Mark

The Sand Draggin box fine print reads: "made in Japan to Eldon specifications". Doyusha probably tooled those kits for Eldon to sell in the USA market, and retained ownership of the tooling when Eldon exited the model kit business. Why they quit is a mystery; these kits aren't bad, especially for first efforts. Doyusha has reissued five of the six; for some reason the Sand Draggin has not resurfaced. The kit choices weren't bad: the Invader is one of a handful of Oakland Roadster Show/AMBR winners made in kit form. They weren't all built by Bob Reisner as mentioned on the Doyusha reissue boxes. Dan Woods built the Milk Truck, Jim "Jake" Jacobs built the Outhouse, Joe Bailon built the Pink Panther car. Reisner did build the Invader and (probably) the Sand Draggin. I don't recall who built the Bathtub (George Barris built the single tub version that Monogram kitted-- the only Barris car that company ever did).

The AMT spray can dates back to the early Sixties. The Testors bottle pictured is more likely from the Seventies, though Testors paints go back way further than that. The AMT lacquer might still be usable, if it is a metallic and still has propellant in the can. The solid colors usually aren't usable as they have settled, no amount of shaking will bring them back it seems. An AMT can was on eBay the other day, with a couple of hours left to go it was somewhere around $88. I guess a couple of knuckleheads locked horns over it...

The Ramchargers Dodge is a Jo-Han '64. It's actually the third issue, from 1968. That was the first one with the Polara side trim removed, and the only one with the Logghe Brothers chassis as an option. It couldn't be built stock, the two versions were the funny car or Super Stock. The Ramchargers didn't race a hardtop in '64 but did have one as a display car (and backup if needed). I believe it was a wedge engine car though.

The newer ex-Monogram 1/25 scale kit has been released as a hardtop also.

One other thing with these kits: take a good look at the hood, at the back corners. Those areas are thin and usually curl upward after the hood is painted. I've got a '55 in progress, I very slightly routed out the underside of the hood at the corners and super glued in pieces of bent music wire. I filed those somewhat flat afterwards, they shouldn't stick out once everything is painted. And, like other Revell opening-doors kits, the hinges are sloppy letting the doors droop when opened. That can be dealt with in several ways.

The opening-doors '55 is the best of the four Tri-Five Chevy kits that Revell did in the mid/late Sixties. The '57 came first (1963), the '55 followed in '64, the '56 in '65, and the '57 Nomad in '68 or so. This '55 never came with a straight axle. All issues have two engines, stock small-block with three-speed and 348/409 with what looks like a cast-iron Powerglide. Small-block has a 1958-up block with side engine mount detail, and rams' horn exhaust manifolds which first appeared in '57. Various issues have different wheels and tires. One inner rear wheel well is narrower than the other, the wide tires in the Skip's and Hot Rod issues will probably not fit on that side without some rework. If you want to tackle one of the opening-doors Revell Chevy kits, the '55 is probably the "easiest".

I'm not aware of a Revell issue of that kit. Testors, maybe? Anyway, the Lindberg issue had different tires, indicating that they probably didn't get any tire tooling.

The week starting tomorrow is NOT the discount week. Last week was, so the week after this coming one will again be.

I think the IMC tire tools travelled along with the corresponding car kits, many of which are apparently lost. If Lindberg had gotten all of them, they would almost certainly reissued one or both '48 Fords (this was before the Revell kits appeared), probably the VW Beetle, and maybe they'd have gotten into the Ford GTs and other racing cars.

Modified Production started declining in the early Seventies when some of the "off the pace" Pro Stock teams would make sufficient changes to drop into the Sportsman classes. Prior to the tube frames and Lenco transmissions in Pro Stock, pretty much all that was needed was a switch to steel fenders, doors, and hood, and maybe a little more weight beyond that. Throw in some of the Chrysler guys following factory orders when they didn't like the weight break given to wedge engine cars versus Hemi cars, and you end up with an invasion of big money into those classes. The sanctioning bodies tried to create new classes like Super Modified and Econo Altered, but the big money guys moved in with high-buck engines and ex-Pro Stockers and took those classes over too.

IMC's tires were definitely better. If they are one-piece, and have sidewall lettering, they are indeed IMC. For the relatively few kits that company made during its brief existence, they made a bunch of different tires, most of them very well done.

Shouldn't be tough to find another hood, to stretch it. Both the '49 and '50 kits included two hoods.

The '49 Ford coupe kit has a Cadillac engine as an option, it should drop right into the '50.

A classic car dealer ran an ad for a few issues many years ago, to sell a '49 or '50 Ford convertible with a Cad engine. They didn't claim that it was a Frick conversion, but the ad seemed to try to lead you to that conclusion. That car wasn't lengthened, but it was made into a two-seater with the driving position shifted to the rear a couple of feet. Hood was lengthened to make up the difference. I always thought the Fordillac (and later Studellac) conversions were all built around the overhead valve V8. A Studellac is mentioned in the first James Bond novel.

Should have grabbed some losing tickets and taped them to the stuff you bought....

Just the thing for a frustrated golfer after a bad day at the links... The "seat up/seat down" thing could be useful, if the app can detect who is walking in to use the facilities... Too many tangents to go off on, better stop now...

Dog dishes on muscle cars are way overdone, especially on convertibles. Usually collectors striving for the "only one built on a Tuesday with a green interior, four-speed, and dog dishes" thing.

Those are the original one-piece tires from the two AMT Indy car kits. I'm not positive, but they look like the smaller tire. I don't have the Ford pickup kit with those tires, I sold mine many years ago. Comparing them to the two-piece units would verify which ones they are. Around the same time, AMT was using those tires in other kits. I believe the original issue Fireball 500 had the smaller ones. My Mach I concept kit has them also. The two toy-like tractor-trailer kits had the large ones, as did at least some of the "sand dragster" kits AMT was doing at that time.

The original version of the two-piece AMT tires were molded in something between plastic and nylon. Few glues would stick, tough to sand and fill seams. Some of the pre-Round 2 Stevens International kits (like the show rods) had the two-piece slicks molded in black styrene. Not quite as good as a vinyl slick, but much better than the "neither plastic nor vinyl" stuff from first time around.

Car manufacturers would make a killing if they came up with wheels painted the same color as the dust that comes off of the brake pads, or brake pads that gave off dust the same color as the wheels...

The market got flooded with those new-tool Chevy kits. There were four versions out at the same time (basic stock version, Coca-Cola, Pro Shop, and street machine. Toys R Us laid in quite a supply of all of them, then decided to get rid of the model kit shelves in their stores. They blew all of those out for $3.33 apiece. I bought all of the Pro Shop and street machine kits I saw, and resold all but a couple of them later. In some stores, they didn't have any other car kits, those were the ones they had at the end.

When Scale Auto "issued the call" for a new '57 Chevy kit, I thought Lindberg would have stepped up, not Ertl. It would have been interesting to see Lindberg's take on a '57, and to find out which body style and trim level they would have done. When I found out it was AMT, I figured they wouldn't have strayed as far from their original one as they did. More parts, platform interior, things like that. But I thought the body would be closer to the original, with the side trim reworked and maybe the Bel Air "washboards" molded as part of the body like other '57 kits. Strange that the Revell snap '57 hardtop has a lot of the feel of the original AMT kit, while the newer AMT hardtop resembles the old Revell kit.

Still can't warm up to that new-tool '57. That separate (but not hinged) trunk lid that doesn't sit flush when closed bothers me. The separate door handles don't look right also. I've done the alterations needed to hinge the trunk lid and get it flush with the body when closed, but haven't gotten much further with it. I should get back to it.

Can you jiggle the handle via the app? And, let's not get started on possible names for the app..

Don't tell me the toilet will need an app...