Mark

My own experience with Jo-Han stuff is that, within one corporation's offerings, if they aren't 100% accurate, they are at the very least consistent. That can't necessarily be said about AMT or MPC. The Jo-Han '62 Plymouths and Dodges (and reissue '63 Plymouth) share a lot of parts. The seats-molded-in interior morphed into a "one piece fits all" deal over time; early USA Oldies kits have different detail from later ones. The '63 Plymouth reissue in the early Eighties brought a universal bench-seat bucket that was used in whatever '62 Dodges and Plymouths that were still available. I'd guess the Lindberg Plymouth and Dodge are the "odd men out" here. Each has its own chassis, similar to one another but not from the same tooling. The same pattern work may have been used though. The first version issued was the Color Me Gone Dodge, and from what I heard the kit was developed from the 1:1 "nostalgia drag" car which is a replica. It has a number of alterations like widened rear inner fenders and a Dana 60 rear axle. The widened inner fenders aren't tough to do on those cars; my older brother did that alteration on a '65 Belvedere. These deviations from stock were unwittingly included in the Plymouth kit also. I'd feel free to hack the Lindberg chassis to work with the Jo-Han bodies. The Moebius '65 Plymouths might be worth a look too, but the Lindberg kits can be found more reasonably and aren't bad. I bought another stock '64 Dodge at the club meeting last week for ten bucks. It's the early version with the bench seat (blue car on the box). It has the Leaning Tower of Power included also. Check the Allpar.com website regarding the development of the '62 "smaller fullsize" Plymouth and Dodge. I seem to recall something about that platform being developed not from the earlier fullsize cars, but actually being expanded from the Valiant/Lancer underbody. Back to the Jo-Han kits: for the most part they are consistent. I've got that '62 Dodge 880 project sitting in a box. The 1:1 was a rush job: '61 fullsize Dodge front clip on a '62 Chrysler body. I did the same thing, hacking the front clip from a shattered Dodge body I fished out of a junk box at NNL East, and sticking it on a USA Oldies Chrysler body. It fit like it should: no narrowing, no messing with either the clip or the body. Just made the cuts and fitted the pieces together. That's not the case if you want to stick an AMT early Mercury Comet front clip onto an AMT Ranchero body (should "bolt on"; Ford did it to make Comet station wagons) or stick a Buick Special station wagon roof onto a Corvair body. Even their '65 Pontiac kits (Bonneville and Grand Prix) don't quite match up as they should.

Looks like a relatively easy DIY project...just a matter of finding the right fonts. Shouldn't be tough to find an 8-ball graphic on another decal sheet and scan it in; maybe one could be found in "clip art" also. Only the white area of the 8-ball wouldn't print, but a small white decal applied in the right place beforehand could fix that...

The last construction-related place I worked (a commercial roofing contractor), the owner gave bonuses to the job foremen for bringing a job in under the estimated hours. Naturally, the first corners cut were in setting up safety equipment. That practice ended when someone literally walked off of a roof due to no safety barrier. The (flat) building roofs were/are warrantied for 20 years. The first one or two years (can't remember which) the contractor had to eat the repairs because the problem would be blamed on the installation and not the materials used. Cutting corners on the installation meant sending guys back to (re)do things correctly; of course these repairs were always needed after the bonuses had been paid out. Getting away from construction was the best thing I ever did, career-wise...

I worked construction (clerical) for a bunch of years. On a lot of construction jobs, safety/barricades/signage is a much more substantial part of the overall cost than you'd think. The person waving the flag or holding the sign gets paid a bit less than the guy on the jackhammer, but not much. Cutting corners there can save a bunch of money for the "right" company. The "right" companies can be narrowed down by comparing the list of companies getting awarded these jobs, with a list of campaign donors...

Who says something absolutely has to be 1/16 scale? That was probably Aurora's mistake, bringing those items out in a larger/more expensive scale...

The V8-60 midget kit did turn up in one of the "closeout" stores a few years ago. I don't recall seeing any of the Offenhauser version there. My older brother was into midget race cars for a long time (restored one and pieced a couple others together)...when those kits came out, he was telling me that the Offy would way outsell the 60. A lot of guys, him included, couldn't stand the V8-60 cars. With those guys, I think it has to do with the larger grille opening the V8 cars needed; they just don't like the looks of it. He pieced a prewar Hillegas rail-frame car together into a roller, but sold it rather than finish it because he couldn't afford an Offy and hated the 60 that was in it. The Kurtis midget that he restored had a four-cylinder Ferguson overhead-valve engine in it (a four-cylinder version of the early Fifties Ford straight six). Again, couldn't afford an Offy but it wasn't a V8-60. He didn't want a Chevy Nova four or a Falcon six; those were "too new". I'd guess that the Kurtis/Offy kit will get reissued again in the next couple of years, but not the 60. As for the Crosley, I was sort of expecting a second kit based on the Slingster dragster, with a chopped Crosley body replacing the American Bantam coupe. That kit may not have lived up to expectations, at least not enough to prod Revell to do a second version...

I'd go with the Jeepster V6 as it has the stock "stamped sheet metal" valve covers. The long block is pretty decent too. You'll have to scour the parts box for things like the correct air filter (maybe the V8 piece is close enough?). I'd guess that the Jeepster exhaust manifolds are specific to Jeep applications, and you'll probably end up scratching or adapting something for those. I'm not 100% positive, but I think the V6 in the Monogram El Camino kit is a Chevy and not a Buick.

The pre-Round 2 issues of the 1/32 scale All-Stars kits (even the Indy Roadster) didn't include decals, so only the slot car(s) would have had them. I'd guess that however many 1/32 scale slot cars AMT issued probably all had the same decal sheet.

That, or use the stock wheelcovers in the kit, which are correct if I'm not mistaken. I mooched one of those (stock '67 piece) off of a buddy to do castings, as those were used later on the pickup trucks--

Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure the AMT '67 Shelby kit has those.

Those wheel covers originated in '66 with the 7-Litre package in '66. The '66 annual kits had them, but not the '67. '67 annuals had regular Galaxie wheel covers that were used later on pickups. The optional wheel in the '67 and '68 kits was a Kelsey-Hayes Mag Star, which I don't think was ever OE on anything.

Those wheels look like the ones in (most) Lindberg issues of the '34 Ford pickup.

A guy around here built an EXP with a Boss 429 engine in it. The car had the (stock) EXP body over a rectangular tube frame. As I remember, the engine sat a bit further forward than it would in a Pro Stock (furthest forward spark plug in line with the center of the front wheels) but still went back into the passenger compartment a bit. It did have a stock instrument panel, and generally looked like a drivable car. I never saw it on the street, but it had license plates. The engine was pretty much stock (single four barrel, no scoop sticking through the hood). It was at a few local car shows in the Eighties, but I haven't seen it since.

Comet might be on the coarse side, but most cleansers (with plenty of water) work pretty well. I've never mixed cleanser with Dawn dish soap...not saying it doesn't work though. Too, do the cleaning BEFORE doing any sanding, filing, or grinding on the parts.

Third from the left (slotted wheel, no lug detail) is Jo-Han, from either the Maverick or Comet pro stock kits. The Schartman Maverick had Motor Wheel Spyders, but the Schartman Comet, Nicholson Maverick, and the generic cars all had the slotted wheels.

They were reworked for the Seventies issue. The original issue had plastic tires, the Seventies issues of the Ranchero and '59 Skyliner used vinyl tires.

And, don't use super glue on windshields in the future...

I don't see two-doors specifically excluded, and Nomads have been mentioned. So, I'll throw in the Revell '49 Mercury and '57 Ford. For four-door wagons, Jimmy Flintstone offers a couple of Fords ('57 and '59). He's also got an Edsel two-door wagon body that fits the Revell '57 Ford kit and uses other parts from the AMT Edsel kit.

I didn't mention the one-piece window unit because I was comparing the two most recent versions (Cobra fastback and Modified Stocker). Only the annual kit (which was a GT) had the one-piece unit. The Modified Stocker series kits had only a windshield, sometimes half a windshield. Did dirt track racers really cut windshields in half? The '69 annual kit didn't have a wire axle in front. AMT tried something new for '69: aluminum "stub axles" that went through the chassis on each side, from the inside out, into the inner wheels. Looks like they were trying to eliminate the hole through the engine block. The stubs didn't work, they left the front wheels flopping around. The Modified Stocker went back to the wire axle in front. The annual GT kit had a "rear grille" just above the rear bumper, in the area between the taillights. The Modified Stocker used the part as-is. Ertl wiped the "rear grille" detail for the Cobra issue, leaving that flat panel that had to be painted. The '68 annual kit didn't have that: the taillight trim and bumper were one piece, the gas cap and the panel between the taillights was molded as part of the body, right down to the bumper.

Too much reliance on spellcheck, particularly in publishing. If you pore over a copy of Rodder's Journal for example, you can find one of those "wrong word that sounds like the correct one" errors...

The far left one looks larger than the next one over; Monogram '58 T-Bird, maybe? Second one might be AMT '64 Galaxie, possibly '64 LeMans convertible. Might be in the '64 GTO hardtop too, but I can't remember tripping over one of those recently. Third one over is definitely Jo-Han. It was in the reissue '63 Plymouth (annual used something else). But, Jo-Han re-used nearly everything. I believe that wheel came in a couple of Sixties AMC Ambassador annual kits back in the day. The one on the right might be Revell or Monogram...looks bigger than an AMT wheel.

Those kits must have really bombed back in the day, else they would have been reissued. The billet, fenderless tub would likely stink up the joint sales-wise if reissued, but if either body style could be brought back in the coupe's full-fendered configuration, they might have something here...

Some "traditional" suspension (and engine) bits can be sourced from the Lindberg 1/16 scale T-bucket kits ("Bull Horn", etc) which are essentially scaled-down from the Monogram 1/8 scale Big T. The Lindberg tires aren't so hot, but then again AMT had some decent ones in their 1/16 scale kits...

#1 and #2 are custom wheels from AMT kits. I'm not positive, but #1 is probably from an Imperial, or maybe a '63 or '64 Riviera. For #2, I'm leaning towards '67 or '68 Thunderbird. #3, I'm thinking Monogram snap '82 Corvette. #4 looks like Aurora Jag XK-E. #5 is Jo-Han; those came in a cornucopia of kits, most recently the '68 Chrysler reissue (they were in the '68 annual too). #5 is probably Revell. No AMT kit I'm aware of had those. #6 is AMT Chevelle: not the snap hardtop which was an SS, but rather the wagon or El Camino. #7 is Jo-Han Cadillac, they did promos and snap kits '77-'79. I'm not aware of any changes in the wheels year to year, but maybe I'm not paying attention. #8 is a custom wheel from an AMT Barracuda kit. '65 definitely, maybe '66 also. #9 is a custom wheel from an MPC '57/'60 Corvette. Those shared the knockoff center with the stock wheel covers.

The Tamiya engine is 1/24 scale while the Revell pickup is 1/25, so count on having to do a stretch job. The inline engine accentuates the length ahead of the cab anyway, so might as well make the most of it. I wanted to dump a Viper engine into a Plymouth Duster underbody awhile back. There's a guy who has been bringing a Viper mill to one of the local swap meets the last few years...sitting on a stand, it really didn't look that much longer than a V8. Should be a piece of cake...not! If I get back around to that one, I'll probably hack the firewall a bit and cheat the radiator forward as much as I can. The whole thing was to go under an early Barracuda body...