Mark

You'll have to tackle reworking the '32 chassis yourself, as there aren't any Deuce kits with a pro street chassis setup. Find magazine or online articles for reference, and do what they did, only smaller.

The center hole in AMT slicks will have to be enlarged if you want to put Revell parts pack wheels into them.

Not sure about those front tires, rears look like the BFG Silvertowns from the Monogram '59 Cadillacs. AMT '57 Chrysler has them also, but the whitewall may be bigger on those. The ones pictured might be aftermarket, maybe Modelhaus? Wheels look like the Cragars from the AMT '37 Chevy. The '65 El Camino, Chevelle wagon, and Ford Galaxie have similar Cragar S/S wheels, most have no mounting provisions on the back side.

Round 2 has the MPC Haulaway Trailer, which has the entire upper body molded in clear. It's available now; my LHS has a couple of them. I thought about picking another one up, but remembered I had one or two of the last issue on my sale pile.

The reason for the big-block Chevy engine is that, sometime in 1976, someone at AMT dug through their tool bank for an engine to put into the Ranchero. The best fit apparently turned out to be the 396 from the '66 Impala, by then the Modified Stocker which had fallen out of the catalog a couple of years prior. I'd bet they first checked the four Ford Modified Stocker tools, and found the axle holes in those engines put them too far forward in the Ranchero's chassis. So, in went the Chevy. Engraving a mirror image second exhaust pipe (which worked, ignoring the fact that the chassis never had fuel tank detail--the tank would have been next to the single muffler on the stock six-cylinder truck) and a few more tweaks turned a then dormant tool into a saleable kit. Someone mentioned a Y-block Ford swap...it was done, in a Hot Rod Magazine article in 1960. I can't remember who did the swap, but the recipient of the four-door sedan was one of the Ford brothers (Henry II, or William Clay Ford). The shock towers were trimmed back similar to the Thunderbolt Fairlanes in 1964. The rear axle was replaced but the four-lug wheels remained. Adapters won't leave enough room in front, and the four-lug front hubs can't be redrilled for five-lug due to their design. I remember those hubs not being round, but having protrusions for each wheel stud. Anything other than a 144, 170, or 200 six is nowhere near to a bolt-together deal in an early Falcon (pre-1963-1/2). My older brother put a Windsor 302 and C4 into a '62 sedan delivery. As I remember, the transmission tunnel needed to be enlarged at the front. (Maybe a stick transmission bellhousing would have fit?) He split the difference by lowering the transmission a bit to reduce the amount of hammer work needed where the tunnel met the firewall. The delivery was an Arizona car, he didn't want to butcher it up. Subsequent owners beat that engine (from my mom's '70 Torino) into submission, it was replaced by a 289. I saw the car for sale on Craigslist last year when it resurfaced after a long absence, substantially the same as when it was put together in 1977. The price seemed pretty good, but I've already got a '62 Fairlane. The delivery still had four-lug wheels up front, five in back. The spare tire was on a slotted steel wheel with five-lug pattern, with the four-lug pattern drilled in (one hole was common to both patterns, both were on a 4-1/2" circle). He was never able to find later five-lug parts to change the front end over; by then none of those cars were in junkyards anymore, and the Granada disc conversion wasn't common knowledge yet.

The window opening can be traced from the passenger side, and the pattern used to replace the rain gutter on the driver's side. After that is done, the excess material can be trimmed out. I did the same thing in another thread relating to the 2+2 issue of this kit.

I only go there and search particular items and sellers, not the general "look at everything" like I used to do.

That's what the horn is for. And when they give you the stink-eye, that's what middle fingers are for.

Not positive on this, but I remember the Model King issue not having the unplated spoked wheels. If that is true, hopefully Round 2 will get them back in. Both this and the MPC next-generation Bronco were very good kits back then, still pretty decent by today's standards. Edit: just checked my Model King set, the spoke wheels for the front are included, but not the rear ones.

How deep are those...a little judicious block sanding might square that away...

I'm not so sure sellers are listing items in the wrong categories. When the item comes up, we see it in the wrong category, but I'm thinking eBay is intentionally dumping additional items into random searches, both to prop up the numbers and to keep us occupied longer. They seem to be operating on the "supermarket" business model, where they figure that "the longer you are in the store, the more you are likely to spend".

Certain kits sell well every time they are issued: '56 Ford, '49 Mercury, '53 Studebaker among others. Some guys like to gripe about that '63 Corvette coupe...but it is one of Round 2's earliest reissues, and it's still in the catalog. Somebody is buying them. One guy locally who operated a (now closed) hobby shop once told me he never could get enough AMT '64 Impala kits. He'd order twice as many as he really wanted, and still get half as many as he wanted. He'd put them on the shelf, and in a day or two they were gone. He knew some of the guys buying them had already bought at least one from him previously. They just liked that kit. One guy I know buys collections...seldom does he get one without a '64 Impala, or a Monogram flip-front '66 Chevelle. Often there will be more than one in a collection.

That's the Modified Stocker hauler set; the '53 Ford pickup and four-wheel trailer. The original had the decal sheet from (I believe) the Peterbilt tow truck, which had Gulf decals for the doors.

Most of them haven't got a clue about where they are going, but while they are headed there it is an absolute must that they be in front of everyone...

I've got the 1/16 passenger version. Never compared parts count between it and the 1/24 equivalent, but they seem to be much the same, differing only in size. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. The multiple-piece body should have few, if any, sink marks or parting lines if the old-tool Revell bus kits are any indicator.

If you lurk on the HAMB, look up "1948 Anglia Southeast Gassers Build". It's a modern build with a few details that were seldom/never done back in the day: radiator relocated to the rear, modern roll cage. But the fabricated chassis is made of rectangular tubing, the suspension setup is buildable in scale, and the body he's starting with has a nice looking chop. There are a few good chassis shots in there too. He's going with a big-block Chevy and four-speed, looks like it will be one wild ride...

AMT's '29 roadster, MPC's '28/'29 woody/roadster pickup, and Revell's '29 pickup all have hoods (AMT and MPC being one piece, Revell being four individual panels). Only question is if the hot rod roadster's cowl-to-radiator shell dimension is the same as stock. If it is longer, you'll have to cook something up yourself.

If you are swapping in the earlier Revell chassis, you'll be reconstructing the portion from the back of the cab, back. First thing to go will be the coil spring rear suspension. If you are building a curbside version (never to be turned over or looked underneath) then there is no point in swapping chassis, just lengthen the kit piece.

The old paint can still be good, even if the can hasn't got any propellant to push it out. Before decanting, though, get that paint mixed. Solid colors in particular will settle something fierce. Shake, shake, and shake some more, then swirl the can around until the agitator ball slides easily around the bottom of the can. I've revived a can of Pactra Hot Rod Primer...now to find the right thing to spray it with...

I'd like to slap some of those clowns who stick later issue kits in older boxes, especially when the parts don't match from issue to issue. About the body...why cut one up? The body sides on the '60 don't roll under as they should...why not build up the lower edge with sheet plastic, and trace/cut the shape from another body? The kit is what it is, an artifact from another era. If you fix one aspect of it, the rest won't look "right".

I don't think anyone ran an early Olds engine in an Anglia. I couldn't find any info about one. The Shores & Hess "Skipper's Critter" car on the Revell box had a small-block Chevy, with a supercharger added as soon as the rules allowed. It later had a big-block; Shores is credited by many to have been the first to call it the "rat motor" (it was lettered on the injector scoop). That car later had its top chopped; it was destroyed in a crash around 1970. There were a couple of better-known Anglias in the lower Gas classes; one had a Chevy six, another a Hudson. The latter might make an interesting build, with an engine from one of the Moebius kits...

And then there were the match-race only cars (the last of the three Stone, Woods, & Cook Willys fell into this category). A lot of those had fabbed chassis because running at national meets wasn't part of the plan. Mike Mitchell's '33 Willys had a fabbed frame in 1966, but wasn't allowed to run Gas class. Photos of that car from the '66 season show an Altered class designation on the windows. Those smaller car chassis were definitely on the lightweight side in terms of strength. The stock Austin frame was made up of what would be considered heavy gauge sheet metal on this side of the pond, though it did have multiple layers in more critical areas.

NHRA allowed completely fabricated chassis for gassers starting with the 1967 season. Prior to that, guys were cutting off the frame from the firewall forward on some cars, and a lot of reinforcements were needed on more spindly chassis like Willys and Anglia, but there had to be something recognizable from the original one prior to '67.

The Revell kits all have opening doors, making them a bit fiddly if you don't have the patience for that stuff. The Anglia and Thames have a steerable front which connects to the steering wheel, the wheel does move a bit back and forth. The Henry J's flip front end is made up of five pieces (hood, two two-piece fenders) plus the parts to hang it on the chassis. The Austin has a one-piece tilt front with no grille opening or detail (some 1:1 cars did run them like that). There is a steerable front axle in the Henry J/Austin/Willys pickup (same chassis in all) but the assembled axle didn't support the weight of the Willys that I built from the first issue kit back in the day. The bells on the QC rear end don't look like most 1:1 units you'll see, the traction bars are on the skinny side too. The chassis in those three have single round tube side rails, seldom (won't say never) seen on 1:1 cars (fabricated chassis were usually, but not always, rectangular tubing). The Anglia and Thames chassis aren't quite right, the frame rails should be further apart. On the 1:1 cars, the frame rails formed the lower part of the door sill and were visible when the doors were opened. But the chassis in those kits do hold the rest of the car up, and look the part when assembled.

Gene Schwartz ran all three '51 body styles over the years. The hardtop was first. It was wrecked in a towing mishap, and was replaced with a two-door sedan. He got away from drag racing for about 30 years to make a living as a musician. When he came back to nostalgia racing, he built another hardtop, and a few years ago added a Fleetline.