Mark

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...

Too, weren't the Nicholson "Cobra Jet" decals included in the first issue of the Revell '69 Mach I (HOT ROD Magazine issue)? I don't recall seeing a '68 kit with them...

The STP Cougar kit mentioned is the one in the Model King drag team kit, the one with the '79 Bronco tow vehicle. That's the Roy Steffey "Cougar Country" car; no connection to Nicholson there.

The Model King issue of the Cougar funny car was the Kenz & Leslie car, not the Nicholson car. The MPC Super Cat was the only MPC '69 Cougar kit. It's not based on the AMT '69 Cougar (remember, AMT and MPC were competing companies in those days). Tom Carter of Spotlight Hobbies looked into this question some years back, I believe Tom McEwen was the answer back then. Round 2 has since issued a couple more kits which probably puts him further ahead.

Not the same piece, they just happen to have the same general shape.

The Gunze Ghia is a convertible, with a separate roof molded in clear, windows and all. If you are okay with a convertible, fine, otherwise the Tamiya kit is the way to go.

The plastic jug may have been a later "service replacement" also. Once Ford stopped using the bag, they would probably have designated the plastic container as the replacement part.

The one in the first pic looks like an overflow catch jug, and an aftermarket one at that. The hose wrapped around it appears to be coming off of the radiator.

Actually, those could have come off a lot worse than they did. Looking at the revised versions of these kits, it's surprising how much they were changed...

Actually, the original issue of that kit was called a '28 Chevy. The kit was based on the 1:1 Hugh Tucker drag car, which was a '28 Chevy body on a '34 Ford frame.

For a "corrected" Eliminator II, I'd use this kit's body (with the rear wheel openings moved back to stock) rather than mess with the new-tool '67 body. I'm not sure how the stock grille and hood from the newer kit will fit the older body, but they shouldn't be too far off. The lower body sides on the newer kit are just plain nasty; the styling creases are all over the place.

On a somewhat related note, here's some more correction of past AMT tooling butchery... I just need to pull the trigger on scribing the door lines. I've got the templates, just need to do it. Plans are for a two-door wagon, with a Nomad-like slanted "B" pillar...

Might be Sam Walton's truck...I've seen a diecast of a similar one at WM.

Maybe three...restore the rear wheel openings to stock, then drop the body onto the new-tool stock kit and get rid of the awful body in that one..

Here's the Oldsmobile...

The sedan delivery is based on the Switchers sedan/phaeton kit, but was never a Switchers kit by itself. The sedan/phaeton has a goofy shallow interior so it could be built with the body channeled over the frame. The delivery has a full-depth interior bucket with no rear seat, so it can only be built with the fenders (or without, but the body sits atop the frame). The phaeton body (not included in this new issue kit) is actually a bit better than the AMT phaeton, but it has that goofy interior so you have to deal with that if you swap the body onto something else. The 1:1 '32 sedan delivery was virtually hand-built (converted from a sedan) in very low numbers (couple hundred or so). Some of them may have had the sedan rear quarter glass instead of solid panels, but all had the rear door.

It's doable, not necessarily as 100% stock but would be passable as a "street" version, drag car, or as a custom using the leftovers from an annual kit. If I remember right, some of the custom parts are in the recent reissues (gates in the tooling were apparently opened up). I'm looking at reworking one into a '67 funny car body (I know it's available in resin, I just like doing these things myself). I've already restored the wheel openings on the '65 Olds body. I've got a '64 Galaxie roughed in, but might re-do that one to incorporate stock front fenders from a junk body I have "in stock". Often, when these revisions are done, the trim is wiped by grinding further into the tooling. That was done on the Boss Nova wagon body, on some trim that's way down on the rocker panels. I just scraped it flush again and sanded the area smooth. With the Modified Stocker bodies, you can block-sand the sides with a big sanding stick and knock the body sides down to where they were before the tool butchery.

The AMT '68 Camaro, Firebird, and "Chevrolet SS 427" (doesn't say "Impala" anywhere on the box) weren't actually 1968 kits...the boxes read "for '68". In other words, "a Camaro we're throwing out there for '68". The Corvair is labeled that way too, it's just a '67 with no stock wheel covers and blank license plates. It's usually cheaper than a '67 kit now too. If you want a '68 Corvair, you can build one using the common-as-dirt '69 kit.

I don't believe the Barracuda and Chevy pickup were originally MPC. The AMT-issued MPC kits like the '28 Ford, Dream Rod, and Wild Dream/King T double kit were all MPC, including the tires. Even the boxes and instruction sheets for those early kits didn't match up with other AMT kits issued alongside them. That's not the case with the 'Cuda and the pickup. If you take out the Barracuda and Chevy pickup, the AMT/MPC connection appears to have been a late-'63/early '64, into maybe early '65 deal. By then, MPC had its own name out there with the Corvettes and ('65) big Dodge, among other things.

What I meant was that they were all built on one line in any given assembly plant. There weren't separate lines for 150/210/Bel Air.

While we're talking about Aurora, this past weekend I bought a couple of boxes of built kits and parts at an automotive swap meet. In there was an Aurora stock version '34 Ford coupe, looks like it is missing the front bumper and one headlight. The rod version wasn't there, but parts of it were: a few engine and suspension bits, and one of the chrome fenders. There was only one fender, but it turned out to be the right rear which was the only one I needed for the growing pile of parts for that particular car. I'm pretty certain that the fender itself is symmetrical and could be made to fit the opposite side by cutting off the mounting pins and switching them...but it happened to be the one I needed. I also found one of those early AMT '36 Ford stock wheels with the slots around the perimeter...it's unused, and looks like it has all of the detail intact.

I'd go ahead and build them if you want to. The AMT and Revell kits aren't valuable. Same for the Monogram Cord even if it's an original issue; if it is, you might even consider polishing the body pieces and not painting them. The XK-E might be the "most valuable" of the group, but there are other kits of it out there.

The Aurora Jaguar hasn't been reissued as the convertible. Since Monogram got the Aurora tools in the mid-Seventies, they have only reissued the coupe. Since the merger with Revell, this has continued because Revell has its own XK-E convertible kit, leaving no need to issue the ex-Aurora kit as a convertible.