Mark

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.

I haven't seen the new one...not sure it's out yet.

The stock hearse was in pretty rough shape when it was last available. A guy I know bought one, the body had some weird flashing on it, that stuck out of the quarter panels like tailfins. Anyone else have the dual engine ambulance version? That one was only around for a couple of years...

Supposedly, it was Lee Petty who threw a fit over the Ford truck.

It's good when you need something that contrasts with the regular chrome, like the quarter panel inserts on a '57 Chevy. I haven't had a problem with it getting shinier during application, but then again I only burnish it enough to get it into place.

To steer things back to the original topic, some of these conversions look great, but without a real Pontiac Division behind them, they are what they are, what-ifs. How much are these going to go for? If I had a hundred grand burning a hole in my pocket, I'd step up for one of those Demon Challengers regardless...

Oldsmobile going into the dumper started with the engine switching. Cadillac brought out the Seville, but didn't make a 350 engine. They wanted (and got) the Olds engine, leaving Oldsmobile with not enough V8 engines for all of the Cutlasses they wanted to build. So some of them got Chevy engines. People got mad when they found out; after all, they paid extra for an Oldsmobile. They knew the basic car was pretty much just a fancy Malibu, but expected an Oldsmobile engine as part of the deal. Had Cadillac had their own small V8 engines (or used Chevy engines; the Seville was a heavily modified Nova) then Oldsmobile would have been left alone. Funny, when GM was switching engines, they always had enough Chevy V8 engines to go around. They never ran out of Chevy engines and had to substitute Olds, Buick, or Cadillac units. GM has been poorly managed since the late Sixties IMO. After the Toronado, they didn't seem to be able to roll out anything really different without a lot of problems. The junk Vega engine (why didn't they just use the existing Nova four?), the pieced-together Chevette, the recall-loaded X-cars, the midsize cars that all looked alike (remember that Forbes magazine cover?), and so on.

I use Office Depot for work; no Staples stores around here (though I did order from them online a couple of times). Fifty bucks worth of stuff, and they deliver it for free. Only in a "someone needs something yesterday" situation will I, or someone else, actually go to the store. I don't have anyone to pick things up; the maintenance peoples' priorities are the building and grounds, and we've only got one part-time driver and he's got his priorities. I can see these places trying to reduce the size of the stores; like hardware stores and even local hobby shops, they've got a lot of "dead" or slow-moving stock taking up space. People in my position (buying the supplies) will switch loyalties if they can consistently save money with one supplier over another, so it's not surprising that these places are turning over every rock trying to cut costs. That also results in a loss of service at the local level, but the people doing the majority of the buying want low price as #1 priority so that's how it's going to go in the future.

I was thinking of making the cut just a bit closer to the greenhouse, but this is pretty much how I envisioned it. The idea of joining the '53 front clip to the Foose cab sounds good, though.

'64 or '65 (note the early MPC logo)...probably one of the earliest kits marketed under the MPC brand.

Some people want a better stock '56 pickup than is currently available, and this kit might make a contribution to that. It's more a case of using parts of this one to get there, than it is of trying to convert it.

The AMT '66 kit was first issued in '67 as a funny car. AMT didn't offer the Hemi Under Glass version right away, and didn't offer it for very long. The MPC kit (there were '68 and '69 versions) is completely different, and was designed as the Hemi Under Glass from the start. The chassis and interior got reworked afterwards for the LA Dart kit. It's easy to forget, but back when those kits were first issued AMT and MPC were competitors and not brands owned by one company as they have been for the last 30 years or so.

The AMT/Ertl kit was an earlier Shelby Daytona Turbo Z, which used a different style wheel. Even then, the kit wheels were for a similar-looking non-Shelby version. It's as if the kit were designed as the non-Shelby Turbo version, and they stuck the Shelby name on it at the last minute.

Just picked it up...literally a one-hour job. Apparently there was a redesign towards the end of the '97-'04 generation truck, and the shop manual wasn't updated. It's nice to open and close the door without it sounding like someone cracking their knuckles. Now, to get the CD player straightened out, and get some tunes back...