Mark

Probably doesn't match any particular maker exactly. I think Daniel got the inspiration from a CAR MODEL magazine two-part article from a couple of years earlier. Phil Jensen scratchbuilt a drag version school bus using a balsa wood body and the frame from an Aurora 1/32 scale fire truck kit. Jensen's bus had the four Pontiac engine setup from a Revell Mickey Thompson Challenger I kit. As for the S'cool Bus front clip...while at GM (for a short time) in their styling studio, a young designer came up with a facelift idea for the '62 Chevy trucks. The '62 hood was cleaner and also a lot cheaper to make than the '60-'61 hood. After a short time with GM, Tom Daniel left Detroit for California, where he'd been while in the Navy.

The Skip's reissue has different (custom only) wheels as I recall. Tires were the rubber Goodyears that were used in the stock early Eighties Firebird and Camaro kits if I remember right. Parts like bumpers do fit between the Nomad and hardtop but aren't exactly the same. You'd have to have both kits open next to one another to tell which is which in some cases.

I'd bet that either: -the parts are being pulled out of the tool before being completely cooled (which would happen when production is speeded up) -the heat involved in the vacuum plating process is enough to cause this. Parts tree design (location of where the part is attached to the tree could be to blame also) What happens when the windshield frame is separated from the tree? The more mildly warped examples look like it wouldn't take much to put them right, and attaching the glass would force them the remainder of the way. Not the best solution, but should be workable in many cases.

I have two credit cards, one exists only as a backup. If I'm out of town and the main one is locked or otherwise available to me. I use the main one for pretty much everything, but use the other one for one recurring Venmo transfer every month. That way, I get an e-mailed statement every month (and a paper one too) so I can monitor the activity on the less active one.

I looked into it locally, they don't want styrene in the recycling bin. I do recycle wherever possible, I put that bin out to the curb more often than my trash bin (though admittedly it is the smaller of the two, but not by a lot). With 3D growing as much as it has, sprues might eventually by cutoffs from the printer...

Well, the automobile itself started out as an unreliable, tempermental, not particularly useful toy for wealthy people. Over time, it got sorted out, then the light bulb came on for a few people that, if we can make a bunch of these things at lower prices and sell them to the masses, we can make a bunch of money. Same with calculators, portable phones, computers, and a lot of other things.

Did you ever fill out their surveys? A lot of those asked subscribers to name, and list, their favorite channels. Just perfect for them to decide which channels to move to the premium package! I never had cable. Besides being cheap and not wanting to watch a lot of TV, I didn't see the need to pay for channels I wasn't going to watch: channels in other languages, ten channels of "futbol", and so on. They'd always deny having the ability to offer a personalized selection or individual channels on an ala carte basis. At the same time, they were offering pay-per-view where they could literally offer an additional channel for a specified time window! By the time they came around to breaking out individual channels, too late...I'd gotten used to living without it...

AMT and Revell made '62 Imperial kits. AMT made a convertible and two-door hardtop (some convertibles were in "SMP" boxes). Revell made a four-door hardtop. That bumper looks like AMT, detail is a bit finer than Revell's. AMT rear bumper has "1962" license plate while Revell's is blank.

Coronet hood will be way "easier" to find, as the kit included two hoods. That left a bunch of "extra" hoods in parts boxes once the kits were built. The Fury hood got a lot tougher to find with Modelhaus' closing. I found even less of a '65 Fury some years ago, first thing I did was get a Modelhaus hood next time I placed an order.

When you do leave sufficient distance between your vehicle and the one in front of you, often another driver sees that as sufficient room to cut in...

No. Some of the engine parts were reused in the '65.

1:1 car painters I have talked to, really concentrate on matching the spray pattern on adjoining panels. They have told me that paint colors can be matched better than ever, especially those with clearcoat. The reason for mismatch between adjoining panels on repaired cars is due to the difference in spray pattern between the replaced panels and the (often) robotically sprayed original areas, so they say. So spraying everything at the same time, in the same way, will definitely help.

One might think the '64 GP might still exist, as many of the Seventies reissue "Grand Slam" '65 kits had '64 clear parts in the box (which didn't fit of course). I took one kit back to the store, and opened two more there...all had '64 glass. If I wanted to open another one, I had to take one of them...so I opted for my money back. Another one I got in a collection some years later also had '64 glass. Later production kits may have had the correct piece, but I never ran across one. Then again, the '65 kit has much of the engine from the '64. The same is true of the Bonneville kits...some engine parts (different tooling from the GP) are in '61 through '65 annual kits, and all reissues of the '65.

I would never paint anything in such a way that I'd have to cut through freshly applied paint to separate the parts. That would be like painting a door in your house shut.

Solid color: paint everything separately. Metallic, candy, pearl: paint jambs, back sides, undersides, and insides, then paint everything together. It might be possible to space the doors away from the body so nothing touches, yet everything gets the same blast of paint.

HL and Michael's buy much larger quantities than anyone else, they are probably still selling off stock bought months ago. Michael's stores around here haven't gotten anything new in months.

All of them use the same size rear tires. I'd think the tubs would be about the same size also.

My mower had a carb problem last year, rather than mess with it I took it to a repair facility. If the gas tank was full on the previous mower, I'd turn it on one side and dump the gas out of the tank through the fill hole, then run it until the remaining gas ran out. I did that again with this one, turning it onto the side that was closest to the fill hole. The guy told me that was the "wrong" side, as the carb is on that side. But if I'd turned it the other way, not much gas would have come out as the filler would have been at the high end of the fuel tank when turned to that side. Now it's acting up again...I think I'll blow the fuel line out and clean the carb even though I haven't turned it on its side. I bought another carb (eight bucks for a new one online) as a backup. By the time I need another mower, or get tired of this one, the electrics will probably be perfected. The first mower (engine) lasted over twenty years, it outlasted several decks. The sheet metal deck would develop a crack, I'd have my brother weld it, and it would fracture somewhere near the weld. Last time around, I garbage picked another mower with a cast deck and swapped my engine onto it. Problem solved.

If you have the choice locally, get "recreational gas" which is 100% gasoline, no alcohol.

And, while you are at it, check the kit body against all reference material you can dig up. MPC probably cheated the body in one or more ways, in order to make it fit the Ford GT underpinnings. I'd make sure the body is as correct as can be, then do what needs to be done to get the Beetle pan underneath it.

Get a stock Beetle pan anyway. If you have to shorten it, you can do so to match up with what you need, and the alteration will be that much more authentic.

For kit parts, take a look at the AMT pro street '70 Coronet, and '69 GTX. The two kits have different floor pans (Coronet kick up is higher) and each kit has different suspension setups, so you want to examine both before making your choice. Both kits have better 426 Hemi engines than what is in the Little Red Wagon also.

I didn't say there was a 1:1 '69, only that MPC made a '69 version of their kit. The '68 version was likely a good seller, so they probably wanted to sell more after the body had been updated to '69 spec.

'69 had different box art, similar to that copied by RC2 for their infamous Nostalgia Series reissue of the AMT '66.

MPC offered that kit in both '68 and '69 versions. I have one complete '69 and parts of another including the body (which, for this kit, has the hood molded closed).