Mark

Lettering was probably gold leaf, Ivo always had sharp looking cars. Most kit decal sheets substitute yellow; to get something closer to gold leaf you'd have to go to an aftermarket sheet like Slixx. Seventies MPC sheets usually substitute mud brown for the gold leaf. The color panels on the kit sheet may very well have white printing beneath, Round 2 has done that.

My mom had two Chevettes; not sure about the torque tube, but you'd probably want something a bit more substantial for a rear axle if you swap to anything with more juice than the stock engine anyway. Buick V6 might be a good swap, I might not be remembering right but the Chevette automatic transmission was a TH150, which later ended up behind V6 engines. I'm not saying a Chevette TH150 would bolt up to a V6, but if both used that transmission then the V6 version might just fit into the same space. A local guy had a Chevette with a Buick Grand National V6, every so often he'd show up at the local 1/8 mile strip. His GN engine was the early one without the intercooler, but it was pretty quick anyway as I recall. That car didn't have huge tires out back, but it was a "rear half" car with a roll bar in it. I do remember it had Centerline wheels all around, the narrow fronts having donut spare tires mounted on them...you could see the lettering on the tires. I haven't seen that car in recent years, not even at outdoor car shows or on the street...wonder what happened to it. Don Hardy did for a short time sell a kit to swap a small-block Chevy into a Chevette, but not for long. My older brother measured one up for such a swap, I recall him saying the engine would squeeze in but the transmission tunnel would need to be cut out and enlarged. I remember it being tight in front to start with, though I did know a guy about 6'6" who put about 200,000 miles on one (a Scooter, no less...)

The '59 Dodge was offered as an annual kit with an interior...one of only four car kits (all hardtops) made by Jo-Han that year. First year for them in the kit business.

Everything for sale on eBay is rare; some items are very rare. Just ask the seller. eBay Motors advertises X million parts. And, in whatever search you do, all of them fit every vehicle ever made. Seriously, the Testors kit is a reboxed Fujimi ES kit, and a very good one at that. Fujimi has done some curbside Porsche kits, but to my knowledge none of those were 356s; all of the 356 kits are full detail and then some.

The previous issue (Curly's Gasser) included only the coupe body. The original AMT company did this in the mid-Seventies also, releasing individual coupe and pickup kits.

If you have a work ethic, you have a leg up on 90% of the people out there.

Tweedy Pie with Boss Fink hasn't been reissued, ever. Revell reissued the Outlaw with Robbin Hood Fink, but never the other one because they were so slow to fully restore the Tweedy Pie that it was based on.

Back when the annual Corvette kits were released, the convertible and coupe were produced using different tools. Both were updated through '67. The coupe was reissued several times as a '67 (Color Me Vette, Candidate, Funny Car) before being backdated to '63 trim (but still with the '67 engine). Ertl put the small-block back in later. The '67 convertible had the "sedan delivery" add-on custom top. It was then altered into the T.H.E. Cat TV show car. The body in that issue has the separate headlamp door setup from the '63 annual. After that the chassis was reused in the AMT 1968-only annual kit. AMT then tooled a new Corvette kit for 1969. The '68 only kit got reworked into the ACcellerator custom, later the Greenwood GT IMSA version. The Round 2 reissue '68 is pretty much that kit, with some other stuff unblocked and included. MPC '66 and '67 annual Corvette coupe kits (they didn't offer convertibles) had the faked-up big block, as well as the AMT Greenwood GT. Those kits share no parts and are not related to one another as they were issued by (then) competing companies at different times.

Not sure whether or not the Prestige issue Corvette had both tops. The convertible body and related parts were tooled by Ertl in the late Eighties and are unrelated to the annual kit parts.

The roofline of the car in question isn't 100% clear, but it does look like the one with the flatter rear glass. In that case, the AMT hardtop body would be the better starting point. Removing the Galaxie trim will of course be needed, as well as reworking the roof to add the frames around the side glass (at the very least; more work in other areas may be needed).

Maybe the Chicken Dance was overshadowed by the Hokey Pokey. I've heard that the guy who invented the Hokey Pokey has since turned himself around...

Also, besides the non-existent fullsize '70 Oldsmobile, the AMC Rebel was never offered in pre-assembled form. The '69 and '70 Rebels (and same years Plymouth Road Runners) were among the few annual kits Jo-Han did that were not first offered as promos.

One to take a look at, if you have one laying around...MPC flip-front '57 Chevy. Their flip-front '53 Ford pickup used the same chassis. It would need to be shortened, but it looks a lot like a lengthened version of the Willys frame. As with any frame swap involving the Willys, getting the tilt front end to fit and work correctly will take some doing.

The MPC Super Stocker series kits all use one chassis, definitely an oval track design. All have 180 degree headers that are routed through the body of the car. Not really a good choice for anything but an oval track car. The earlier cars ('34 Ford, '36 Chevy) also use a single chassis, in this case '55-'57 Chevy. Might be too wide in the area of the Willys' firewall, and again there will be a definite oval track influence in the finished build.

Maybe the forecast came from Al Sleet, the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman...

Around here, we have been getting new items and not the "usual stuff".

Looks like most other epoxy putties. Mixing involves taking equal quantities of parts A and B, and kneading them together until the mix is a consistent color, with no streaks or spots visible. I haven't tried the Tamiya putty as I am using another two-part epoxy putty, however the Tamiya product should be perfectly good. When storing any two-part product, keep the individual parts in sealed bags, separate from one another. When using it, never let tools or mixing implements come into contact with both parts. Even the smallest amount of one half will start the other half to hardening over time.

The '70 Toronado kit was produced by Jo-Han in their facilities, and packaged in AMT boxes. I don't recall a Jo-Han version prior to the USA Oldies boxing that appeared around 1975. The '70 Olds 4-4-2 kit was also produced by Jo-Han, it was sold in both Jo-Han and AMT packaging.

The early ones are for real, as I have a couple of them. '70 through '72 look faked up to my eyes.

Seeing as it was Lesney that did the RJ issue, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it has fewer parts than the Modern Classics issue. Lesney bought AMT in 1978, then promptly started changing things around: blocking off parts, putting in fewer tires, substituting rub-on transfers for decal sheets. Not surprising they went belly-up only three years later...

My analysis of the Modern Classics issue comes from looking at one of two sealed kits I bought in the early days of eBay. I first checked the instruction sheet, then the parts trees. I do have a Reggie Jackson issue but didn't look at that one.

Just checked a Modern Classics issue kit. It's less de-contented than other kits in the series (most notably the '57 Thunderbird). Racing roll cage is gone, Halibrand wheels are gone, replaced by five-slot wheels similar to those in a lot of concurrent AMT Street Rods series kits. Ironically, that move necessitated the inclusion of a second set of tires, the hollow stock car tires AMT used in the late Sixties and early Seventies. Earlier issues had only four tires. The stock Firestone Supreme tires have pad-printed whitewalls (those started disappearing from AMT kits around this time, 1974-1975). The dual supercharger setup and racing headers are still included, as are the custom bumpers and optional-for-1964 rectangular headlamp bezels. The kit represents an early 1963 car, underhood detail includes the long/skinny battery that was used in early production cars. At some point in the 1963 model year it was replaced with a more conventionally shaped unit. So if you wish to build a 1964 car, that detail needs to be addressed. I'd suspect the Reggie Jackson issue has the same parts as the Modern Classics issue. I know the MC issue has no decal sheet, and I believe this to be true for the RJ issue also.

Prior to the Reggie Jackson issue by several years was the Modern Classics issue. All of the kits in that series had a lot of optional parts deleted, the Avanti was no different. But it did include the complete stock version, which is probably what most builders would want.

In general, the earliest issues of any given kit will have sharper engraved detail, less flashing, and better fit than later ones.

The racing team looks interesting, I had the Gordini back when AMT did those double kits. I wouldn't mind having another shot at that one. Hopefully Heller will throw some effort behind finding better distribution here. They have some interesting items, their older kits are quite well done. If more people here would have better access to them, I'm sure they could sell more of them.