Mark

For the Suburban, the Foose FD-100 chassis might be the best idea, providing you swap the whole frame. For suspension parts only, the Revell '37 Ford coupe has a tubular-arm Mustang II setup in front. I'm pretty certain everything needed goes with the crossmember. The rear suspension in that kit is a C3 Corvette unit. Other possibilities would include a NASCAR kit (tubular A-arm front, Ford axle/"truck arm" rear) and the AMT Wagonrod.

Some mid-Sixties Jo-Han promos were Cycolac, very tough plastic, hard to cut and seems like no cement sticks to it. I'm certain that the Mavericks are styrene though.

That clear shroud isn't the original one for the kit. At some point, the kit was reworked for a "budget" series. A number of clear parts (headlight lenses, side glass) were eliminated, and the shroud was retooled to put it on a smaller clear shot with just the main window unit. Apparently the other parts don't exist, otherwise they would have been put back in later.

The Foose Cadillac chassis is built around the Cadillac's stock frame. Swapping the suspension is a possibility, but you wouldn't want to swap the whole chassis under a later car.

There's only the one issue of the Rambler wagon as a kit. It wasn't offered as a '59 annual kit, and the original Jo-Han didn't offer it in the USA Oldies series (probably for lack of engine/chassis detail). Their X-EL division did sell assembled reproduction promo models. but those don't even have an interior. Some of the leftover X-EL items were sold in unassembled form, but like the assembled version those didn't have interiors. The one issue of the kit was done post-SeVille, by Okey Spaulding's Johan. Accessories like this are usually done as inserts. As I understand it, most of Jo-Han's kit tooling consisted of a small number of mold bases, and a number of inserts had to be assembled upon one of them in order to produce a particular kit. John Haenle was probably the only person who knew how it all worked; with him gone, subsequent owners of the Jo-Han tools were probably wandering around in the desert trying to figure any of it out. SeVille didn't really do anything "new" during their tenure, all they did was repackage stuff that was intact from the end of the Haenle era. Not that there was much left at the end anyway. Okey only had two kits molded: the Rambler wagon, and the snap-together Chrysler Turbine car. The surfboards probably first appeared in the hearse kit in the Seventies (replacing the casket in the first issue), so they would have been an insert.

The Rambler wagon boards look exactly like the ones pictured. The accessories in the Rambler kit are drawn from various sources: '59 Dodge wheel covers, Rambler American custom side pipes, Plymouth police wagon roof light, and so on.

The first issue of the Revell '31 Ford as the sedan delivery was molded in that color.

That fingernail resin is hot stuff, literally. It has to be, to bond to fingernails and withstand the filing and shaping once it's in place. It smells an awful lot like the dental resin that I messed with briefly in the early Eighties, before many model car guys were doing resin casting. The dental resin was also a powder/liquid mix that really heated up while curing, which dried out molds with warp speed. For this, the mold putty is just the ticket. If anything, the resin is probably a bit harder to file and reshape than the surrounding plastic, not enough difference to cause concern though. For the pillar repair, you wouldn't want to overfill the mold to the point where you'd have to do a lot of grinding on the inside. Done as shown, it should work out great. I suppose this could be attempted with 2-part epoxy, but I'd suspect that it, or Bondic, wouldn't work as well as the fingernail resin.

It's those talk shows..."next, men who cheat on their wives. Next week, women who are driven to cheat on their husbands..."

So, that could make today (1/26) "happy box-sized 1/24 scale diecast day"...

Try looking at the underside of the interior, or on the chassis, roughly underneath where the brake pedal would be in the interior. I'm pretty certain it's under the floor as opposed to on the firewall.

Someone once told me that the Radial Tuned Suspension package consisted only of a medallion that was attached to the instrument panel...

I'm surprised the used car guide didn't mention that a full gas tank would increase the value by 50%...

Will a separate app be needed to "jiggle the handle"?

I worked with a guy who owned an X1/9 that he bought new in 1979, and carpooled with him for two and a half years, using his vehicle one week and mine the next. He had a 4x4 and another car also, so the Fiat wasn't in use all of the time. But it did get used year-round. That said, it never stranded us. But there were never two weeks straight where absolutely everything on that car worked. One week it was the A/C, next up was the instrument panel lighting, then the radio, then something else. The dealer that sold him the car went under, and he was taking it to another Fiat dealer. That guy didn't know numbers under $100 for anything, even in the early Eighties. The Fiat bit the guy one last time when he sold it...the buyer paid with a rubber check. Of course, he shouldn't have handed over the title until the check cleared, or he had cash in hand. Everyone seems to do well in the "initial quality" surveys. How many people will badmouth a car they just purchased? I've never owned a GM vehicle, but have shopped them a few times. Not the last couple of times though; my current employer has gotten rid of several 2009 Chevrolets (Malibus and Impalas) that have had major transmission problems at fewer than 100,000 miles. These cars are all well-maintained and not abused by the people driving them. I'm sure those scored well in "initial quality" too...

Humbrol isn't easy to get in the USA. I'm lucky to have a local shop (Section 8 Hobbies in Buffalo) that carries an extensive selection of the tinlets. I was told it's the only place in a 75 mile radius with it, and I don't doubt that. I was unsuccessful in several attempts at airbrushing it, but I still paint a lot of things with a brush. For that I prefer Humbrol and use it whenever possible. Covers well, brush strokes level out well, and dries hard/not sticky like some other enamels.

I've used plastic caps from syrup bottles (the one that snaps over the spout) for small items like wheels. I've found vacuum formed packing material (small sheets with various shape bubbles formed into it) that could be cut apart and used. These things have a very slight taper which lets you peel the mold out without tearing it. For larger parts like hoods, I have used scrap pieces of clear acrylic like Plexiglas. I use clear so I can see if there are air pockets anywhere (there shouldn't be, as I fill the mold slowly). The same mold box sides can be used for different size parts by letting one end (and only one end) overlap the adjacent side. Tough to explain, but easy to figure out once you have the pieces in your hands. Mold release isn't needed except on two-piece molds where you are pouring new silicone onto existing silicone. Then, it is vital to being able to get your original part out without wrecking the mold. I've tried Lego pieces; they're handy but sometimes you end up making the mold bigger than absolutely needed, using more silicone. Just my opinion though...your mileage may vary...

It'd be ironic if they'd shoplifted the lock picks...

The '70 T/A is a rework/backdate of the Monogram '80 Turbo T/A...maybe the "second version" wasn't part of the plan for it.

The drag version is one of those included in this issue, so of course the instructions show those parts. They'll fit the '49 coupe. The original Showboat issue came in a narrow box, and didn't include the Stylizing parts. Though not all of those are included, this issue still has more parts than any other.

I've got a first-issue '40 Ford sedan kit that has one. I've seen '40 Ford coupe ones also. I'd bet these went away early, as they only added cost to the kit for something most buyers didn't care about.

But sometimes that second version takes a few years to surface. The GTO for example probably sold well enough in the stock-only version, to delay the 2-in-1. Monogram likely waited for sales to start slipping on the stock one before releasing it with the added parts. Then there's the AMT '62 Thunderbird, which has optional parts that didn't get released until after the company changed ownership...

There were two AMT Pintos, "Crazy Horse" and "Crazy Horse II". The first was a '71 (sedan), the second a '72 (hatchback). The stock kit body was used, separate hood and all. AMT probably had to do the "II" due to the body style difference.

Maybe there is one that just never got released. I've got a bagged test shot of the Monogram '64 GTO that includes the optional "street machine" parts; I got it long before the 2-in-1 version was released...

Smaller/lighter than typical American compact car tires, likely higher quality too, probably designed for high speed applications...just common sense at work...