Mark

The Ford production figures are world-wide; wherever those Victorias were built, they were probably the '33-'34 style, just built in '35 and '36. The current issue of Hemmings Classic Car mentions a change in AACA's rules regarding what constiutes a "classic" car. Previous rules included only cars produced between 1925 and 1948, bit now they are rolling that back to about 1915. The HCC article mentions one car from that period, an early-Twenties car called the Richelieu...and also mentions that none of them are known to still exist. So there's one...

I remember those ads in the back pages of Popular Mechanics and a couple of car magazines in the mid-Sixties, where they'd advertise current-year cars for $1,095, last years' cars for $995. I asked my dad why those cars were so cheap, and he said those were ex-taxicabs and were probably all beat to death. All of the cars pictured were four-door sedans, so that made sense. One step removed from those $40 surplus jeeps! The political palm greasing is on the mark...in the late Sixties, Checker tried to sew up the NYC taxi business by getting certain interior dimensions into the specs that only their car fit. It was something like floor-to-roof height. Dodge snuck in on it though, by having the rear footwells altered in a bunch of '68 Coronets. If I remember right, it was actually Hurst that did the alterations (they were working with Chrysler on the '68 Hemi Dart/Barracuda conversions at the time too). Years ago, in my area the city fire commissioner got the specs for new fire trucks rewritten, to specify that the truck's engine and body had to be made by the same company, or something along those lines. Whatever it was, only one make of fire engine met the spec, and his brother or cousin was the sales rep for the area. Another town tried something like that a few years ago, but the competing companies took them to court and got that part of the spec tossed out. As for hybrids, they make perfect sense for vehicles like taxis, school buses, and UPS or mail delivery trucks that work primarily in the city or make lots of stops. There was a story awhile back on a Prius taxi in (I think) Montreal, that racked up about half a million miles on the original batteries. If I remember right, once or twice a year they washed the plates inside the battery pack and replaced the acid, which extended the life of the batteries.

My '40 Ford coupe is also missing the decals (I knew the record and decals weren't there, going in). Based on years of poking through kits and parts boxes, I'll stick my neck out and say that whatever decal sheet that was in that kit did not include the "RN Automotive" door markings. The Round 2 reissue decal sheet has them, but omits the "Burbank California" lettering below it.

With the exercise bike, at least you can hook a few clothes hangers on the handlebars...

There's an issue of the AMT '40 Ford coupe that came with a record. I've got the kit, but the record wasn't with it when I got it. When they ran out of records, they changed the box art a bit. The Round 2 reissue box art resembles that of the "no record" version of that box.

The V-Rod had a Corvair engine...making it a bit less of a V-Rod. Still a neat kit though. The Kyote (official name: "Mantaray II Kyote") was the best looking one of them all IMO. Dean Jeffries designed it as a possible replacement for the Monkeemobile, but the show ended. Tom Cotter's excellent Dean Jeffries book includes a couple of photos of the Kyote on the Columbia Pictures studio lot. The kit depicts Kyote #1 (Jeffries' own car, the pilot model) with the headlamps in the fenders. Production bodies had them relocated between the fenders because the front tires rubbed if the suspension was in compression during a turn. Jeffries held onto the #1 Kyote for the rest of his life. The MPC kit is great. MPC also produced a "Dean Jeffries Station Wagon Buggy" kit. For a long time I thought it was just a revised Kyote, but when I got one I found it to be way different. The body has the production inboard headlamps, wheelbase is longer than the Kyote, and it has a Corvair engine (Kyote has a VW mill).

AMT.

Too, the Tee Vee and Barris T Buggy were issued by AMT and MPC, at the time competing companies under different ownership.

There are several different length chassis side rails: two-seater AMX, Hornet/Javelin/Javelin AMX, Maverick/Comet, 442, Plymouth/Dodge, and AMC Rebel. There are a couple of different setups for attaching the body to the chassis also.

The suspension parts aren't plated any more. The change took place in the early Nineties, when the optional parts were updated (more modern seats, billet engine accessories). Besides the stock version, only a handful of parts remain from the original issue. The body in recent issue kits is straighter than most though. A lot of these bodies have the sides pulled out a bit (maybe pulling them out of the tool too fast) which affects door fit.

The '63-'65 Riviera chassis was adapted from the concurrent fullsize Buick. The car was designed with the idea that Cadillac might build it, but Cadillac was going full bore building their existing cars and didn't really need it. Buick was in something of a slump at the time, so they got the car. The '66 frame probably needs considerable rework and the floor pans aren't even close, but if you are determined to do it then you should be able to make it work under a '63-'65 Riviera, or even a '61-'64 fullsize Buick. I thought about trying such a conversion for about fifteen seconds. Buicks were pretty conventional cars then, for a model of one chassis detail isn't a big deal in my opinion. The '66-'70 Riviera carried over the earlier chassis with some changes. Buick Division actually built some parts of the Toronado front drive unit, but decided they didn't need front drive for the Riviera. I read somewhere that they did a study with Riviera owners, and figured out that they didn't care about the front drive and wouldn't pay extra to get it. So the Riviera used the Toronado inner body shell but without front wheel drive. They would have sold for around the same money either way, but with the carryover chassis Buick probably made a bunch more money on them.

Nope,it's a Monza S. MPC issued an incorrect stock one for '78 (wrong engine). Only a few thousand 1:1 cars were produced. I've got one of the Twister "Vega" kits on the pile, to convert to an Astre (one of the Pontiac magazines featured an "as-found" ex-Pro Stock Astre awhile back). The Monza S front "header panel" and headlight area needs quite a bit of rework to create an Astre, not to mention scratchbuilding the grilles. The taillight panel needs a lot of work too.

If the new kit is priced the same either way, to get the 2-in-1 then something on the basic kit will be lost or compromised. Would you prefer separate door handles and windshield wipers, or an extra set of wheels and tires?

The Jag hardtop isn't anywhere close. I started converting one of those years ago (actually a combination of the XK-E top, and a '57 T-Bird top). I'd add material on one side and grind away at the other to try to get closer to the shape. I don't think much of the original plastic is left, but it's still a far way away from where it should be. If I get back to that, I'll either vacuform it or carve the shape from floral arrangement foam and lay cloth and resin over it. I'd like to get access to the 1:1 top, though...doing these things working off of photographs doesn't cut it anymore...

The contest was to name the truck.

Besides the 442 and Javelin kits, Jo-Han included this chassis in the AMT-boxed AMX kits ('68-'70), Javelin/AMX ('71-'72 only), the one-time-only '64 Plymouth and Dodge kits that Tim mentioned, the '69 and '70 GTX (but not the Roadrunners), '69 Rebel, '70 Rebel Machine, '70 and '71 Maverick, '71 Comet, and '70 through '74 Hornets. Sadly none of the Hornets were ever offered with stock version parts in kit form.

You've got some work ahead of you; the Jo-Han block was created for the '66 Marlin kit, and represents a '56-'66 piece. AMC introduced a second-generation V8 during '66 for the American/Rogue, and used it in all their cars from '67-'79. Jo-Han tooled some second-generation engine parts for later kits. The SC/Rambler kit has more of them than any other kit (front cover, water pump, oil pan, cylinder heads, intake, valve covers) but Jo-Han never did the later engine block.

Bodies are originally slot car items (I did see a Cadillac slot car on eBay many years ago; it sold for s-t-u-p-I-d money). I've seen a couple of the Pontiac Bonneville slot cars, but not the Impala, Wildcat, or Thunderbird. The Impala is a '65, and was a hot item back then because the Revell kit didn't exist yet. The Cadillac body is a very good crib form the Jo-Han kit. The interiors and chassis were tooled later and are generic. I'm pretty sure the Bonneville has the same mismatched drip channel/quarter window shape issue as the MPC '66 and AMT '65 kits.

Both of those are 1968 annual kits, with stock and mild custom versions included. '68 was the first year for the Jo-Han Logghe Brothers funny car chassis. No Javelin kit ever appeared in AMT packaging ('71-up Javelin/AMX did, but not the '68-'70). On the flip-side, no '68-'70 AMX kit was issued in Jo-Han packaging in those years; all were sold by AMT even though they were produced by Jo-Han. (The first two-seater AMX sold by Jo-Han was the first-issue Shirley Shahan drag car, issued in '71.) The '69 and '70 442 were sold by both companies. The '68-'70 annual kits (442 and Javelin) all included that chassis (the '70 Javelin box is packed!) but the USA Oldies '70 442 did not include it. For '71, Jo-Han issued two annual kits of each car (442, and Javelin/AMX). One of each was funny car only (body with hood molded shut), the other stock or Pro Stock. The last kit to include the chassis was a brief late-Seventies issue Hornet hatchback funny car (with a '74 body). I agree with Snake, the Jo-Han chassis is the best one out there in 1/25 scale.

If you want an idea of what a newer car would look like with Fifties custom ideas applied to it, look for pictures of the Infiniti J30 that Harry Bradley designed about twenty years ago. Don't do it right after lunch, though...

A&A Fiberglass manufactured the "stinger" hoods that were used on the Novas. Besides Motion, Dana, and Bill Thomas, Dickie Harrell prepared a few Novas with that hood. I made one years ago for the AMT kit, but it doesn't come close to fitting the Revell kit.

The 1967 article is a reprint; the original printing was in issue #1 of Car Model, in 1962.

That valve cover is probably from the XR-6. The Deora kit was created alongside the 1:1 build, and "got ahead of" the 1:1, so a few details are different. (That happened with the XR-6 also.) Deora differences include: side windows (kit has them, 1:1 does not), grille/headlamp details, and the front wheel opening "lip" (kit lower body crease goes straight back from the wheel opening, 1:1 drops down just a bit behind the wleel opening). The lower front door operation differs too, probably because it would have been pretty tough to make the kit door work like the 1:1.

It does look like the VW body is on a Jeep chassis. At first I thought the engine might be a 289 Ford stuck into the IMC drag version chassis, but the front suspension looks like parallel leaf springs. The engine is probably a Buick/Kaiser Jeep V6. I've probably got my Jeep kits mixed up. The one with the swamp tires probably had "swamp" in the name. I remember that one having an alligator decal on the sides, with the gator's tail looping over the rear wheel opening. The built one I have must be the Universal; I'm pretty sure it has the hollow Goodyear tires on it.

They are from one of the MPC Jeep kits. I'm pretty certain the Universal Dune Buggy (Jeep) had them; that's the one that had plastic "swamp" tires with wraparound tread pieces made of molded vinyl. I think there was another MPC Jeep kit with them too; I've got a built stock-looking one with those wheels as well as a set I got on a plated tree in a "parts box" deal.