CapSat 6

I'm following this, because I recently got on a GTO kick and acquired a few of these kits. It's true because while tools exist for most GTO's, most of the tools really are substandard. The '66 is the only really good one at this point. These seem popular enough to keep the old, substandard tools in production, but not popular enough to do new tools (unlike the '57 Chevy and '69 Camaro, for instance). Our only hope may be that Revell steps up with a new tool '70 in 1/25, then at least we could rob that one of it's guts to enhance the many '72's and '69's still out there. They could at least offer convertibles, Judges, Royal Bobcats and drag cars, which could justify the investment. If the chassis, wheels and engines were done really well, then they'd probably sell a lot of them just for parts. I have a few AMT '69 Oldsmobiles I was going to use for chassis, but engines remain problematic. I want to buy a '65. I recently came into a nice '64 Lemans promo, so this might go well with it. The box art looks killer. Redlines, white plastic and Hurst Mags sweeten the deal for me. I'm a little horrified by what I'm hearing about the bumpers, but I work with somebody who owned a '65 GTO new, and he knows I'm a car guy, so the car comes up in conversation probably once every two weeks (I don't mind that a bit!). It might be a kick to build it for him. So- does anybody know- could I reasonably use the transmission from the AMT '69 Hurst Olds for '69-'72 GTO's? I have no idea, I usually do Mopars. The MPC engine is not so bad, but the transmission looks horrendous...

For '66, it seems like most or all of the factory drag racers either stuck with their '65 cars, or used '66 B-body Hemi sedans (the Street Hemi being available in almost all body styles in '66, and not tied to certain models). The hot ticket that year was a stripped "Street Hemi" B-Body sedan. The "Dealer Drive" coupe you saw might have been evidence that the factory was either considering a Race Hemi package for '66, or that some cars were considered De Facto "Race Hemis". With The '66 D-Dart, while a cool idea, seems to have not been pushed too strongly by Chrysler, and it got practically zero attention by most drag racers. Now the '68 A Body Hemis on the other hand- the racers must have gone bonkers when they first caught wind of that program. The excitement probably didn't last too long though- as once they took delivery, they soon realized that those cars needed a LOT of work to set up. Stories from back then indicate that while the '65 and '67 drag specials were built as somewhat ready-to-run cars with regular factory quality, the '68 package cars were provided a bit more unfinished, and not built all that well.

Yes, the AMT / Tope/ Road Race kit has one of the hubcap wheels on the chrome shot- or it did- I had a copy from the early 2000's that had one. Those wheels weren't all that great anyway- too rounded looking to my eyes. My guess is that we'll see the MPC tool with new wheels. There is a '71-ish grille option in the tool currently, but it's not all that great looking. The MPC tool had a '71/'72 grille bezel, chrome bumper and separate grille base that attached to the body with a '71 style front valence; for the '73 annual, they tooled a grille base to the body and a '73 front bumper, grille, headlights in bezels & lower valence. They could reverse that and cut new '71 parts, but then they would probably lose the ability to issue the kit as a '73, which would be no great loss in my opinion. Restoring it to true 1971 form, and adding in a newly-tooled 351 Cleveland engine, would be truly Boss, if you excuse the bad joke...

There is a seller on eBay that does a utility body in resin, as well as a stake body, some ramp bodies, etc. Also, Hart's Parts does the '72-'73 Dodge grille & hood, as well as a set up for the '74-'76 trucks. I don't know about the quality of the beds on eBay, but Harts' Parts items and quality are first rate.

There seems to be a lot of reference out there on Dick Landy's '68 Charger Hemi super stock (and that seems to have run an inline manifold in NHRA events). If it were me, I would build this with an inline manifold- the cross rams up until that point were run in Race Hemi package cars only ('68 Dart and 'Cuda Hemi Super Stocks, '65 A-990 cars, etc.). The prior '67 WO-23/ RO-23 Super Stock package for Belvederes and Coronets used an inline set up. It was a stock-looking manifold, supposedly modified by Arlen Vanke. The '68 Hemi A body program was conceived because of complaints from the class racers that there were no "package" cars for '66, and that the '67 package cars weren't radical enough (read: light and fast), so for '68, Chrysler went all-out, using an A Body as the basis for their race package, and making the car as light as possible, with very few compromises. There was no '68 race package B-body; all Hemi B Bodies got inline intake manifolds from the factory, so presumably, that's what you had to run in '68.

Well then - without an engine, a model car wouldn't go, now would it Actually, if we were to get more subjects by bypassing engine room requirements, then I wouldn't mind not having engines sometimes. Case in point for me: the Revell '77 Monte Carlo. To me, it's fine without an engine, and it got us a much loved subject that otherwise might never have been done. Do a Blue Brothers Monaco, a Cordoba, a '71 Riviera, or any other semi-desirable '70's barge without an engine and I would be just fine with that. Some kits need an engine though. If we got a Hellcat Challenger or Charger without an engine, that would be a crime...

That is beautiful work, as you always do! I could see this as a drag car hauler, with a Pro Stock 'Cuda in the back!

I agree that the next Moebius Ford Truck kit should be a Dodge.

Nice! And that wheel in the trash can- ouch!

Revell or Moebius should do a 1970 tool to start...they could offer both a "regular" 300, and a Hurst 300...hardtop and convertible variants of both (I read about at least 1 Hurst 300 convertible having been built...)...these kits could appeal to Mopar C Body fans as well as Hurst completists. I think they would have some appeal to builders who don't normally love Mopars, too...I think this could be a good seller, worth developing.

It seems to me that there is some demand for the MPC Camaros & Chevy Pickups. Even the Shelby Chargers are getting a little spendy, but those kits were super-cheap for a long time. The MPC Daytonas are still pretty cheap, because they have been reissued a few times within about the past 20 years. Ironically, you kind of need an MPC Daytona to build an MPC Shelby Charger- as the engine in the Daytona represents the Chrysler Turbo 2.2, while the engine in the Shelby was a carryover from it's Omni days- the Shelby came with a Chrysler 2.2 Turbo, but the MPC kits never got an engine update, they still came with the earlier Omni engine (circa 1980), which was a different design that I think was either based on a VW engine or was manufactured by VW.

I think that ad pretty much lists a standard Road Runner. The great thing about that car was that you got all of the heavy duty mechanicals standard, everything else was optional. Most "Supercars" of the time (the term "Muscle Car" came much later) usually were part of a package that pumped the price up considerably. The car in the ad shows a few extra cost items: performance hood paint, road wheels. That's not what you would get with that deal. The '68 & '69 Road Runners were part of the "taxicab with racing parts, and little else" formula. That dealer might have ordered some stripped cars, and decided to run the ad for them, knowing that they could probably get most buyers to come in on the ad, and then step up during the deal into a more loaded Road Runner (or GTX, or Sport Satellite...).

Also, All American Resin used to do a 300H...but that was a LONG time ago. The quality was very good. If you find one for sale, expect to pay a fairly steep price for one. I think that a '70 300 would be a great candidate for a kit from Revell...they could do it in 300H and standard 300 trim, and maybe offer a convertible, too...that would get multiple variants out of the tool, and it would go a long way towards making the Mopar C Body people happy!

I think you're right. I don't know of anybody else who does one right now. I think Robert Burns (he posts here occasionally) does an 80's Club Cab. The quality of his stuff is first rate. He can be found as "Too Many Projects" on Facebook. I would be down for an '80's Dodge Pickup, but I would want a regular cab. If it were me and I really wanted one, I would try to take two cabs and try to make one myself. I have seen several builders here do that with good results.

I think I have seen a resin Club Cab pop up on eBay occasionally.

You are welcome! You could also change some other things using parts from the Revell Monogram '71 Hemi Cuda and/ or '71 GTX kits...like engines, steering wheels, etc. For a non-T/A (presumably an R/T), you'll need to come up with exhaust tips and full pipes, maybe using pieces from an AMT '70 Challenger or a Revell 1/25 '70 Challenger R/T. If you wanted to use Magnum 500 wheels, I have found that the ones that come in the MPC/AMT '69 Charger Daytona and 500 kits look good when paired with the big hollow (old) AMT Goodyear Polyglas GT tires when used on these 1/24 Mopars. You could even use these wheels with the Goodyear Radial GT's that come with the kit. They don't fit the wheel backs perfectly, so you would have to adapt others to use, but they have the right look otherwise.

It looks like Hart’s Parts Resin does a flat hood as well as a twin-scoop hood for this kit: https://hartspartsresin.com/product-category/revell-monogram/page/3/ I don’t see a Shaker hood available, but many years ago, I was able to make a Shaker by cutting out the Shaker opening from a Monogram/ Revell ‘71 Hemi Cuda hood, and more or less fitting it into the hole for the scoop in the T/A kit hood. It was much easier than I thought it would be, and I was able to drop the Hemi from that kit into the T/A, and have the Shaker Dome line up as needed once it was on the engine. I am no genius by any stretch when it comes to surgery like that, so it must have been relatively easy. That however would not be the correct approach. Shaker hoods from the factory are more or less flat hoods, with the Shaker cutout and an adapter ring installed on top. There are differences between the stock flat steel hood and the T/A Fiberglas hood. You might want to start with the optional flat hood with cutout for the tunnel ram that comes in the kit in order to convert to a shaker, so that the drains in the back will be more correct. I did mine a long time ago, using what I had on hand at the time, and knowing little about how the real hoods were produced at the time. There was a company who used to sell the sheet metal adapters so that a builder could take a 1:1 flat hood and make it into a Shaker. This was back in the 90’s when flat hoods were relatively plentiful, and before entire Shaker hoods were reproduced. I hope this helps. I have to finally finish that Hemi Challenger I started way back when. I’ll dig it out and post pics if I can soon.

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I seem to remember a convertible '78-'80-ish Camaro being offered by Airfix or Lindberg. It seemed stock except for a convertible up-top. Perhaps it was a snap together kit, 1/25?

WORTH IT! That is some beautiful work!!!

Man...the cars we could have had back then! Around that time, I was driving a $500 '67 Dodge Coronet!

You should have seen the one I could have bought (basically a done car, with a built 440!)...but I wisely used that money for a down payment on my first house instead, so- not all bad.

Well...I got rid of it to try to trade up. I sold it to buy another car that I thought was in better shape...I wasn't very careful or patient about the new purchase...so that worked out worse than I wanted it to...but the 'Cuda I sold, while it ran great and was in excellent mechanical condition...needed a TON of bodywork. If I'd have known that they were to appreciate in value so much, I maybe would have kept it, or bought the OTHER one I had a shot at (which seemed like a lot of money at the time, but now, would have been a steal). Oh well, hindsight is 20/20...

Great save. That's an original annual body, you can tell by the way the headlights correctly mount inside the headlight buckets (the reissues had headlights that sat flat and looked kind of bug-eyed). That reminds me of a 1:1 Cuda I used to own- mine was silver, very similar. I kind of miss it.