Snake45

So you don't actually watch the show, then. Truth to tell, from time to time I've talked The Lovely Mrs. Snake into watching this by saying "Don't worry about the cars, just think of this as one of your Real Housewives shows and concentrate on the personalities, you'll love it." This is mainly true of the 405 show. I'm constantly impressed by the sportsmanship and brotherhood of these guys (especially the Memphis crew). They'll often go above and beyond to help another racer, even one who's just beaten them.

I have one of those '64 Galaxies from the last reissue. The plan is to open the hood and make a full-detail T-Bolt hooded drag car out of it. (AS IF I'll ever actually get to it.)

Both your complaints got addressed in Mega Cash Days. (For those who haven't been watching, 64 cars from all over America.) SPOILER ALERT: Stop reading now if you haven't yet seen the March 1 show. The 405 was represented by Chief, Dave, Ryan Martin, Murder Nova, Monza, Doc, Dominator, Chuck, and Jeff Lutz. That's nine, and all have been eliminated except Ryan Martin in the winner bracket and Murder Nova and Daddy Dave in the losers. Memphis brought JJ, Trisha, Don Gingrich, Dennis Bailey, Anthony Smith, and Lee Robertson, for six. JJ, Trisha and Dennis Bailey are still alive in the winner bracket, and Anthony Smith in the losers. Axman seems to have joined the Memphis crew at some point, and he's still in the losers bracket too. From what I've seen, looks like Ryan Martin and Larry Larsen are the real heavy hitters, the cars to beat. Birdman didn't accomplish much in Boosted's car. Both Dennis Bailey and Anthony Smith continue to impress me. They don't make much noise, but durned if they both don't get down the road just about every time!

Wish I could get the '72 Chev truck without all the Coke junk.

You could if you started with the stock Nova. You started with the PS version so to get a "promo" you'll need to come up with stock interior parts.

The Manta Ray could have been the poster child for what was apparently GM's #1 styling priority of the '60s: "CHANGE IT! Make it better or make it worse, it doesn't matter, just make it different from last year's."

https://www.google.com/search?q=Hemi+Honker&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj_m6qd4ZHvAhUWGFkFHRMuCOoQ_AUoAXoECAUQAw&biw=1636&bih=857

Incentive to hurry up and get my resin-bodied one done before the kit comes out and renders it useless.

Yay, the '64 Cutlass Hardtop! Looks like they restored the Bonneville from the backbirth 2+2. I'm in need of a couple Polar Light FC chassis, so this is good! Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Thanks so much for the kind offer. I see that MCG does offer a '66 Nova PE sheet, so if you have one in your goodie bag, I'd be happy to give it a good home. Thanks also for the kind words!

Thanks for the kind words, all! Much appreciated!

Good to see some drag-y tires on it. Your earlier pic had me worried. Sweet stance in this pic. BADASS!

Perhaps you were "imprinted" by Project X at a very young age.

And body emblems. I know the '66 was marked Corsa; not sure about the '65. The '66 kit also included a turbocharger for the engine that isn't in the reissues. I'm not sure when that was dropped, but it's gone now.

No reason it shouldn't. Some minor trimming here and there might be needed. If you're going to that effort for a nice '63 SW model, you're better off using the body from the Revell snapper, as it's more accurate than the AMT. Also, if you use the Revell '67 Corvette chassis, you'll have to source a small block from somewhere, as the '67 has only been offered with the 427.

It's a ZC-colored enamel. It's kind of a dark mustard yellow, little if any green in it at all. Model Master has (had) a Zinc Chromate Green. It looks pretty bright to me. Their Interior Green 34151 looks better to me. Definitely a green, not a yellow.

Thanks, Norm, great pics!

I never have, but I'm planning to, and I'll lay it over a flat yellow base.

Bought this one in the box at the local toy show last year. Opening the box, I saw that the instructions, decals, and wheels/tires were missing; dunno if I realized that the engine was gone too, but that wouldn't have been a deal-breaker. The purple paint looked pretty good, all the body trim parts and glass were present, and the interior and chassis seemed to be already assembled. It looked like an easy, fun 2-3 hour “Snake-Slap it together” completion project. When I got it home and gave it a better look, I was sadly disappointed. The entire rear suspension was missing, as were the right front axle stub and the whole left front spindle. The windshield was cracked, the backlight had a couple glue boogers, and the paint on the body sides was pretty orange-peeled, not smooth like on the roof, trunk, and hood. Back in the box it went. Here's the main part of what I had to start with. Months later, I got to binge-watching back seasons of Memphis Street Outlaws on Discovery on demand and got hooked on all the cool Novas on there—Zip Tie, Heifer, and Molly Gully's cool purple '65 Ugly Duck. I decided to see if there were some way to drag my hot purple mess across the finish line. About this time I discovered Rustoleum “High Lustre” clear lacquer at Walmart. I thought the Nova would be the perfect “test mule” for it—if it didn't work out, I could strip the puple (which I didn't really care for anyway) off it and repaint; if the lacquer melted the body into a puddle of goo, I wouldn't be out much in terms of time, effort, emotion, or money at this point. The Rustoleum worked better than I could have hoped. Two light mist coats to “seal” the purple enamel, and then four wet coats applied over two days and it polished out easily and to a nice shine that filled in the orange-peel very well. With the body standing tall(ish), I got busy on the chassis. Scratchbuilt a left front spindle, and added an axle stub the to the right spindle. Came up with a differential from the parts box, then scratchbuilt leaf springs and spring mounts for it. Scratchbult a windshield from the clear plastic from a cheap diecast box, and polished the glue boogers out of the backlight. Forgot to mention that before the clear lacquer, I was able to carefully carve the mold lines off the tops of the rear fender right at the C-pillar, then touched up those areas, and a couple other spots with missing or chipped paint, with Testor Purple Pearl from the bottle, which I just happened to have on hand and which seems to be a perfect match. The slicks and rear wheels came from a “Nova Junkyard” I recently bought on eBay, and I narrowed the rear axles to where the slicks would just fit inside the body. I added traction bars from an AMT '72 Nova. Here's the build thread, which shows a lot of details of building up the rear suspension: I wasn't going to do much if anything to the interior, which was painted gloss gray, but I ended up breaking it all apart and removed a lot of superglue blobs and boogers. I smoothed the seat seams, added a roll bar from the AMT '72 Nova, painted the floor flat black and rest of the interior semigloss black with Silver Sharpie details. While I was at it, I thinned the interior sides and modified the firewall so the entire chassis and interior will fit under a '65 Nova body I'm working on restoring. To replace the missing headlight lenses, I just built up several layers of white glue. It's not perfect but they don't stand out as horrible and if I ever run across a spare set of lenses, I can easily remove the white glue ones. So here it is, done-ish. I haven't figured out yet what to do about the body scripts and emblems, which are nearly buried under the paint and clearcoat. Maybe I'll come up with a solution, or maybe I'll just leave 'em alone and ignore them. It is a “rescue,” after all, not a first-line build, oh well. I ended up with almost as much time and effort in this thing as I'd have spent building one new from the box—maybe even more, I dunno. But it's enormously satisfying to save/rescue a sad, unloved project like this and make something shelfworthy out of it. Thanks for looking, and as always, comments welcome.

Might be more common, though. Who among us doesn't have a copy or two of the "Old Pro," if only for parts? Can't remember the last time I saw an MPC '80 Monte Carlo. (I don't think I own any of the other MPC kits you listed, either.)

What's the tranny with the small block in the AMT '72 Nova?

Very VERY cool story and even cooler project! An absolutely perfect example of the "high school hot rod" genre. Well done and model on!

Good info, thanks! Didn't know about the Miss Deal wheels--I have one of those somewhere. I'm planning to paint it Model Master Nassau Blue, which is just a shade lighter than Marina Blue but looks like the photos to me. Soon as the body gets here I'll see if it fits the JoHan '70 Olds chassis. If not, I'll have to come up with a Plan B.

Steveracer, that looks great! Our second completion this round, GOTTER DONE! Cheyenne93, I'll add you to the registered list. This round ends March 31 but you can extend over into the next round if you need to. Here's a full update: ROUND 10: FINISH DATE MARCH 31, 2021 Misha: Porsche 934 MAKING GREAT PROGRESS! Spottedlaurel: '59 Cadillac Hearse MAKING GREAT PROGRESS! Gotnitro?: '53 Ford Crew Cab Tim J: '70 Chevelle #1 Model Citizen: AMT Auto Transport Trailer MAKING GREAT PROGRESS! Dave Branson: '10 Mustang GT MAKING GREAT PROGRESS! Tom Geiger: '53 Studebaker Gullwing Steveracer: '77 Camaro SECOND COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE! Snake45: Undecided Andrew McD: Lotus Super 7 FIRST COMPLETION! GOTTER DONE! Chevenne93: '49 Ford

Yes, it's better than the old '69 Mach I front end. It's still not completely accurate, but it's a big improvement over the old one.