Mark

The ideal chassis to use would probably be the Jo-Han Ambassador/Rebel/Marlin (from the firewall forward) with the rest coming from an AMT Matador coupe. You'd need a stock Matador kit; the later NASCAR and Sportsman issues have alterations like a fuel cell. The resin body is probably being done more with the funny car version in mind, even though the 1:1 never ran as a '69.

The parts only give it the look of the 1:1...the actual car had modifications like lengthened front fenders and radiused wheel openings that couldn't be duplicated in the kit while still offering a stock version.

"Easily" would hang heavily on whether or not alternate versions are designed in at the beginning. What out-of-production kits sell for on eBay, or at shows, really doesn't have any bearing on how well a new kit of the same subject would sell. It only shows that X number of people want a particular kit, and will outbid one another to get it. A lot of those people only want the original, and wouldn't buy the new one anyway.

I bought the two I mentioned (Jinx Express, Vandal) even though I wasn't into the TD stuff back in the day. I've got a few of them now, though. Those two hadn't been out in their original form in quite some time. The one that I think would really sell would be the Quicksilver version of the '60 Chevy sedan delivery. I've got enough stuff to piece one together, but that one seems to be hard to find. Someone who knows about these things once told me that the Tom Daniel and Ed Roth stuff was, for Revell-Monogram, as close as it gets to being able to print money. Maybe that's slowing down a bit, as I saw the Revell Surfite kit (the recent issue, with the figure) on closeout too. They might need to space the reissues out a bit more.

The Tom Daniel kits seem to be losing momentum...I've seen the last couple of them (Jinx Express, Vandal) on clearance. Maybe they're reaching a saturation point...

The Monogram Turbo Chief had a custom hood, with narrower scoops. Revell may have done a snap kit with a similar hood, but I'd bet that if they did, it's not too accurate.

Which kit (Monogram or MPC)? The thing to do first is to see where the interior floor is, relative to the bottom of the door opening. I'd bet the Monogram kit is closer to correct in that respect. The old annual kits sometimes have shallow interiors, and sometimes even leave a gap between the bottom of the interior floor and the top of the chassis. I built an AMT Corvair last year, the gap was incredible (I didn't open the doors up on that one, but did "gut" the interior and stood the side panels up straight to eliminate the "draft" designed into the interior bucket, to simplify tooling). If the interior floor is way higher than the bottom of the door opening, in many cases it won't look right. I'd figure that out before going forward.

There was never a kit with the '79 Formula hood. It doesn't look like it would be too tough to make, using the T/A hood as a starting point. The T/A front fender scoops can be filled in, and the spoilers and wheel "spats" are separate pieces so they can be left off.

The ZZ Top Eliminator kit could be way better than the original, if Revell leaves in some of the alterations they made for the Thom Taylor cabriolet that they issued afterward. The chassis now has the molded-in stock exhaust system removed, and a 9" Ford rear axle included. Now, if they'd only get a decent engine in there to replace that Pontiac mill that they're calling a Chevy...

The Undertaker was rebuilt from an uncompetitive drag car, the Benicki Brothers' "Chrome Coffin". The family operated a chrome shop, so the chassis (possibly the engine too) was already chromed when Carl Casper got it. He swapped the T-bucket body (or maybe reworked it), and replaced the original fuel injection setup with the Potvin/Moon crank-drive supercharger. I've got a magazine here somewhere with a feature on the car in its original form. It wasn't Hot Rod or Rod & Custom, it was one of the lesser-known magazines that I can't remember the name of right now.

The original Seventies issue of the Jawbreaker called it a " '32 Ford rail rod".

The More American Graffiti dragster is itself based on the Ramchargers dragster kit. Besides the Ramchargers, Milner, and Jawbreaker versions, it was also issued as the Carl Casper Galloping Ghost II. But the Ramchargers version was the first one issued.

Taillights on the Villa Riviera (not in the kit, though) are '56 or '57 Rambler turn signals, turned upside down. The 1:1 was a '63. I've got one of those Petersen Publishing custom car "annuals" that includes several articles on various modifications done on that car. Braze everything, then back up the Bondo truck!

The outer half of each wheel has an odd-shaped pin that goes into a similarly shaped hole in the inner half. That's to index the two halves so that the spokes are aligned properly. Those pins/holes might be shaped differently between the two kits, but even if they are you should be able to make them work. The Riviera wheels were widened at some point, by adding material to the back side of the outer half and lengthening that indexing pin. They can be narrowed back to the original width if you are careful.

I'd swap that water pump/front cover piece too, at the very least. The LA-series engines don't have the oil filter up front like the bigger engines.

I don't know anyone at Revell, but I would bet on seeing an AAR based on the new kit at some point. If so, procrastination would pay off...

Tires in this, and the Phantom Vickie kit, are Plymouth Prowler tires. Next time you see a glue bomb/partially built Prowler in a junk box at a show, grab it. Some 1/20 scale wheels can be reworked to fit the rear tires. For the fronts, look for either Jo-Han funny car rear wheels, or Monogram 1/24 scale wheels. The Monogram stuff is hit-and-miss, not every wheel will work.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a reissue on the XR-6. AMT salvaged the touring as a single kit; the XR-6 probably hit the scrap pile at that point. I've seen a number of these at shows in the past with the touring gone (presumably built) and the XR-6 pretty much intact. I've got one like that myself. The XR-6 just wasn't popular with model building kids back then...not much of it lent itself to kitbashing. It was just too different. As neat as we might think a slant six engine is now, back then it was "bigger is better". The linoleum-gray box probably didn't help either...among the all-time worst box art for an AMT kit from that era. I'd bet some of us would like to see the original rod version parts for the '27 tub again...other than the Frontenac engine parts and the rear wheels, none of those parts made it into the later issues. The stuff AMT put into the later issues is neat in its own right though.

Usually both the front and rear wheels will be painted that way. If they look different when the car is coming off the line, then you've got wheel spin.

A '61 would be the logical next step, but they'll probably wait awhile even if it is part of the plan...

Three-window, because I've got one of them finished!

There was a funeral home in the Midwest that commissioned a couple of 1/43 scale diecast hearses...they may have advertised in Model Car Journal or possibly the "other" model car magazine. They may have had Jo-Han run the hearse kits also. I have seen Jo-Han hearse kits for sale in the distant past, without boxes. As I recall, they were molded in black but were the later version with the surfboards included instead of the casket from the first issue.

Don't get me started on insurance companies... Next time you check out an insurance company's website, check their vehicle listings and how they come up with rates for the various types of coverage. Nearly all will be "above average" for collision coverage. How can you determine an average when everything is above average? Smaller vehicles are more costly because they are likely to receive more damage in an accident. Larger vehicles are more expensive because they are likely to inflict more damage on other vehicles in an accident. If you have been involved in an accident recently, your premiums go up. But if you haven't been in an accident, your premiums still go up because you might be more likely to be in one in the future...

A lot of that stuff was gone even in the Seventies...the choices made for the USA Oldies series were likely dictated more by availability than desirability...

99% certain the wheels (but not the tires) pictured are from this kit, or the '71-'72 Firebird kits. The Firebirds have two different width wheels. Concurrent MPC Dodge Challenger kits have these wheels also, but all four are the same, the narrower of the two.