anyone ever place an order with the old (original) Auto World company, and actually get everything they ordered? Years later, my older brother told me they were probably scamming people by "not having everything" and issuing a credit, which in most cases guaranteed another order later...