DRIPTROIT 71

A little more progress on this and I noticed that not only are the front fenders slightly crooked but they are a little hiked up in the front. I didn’t try to cut the fenders loose as this resin is extremely brittle and very thin in places around the grill area. I didn’t want to make matters worse. The good thing is that Ford advertised these trucks as not having the fenders attached to the cab anywhere. With some age and worn mounts, I’m sure things would be a little crooked in real life.

Very nice! I really like this one!!

Excellent work!

A joy to watch and learn as this one comes together!

I like the bed!

Nice work! I used one of those engines in my Highbinder. I like the water tank and the added stinger. Looks great!

Nice work!

This one really stands out!! Great work!

Looks amazing! Great work for sure!!

Looks great!

Looks pretty awesome!

Looking good!!

Looks amazing! Very realistic!

This one turned out great!! Very nice work! The reflector tape really finishes this one off! Looks great!

I don’t pay collector prices either, but sometimes I pick up a sealed kit. Let’s face it, most of us have a lot of kits that we will never build whether we consider ourselves a collector or not. If the kit is old and sealed, I wait until I am going to use it to open it. I have picked up two resealed kits, both were trailers, one at a great price and one at a decent price. The Mack that I was in question about does have a price sticker, but it is a generic one. It looks pretty authentic, but since it is noticeably lighter than most truck kits, I was a bit skeptical. After listening to you guys I am more confident now. I buy to build, but would never pass up on an old sealed kit at a great price. I didn’t pay much more for the Mack than the reissue, and I purchased it was before the reissue was released. Thanks for all of the information!

Thanks for all of the information guys!! Casey, I checked the Mack kit and it does have the hole in the plastic. Jason, it does look slightly yellowed compared to the reissue. My main concern with this kit was that it seemed a bit lighter than the reissue. After finding that my flatbed had been resealed, I pictured opening the Mack to find somebody’s leftovers. I think now that it might be legit. I bought it before the reissue was released, and now that the reissue is out, I wanted to leave it sealed, but be somewhat confident that it hadn’t been resealed with part of the kit removed. Thanks again guys! Brian

I like it! This was the car to have when I was in high school. A friend of mine had one very similar to this. He traded his 68 GMC pickup for it. Nice work! I like what you came up with.

Thanks Casey! I didn’t start building models until about 78 or 79. I remember those holes on car kits then, but I couldn’t remember if they were on the old semi kits or if earlier kits had them. Those holes were always my starting point for tearing the plastic off of a new kit. I have an old Matlack Mack that I am suspect of. I will check for that.

This has probably been covered before, but is there a way to identify if a vintage kit has been resealed. I mostly only build semi trucks, so my question is sort of specific to the Early semi truck and trailer kits released in or around the 70s. I have picked up some “sealed” kits over the past couple of years and the plastic on some of them seemed a lot thicker than I remember it being back in the day. If my memory is correct those old kits had very thin cellophane on them. The seam on the suspect kits seemed especially thick. One particular suspect kit was an Ertl Great Dane flat bed trailer. I went ahead and opened it and some of the inside parts had been re-bagged I usually buy with the intent to build, so it is usually irrelevant, but I sometimes leave a vintage kit sealed just in case I never get around to building it. I would hate to pass one on in either a sale or trade that had been resealed or even worse, not be complete. I thought that maybe some you expert collectors knew how to spot a reseal job. Thanks, Brian

Thanks Carl! It is 1/25th. These were released in several versions; Mayflower, Allied, North American, Bill Elliott race trailer, and I think that this one was an Ernie Ervin race trailer. I think that I used to have a Kraco Indy car race trailer as well. There may be others too.

Resin conversion on Ebay. $35+ $8 shipping. Don’t know anything about the quality though.

That engine looks great! I’m taking notes!

Looks great! The details on the blower just look Awesome!

I always enjoy your builds! The weathering is always excellent!! Of course I like tow trucks too. Excellent work! I like the homemade wheel lift. We considered making something like that for our 69 Ford, but we ended up replacing it with a 93 Ford with a factory wheel lift.

Thanks!!