garagepunk66

Thanks for pointing out the differences between the sedans and the coupes. Now that I am looking at pictures of the coupes, I see how the front is extended and the nose is slightly more sloped along the fender tops.

Have a look at these two photos Bill. There's more shared DNA in those body skins than might be apparent on first examination... Modify the A-pillar and windshield header for a little bit of a wraparound, juggle the wheelbase a bit and you are there. The rear quarters of the Jo-Han Lark would have to be pared down accordingly an utilized, as well as the front fender tops and hood near the front

Bill, I am curious about your thoughts on dispensing with the basic Lark body altogether and modifying the Revell Miss Deal body, grafting on the Lark-specific sections from the Jo-Han body to come up with a more scale-accurate piece that would fit the Avanti chassis. I have a slightly warpy 1960 Lark promo with a crushed roof that I am contemplating upon with this very conversion

The old Revell opening doors 56 has a pretty nice engine, on par with the well-regarded parts pack engines, and has nice period speed equipment. There are also a smattering of decent parts sprinkled through the kit as well, but the bulk of it is pretty awful. It is great kit-bash fodder if nothing else.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/how-is-a-pruned-blower-case-mounted.999144/

Great work on this rare kit Steve. I will be following this one closely!

The "oval case" GMC blower in the AMT 40 Ford is typical of a unit modified by pioneer hot rodder Tom Beatty. He, and other builders modified the cases, trimming away the large mounting flange, and counter bored the inside of the case for Allen head bolts to retain it to the manifold. This process was commonly referred to as "case pruning"

Greg, here is another source for the Monogram Pontiac.... The Tom Daniels Sand Shark aka Dog Catcher kit. https://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/monogram-instructions/show-rods/monogram-sand-shark-/scan0006.html#media

Greg, I goofed on one of those suggestions... The 36 Ford has a multi-carbed flathead, not a Pontiac. Sorry

Hmmm. I am eyeballing that grille in the Maitso diecast..... I have seen it online for as cheap as 16 or 17 bucks. Might be worth it for the grille alone. Might yield other parts as well. The rest of the car is kind of questionable, proportionally speaking

I am starting to come around to that thinking guys. Now to find a GTX grille. Does anyone cast it? I believe it was 2 pieces, a surround and an insert for the mesh

One of the front wheel openings is completely malformed at the corner because of a large air pocket, there are lots and lots of pinholes and air bubble inclusions all over. The molds appear to be shot as the grille had spots where the teeth were all blobbed together. The grille had a big chip out of the corner and it came with two front bumpers and no rear, and those were equally in need of repairs due to the same issues

Ha, you are probably right about that!

Don't kill the messenger. It is likely that a TorqueFlite was used in the actual car, which was not, incidentally, a "Factory Backed" car. It is important here to make a distinction between factory contingency programs and actual back door skunk works type race cars. Contingencies made sure there were cheap or free parts available to independent racers who were most likely to help sell cars on Monday (record holders and highly visible teams).... Ford really didn't sweat too much about something like the TorqueFlite transmission use if a guy was on a contingency deal. They knew that drag racing at that point was largely a mongrelized sport and soon enough their then brand new C6 transmission design would have enough r&d and field development in racing to be in wide use

TorqueFlite transmission adaptation was pretty common in drag racing for only about 3 years 1965-67. The reason for this is that since Chrysler pioneered the concepts of modern automatic transmission use in drag racing starting with the Max Wedge cars, and the aftermarket and shops like Art Carr having built them already to take big HP numbers, the TorqueFlite was way out in front in terms of development and brute strength. If you look at the magazines from that era, you will see ads for those adapters. Funny Cars, Gassers and lower class Altereds are where they were most commonly used. The Clutch-Flite was the next logical progression, as torque converter technology lagged behind a bit

Concerning the Monogram kits.... Flathead in the 40 Pickup and Multi carb Pontiac in the 36 Ford (great for backdating the butchered 32 Ford roadster kit) The 34 Ford had a Pontiac as well, but morphed into a neither fish-nor-fowl quasi SBC when it became the ZZ Top Eliminator 33 Ford Some of the Tom Daniels kits provide additional options. The Bad Medicine kit, for example, has a really nice vintage SBC Weiand blower intake, GMC supercharger and drive parts that fit the SBC engines you mentioned. The Son Of Ford came with a nice set of Algon injectors for the Pontiac engine. The poorly proportioned 57 Chevy kit from the 70's has Rochester FI that fits the SBC's too

An ethical question, if you will indulge me. In more recent years, I have come to regard the Jo-Han 1970 Road Runner as a holy grail kit, while I have watched prices climb completely out of reach. The old Monogram 1/24 kit never did much for me with its wonky proportions, and the SMH Resins kit I got recently is a disaster. I just scored a very abused 70 GTX promo on that auction site, and I am contemplating a Road Runner conversion, using pretty much just the body and front bumper (the rear bumper is broken). I do have a Jo-Han Road Runner grille and Air Grabber in the parts box, as well as several Superbirds, built and unbuilt, as well as the aforementioned SMH Resin kit to pull the rest of the parts from. The plan is to put it on the Monogram 69 Charger Pro Series chassis bits. The quandry is, of course that, once I cut out and fit a Superbird tail panel, sand off the scripts and the wheel opening moldings, it's no longer a GTX. On the other hand, this is one rough character....

Steve, can you elaborate on how you made the breather grommet in the valve cover? Drilled a hole in the end of round styrene rod and rounded the outside radius before cutting it off? Everything looks fantastic

Oooh. Tasty mods and beautiful work. Following.

The Jo-Han Turbine Car has one of the nicest ones kitted IMHO. I like the one in the AMT Chrysler 300C second best

That color is called Lunar Green

The AMT '40 Willys includes one, even though the tank represents an Eelco tank. I believe there is a nice one in the Revell Orange Crate 32 Ford sedan as well

You could easily pass one off as an Art Malone chassis, as Garlits and Malone frequently collaborated together and as such, often shared their innovations. Kellison, the dune buggy and kit car manufacturer, briefly got into the knocked-down dragster chassis kit game around 1964 and those designs are said to be a knock off of the typical contemporary Garlits chassis

The 66 Falcon was not a re-skinned 1965 model. It was indeed a 1966 Fairlane from the front seat pan forward, sharing engine mounting pads, shock towers, engine bay panels, steering geometry, cowl, torque boxes, frame rails, etc. The rear portion of the front frame rails were cantilevered out rearward of the torque boxes separate of the floorpan just as they were on the new for 1966 Fairlane; a feature that was not present on the 1965 models. The engine bay, being identical to the Fairlane, could also accommodate an FE big block using the 390 GT stuff. You can't get an FE mounted into an early Falcon without heavily notching the shock towers. As a former 1:1 1966 390 GT Fairlane owner, I can tell you that it didn't bother me in the least that my car shared parts with the 3rd generation Falcon. It was just another source for parts when junkyard scrounging....