Mark

Not many '70 Mustang funny cars in 1970, as the Maverick was the "new baby" that year. I'd bet some of the 1969 Mustang bodies were reworked to look like 1970s by those teams that were trying to run the previous year's car again, or those who bought someone else's "last year's" car. For '71, a lot of new Mustang bodied cars got built. A few Pintos, but more Mustangs it seems.

I would try a glass shop first. These shelves are on the small side compared to the work they do most of the time, they may have a damaged larger piece of glass that can be cut into pieces to make your shelves. I did that years ago for a much larger cabinet; I knew a retired glazier. He still had some big storefront windows laying around his shop, and cut a couple of them and ground the edges to make my shelves. IF you do get regular plate glass shelves, put them on the lower levels of your cabinets and install the shelves that came with them in the upper levels. And put the heavier items like diecasts on the original shelves.

Top two are from one of the various versions of the Lindberg T.

The Tom McEwen '57 Chevy funny car that Atlantis issued is a wholly different kit from the Monogram '57 funny car. Monogram's kit did use the chassis from the Duster and 'Cuda bodied funnies.

That T is very slightly undersize compared to AMT's. Why, who knows. The '34 pickup plated tree was put into that one issue, probably just to add some optional parts to it on the cheap. The instruction sheet should show some of those parts.

Roundup is on the high side on their out-of-production stuff. Model Empire was higher still. The Pacer is one of those reissues that were pretty much scarfed up by those wanting one. I don't recall any great clamor over it, but apparently Round 2 managed to make enough of them to satisfy the demand and not have any wind up in closeout stores at the end. Keep an eye open, one will turn up.

Free eBay listing's bring out the nutty asking prices. Asking isn't getting, but when you can list over and over at no cost, that's what happens.

Funny car kits with bodies tooled specifically for them were the exception, not the rule, back then. This was true into the early/mid Seventies. AMT usually used their stock bodies after they were no longer needed for stock annual kits, while MPC used theirs to wring one more use out of each years' annual body (promo, stock annual kit, funny car kit). Jo-Han often made the funny car an alternate version in an annual kit from 1968 through 1970. For '71 and '72, some kits got two issues: stock/pro stock, and funny car only (using the stock body).

I'm thinking eBay operates with the same mentality that supermarkets use when, every year or so, they move some items from one aisle to another. The thinking seems to be, the longer you are in the store, the more you are likely to buy.

eBay Motors. "Over 100 million parts, ALL of which will fit EVERY car you attempt to do a search on!"

It would have been easy for them to throw in the towel after the krap storm that got thrown their way four years ago. A whole print run destroyed in transit because of a distributor. Other operations have shut down over much less. I took the gamble on a lifetime subscription five years ago. It again would have been easy for them to reorganize with a slight change in name, and use that technicality to void all of those subs. But they didn't do that. My issue arrived Monday. I've read it cover to cover except for one article, and I'll get to that today or tomorrow. Then, I'll be waiting for the next issue...

Well, Atlantis IS announcing coming availability of more items to be produced from the stockpile of tooling that they acquired. It's one thing to buy tooling, another to actually get items produced from it into warehouses and onto store shelves (cough, Jo-Han, cough...)

The Grand Prix lettering falls through the cracks, as MCG has not done a photoetch set for any GP. Pontiac used that style lettering for quite a while, but only one GP kit ('65) pops up every few years. And that one doesn't have "Grand Prix" spelled out in that lettering style, unfortunately.

The promos and snap kits had molded-in plated headlamp detail. The full detail kits have clear lenses.

The roof ribs on the van aren't a big deal...a few measurements, some Evergreen strip stock...done. The drip rail circling the roof is another area needing attention...same deal. Use liquid styrene cement on that. I think I started at the end of the track for the passenger side cargo door and worked forward and around the roof...tack the end down with CA glue, apply solvent cement to the rest. The solvent cement will let the strip stock flex a bit at the corners. It does take more than one piece to go all the way around, make the join in a straight area near a corner. The new decals for the boat sound great, but I need another one of those Chevy vans like a hole in the head! After putting a full interior in the Dirty Donny version (among other things) it's going to be awhile before I tackle another one.

Strange thing...even AFTER some of the new kits are released AND are pretty widely known, there are still people out there willing to pay decent money for an original or an earlier version. Nova station wagons, '60-'63 Ford pickups, you name it. I didn't cut loose any of my Ford pickups or Novas, as they are already paid for, and I did gather up some needed Modelhaus small parts and kept an eye open for parts trees and other things over the years.

After the NASCAR version but before the SSLASHER came the Super Stocker (dirt track) version, with its hacked-out wheel openings.

At least, punch a few holes in the lid...

The monster truck is based on the full detail annual kits (one of which was the SS). So the cab should be the very same one, barring any alterations to the trim that may have been made between the production of the two versions.

Engine is from the AMT '62 Buick.

Bench. The MPC kit is based on their Switchers series kit. Some new parts were created to make the Milner car, but only enough to get the kit into the ballpark.

The '55 Chevy is probably the "easiest" of the Revell tri-five Chevy kits to work with. Atlantis will have to tool another set of tires for it, as the '55 didn't get converted over to the (wider than original) two-piece hollow tires by Revell. Those won't fit, as the inner wheel houses on the chassis are quite narrow. One side is narrower than the other, something to watch for if you are working on one. The Revell Hot Rod magazine issue had wider tires and really wasn't buildable out of the box due to this. If Atlantis gets to the '56, they had better tool some new clear parts as the original front and rear glass falls through the openings in any issue past the mid-Seventies. I'm surprised they didn't at least tool a new rear glass for the '57 hardtop.

The paint section is virtually zero. No Duplicolor to be seen. I was kind of expecting to see something after the Pep Boys locations here got away from selling auto parts.

I picked up a '60 Ford pickup yesterday. The store I stopped at also had one Demon kit on the shelf.

She had both a Satellite and a Mustang at different times. The Satellite was a '71-'72 style though. Both AMT and MPC made funny car kits with the '73-'74 body, but I don't know of any 1:1 funny cars with that style body. She also had a short-lived Barracuda, an ex-Don Schumacher car with an extremely crude paint/lettering job that was thrown together in a hurry after a crash.