Mark

Nope, they weren't really doing current car kits in the mid-Sixties, other than the '62 Mopars (the sales of which might explain why they didn't stay with those). The first Revell Mustang kit would probably have been either the '69 coupe, or the 1/32 scale '68 fastback. Just watch, someone will chime in and bring up the fighter plane which they probably did before either of these...

The '62-'65 Fairlane/'62-'64 Meteor have a number of, shall we say, unique front suspension parts. The front shock absorbers fit absolutely nothing else. The OEM control arms had the ball joints riveted to them. Usually those were sold as an assembly, or as "rebuilt" with the replacement ball joints again riveted in place. Every so often, the ball joints were/are made available as separate items.

The Falcon (or Mustang for that matter) towers aren't correct for the early ('62-'65) intermediate Fairlane. The Fairlane towers have a huge bulge towards the bottom. The Revell kit has the DST-modified original towers...easiest way to get from A to B might be to modify those back to stock.

The AMT '62 and '63 Fairlane kits have the engine compartment molded as part of the body, but the '64 and '65 had incorrect half-round inner fenders molded as part of the chassis. Then, for '66, AMT went back to the engine compartment molded as part of the body.

The Jo-Han '68-'70 4-4-2 kits (annuals, not the USA Oldies '70 reissue) all included stock, mild custom, and funny car versions. For '71, Jo-Han did two "annual" kits of some of their subjects: one stock or drag, the other funny car only. So there were two '71 4-4-2 kits.

I picked up a few in the Eighties and early Nineties, when hardly anyone was paying attention. The Toledo meets were especially good for me. Strangely, the '70 was one I'd see more often than the others. I've got what I "need", but wouldn't turn down others that turn up at the right price. That doesn't happen anymore though.

I tried using Super Clean to remove botched plating from resin parts I had cast myself. The resin turned soft. I'd be leery about soaking resin in anything. For paint prep, a good scrub should suffice. If you have no problem areas when you prime the resin, you should be good to go when painting it. A lot of resins contain some petroleum product or other, if only in a minute quantity. Soaking it in any petroleum-based product will only make a mess of it. I'd be cautious in painting the parts in question, and avoid having to strip the paint off in the first place. If you are applying automotive paint, a scuff/reshoot should fix all but the absolute worst mistakes.

'68 or '69 Jo-Han ANYTHING has always been tough to find. I've seen only a couple of unbuilt '68 4-4-2 kits over the years, and one of those belongs to me. The Javelin kits are probably as tough, or tougher, particularly the '69.

Hey, recently Mary Barra was tapped to join the board of directors at Disney. And with all the articles I've seen on that, I've yet to see anyone comment about her already having experience with Mickey Mouse operations. I'm here all week folks, try the veal and don't forget to tip your waitress...

I save the sprues from more recent kits; often they are perfectly round and only have a slight parting line, and the corners are sometimes rounded. Those can be used when you need something of that diameter (which varies between manufacturers and even kits), or they can be filed to a smaller diameter and used to plug holes in older bodies from accessories. Some of the Seventies MPC kits have whopping big/thick sprues; I'll save those too. Those can be filed into bigger parts. I made a pair of header collectors out of a couple of those (scrap sheet plastic flanges with Tichy Train bolt heads, and coated single-strand wire for the pipes). I'll start putting the throw-away stuff into recyclable bottles, and toss them into the bin from now on.

New daily driver (only the fourth since 1979!): 2018 Toyota C-HR. I had planned on keeping the second Dakota a couple more years, and had fixed a few minor annoyances recently. But the brake lines started getting punky (when the brake lines start going, the fuel lines soon follow), the three-year-old water pump is leaking, and the A/C was making noise and wasn't blowing as cold as it ought to. I was figuring on doing a brake job before the next inspection, probably need shocks too, and after all that there are the original ball joints and steering rack, not to mention the transmission. I should have noticed the thinning ranks of similar Dakotas on the streets around here...even the 2005-08 model is becoming a vanishing breed. Time for a change. Insurance on the new car is only about $ 75 per year more than for a fourteen-year-old truck, for similar coverage. I miss the manual transmission, but there's a bunch of other stuff to keep tabs on while driving. I didn't check until after I brought it home, but there's no kit available yet...only a couple of 1/43 scale assembled models.

DON'T use Super Clean. That stuff can be used for removing paint, but you don't want to soak resin in it. You could contact the company making the Bleeche-wite cleaner and ask them about it, but they're looking at it for its intended use (dressing tires). They won't be thinking about our "alternate use". They probably bought the rights to the Westley's product, but maybe they've tweaked it a bit making it not 100% the same. All you want to do is get the mold release off of the surface of the resin. You can do that with a mild scrubbing with dish detergent and a soft toothbrush. When it's clean, you want your finger to "drag" across the smooth surfaces rather than having it glide across the mold release-covered surface. Of course, once you have tested it you'll have to clean it again. You want to get the mold release off BEFORE doing any cleanup or paint prep. Otherwise, you're grinding the mold release into the resin with your sandpaper.

Compared to the MPC and Revell Bantam roadster bodies, the panel truck is bigger than 1/24, that's for certain.

Good luck getting a manufacturer to tell the world what they can/can't produce. On top of that, they don't sell to us, they sell to the middle men and wholesalers. If it doesn't knock their collective hat into the creek, they don't furnish the pre-orders necessary to get something produced.

He's getting his long-time wish now...years ago, he bought the crypt next to Marilyn Monroe's. Apparently he found out it was available some months after she was interred there...

If I remember right, Billy Belmont (of Massachusetts?) bought the car in the Eighties, and commissioned those models to be made. I'm not positive but there may have been an assembled/painted version also. Belmont recently sold the car; as I understand, the new owner is having Gene Winfield repaint it with fogging closer to original than the current paint job...

Hey, how'd you take that picture?

Unless JF mentions a specific donor kit, you'll probably have to do some trimming to put everything together. If you are capable of working with a resin body, the chassis/interior alterations shouldn't phase you.

That chassis was used under another body (futuristic roadster thingie) and also briefly sold by itself, with the engine but no body. I think the engine is supposed to be a 413 Mopar, but probably got compromised for the electric motor setup. I had one of those when I was a kid, can't remember if the electric motor was inside the engine block or maybe the transmission. One guy I know sells a lot of kits and builtups, as I remember when he got one of those he'd save the body parts and toss the rest because most buyers only wanted the body from that kit.

The annual kits had two-piece plastic tires, with the hubcap/wheel rim half as a separate piece. The tire and wheel half were never a single unit.

Studebaker made changes from car to car; not all 1964 Avantis had the rectangular headlamp bezels (those were an option). The round ones were actually leftover pickup truck units turned on one side. The grille below the bumper was a running change also, the earliest cars did not have it but later 1963 cars did. Another change was the shape of the battery. The early cars had the long/skinny battery as included in the AMT kit, but late '63 and all '64 cars had a more rectangular one.

If the boxes are open, ask to look through before you buy. With most sellers, it's "complete unless marked otherwise" on the price sticker, but not all.

Someone may have bought it, taken it home, then returned it minus the part(s) they wanted for free.

Anyone remember Child World? They were THE toy store for kits in the late Seventies/early Eighties...they'd even have Jo-Han stuff every so often. The toy selection was good too...that was my go-to place for Christmas shopping for my nieces...

If I remember right, they start judging around 1:00 pm, and announce the winners close to the end of the show.