Mark

The preliminary box art sometimes doesn't catch all of the details. I'd suspect the reissue will still have the molded-in bumper guards, and the box art of the actual kit will reflect that.

Got mine yesterday, it's back, and it's as good as ever.

Maybe some careful perusal of available 3D printed items could turn up an engine that is closer than any of the kit parts...

They are definitely Jo-Han. If they are one-piece, they are "early" production but not the earliest (earliest were Goodyear on both sides). The one-piece version would have come in the Sox & Martin '71 Barracuda, Don Nicholson Maverick, and Eddie Schartman Comet Pro Stock kits. The 1:1 Firestone Drag 500 slicks and front tires first appeared in 1970.

Isn't there an insert piece that is trapped between the wheel halves, and which sticks out of the hole in the inner half?

This truck has always been an F-350 Camper Special, but the box art illustrations on most of the different issues over the years seems to try to fudge it into looking like an F-150...

Different builders might have different criteria for "best". Early on in the thread, I specified "most accurate to the 1:1 counterpart". You could go with "best raw material", as in, which kit is the best starting point. Revell's Anglia and Thames kits might fall under this. Engine is good, but I've never seen one of the 1:1 cars with an Olds engine. Chassis isn't great: frame is wrong for a stock unit which would have been required in 1966 when these were first issued. Frame rails on these cars form part of the door sill and run very close to the outside of the body in the area of the doors. I never liked the transmission tunnel in these kits, it reminds me of HVAC ducting. But these are the only kits of these cars in 1/25 scale, and the bodies are about as good as you can get in scale. You might wish for clear headlamp lenses and plain interior side panel pieces, that's about it. The powertrain and chassis parts can be used in other things, so there is some value there.

In these kits, the interior "tin" parts were also molded in clear red. Having to see through two or three layers of clear red won't make the engine too visible. I think I found a set of interior parts in non-tinted clear. If you have a clear body kit, you might think about just painting it with a candy color instead of laying out the bucks for the clear red body kit...

Both the Charger and Barracuda were molded in clear and clear red. The box bottom had a small opening towards one corner so you could look inside and see if it was a red clear one. The red clear ones were a small percentage of total production. I've got one of the Barracudas. No idea what someone would or should expect to pay for one now.

Only flaw with the Montgomery Willys over the years has been tires. The earliest kits had beautiful slicks and pretty good front tires, but they were plastic. Kit buyers didn't want plastic tires in a (then) $2.00 retail kit, so AMT quickly switched to so-so hard vinyl slicks and way-too-tall Trophy Series front tires. Round 2's reissue had MPC funny car front tires, closer to correct size-wise.

Only one manufacturer has, or has recently, made each in kit form. AMT and MPC made '68 Mustang fastbacks in '67-'68, the AMT being the better of the two. Revell has made one more recently, it is the most readily available one. Only MPC has made a '67 GTO. The tooling was modified extensively after the original annual kits were run, and restored in the early Eighties. Reissue kits aren't as crisp as the annuals, to say it mildly. Annuals being tough to find and expensive when you do, the earlier a reissue you can find, the better.

I'd second the original Revell Stone, Woods, & Cook Willys. The only "error" I can see with that kit is that the decals always included in that kit depict the car after the custom front clip was changed to one with a more stock looking grille opening, with '58 Ford grille mesh instead of the Everflex exhaust tubing custom grille. The photo of the 1:1 car on the box was doctored to change the grille, the original photo appeared in period coverage of one of the NHRA meets from 1963. Someone should think about a proper set of earlier decals for that kit, the Stone-Woods & K.S. Pittman version for example. I'm surprised Revell themselves never did so. The newer Revell '41 Willys coupe is a good kit too, but that one incorporates features from several cars so that it could be packaged and sold as different cars with no change in parts. The missing passenger seat (then required for Gas class) knocks it out of the box too. By "best", you can get different criteria. My definition of "best" would be which kit is most accurate to its 1:1 counterpart. The aforementioned Revell Willys, the AMT George Montgomery '33 Willys, the Revell Tommy Ivo Showboat dragster, the Jo-Han Gene Snow Challenger, and both cars in the Revell Tony Nancy double kit would qualify, as they weren't made "generic" in order to be sold as multiple cars. Many later funny car and dragsters by AMT, MPC, Revell, and Monogram are very good kits, but don't quite chin the bar as most were deliberately designed and manufactured to be sold in multiple versions, on occasion with some unique/correct parts for some versions but generally only those that showed under casual scrutiny. That's not to dismiss them though. Drag racing is a niche category, and on occasion some rework and parts swapping is needed to build an exact replica. Most anyone who are into building drag replicas go in knowing that, and for the most part are happy to see the fundamental aspects of the 1:1 car in the kit box.

The assembled models seen on Lindberg kit boxes always look like they are way low in front compared to the rear. I'd mock up the chassis and give it a look, to see if it is level or not when assembled according to the instructions.

Modelhaus offered a resin four-door, but good luck finding one now. Model Car Journal once ran an article on converting one yourself (before the Modelhaus body appeared). I believe the conversion used a '66 Mustang coupe roof as the starting point.

How are these steps covered in the instruction sheet?

I can't think of an instance where someone sold out and outright gave a bad kit a good review. What has sometimes happened is that they will try to find something, anything, positive to say. The good point(s) won't be enough to make it worth getting, but anyone reading the review should be able to figure that out.

You want as smooth a finish as possible. Applying over a sanded finish will likely cause "silvering" or highlighting of the decal film, as it does with decals applied to flat finishes. You could always experiment with a scrap piece finished as intended, and an otherwise not used decal, preferably from the same sheet you intend to use for the project.

I've already got a couple of earlier issue kits, and also don't know much about the subject matter, so I can't add anything of value to the discussion. I'd suspect Round 2 can sell out one production run of this, or pretty much any, car kit they can run. With little to no repair and maintenance on the tooling, that translates to "one run can turn a profit".

Slight sanding with relatively coarse paper in a couple of spots might crack the outer coating and let the paint removal agent seep in and start to work. That is, if other methods fail. You would of course steer clear of detail areas and work on open areas with less potential for loss of detail.

You can only keep trying with different solutions. Clean the part(s) thoroughly when switching from one to another, as some unknown combination of two or more paint removers may affect the plastic (soften it, make it brittle, and so on).

That's going to be tough. Was it applied over lacquer or enamel primer? If so, you could scratch the epoxy somewhere down to the primer, then let the paint remover work away at the primer, which would lift the top coat along with it.

I'd bet it's closer to 1/32 scale, with the 1/25 scale description being an error (or done deliberately to get people to buy one).

Have you got any specs on the actual car (length, width, wheelbase)? If you can find any of that information, checking the scale of the kit will be cake.

To stray off topic just a bit, another idea might be to take the Ford, stretch the hood and move the driving position same as for the Cadillac conversion, then drop in a Lincoln V12. I'd still go with the early (OHV) Cad V16 though.

Revell might eventually have gotten around to a series of '34 kits, but I doubt it now. They got a lot of mileage out of the '32s, and there are still more body styles that could be done for that year. For whatever reason, it seems that the '33-'34 shape is tough to capture in scale. I've thought about stubbing a 3W roof from the MPC Slammer dirt track body onto an AMT 5W coupe. Or are the two bodies different widths, as in '32?