Mark

The tilted wheels are just this generation's version of tail-dragging customs, extremely jacked-up street machines (Rod & Custom featured some really bad ones in the late Sixties), fake superchargers, putting pretty much anything on a 4 X 4 chassis, and the all-time stupidity of "rolling coal". I remember reading about some guy getting chewed out by his dad for putting a floor shifter in his car. Dad thought the column shifter was the best thing since sliced bread, and "here you idiots go, putting it back on the floor!"

For more entertainment, there's a guy on YT who does collision repairs. He does videos on vehicles he finds at the insurance auctions. Apparently there are a few "flippers" out there buying totalled vehicles, roughing them in to make them look "less damaged", then running them through another auction closer to where they are. This guy goes over the vehicle, then finds the original auction with more damage to analyze the worthless "repairs". Replacement panels (often just less damaged ones in the same color) held in with drywall screws or zip ties (as the mounting holes don't line up), deployed curtain airbags cut away to make them appear as if they are still in place, roofs pushed back up to look less damaged, the list goes on.

I had one wisdom tooth pulled at a dental school. The roots were wrapped around and contacted one another, it came out in pieces. You know you're special when the class is walking through, and the dentist calls them over to show them your X-ray...

The original Mach Won did have the louver; it's shown on the instruction sheet copy I found on the Drastic Plastic instruction sheet site.

I asked about the louver because I can't say I have ever seen a built example of the Mach Won that had it. I myself have two previously built originals, neither of those have it. To take it further, I don't recall having seen a built '70 Mach I annual kit with one either. It's similar to the phone booth in the Touch Tone Terror reissue. Tooling for it doesn't exist anymore, it's not exactly the most important thing in the kit, making it not worth retooling for a single issue.

The HLJ link could be mistaken; there's another version of the wagon coming in Q1. The Gasser sedan was out nearly five years ago. Manufacturers seldom keep one issue of a particular kit in the catalog more than two years or so before putting it aside for a while, or putting some different parts in and releasing another version.

Who ran a rear window louver on a funny car?

No. Body has stock trim but there is no stock interior, engine, chassis, wheels, or windshield.

Many of the people buying the newly manufactured kits aren't aware of where to get the older kits for cheap, and don't know about aftermarket decals either. Some of the newer kits won't get built, they'll be kept as collectors' items like a lot of Coca-Cola stuff.

Is that to keep deer away, or to attract every cat in the neighborhood?

Was it an issue of the Z16 Malibu that included custom wheels? Those would have been on that same plated tree. Nice to get some extra door handles along with the kit!

I'd bet the plated tree is from a Revell '66 Chevelle wagon. It had an SS hood (those inserts look right for that) plus it had four door handles on that tree.

Only thing with the two-part stuff is, the small tube of catalyst (hardener) will either separate or harden on its own after a while. But additional tubes of that can be bought separately at places like Home Depot or Lowe's. It's available in red or blue. Some prefer the blue, saying the pigment in the red catalyst can penetrate primers and finish coats like red plastic. I've tried both, never had trouble with the red. Keeping the bigger tube good to go for a long time is easy...as you use the putty, flatten out the tube at the far end and keep what is left concentrated together towards the cap end.

For anything beyond minor surface imperfections, two-part filler is more desirable unless you want to wait forever for multiple layers to dry. Even then, the one-part spot putties are essentially thickened lacquer primer. Applying lacquer primer over it has the potential to "wake up" the already applied putty.

AMT '63 Impala AMT '49 Ford AMT '69 Corvair AMT '69 Chevelle AMT '72 Chevy Fleetside

Actually, the Trophy Series kits ARE pretty well engineered. Building say, the stock version, there really aren't a lot of parts yet they look pretty decent. There are compromises like the tires which had to be used for all versions however. The old Pyro 1/32 scale car kits fit that description also. Especially considering they were engineered to a (low) price and were made with two-piece tooling (no one-piece body).

Unknown. One of the Testors-boxed kits I have (Comet, I think) has "manufactured for Testors by SeVille Enterprises" in the fine print on the box. So, theoretically, it should have been part of the property Okey received. But it's generally acknowledged that he didn't get everything he was supposed to get. No specific information is general knowledge, but I have heard about the Comet/Maverick, '69 AMX, '70 442, and others having "disappeared" with nobody knowing or admitting exactly what happened. There's no concrete information out there, only speculation.

Nope. Only saw one at a hobby shop last week.

I'd suspect that the Powell didn't get the reception that was expected. I'm surprised there was as much talk about it as there was...it's pretty much the poster child for a "niche item". It'll be interesting to see if Okey turns up at NNL East, and if he's still promoting it. I was never interested in it (thought about scratching one years ago, then I saw a real one, it didn't do anything for me...)

When those reissued 1/24 scale Camaros turned up at Ollie's, they dried up fast. Sometimes it's not about how good the kit is, that one seems to have been built by a lot of people over the years. Some of those people want to take another swing at one. Same goes for the Monogram '66 Malibu. I know a guy who buys collections of built models, if he finds a collection from someone who was an active builder in the late Seventies through about 1990, that collection will invariably have at least one each of those Malibus and Camaros. And an AMT '64 Impala, and probably an Old Pro Nova and Red Alert Chevelle too. Anyone who is into Fifties American cars, or Chevrolets in general, should wrestle with one of the Revell opening-everything Tri-Five Chevies. The '57 hardtop is "easiest", followed by the '55. The '57 Nomad and '56 sedan should only be attempted by someone who has successfully built at least one of the "easier" ones.

All of the "Dart" and "Demon" funny cars used Duster bodies. Look at the hoods on them, they all have the narrow center bulge as on a Duster. The grille and taillight detail was simply airbrushed on so as to resemble the Demon. The later ones were likely the same body, altered with some fiberglass work on the front. Whoever was making the bodies probably didn't want to create an all-new plug for making a new mold for the later style body. They may have made a mold for the newer design grille area, and just grafted that to the earlier bodies still coming off of the original mold.

In addition, two words... ...Safety equipment. Not aiming this at anyone in particular, but in general at everyone thinking about using the stuff.

No. AMT issued a couple of stock Probes (and one custom), but those were earlier ones.

That's one of the later ones. You might try searching draglist.com by year, there may be a picture or two accompanying each individual listing. That would help establish a timeline and put the various cars and color schemes in order.

All of them did.