Mark

The Revell 3W body is the only really good one, but it isn't perfect. The trunk opening line, at the top (near the base of the roof) is more of a "step" than a line, the part between the trunk lid and roof being noticeably higher than the adjacent trunk lid. Some of the more recent production bodies have some nasty parting lines at the rear of the roof also. Nothing that can't be fixed though, and fixing it makes a great kit even better.

The '74 GTX issue has the later squared-off instrument panel and single exhaust chassis from the '78 police car. I don't think it has stock wheels either.

Is that what they are selling for, or is that what people are trying to get for them? Often you'll see recently dropped kits offered at exorbitant prices because they're "out of production". Often these sellers forget that they went "out of production" because there were not enough buyers to keep them in production. I don't buy into a price jump until I see people carrying them away with those price tags on them...

How would you rate the spray nozzles, one versus the other? And, what type is used on the Nason can?

I'm pretty sure the '71 Thunderbird annual kit still had them, as did the '70 Galaxie police car which was still available in '72 if I remember right. They did start phasing them out in the late Sixties though, in reissued annual kits like the '65 Chevelle wagon, '65 El Camino, and others.

Six cylinder Pacers used a crossflow radiator, while V8 Pacers used a downflow (vertical) radiator, which would probably not have fit under the early style hood.

Round 2 hasn't done any "co-branded" releases with Stevens International, Model King, DTR, or anyone else since they leased (later bought) the AMT and MPC brands and tooling. The last of those appeared in '07, though DTR is probably still selling off the ones they did.

I had the rear hatch glass blow out on my Spirit liftback, in the early Eighties. I later learned that it was often caused by a difference in temperature between the outside and inside of the car; as in the temp suddenly drops on a hot day, and the interior of the car remains hot. I wasn't home when it happened, so I didn't see it firsthand. It happened a couple of weeks before Christmas; that day was unusually warm but the temp did drop quickly at mid-day. I bought my Spirit new in '79; by then Pacer sales had fallen off considerably. When I was car shopping, I visited most of the AMC dealers in the area. Most only stocked one Pacer at a time, usually a wagon. Most of the people buying them by then were repeat customers, usually trading in a Pacer. I drove a well-used one as a loaner once; the ride and handling were decent but the car was slow. A/C was a must, and mine didn't have it. They did offer the V8 in '78 and '79; that's partly why the higher hood was used. The Pacer was the type of thing GM could afford to build, but AMC couldn't. The resources spent on it and the Matador coupe came at the expense of updates that the Hornet, Gremlin, and Matador sedan/wagon did not get. In the end, AMC was too small to ultimately survive, but maybe they could have gone into a merger with another company in better shape.

MPC 1/20 scale Corvette, based on the finned valve covers with the breather cap holes, and the plated front cover (the 1/25 scale kits did not have those parts). MPC used the big-block in their kits all the way through '82, so I'd guess anything mid-Seventies through '82.

Ugly, with a capital Ug. The platform probably won't allow for a very deep bed, so it'll wind up as the next generation SS-R.

The age of the tooling isn't always a big factor. I've got Revell '32 Ford three-window coupe kits (first issued in 1996) with a lot of flash on some parts, as well as some nasty parting lines.

Early issues of the coupe (Stovebolt, Gasser, the "yellow drag car on the box" issue, and the Street Rods series issue all have the stock parts. The Salt Shaker Bonneville racer issue had a few parts added, but anything not needed for the version shown on the box wasn't in the box. That includes the front fenders, stock wheels, stock seat, and six-cylinder engine. The unique Salt Shaker parts (rear bumper, front axle, front fender filler pieces, chassis filler pieces for inner rear fenders) aren't in any other issue of the kit. Ertl reissued the coupe after they bought AMT. That issue (yellow car on the box) doesn't have the six-cylinder engine or the stock seat. Some of the boxes for that issue have a picture of the stock engine on the side panel, with a "2 versions" or "2 in 1" sticker slapped on over it because the engine parts weren't in the box. You could build a stock-looking coupe, but out of the box it would have had a V8 engine and custom seats. The first AMT/Ertl reissue of the convertible (pink car on the box) has the stock engine back in. The engine block/transmission halves and a couple other parts were (then) newly tooled. I don't think the radiator hose(s) were put back in; they might not match up with the new engine parts. No issues of the convertible came without a stock engine. All issues of the coupe after the AMT/Ertl convertible reissue have the retooled stock engine, and also the stock front seat from the convertible (which is different from the one in the coupe). The craft store reissue coupe (orange car on the box) and the Stevens International repop of the 1969 issue might not include the stock engine assembly in the instructions though. I think the stock taillights from the convertible (again different) are in the coupe reissues too. The current Round 2 issue should be pretty much like the early issues again (stock coupe seat and taillights) but I didn't pick this one up because I've already got as many of them as I'll need in a couple of lifetimes. Hopefully this clears things up.

Honda dealers were notorious for that type of thing in the Eighties. $200 for a set of mud flaps, $500 pinstriping, $1,000 for Polyglycoat paint treatment. Usually every car got all of it the minute it got backed off of the transporter, too.

Anyone I talked to who owned a Pontiac Aztek liked it. I wouldn't touch anything GM with a ten-foot pole (then or now), but the people who bought Azteks liked them. Apparently, there weren't enough of those people though. It, the Nissan Cube, the Juke, and others aren't "cars" the way most of us here think about them. We might describe them as "transportation appliances". They serve the purpose for the people who buy them. Twenty-five years from now, well-preserved original ones will turn up at car shows just like clean Pacers and Volares do now. Most of those "worst/ugliest cars ever" articles are written by people who think of "cars" as being those yellow things with a light on the roof, that pass them by while they walk to the subway every morning.

Early ads for the Surfite kit describe it as "twice as big as 1/25 scale" (1/12, apparently). A 1/12 scale Surfite kit would probably have fit in a conventional 1/25 scale kit box, and sold for $2 back then. But it wouldn't have fit in with the other Roth car kits, all 1/25 scale. Issuing the Surfite in 1/25 scale left a lot of empty space in the box, so that's where the display comes in.

The Juke isn't designed to look beautiful (and in that it succeeds), it's designed to stand out (and it succeeds there too). Every one a potential buyer sees is free advertising. If you don't like it, Nissan probably couldn't care less what you think because you aren't going to buy one anyway. They can afford to use a polarizing design because it's a niche vehicle; they'll sell every one they can build to the small segment of the populace that decides they like it. My nephew used to sell Nissans, he told me the Juke sold very well.

I've had State Farm since 1982 for my vehicles, since 2003 for my house. I had a burglary on Christmas Eve, my claim was processed quickly with no problems. On the heels of that, in early January, I had to use the "road service" part of my vehicle policy to have my truck towed to the dealer. I didn't even follow the correct procedure on that one, but again they paid, no problems. I've had several windshields and one hatchback glass replaced over the years too.

Didn't see any primer, but found two tall cans of clear lacquer, one can of gloss white, and one of GM Arctic White.

Should have gone through your own insurance company, particularly if the name of the other guy's company begins with "A"...

AMT also made a '60 Galaxie four-door hardtop promo.

Some Corvairs had four carburetors, fed air by an "X" shaped network of tubes that was topped with a single round air cleaner.

The engine is adapted to a Ford transmission (which in 1:1 wouldn't hold up behind that engine, but that's another story). The adapter would relocate the starter to the passenger side so it wouldn't come into conflict with the steering box. Early Oldsmobile engines also have the starter on the left side, and the Olds engine to Ford transmission adapter relocates the starter to the right side.

The Revell lowrider is the ex-Monogram 1/24 scale hardtop, so the custom parts from the earlier Monogram kit will fit. The Revell two-door sedan was never issued as a lowrider.

Nobody has pointed out the completely rigid rear suspension (ladder bars are attached to the frame at both ends, with no room for movement). That said, the original Street Fighter and Quicksilver are both cool, the Bad Actor just a bit less so. I wish they'd done the reissue Street Fighter decals in the right color, though. I'd like to graft the custom touches (side pipes, front and rear treatment, rear wheel flares) onto a Monogram '60 Impala hardtop...

"Must've been sold" = "it sold too cheap this time..." I'd watch his listings for a while, to see if it mysteriously turns up. Not that I'd deal with him after the first go-round. I had that happen a couple of times; next time around it sold for less...