Mark

Then don't ever take a tour of a water treatment plant! I worked construction (as a clerical worker) for twenty years, the first ten for what was the biggest contractor in my area at that time. They were building a lot of treatment plants the first few years. You wouldn't want to see the solids they pull out of the water...let's just say that every Monday morning, the "latex navy" pulled into port. That said, it's nothing short of miraculous how plain old water comes out of the faucet, clean and safe in the vast majority of places. Like Snake says, a lot of the bottled water out there is just that: out of the tap and into the bottle. I was glad to have that a couple of months ago though, when a water main broke and we were out for a day or so. As for the disposal, how about straining out the solid stuff and disposing of it separately? Or maybe dump some sawdust into it to absorb everything, then toss that as a solid? Around here, to get rid of unused house paint, we're told to open the can and let it dry out (for small quantities), then toss the can. There's a product you can buy and mix into a more full can to dry it out for disposal. As for unused meds, a lot of towns have places where you can take those. Even the pharmacies should be able to help, or at least steer you in the right direction. There's no excuse to just dump stuff down the drain.

hey hey, it's the Fonz' dream rod... The half-top probably changed the car enough for MPC to not have to give anyone a royalty on it, other than the Happy Days folks...

Customizing parts were the more basic ones: front/rear pans, skirts, scoops, things like that. Those were usually designed as glue-on items, though molding some of them in would be desirable. Sometimes, the bumpers would be designed to overlap where the pan attached to the body, to reduce/eliminate the need for putty. Stylizing/Advanced Customizing parts were the ones that really had to be molded in to look decent. Kits with those parts introduced in '61 and '62 were called "Styline" or "Stylizing", starting in '63 they were "Advanced Custom". The Advanced Custom stuff hung on through '65, though on occasion parts like that would turn up in annual kits after that.

Recent issues of the '50 Ford have a lot more than half of the Stylizing parts. Only a few are missing: skirts, fins, a rear bumper piece, and the Victoria roof. The Carson top was altered to create the half-top that has been in the kit since the second issue. The Round 2 issue had the drag version parts that, until now, were only in the second issue.

The 1:1 wasn't too different from the Little Red Wagon. There's a magazine article on the Dodge Fever truck in a magazine from back in the day. I think the headers were different, but that wouldn't be a deal breaker.

Yes...it's in the Meyers Manx kit also. Both used the same chassis, as did the recently issued Teevee dune buggy. The wheels and tires shown are MPC pieces, those weren't in any of those kits.

The original Flashback-box issue did NOT have the Stylizing parts. The issue prior to it did. In 1971 or so, both the Ford and the '57 Chevy were reworked to remove those parts, and were reboxed. The Ford got the Flashback box, the Chevy became the second (turquoise) Pepper Shaker.

MPC. AMT didn't make a '68 Impala kit; they made a "for 1968" "Chevrolet SS 427" which was a custom-only modification of their original '67 kit. The body was detrimmed (and had no rear window opening!), interior was custom only, and no stock bumpers were included. MPC made the Chevrolet promotional models for '68, and AMT couldn't get advance information on the cars MPC was doing as promos. AMT's Camaro and Firebird kits were "for 1968" also, meaning they weren't replicas of 1968 cars, but rather "something we're throwing out there for the 1968 model year".

The first issue box calls the sedan a 1940, and mentions "optional 1939 parts". It's splitting hairs, but they weren't necessarily saying that a correct '39 could be built.

While you are there, check the automotive and paint areas. They've got 3M wet-or-dry sandpaper in various grits from 220 to 2000. Made in USA or Canada, 3M brand, not some no-name Chinesium junk that falls apart when you dip it in the water (even though that stuff usually says "wet or dry" on the back)...

Around here, they've still got those (except the police cars) from a couple of months ago.

The Keystone wheels were probably made the same way that Cragar made their S/S mags. The center would be die cast aluminum, the outer rim steel. When Cragar cast the aluminum centers, they first put pieces of steel in the casting die and then poured the aluminum. When the center was pulled from the die, it would have steel inserts cast into it, but the ends of the inserts stuck out at the perimeter of the casting. They then welded those steel prongs to the steel rim. I don't know if the center and rim were plated separately and then welded together, or if the wheel was chromed as a unit.

Non-acetone nail polish remover.

Chevrolet sponsored the Derby back then. I remember them pulling out of it a few years later, after the winner was caught cheating. If Chevrolet is still not connected with it, Round 2 probably couldn't get permission to copy the original box more closely.

There were two issues of the '49 Ford with the "Gas Man" drag version. One was called "49'er" and the other was the Tijuana Border Police. Those didn't have the spinner caps ('61 Dodge units if I remember right), they were replaced with Appliance Plating slotted wheels. The slots radiated outwards from the center. The Monogram Paddy Wagon kit had a similar wheel, but in two different sizes (the Ford had four wheels in one size). This reissue should have those wheels and the Gas Man decals, and will likely have whitewall tires too.

If you look at brochure or PR pictures of stock muscle cars, the tires will usually look small. With the '68 Roadrunner for example, the 383 car would have had 14" wheels and tires with the 15" units reserved for the Hemi cars. I don't think anything came with 60 series tires stock until 1970, and even then not everything would have had them.

It might be a Strombecker or Hawk kit. I'm pretty certain one or both of those companies made go-kart kits at the height of their popularity in the early Sixties.

In the original Graveyard Ghoul Duo kit, the dragster was called the "Overtaker", the Koach was the "Body Snatcher". I don't think the parts were changed from the Munsters versions in any way, but the decals were different.

One of my ex-bosses had the bright idea to put in a soda machine, in the shop area (of a roofing company). Cheapness phase one was to buy one of those cheap mechanical machines that sits on a table, instead of a real machine like you see everywhere else. Cheapness phase two was to go to Pennsylvania to buy the soda, because it was cheaper there and they didn't have a deposit on the cans. I think he was figuring on turning in the discarded cans anyway, and collecting the deposit. You could get away with it back then, but now it's illegal. The recycling machines are more sophisticated now too, they can tell which containers are deposit and which aren't. Cheapness phase three was to charge 75 cents a can, then put in a change machine that only gave 75 cents change when you put in a dollar bill. One of the (many) dirtbag employees figured out how to reach up into the machine and get a free soda. The other monkeys watch, learn, and imitate. Boss wonders why he's coming up short every week. Someone (probably sniffing the boss up for a loan) rats out the soda thieves, and another employee (a kid who was as honest as the day is long) shows the boss how it's done. The kid could do it because he had skinny arms and could reach into the machine. Boss doesn't confront the dirtbags, but instead chews out the kid who showed him what was being done! No good deed goes unpunished. The machine got pulled out that afternoon. He gave away the leftover soda. I cracked one open, it was flat.

The other day, I ordered a couple of Model Car Garage photoetch sets. While I was at it, I threw in the one that I mentioned above. Though the MCG packaging shows the earlier Mako Shark (the one Ertl did the snap kit and retro promo of), the set is actually for the old MPC kit we're talking about here. The set includes "MARK IV 427" and "ZL-1" emblems, door handles, and Mako Shark and Corvette scripts. There aren't any big, fiddly pieces like grilles included, so the set is small which keeps the price down. I only paid $7.50 for it, it's definitely worth getting if you are planning on building one of these kits. Now, anyone have any information on the correct exterior colors?

Those are ex-Palmer kits. They're being called 1/25 scale now (not sure what Palmer called them). The Coronado supposedly measures out at around 1/27 or 1/28 scale, but should look okay with a 1/25 scale car. I'd bet there's not much difference in the true, measured scale between either of those boats, and a '59-'60 annual Cadillac, Lincoln, or Imperial kit. The original Palmer kits didn't include trailers, from what I have heard/seen. Scratching or modifying something to work shouldn't be too tough.

No reference to the TV show. Those kits were sold in a box like that for most of the Seventies (a staple item on K-Mart shelves, along with the '57 Chevy and the Red Alert Chevelle!). No reference to the Munsters because the show wasn't in reruns everywhere. The original box gave both cars different names: the dragster was the Overtaker, I forget what the Munster Koach was called even though this came up in a conversation a couple of weeks ago.

Same tires, but I don't think there are eight of them in the Mustang. You'd have to look at the parts breakdown on the underside of the box. The parts pack tires are printed on both sides; one side with the size designation, the other without. The Mustang's tires will be printed with the size designation on one side, blank on the other side. The Roadrunner tires are the larger of the two sizes, printed red stripe on one side, blank on the other side.

Oops...got those confused. I think the "ultra bright" stuff came out, then they brought out the "new improved chrome" afterwards, after getting some complaints about the "ultra bright" foil. The "ultra bright" foil is the one to steer clear of. Now that I'm thinking of it, isn't all of the regular foil labeled "new improved chrome" now? Actually, I didn't think the "new improved" stuff was any better...I never had any issues with the original.

The "matte aluminum" definitely has a different look as opposed to the "chrome" varieties. I'd compare them to looking at a piece of regular kitchen aluminum foil; the "chrome" would look like the front side, the "matte aluminum" would look like the back side. I used the matte finish on the "washboard" side trim of a '57 Chevy, with the regular chrome foil on the rest of the exterior trim. There's a definite contrast. The "new improved chrome" foil is difficult to use in my opinion, more brittle and less flexible than the regular chrome. I've stuck with the regular chrome since trying the "improved" stuff.