Mark

A lot of people don't like the Testors nylon brushes, but I do. I prefer the ones with equal length bristles, not the angle cut ones. As for brushing enamel, I prefer Humbrol but do use Testors on occasion. I picked up a few of the new Tamiya enamel, but haven't tried those yet. Making sure the paint is thoroughly mixed is half the battle. Settled paint will have too much "carrier" and not enough pigment. The latter issue will prevent proper coverage and probably slow down the drying process.

If you are open to going with something really different, you might consider the AMT double dragster chassis. I'd use the side-by-side dual engine frame, and replace the section where the engines go with simple straight channel stock. This chassis will move the driver back into the trunk area, which will change the car quite a bit. You'd probably leave all of the windows out, and you'd maybe have to actually make the roll cage taller so the driver could see over the engine and hood. But the chassis and front axle look stout enough to be realistic.

One of the things on the kit chassis that I was never crazy about was that crossmember that loops under the engine. It's not needed, and just makes it necessary to raise the whole car up a bit. Really, that big heavy engine is pretty much a structural element in the car, with the chassis being built around it to attach the wheels and driver compartment. Too, the aircraft engine removes the car from competition and puts it into the exhibition category. Still, to turn a tire on an NHRA strip, the driver's compartment needs to be sealed off from the engine, and from the fuel tank(s) and battery (ies). Getting rid of that loop crossmember, lowering the car a bit, and separating the driver's compartment from the engine will go a long way towards making the car look more plausible as a 1:1 piece.

Not too many of those early chassis will have a long enough wheelbase to work with the Thunderbird body. Too, the frame rails probably won't be spread apart enough to fit the engine. The structure of those frames won't have enough beef to support that engine either. Actually, the kit frame isn't too far off from something that would have been used. If you're bent on a different design, I'd look at actual Allison-powered cars from the period, and copy from those.

A lot of the online sellers are trolling for a buyer. They've got the item, they're dangling it out there trying to find one person who has to have it NOW. Putting it out there with a high price doesn't cost much if anything, they can just let it sit there and wait for someone willing to pay their price.

The original Edsel body wasn't completely unchanged. The chassis and interior mounting posts were eliminated, the hood ornament hole was filled, and the recessed areas for the taillight lenses were filled in. Only the body and skirts from the annual kit were included in the funny car kit. No glass, no chrome. Newly tooled parts included the outhouse door front spoiler, a pair of Fifties style mud flaps, two pieces to raise the interior bucket from the chassis, and a "broken" ladder for "driver entry".

I would doubt that the original body still exists. I've got a couple of the funny car bodies (including one unused one), they are pretty rough. The tooling was used for promos, toy store frictions, and kits so it was probably worn out by the time they got to the funny car kit. Had it existed in usable condition during the Ertl era, they probably would have cleaned it up and done a snap kit and/or retro promo with it.

If it does appear, I'd expect it only after the F-85 roadster runs it's course, because both (and the altered wheelbase '65 Malibu) all use the same chassis.

Probably not many of those Camaros with the "liquid tire chain" option originally installed on the car still exist. After all, those who would order such a thing probably drove the car in the slop, rusting it into oblivion!

Black and white, no red.

Round 2 may have issued the '72 Torino once after that Model King issue. That's the MPC kit, different from the Jo-Han one which was also sold in AMT packaging around 1973-74.

The OLD bottles of enamel can be revived with thinning (with decent quality enamel thinner) and thorough mixing. Shaking alone won't get it done. The five-cent ones ought to be usable, as they've probably still got some lead (among other nasties) in there. The bigger the skull and crossbones on the label, the better it will work, and for longer. If they're drying out, air must have gotten in. Avoid using channel lock pliers or vice grips on the caps unless absolutely necessary. Same goes for putting the square bottles in a vise; they do break. Save caps from used bottles, and use them when needed to replace those subjected to vice grips and other hackery. The "turn the bottle over, and put a couple of drops of lacquer thinner on around the bottom of the cap" works the vast majority of the time. The vice grips come out only after that fails. Don't put the cap back on until the opening on the bottle is wiped clean. That prevents future troubles 99% of the time.

Only the first couple of issues. But they were very well done. I cast a few sets years ago, still have one set with plating on them. Those are set aside for my XL/GT.

There's the drag version, a street machine version (with the carbureted OHC engine and hood scoop), and the stock version.

The body side detail on the Torino Cobra isn't quite as sharp as on the GT annual, but I remember when that reissue was announced. I thought Ertl did a decent job with it. Ertl restored the '65 GTO Modified Stocker in 1984, one of the first things they did that needed a lot of work. And it did need a lot, that kit got reworked as much as any other in the series. The GTO rebuild included a brand new interior bucket and chassis plate, neither of which came out as good as the original parts. The body got reworked a lot as well, as did the bumpers (including the protruding headlamps that everyone complains about). None of the other kits in that series could, or should, be restored to stock, much as I'd like to see a couple of them in stock form again.

None of the custom body parts are used in the '69 kit. They are leftovers from the '67. '68 and '69 had no custom version.

MPC '68 Coronets have a set, but like the original kits, the torsion bars have to be trimmed away so they can be fitted. The aforementioned ex-Lindberg Mopar kits are probably the best bets.

A guy I once worked with mentioned that his car ('79 Cougar, two-barrel 302) was running hot. Did he check the radiator? Yep, looked good. How about the oil? "I checked it, it's four quarts low". "Dude, the thing only holds five quarts, and a good part of one quart is in the filter". Had to talk him into bumming a company vehicle to go pick up some motor oil before starting that car up again. He still had the car when I got sent to another location, so apparently it didn't get any permanent damage from that episode. How it got "four quarts low" is a mystery. He did get the oil changed on a regular basis. One car I had went over 200,000 miles and it didn’t even use a quart in 1,000 miles. And I'd bet more of it leaked than burned.

Different ramp body, or just a different grille?

With some of the same types of articles creeping into the regular Hemmings Motor News, it's not really that surprising. I am surprised that magazine has kept going, many of the ads are the same every issue. But if the parent company can still sell all those ads, they're going to keep that one and ditch the others.

I'm surprised it's essentially the whole car (probably minus engine). Every aspiring Dune Buggy builder (or savvy auto parts flipper) was buying up old Beetles for the chassis pans back then.

Rubber edge trim should be painted on the exterior surface. Tint would be applied to the interior surface.

Two sets of tooling for one subject are the exception, not the rule. Two AMT '64 Galaxies for example, one for the promo (still exists as the stock Craftsman kit) and the other for the annual kit (now the Modified Stocker). The '69 Torino fastback was modified a lot less than other Modified Stocker kits. The chassis was altered to remove the molded-in exhaust detail, wheel openings were whacked out, door panel detail smoothed off on the interior. The windshield wipers weren't removed from the body. The roll cage and engine parts were already in the annual kit. The crash bars and wide wheels for the Modified Stocker were added. Ertl restored the Torino to stock by scratching some detail back onto the interior side panels, and creating new "slides" for the body sides with stock wheel openings. They also tooled new stock wheels and maybe the seats too. The stock Cobra grille was used in the Cobra convertible/coupe version and carried forward to the original Modified Stocker. Most if not all of the Modified Stocker parts were left alone by Ertl. Apparently the body side slide tooling from the Modified Stocker still worked with the tool and weren't discarded by Ertl. So by switching those tooling pieces, both the stock and Modified Stocker versions can still be run.

Lindberg (now AMT) '64 Dodge and Plymouth are about as close as is readily available. The MPC '68 Coronets include two similar tires for the trailer. Some early MPC annual kits had similar tires too.

The AMT coupe bodies have the trunk unit molded as part of the body. Removing it isn't impossible but would require some work.