Mark

A correct conversion will require a lot more than a hood and grille. All four fenders are different also.

I have this kit. I believe it is exactly the same as the AMT-boxed, Jo-Han-produced '68 kit. It has the 1968 style door cards as posted by Bill Geary above, and low-back seats without headrests (seats are molded as part of the interior, as with all of these kits). This kit also has the "turbocast" wheel covers, same as the '68 kit. Those are included in other Jo-Han 1966-69 AMC kits also. The 1968-69 annual AMX bodies lack the thin B-pillar that 1970 bodies (and all reissue 1969 bodies) have. I also have a '69 AMX friction, which has the '68-'69 interior but with headrests added to (molded as part of) the seats. The body does not have the thin B-pillars. It has Magnum 500 style wheels. This is a friction, which is an original 1969 piece because the frictions weren't reproduced. I've also got at least one loose kit interior with the headrests. I don't know when the change was made. I'd suspect Jo-Han ran some '69 promos, did a run of kits for AMT, then did the headrest update for another run of promotional models for AMC. It would appear there was also a second production run of kits for AMT after the headrests were added. Jo-Han did not sell any stock two-seater AMX kits during 1968-70. All three years were sold by AMT, in AMT packaging. The '68 kit was sold in one box, '69 and '70 were sold in two different boxes for each year with different stock numbers for each. The '70 kits had correct 1970 interior and exterior updates but still used the 1966 first-generation V8 engine tooled for the 1966 Marlin kit. Jo-Han eventually tooled some updated external parts but never tooled a correct second-generation block. The first two-seater AMX sold in Jo-Han packaging was the original issue 1969 Shirley Shahan super stock, in 1971. The body was backdated to 1969 trim but the front fender side markers and the rocker panel moldings were left off (some of the SS cars had them, some didn't). The B-pillar was left from the '70 kits. The interior bucket was left alone with the '70 high-back bucket seats and 1970 style door cards. The bumpers did not have license plate detail (the plate recess was smoothed over on the front bumper). There are a couple other little things that differentiate the original Shahan kit from the Eighties reissue. All kits up to this point have wire axles also. The USA Oldies issue replaced the drag parts (chassis and engine parts) with stock parts. The engine was back to the stock 1966 unit. The interior was still the 1970 bucket with the early instrument panel. Every one of the USA Oldies kits I have seen has Hurst mag wheels and not stock wheels. The floor shifter in the Oldies kits is different from the one in the annual kits, I'm pretty sure it is the one from the later Javelin-AMX snap kit. USA Oldies AMX kits have plastic rod axles.

I'd like to see the chassis...how'd he get that much engine setback? Did he ditch the stock X-frame? Boyd Coddington did one of his builds ('59 Chevy) with about that much setback; the engine/transmission got raised a bit so everything cleared the "X". He'd already chopped off the frame ahead of the firewall, and behind the front seat, leaving me wondering why he didn't just lose the rest of the frame and start over. The car looks neat. As for the front end treatment, it works as-is but would look better with a chrome bumper. But then again, the whole thing "works" just the way it is.

No. That's the newer kit, which can only be built as the Ala Kart (though with a choice of intake setups).

The issue with the display base is probably the toughest one to find. It's a decent enough kit (not Tamiya level quality, but not Tamiya level price either!) but, being 1/25 scale, it's the odd man out. European subject matter is almost always 1/24 scale and seldom 1/25. That, combined with the fact that AMT never put correct tires into this kit, is what does it in with most collectors.

The AMX was a Jo-Han deal. All of the Jo-Han chassis shared a lot of parts (mainly suspension) and some engine parts like the blower. There were several sets of side rails, two sets of wheels, and different engine mounts for AMC, Mopar, Olds, and Ford. The Jo-Han version of the Logghe Brothers chassis is still the best in my opinion. The Jo-Han chassis stayed with Jo-Han, it was last used under a '74 (!) Hornet body in the late Seventies. I never checked the parts against one another, but supposedly the AMT Vega chassis (used under the Gremlin and Pinto also) is based on the '69 chassis from the first Funny Hugger Camaro (also used under the AMT '69 Cougar, '70 Mustang, and '69 Longnose Mustang with longer side rails). The subcompacts aren't really accurate as funny cars (not many of those ran the stock wheelbase, those that did had a hard time going straight!) but they're cool kits nevertheless. I let go of a Vega at NNL East earlier this year (got another, built one on the pile, don't need two of them) and snagged a Pinto not long afterward.

If you have, or can check out, an original-issue Revell chopped coupe kit, the assembled "prototype model" pictured on the box (a red car) has a Monogram 1/24 scale body, with the Buttera chassis pieced in! Revell did a lot of that back then; several of their 1/25 scale funny car kit boxes use photos of assembled 1/16 scale kits with the wiring left off. The wheels and front tires usually give those away. If you shorten the Buttera chassis (and fender unit) and do some slicing and dicing on the coupe body, you could maybe get a semi-acceptable Model Y coupe (with widened fenders) out of it. It'd probably be a phantom body style, as I'm pretty certain all of the coupes were of the five-window style, some having a "sport coupe" top covering that blocked out the quarter windows. The Y actually predated our '33-'34 styling; it's been said that the Y fender/grille/hood styling was enlarged for the North American '33 Fords.

There's the Revell snap kit (chopped '34 three-window), and the ZZ Top Eliminator which is a '33 three-window.

Nope, the Old Pro was the first. In fact, I can't think of an issue that doesn't have those decals in it. It'll sell. I can't recall seeing many references to the reissued '63 Corvette fastback, and it has been around for several years...someone out there is buying them...

I've snagged a couple of those Torino kits, even a started one or two, when I saw them cheap, for the 429 engine. It's the only one out there; other kits claiming to have it only have warmed-over FE-series engines. Unless you specifically need the corrected body and bucket seats, the early issue kits are as good as the corrected ones for these parts. The GT kits have some optional engine parts: headers, Ford Motorsport valve covers and air cleaner. The underbody slips under the MPC '70-'71 Cyclone: annual kits, resin copies, or the reissued stock car body. You'd have to track down interior parts, bumpers, and a hood for the latter to build a showroom stock version, but I've seen one done. There are lots of other good parts too: separate door handles, 9" rear axle, and other stuff.

No worse than some (most, actually) of the first-draft GM workups for 1959 (the ones based on the 1958 bodies, before a realignment brought an all-new one for '59).

That's a mid-Seventies kit, the "budget series" that I described earlier. It's the first one without the side glass, fog lamp lenses, and other clear parts. A number of other optional parts were eliminated also, and a bunch of engine parts that were plated in other issues are not in that one. Those kits came in narrower boxes, like the ones some of the Trophy Series kits came in in the Sixties. AMT issued a number of kits in that series: the Opel GT (stock only), the '40 Willys (individual coupe and pickup kits as opposed to both versions in one box), a few of the altered-wheelbase funny cars (with "street" parts like radiators, passenger seats, and side pipes added) and the Watson Indy roadster and Ford/Lotus Indy car. The '32 Ford roadster was issued in this series also.

There has to be more than five TD kit tools in China. I've got a Badman kit that was molded there. The Jinx Express reissue was molded here, though.

It is. The Comet was originally conceived as an Edsel. Early workups on the Comet were closer to the Falcon, and got more distinct as they evolved. The squared-off roofline (and possibly the slightly longer wheelbase) weren't adopted until after the Edsel branding was removed. '60 and '61 Comets don't have any Mercury emblems, letters, or script on them.

If you just want headers with longer tubes (collectors further back under the car) you're probably better off starting with the headers in that kit, then just lengthening them. If you're working on a Revell '69 Camaro, you've probably got one of the big-block variations already...just start with those headers. Usually these things don't swap easily from one kit to another, even if they're supposed to on the 1:1 car. I fitted a set of AMT '67 Chevelle pro street headers (which incidentally are quite long before they enter into the collectors) onto an AMT Baldwin-Motion Camaro. They fit everywhere I didn't expect them to fit (didn't need to cut or reroute any of the individual tubes) but to make them fit would require flattening them out quite a bit. In fact, the headers already in that kit are flattened out where they get near the subframe. I wasn't ignoring the advice I gave above about sticking to the parts from the same kit...the reason I made the switch was because the kit headers are side exit (for use with side pipes), and I wanted typical under-the-car exit headers instead.

The question is moot now that Modelhaus parts aren't available except second-hand. The conversion could have been done, but nobody was paying attention to the '67 as a conversion. Those who did make conversion kits concentrated on the '68 because of the Super Stock version. I never compared the parts but the '67 chassis/engine being a copy of the '66 rather than the actual parts makes sense to me. Why AMT didn't make the '67 more different from the '66 (like including a V8 engine, as opposed to the slant 6 that doesn't fit with the exterior trim) is beyond me...

The back window area on the Edsel station wagon doesn't look right: it should wrap around at the ends just as the Revell Ford wagon's does. Jimmy Flintstone offers a two-door Edsel wagon body that looked better to me, he might have a four-door also.

Pretty sure the car 361 was a polysphere-head engine, the one with the sawtooth valve covers. That's not what is in the truck kit.

#5 is AMT '71-'73 Mustang. It's supposed to represent the dog dish cap with the black stripe near the edge, with the trim ring that covers the rest of the wheel. But the cap is way undersize. The annual kits had five of them (probably to mold extras to allow for breakage when stockpiling parts for the promotional models). One is still in the reissued Warren Tope racing version. #7 is Revell '69 Mustang. #8 looks like MPC '69 Mustang (annual kit version).

No photos, it's pretty simple really. It might be more difficult (not impossible) if you haven't got an A-Team kit to copy from. I just went through my packages of strip stock and matched one up for width and thickness. I took the van out and looked at it, looks like I used .020" x .040" for the roof ribs, and .020" square for the drip rail. There are six roof ribs, they are equally spaced 3/8" apart, on center (the center of the rib would be 3/8" from the center of the next one). So you would first establish a line running lengthwise down the center of the roof. Measure 3/16" out from the center line on each side, then 3/8" and 3/4" further out on each side to establish where the other ribs go. Make sure these lines are parallel to each other and to the centerline. I drew another line perpendicular to these, 3/8" in from the rear edge of the roof (not including the rain gutter). That's where the ribs should end at the rear. I let them overlap a bit, then trimmed all of them after installation to make sure they were even. At the front, the outermost ribs end about 7/16" from where they would run into the end of the roof. I can't tell you about the inner ones, as I used the sunroof (moved forward from the cut line provided) and that interrupts the inner ribs. It's far enough forward that none of the ribs would be left forward of the sunroof where I put it. For the rain gutter, if I remember right I used one continuous piece of the smaller stock, and first attached just one end to the existing drip rail. Make sure the part that is cemented down is on straight. After the cement dried, I pulled it taut, then put a drop of liquid cement at the end furthest from the already glued end, and let it flow back to the already-glued area. Once straight, I taped it down and let it dry. I then repeated this until I ran out of strip to attach, as 12" won't get you all the way around the roof. Let that dry, then cut the first strip clean at the end so you can butt the second one right up to it. Then keep going until you get all the way around. I can't remember where I started/finished, bit I definitely didn't join two pieces together at a corner. I think I started somewhere over the sliding door area on the passenger side and worked forward, so I'd have that sliding door mechanism to help straighten out the strip at the last join. Hope this helps...

Not tough at all...I used the A-Team van to match up some Evergreen strip styrene with the rib detail, and to figure out where they should go. Establish a center line on the Chevy van roof, and measure outward to spot the placement of the ribs. I also used some smaller strip stock to add a better defined rain gutter around the perimeter of the roof. My van was the earlier Dirty Donny custom, but all of these are the same basic kit.

The only issue with the ribbed roof was the AMT/Ertl A-Team GMC. The earlier ones (including those with separate window/no window side panels) all have the smooth roof. I put the ribs back on with Evergreen strip styrene, using an A-Team kit as a guide.

Perhaps they didn't want someone over a certain age. I'll be looking for a position early next year myself, and will probably use an agency that will assist me with social media that I don't presently use. The HR people at my present employer tell me that some employers deliberately use certain procedures for applying for a position, in order to eliminate most people over a certain age who tend not to use certain websites or are not the most savvy about them. Age discrimination has gone high-tech...

If Micro-Mark(up) is getting $400, you can probably find the same unit elsewhere for around half that. That's what I found with the vacuum forming machine (it's a dental lab unit) and the spray booth...

I've wanted a two-seater AMX, but back in the early Eighties they were a few hundred bucks more than I wanted to spend. I owned an AMC car at the time, and knew a couple of brothers who owned a dealership and knew all about them. They told me which parts were hard to find, and which were impossible even then. The affordable cars always needed the impossible items, and were generally beat to death. I once had first crack at an MG-TF in the mid-Nineties. It was complete and rust-free, and even had good body structural wood. It was a '55 model but had been disassembled in the early Sixties. My older brother bought it to flip, but I had first shot at it and passed. The earlier models were more desirable at the time, but the TF has a bigger engine and has since narrowed the popularity gap somewhat. At the time, I figured where am I going to drive it without worrying about getting nailed between two cars in a collision...