Mark

Most of the time, they don't have anything not pictured in the flier. The store here had the '56 Chevy and one, maybe both, of the Mustangs...everything was $ 12.99. I didn't need/want any of those, I was there hoping they'd get some Duplicolor paint in...no luck...

Might not be a need to split half round styrene strip stock...Evergreen does make quarter round. I have a pack of .040", but that can't be the only size they offer.

I stopped at one store this past Sunday. Only two kits, Monogram 1/24 scale '56 Chevy hardtop, and Revell snap '15 or so Mustang. They're now $ 12.99.

Montgomery built both Mustangs (blue '67, and red '69) on Willys frames. NHRA changed Gas class rules for '67 to allow fabricated frames, but George had already started on the '67 car. He could have used a scratchbuilt frame for the '69, but he probably just used what he knew would work. As for the radiator, the cars had them because the rules required one. For one pass down the track, the car might run for a minute or two at most. There were no rules to prevent circulating coolant through the engine in the pits between rounds, which is pretty much what everyone did anyway. Some of the Gas class "radiators" look more like old bed frames, just a few tubes with no cooling fins. Just there to meet the letter of the rules.

Pay for productivity seldom applies in offices, or in places where there's a union. In the latter, everyone with the same title gets the same pay per hour. Offices, it's usually by position, if two or more are doing the same job then the person who has been there longer is getting more.

As long as the work gets done, most bosses don't give a hoot if each of five people pitch in 20%, or if one person does it all and the other four loaf along. As long as everything gets done...

MPC Toronado is a different kit from Jo-Han's, though they did copy much of Jo-Han's "design". Jo-Han captured the promotional model contract for the debut 1966 model, MPC got it for '67 so they had to create their own.

Think about getting more handles, too. One for trimming foil, one for the next sharpest blade, another for general use, another for any other specialized use you can think of. I've gotten extra handles in parts boxes, with partially assembled kits, and off of "anything for a dime/quarter/etc" tarps at automotive swap meets. Often the cheap ones are oxidized or have blades bent or snapped off, but soaking the blade end in penetrating oil lets them come apart.

First thing I'd do is try the pro stock body for fit with the '87 interior and chassis. I'd be inclined to use the '87 body and graft in the needed sections from the pro stock body, but that's me.

I'm not wild about brake fluid for stripping paint. Besides the disposal issues, both the brake fluid and the plastic going into it are essentially based on petroleum in some way, and the brake fluid will either get into the plastic or take something out of it. My experience with it has often left the plastic more brittle, even with minimal exposure.

Nobody knows what happened to any of the kits that were sold by Testors. Testors did not manufacture kits, they bought "bagged kits" from other companies and put them in their own packaging with improved decals and instruction sheets. I have a couple of their reboxed Fujimi Enthusiast Series kits, as well as a couple of reboxed Jo-Han kits. Those included extras; their versions of the AMX and SC/Rambler included small frets of photoetch emblems. Others included cast metal wheels supplied by Jimmy Flintstone, that used Monogram tires if I remember right. One of the Testors boxes I have (the Comet, maybe) states in the fine print on the side panel that the kit was "manufactured for Testors by SeVille Enterprises". The others don't have any clear information. I would suspect that all were made in the SeVille/Jo-Han facilities, as all seem to be made of similar plastic and are of similar quality to everything else produced by them at that time. The AMT pro stock Maverick was indeed the Jo-Han kit. AMT sold a number of Jo-Han kits in AMT packaging between late 1966 and about 1974. The Maverick was one of the last ones issued under this arrangement. These were manufactured by Jo-Han in their facilities and packed in AMT boxes with decals and instruction sheets printed by AMT. Nobody in the know about the arrangement has ever publicly talked about how it started, whose idea it was, or why it ended. I'd suspect that AMT had simply run out of Jo-Han items that they felt were marketable, and weren't interested in the USA Oldies series items Jo-Han was beginning to issue in 1974. AMT had much better distribution for its products than did Jo-Han, so they (Jo-Han) could sell many more kits with the AMT name on the box than with their own. On the flip side, they probably didn't make nearly as much per item doing things that way. AMT, on the other hand, added a few items to their catalog every year without having to tool up new kits.

I don't think I ever had a prepainted Revell kit. But, I have used the 91% alcohol on several AMT prepaints with excellent results. Paint often falls off in seconds, and a good scrub with a soft toothbrush gets all of it. It has to be 91% rubbing alcohol. Lower percentage concentrations won't do anything. As for brake fluid, I haven't used it in many years so I can't comment on it as a paint removal agent.

91% rubbing alcohol has worked on those every time I have tried it, within minutes (sometimes faster).

Often, but not always. An automatic in a gasser or early funny car would probably need a "torque" oriented engine, and those generally had the longer stacks. But that wasn't always the rule.

To be fair, he's not involved in any of this discussion, which all pretty much started with the idea of other companies using old Jo-Han kits as scanning material, as Round 2 is now doing but with old AMT and MPC kits. Something like that is unlikely to happen, as nearly everyone else seems to be capable of designing a new kit from scratch.

The short stacks on a small-block Chevy seem right...anything I ever read about that type of fuel injection suggests that longer tubes result in more torque while the short ones enable the engine to rev, which was what the Chevy could do. A lot of those old gassers with small-block Chevy engines used the formula of a high-revving engine coupled to a heavy flywheel to get the car moving. The lower class cars that lugged more weight down the track were probably more prone to be parts throwers. But the formula seemed to work, based on how often it was tried...

That original roof, when installed the way it's designed to be, leaves the area over the windshield with an unfinished look. I don't know why they didn't just cut the roof at the tail end of the B-pillars, and include a larger window that went all the way across. The 1:1 converted Nomads and Safaris that I have seen (only a couple) used rear glass from either an early Comet or four-seater Thunderbird as I recall.

That is, if he owns the original company, and not just the tooling...

Has anyone else ever noticed that a few small changes were made to the Nomad kit between the first and second issues? The pickup roof in the first issue is different, though it may have been altered for the second issue rather than replaced. The first issue pickup roof replaces the entire wagon roof except for the vent window frames, and is smooth on top. All issues since require cutting the stock wagon roof about halfway over the doors, following a crease in the headliner on the underside of the roof. Too, the fuel injection intake tubes were lengthened. Looking at a couple of first issue kit hoods, they don't have the cut lines molded into the underside. So the first issue kit parts weren't as tall as they are now. That's in addition to those nice gasser front tires disappearing after the first issue.

So (maybe) nobody can do a direct copy of an old Jo-Han kit. But who would do that? They currently have no licensing agreements with any major auto manufacturer, and have little if any usable tooling for the older subject matter. I don't recall seeing anything regarding Revell, for example, having to have any interaction whatsoever with any company other than General Motors regarding permission or licensing on a new '71 Olds 4-4-2 kit. The only "past design" owned by any other company would involve the "design" of the original kit, which nobody would copy directly anyway.

Rear wheel openings should be trimmed to fit the slicks, cut lines are provided on the inside of the body. To keep the stock wheel openings, you'd have to use smaller slicks or rework the wheels, inner wheel wells, and possibly the chassis to move the slicks in.

Or, fix the marks on one wheel and make castings.

Retail price on Revell car kits HAS gone up recently, so said one of the vendors at the Three Rivers show this year. Not $40, but $38 as I recall. I've got a guy pestering me to sell another one of my Revell Austin gasser kits (I let him have a surplus one for $20 a couple of years ago). Nope, next time it's out again it will top $40 with sales tax included, and quite frankly it ain't worth that. I'm not selling one for $20 only to have to spend $40 to replace it...

Ask that guy who made the wood mockup of the Gar Wood garbage truck body about "owning the design" of it. Round 2 couldn't reach an agreement with him (who knows why), so they redesigned it from scratch (and improved it). If it can be done with a garbage truck, it can be done with a car body.

But, to defend such a thing (if it is even possible) you must be able to afford to do so.