Mark

Needs a surfboard that's as long as the roof!

The two ribbed parts are grille inserts for the Stylized version. You are probably correct regarding the missing part (I checked my '62 annual kit but the extra "half tree" containing those parts isn't there). In the other '62 kits I have, or have looked at, the accessory motorcycle (or go-kart) parts were usually grouped together. Some parts were included in more than one kit, so it's not like you had to buy specific kits to get all of the parts. The parts in one kit might be plated (go-kart wheels) while in the other kit they would be white plastic. These parts were only in the '62 kits. For the '63 annuals, a complete Triumph motorcycle was included in the Chevy pickup kit, and a complete go-kart went into the Ford pickup. The '63 cycle had an optional Bonneville-style streamlining canopy, and the go-kart had a Bonneville-style outer body. I don't know if those parts were in the '62 kits, but I don't think so. I never checked the parts from the pickups vs. the scattered '62 annual kits, but I'd guess that many of them were the same. The tooling for those items may have been done all at once and then scattered over the '62 kits, then joined together for '63. AMT never did that sort of thing again (scattering accessory item parts), so I'd guess that the idea didn't go over well.

The Grumpy's (Jenkins) Vega (issued in '73) had the stock chassis with molded-in exhaust detail. MPC tooled "gutted" interior buckets for the '73 kits, but didn't do anything with the chassis in the Vega until the '74 car (USA-1). The rear wheel tubs in the Grump's Vega interior are also smaller than those in the other Pro Stock Vega kits. That's desirable if you want to build an earlier Vega with smaller slicks.

Best bet might be to rework a three-twos intake. The easiest to find one would be in the AMT '49 Ford; next easiest might be the Monogram '59 Cad. The AMT unit should be pretty easy to modify; just file off the carb mounting pads and add one for a single four-barrel. I can't think of a kit with a single four-barrel intake for the early Cad engine. Revell's engines always had custom setups, as did the couple of AMT kits with Cadillac mills (besides the '49 Ford, there's the '59 El Camino...but that one has a supercharger). Jo-Han monopolized the stock Cadillac kits, but they never did a decent engine for any of them. The de Ville kits had a simplified engine (intake and heads molded as one piece) while the FWD Eldorado kits all had Oldsmobile engines of a later generation.

If you mean the Pro Modeler Torino GT kit, then you can get a shaker setup in the Revell Torino Cobra kit. That kit is based on the GT kit, the two share many parts, and the parts will interchange without any fitting or alterations.

I haven't got an original grille in front of me, but as I recall the grille bars lacked detail and looked a bit thick. The vertical and horizontal bars may have been the same thickness also (look at the 1:1 grille; the vertical bars are way thinner). I had intended to cast a corrected piece, but just after starting on the master the Nicholson issue appeared with the corrected grille.

Those four-hole wheels were probably from some AMT kit. I've never seen them in anything from MPC. The MPC Streaker 'Vette has nice five slot wheels, I believe the Night Stalker issues have Centerlines (there were two Night Stalkers; they may have different wheels from one another). A ton of AMT kits had the four-slots: '65 Chevelle Modified Stocker, '72 GMC stepside, '34 Ford three-window coupe, '23 Ford roadster, and a bunch of others I can't remember offhand.

6: AMT '64 Galaxie, rear 7: AMT '62 Nova, rear 8: AMT '62 Tempest, rear (could be for the Buick Special wagon, but I believe the guards in that one are slimmer) 9: AMT '62 Corvair, rear 10: Jo-Han '62 Rambler American, rear

The body with the stock trim, and the stock interior, are from the C-112 kit. It's one of two Comet "annual" kits sold by Jo-Han that year; the other can be built only as a funny car. That one has the side trim removed, and the hood molded shut. The C-112 kit could be built showroom stock, or Pro Stock (with the bench seat interior and molded-in single exhaust). The stock version uses a six cylinder engine. The Jo-Han '71 Comet promotional model has the correct wheel covers, but the kit includes Ford Maverick wheel covers.

The MPC '64 Corvette had a steerable front end, but not the working suspension. That was added to the 1965 kit. The coil springs were molded plastic for '65 and '66, and changed to metal for '67. The reissue '67 kits (Streaker 'Vette, Night Stalker) use the '64 chassis with the molded-in exhaust detail removed. MPC '64 and '65 kits are not 100% stock; no stock wheels are included. The '68 kit was all new; its chassis was used in MPC Corvette annual kits through 1977 but the metal springs were eliminated after the '75 annual kits. '78-'82 annual kit chassis are very similar to the '76-'77 but the parts are different; MPC tooled an all-new kit for '78, the chassis has the correct small-block engine and catalytic converter exhaust. The later chassis is a good swap to correct '75-'77 kits, rather than searching out an engine and scratching the exhaust system.

1: Aurora "Fireball" '59 Pontiac (rear). The rest of the kit is as accurate as that bumper 2: AMT '62 Buick Electra 225 hardtop (rear). It will fit the convertible of course, but the bumpers in the convertible kit had "1962" on the license plate areas 3: AMT '63 Ford Fairlane, front 4: custom part that I can't identify right now 5: AMT '62 Chevrolet Impala (rear). Hardtop and convertible both had the "1962" plate area

Revell '55 Chevy (the old, opening-everything kit).

All of the "Demon" funny cars (1/1, 1/16, or 1/25 scale) used Duster bodies with Dodge grille and taillight details painted on! I don't think any of the companies doing funny car bodies in the early Seventies offered a true Demon body; all have the single bulge down the center of the hood, and the flatter Duster grille area.

Only the Fire Chief issue of the Impala had the "bow tie" caps. And they weren't correct for the Impala; the dog dish cap for it was a different style. The "bow tie" caps were correct for early Seventies Novas and Camaros, possibly Chevelles as well.

Wasn't this one for sale a couple of years ago? As I recall, it had extra medallions stuck in various places, like on the air cleaner and glove box door. Maybe the current owner took those things off.

In all probability, it is. Aurora offered their XK-E in both coupe and convertible versions, while Revell only offered the convertible. I couldn't see Revell altering the existing convertible to duplicate something they already have...

The AMT coupe kits I checked ('66 and '67 annuals) have the seats molded as a unit with the interior, as does the '64 convertible. The convertible annuals may have gone to a "separate seats" interior at some point, and that interior would probably swap straight into the coupe. I've got a couple of built '67 convertibles, but didn't look at those. The '67 coupe was reissued several times, and was probably in continuous production through '72 ("Color Me Vette", "Funny Car" issue, "Candidate", not necessarily in that order). For '73 (AMT's 25th anniversary) it was backdated to the '63. The body, interior, and trim parts were backdated but the engine and custom parts were straight from the '67. The body details are pretty decent even when stacked up against a '63 annual kit. The knockoff wheels aren't perfect, but if you don't like them you can get wheel covers from Modelhaus, or from the Prestige issue '63 convertible kit. Early production coupe kits have the '67 backup lamp over the rear license plate recess. The Street Rods/25th Anniversary issue included only the big-block engine. The artwork on the Street Rods box was kept in production into the mid-Eighties. For a couple of years, the same plastic parts were dropped into another box (Barris Cruisin' USA) with different decals and possibly tires. It and the Street Rods issue were available at the same time. The next AMT/Ertl issue added the small-block engine back in. The engine appears to be the original one from the '63 annuals (used through '65 in the coupe annuals, through '67 in the convertibles, and also in that nasty '68 annual kit). A couple of parts are newer tooling, mainly the air filter for the stock FI setup. True, the interior and chassis have a lot of detail molded in. But this is a decent kit nevertheless.

The Sixties Revell tires (the solid one-piece ones) seem to be the worst offenders when it comes to softening adjacent plastic parts. Apparently it comes down to the compounds used in making the tires. The thin Revell plating that seemingly wore away quickly (and the clear plastic under many of the plated parts) probably didn't help matters any. AMT tires of the same period aren't quite as soft, and don't cause damage on the scale of the Revell tires (though every once in a while you do see built kits with softening damage to the wheel halves). At the other end of the scale, you have the least flexible tires in Monogram and Jo-Han kits. I can't recall finding softening damage on wheels in a Monogram or Jo-Han kit, ever. As for the MPC BFG radials, those seem to be a freak occurrence. Other MPC tires from the same era don't seem to cause the same damage as the BFGs. Maybe the mix of materials used in molding those tires had to be different to allow for removal from the tire tooling...that's all I could think of.

With mid-Seventies kits (particularly AMT) watch out for the plastic itself...poor quality, milky looking. "Extenders" (whatever those might be) were used, and more recycled plastic was used than is usual. Some of what is called "regrind" (recycled already-molded plastic, like sprues and short shots) are used, and that is even desirable...up to a point. In that period, though, they went beyond that point. And don't get me started on those two-piece tires they were using, or the kits with the separate red lenses eliminated and replaced with lens detail on the bezels or bumpers. Early Revell kits have chrome plating that somehow disappears, leaving exposed bare plastic. The plating in those kits often rubs off under even minimal handling anyway. The early vinyl tires include a lot of "plasticizer", which causes softening damage to the plastic parts the tires come into contact with. To top that off, when the kit in question included red lenses, they were usually bagged with the tires. If you want, say, an Ed Roth car or one of the Model A Ford kits, the recent issues are the way to go instead of the first issues. Though the Model A kits never did get any clutch, brake, or gas pedals! Jo-Han plastic is noticeably brittle compared to that of other manufacturers. You get a warped Jo-Han part, you'd best be careful trying to bend it back into shape. A lot of Seventies MPC kits had decals that dried out and cracked within a year or two. And, when the lettering was supposed to be gold or gold leaf, it usually came out a washed-out brown (probably cheaper to print that way). Those early Eighties BF Goodrich T/A Radial tires probably caused as much plastic damage as the early Revell kit tires. Kill them all with fire!

A lot fewer of the large scale kits are sold. On top of that, if you are producing a detail or conversion part for a specific kit, you are "boxed in" sales-wise, confined to selling to those who bought that specific kit. And only a small percentage of the people who bought the kit will want the part. In my own experience, that is a big deal...when that kit is not a current production item, sales of the conversion part drop to nil. The kit review thread includes info on a new Lindberg reissue, the 1/16 scale T. Someone told me awhile back that the Lindberg (ex-Pyro) kit was copied to a large extent from Monogram's 1/8 scale T, and that seems credible to me. Size-wise, the Lindberg T takes up a lot less space: half as long, half as wide...one-quarter the "footprint" on a shelf, even less in a display case where height also comes into play. Bottom line...the Lindberg kit has a much better chance of getting built, at least by me. The Monogram kit is going on the sale pile...

Ironically, the Laramie Stage Ghost has bull horns while the Bull Horn does not...

I picked one up with the intention of working the drivetrain and suspension parts into a Minicraft (ex-Entex) Model A sedan. But the T is pretty neat. It does look like a scaled down Monogram Big T, except for some of the details. Changing a few things around (interior bucket, gas tank ends) will personalize it a bit. It shouldn't be too tough to scratch a bobbed pickup bed to replace the tank. I'll be checking engine parts from a couple other kits with Chevy engines (MPC '57 and '63 Corvettes) to see if anything interchanges.

The "Chrysler" that built those cars no longer exists. Apparently Fiat Chrysler can make money selling 93 of any combination of new Vipers, Challengers, and other high-end SRT (or even Ram) vehicles, and doesn't feel obligated to rescue 93 vehicles that were built long before they entered the picture. These cars were basically scrapped 20 years ago, they are only now making it official...

Fiat Chrysler is in business to sell new cars, not to unravel the legalities involved in reselling twenty-year-old ones that have probably been disassembled and put back together a bunch of times. Anyone who wants an early Viper (and can afford to buy it) can find one, so it's not like anyone is being hurt personally by this. The day Kennedy was shot? Really?

Both the '53 Studebaker and the Avanti were available through 1967; both were issued with the "wordless" box art that AMT used for Trophy Series kits that year (that coincided with AMT's changing their numbering system). The Studebaker body and related parts were also used (with the Piranha dragster chassis) in a funny car that was available in this period also. The Studebaker was issued again in 1969 (the Gasser series, with the printed cardstock drag strip starting line display base). That issue is also in the 1970 catalog. For 1971 it was issued in yet another box ("Double Whammy", the one copied for a late Nineties Buyers' Choice issue). Both the Avanti and Studebaker resurfaced in the mid-Seventies Modern Classics series. So the Stude, at least, was available pretty much continually in one form or another through the mid/late Seventies.