Mark

Gassers were on the wane in the late Sixties, so calling it a funny car would have been logical.

The street machine kit is related to the '70 coupe kit, so the instructions relating to the basic engine, front suspension, and interior will apply.

Could it be bleach that has been sitting on the store shelf for a long time, or maybe absorbed some moisture?

If removing it leaves clean plastic, no problem. It would have to be either something from the vacuum metallizing (plating) process, or mold release.

AMT kit has gone through some changes over the years. It started out as a three-window with a somewhat incorrect roadster version (doors are too long). First couple of issues had a chopped roof, later a stock one. The Dick Tracy kit had a five-window roof. Door line was moved making that version more suitable for a roadster, but those parts weren't included. Next couple of five-window issues had a different roof from the Dick Tracy version. Round 2 moved the door line again and restored the five-window, now with both chopped and stock roofs as well as the roadster parts. Glass for one of the coupe versions is not included, however it is all flat glass so not a big deal. Issues with more recent kits include no headlight lens detail, also interior bucket is thin on one side and thick on the other. Generally a good kit though.

The Buttera sedan kit pictured is the first issue, with photos of the 1:1 car on the box. That first issue was a slow seller, hardly anyone bought it because it didn't show the actual model. Most people, me included, figured it would be a typical opening-everything Revell kit, thus unbuildable. Once Revell changed the box to show the model instead of the actual car, those kits started flying off of store shelves.

Rabbits make a lot of mistakes...put the little ones in the wrong places, abandon them at the slightest hint that they won't make it, and don't really do too much to protect or defend them. Easier to go off and make some more, and try again.

I never got around to casting tires with flexible resin, but my guess is that the resin is breaking down and releasing the sticky substance. Resin may not have been mixed properly, or maybe it was and it just hasn't got a long term life as manufactured.

Have they always been sticky, and how long have you had them?

Some folks' gripe with this kit involve some difficulty in getting the interior and chassis to sit right under the body. The interior bucket has good attachment points to locate it on the top of the chassis, but attaching chassis to body isn't the most positive. Turning the finished build upside down reveals a few gaps too. I've got one that I want to build with a flip front end; I'm going to have to solidify the body/interior/chassis sandwich before even thinking about where to cut the front end.

Yes. Revell bought out Renwal in the mid-Seventies. Not sure if Revell made any alterations or improvements to it though.

Not sure if it is true or not, but there was some talk of Pegasus (owner of Moebius) having acquired the Chevy tooling. No word on what happened to the Galaxie Limited trailers however.

Value would be determined by how many people you can find, who have one of the original pickup kits and want to build the stake version. Round 2 hasn't got the tooling for the original pickup, so I'd guess that the stake bed is long gone too. The motorcycle wasn't released again after its appearance in the '63 Chevy pickup kit. As for the go-kart, some parts are original but most are retooled.

I hit one of the two local stores Thursday, still plenty of good stuff left. The Ford vans dried up quickly; there weren't many to start with and I snagged two. The Copperhead dragsters got snapped up quickly too; again, not many to start with. Thursday they had Meyers Manx and 1/32 scale T-Birds that I hadn't seen before. One Manx and one Ranchero added to the pile...six kits total. I was hoping they'd have some Duplicolor sprays in. Pep Boys has been shutting down their auto parts stores and switching to service centers only. Apparently they started on the west coast and worked their way east...a couple of months ago they got to my area. Ollie's hasn't had touch-up sprays in quite some time now.

Sometimes we avoid the finishing stages because, while uncompleted, the project still has potential. Once finished, the potential is gone.

Revell '31 Ford sedan/sedan delivery. Surprisingly straight too I might add; early issue and more recent issue kits are nice and straight while the Seventies and Eighties issues can be pretty nasty. The Buttera T kits didn't have separate doors.

I have to admit, my timing over the years has been pretty good and I have been able to find pretty much anything I have wanted. The early days of eBay were pretty predictable: one of a particular kit would turn up, bidding would go stupid crazy, then other people who found they had the same kit would flood the market after seeing the first one sell so high. With the stupid crazy bidder now having one, he's now out of the game, leaving the follow-up auctions going for a lot less. A lot of closets and attics got cleaned out in those days, and a lot of stuff resurfaced as a result...

I haven't tried mine, but bought one (and found out after I got home, that I already had one!) The chrome one was ten bucks, the other colors were four, so the chrome one should stick out at the store...

I would expect to lose at least some of the epoxy or two-part putty when stripping the paint. The stripper might not remove the putty, but at the very least will be absorbed into the surface. Trying to prime and paint over that will become a cluster. I would try first to remove paint by sanding. Next up would be stripping, with the proviso that the topmost putty will need to be sanded or ground off and redone.

If the item in question has a bar code on the package, in general the value will drop off at some point. Most times, the first reseller will come out ahead, but that's about it. NASCAR diecasts are another example. People who loaded up on those are finding out that current fans and "collectors" don't care who won some race twenty years ago.

The turbine was in the annual kit only.

The turbine engine was also included in the MPC 1969 Camaro annual kit. Makes sense, since it did share a lot of tooling with the Firebird kit: interior bucket (both had the Firebird upholstery pattern), chassis, and clear parts.

All of the kits I bought at two local stores (two Ford vans, one dragster, one '64 Galaxie) have 2021 production dates on the box trays. From what has been reported here, between all of the stores there are maybe a dozen different kits in this group. If that's all there are, that ain't bad. The occasional item going to closeout isn't a terrible thing. If there were none at all, then maybe they're not cranking out enough stuff. As long as they aren't dumping a large percentage of a first/only production run, again not a bad thing. A couple of these are due to timing IMO. The 3-in-1 Nova wagon came out not long after the Craftsman version...for a few bucks extra you got two engines, a ton of customizing parts, and a trailer. I know that swayed me, though I did pick up a Craftsman wagon after getting two of the 3-in-1 kits. The Ford van came out not long after the Cruising Van issue, that probably affected sales on the later issue. I did pick up a '64 Galaxie out of reflex...as I was walking out of the store, I remembered that I had two more than I thought, having bought two of the Falcon drag team sets...

As I recall, the excellent Dean Jeffries book has parts of the scale drawings of the Manta Ray (that Jeffries submitted to MPC) printed on the inside cover. I've got to admit that, as a kid back then, I didn't get what Jeffries was trying to do with that car. I have grown to appreciate it in recent years however.

I believe it was MPC that made the Manta Ray slot car body...if so, I wonder why it never got issued as a kit, even a curbside version...