Dave Darby

You are correct, Craig. The Model A/ Ala Kart double kit was unchanged for 4 issues between 1962 and 1970. The Street Rods issue deleted the nose, hood, bed and side pipes, and modified the cab and fenders accordingly. The chrome reversed wheels were replaced with 5 spoke mags. The A-venger eliminated the Mod Rod/Ala Kart option altogether, keeping the hemi for a street rod version of the Model A roadster. More details in the next issue of Model Cars Magazine.

I'm liking it! Have you ever seen the "Leg Show" T?

There's a lot to like about this one!

Thanks Dennis, I'm in the process of finishing up the next Vintage Workbench column, but as soon I get that complete, I should be making progress on the engine and interior. Love your 60's T bucket.

I'll second that. It does bear mentioning that Tommy Ivo doesn't like the name "Showboat", but that aside, it is a well detailed kit of a historuc drag car.

Its looking better and better all of the time! I also like the rescue of the old survivor fastback. One thing I'd like to mention for folks building an AMT Mustang, is that the AMT 66-up Falcons, including the mod-stock issues have a pretty decent set of those shock towers. Coincidently, it's also where those headers you used on the survivor came from. I came this close to using a set on my Ivo T.

Here's a little something I started on 20 years ago, and never got around to finishing. Two sticking points were the headers, and the Crescent moon back window. As you will see in the later photos, both of those issues have now been resolved. I present to you (still in progress) My tribute (but not a clone) of the famed Tommy Ivo T bucket. It's an AMT 25 T, with the chromed rear end from Revell's Rat Rod Model A, and the Buick nailhead from the AMT 40 Ford Coupe. The heads, and injectors are from the Tommy Ivo Showboat dragster. Here is the roadster in its infancy, way back 20 years ago in 2002. The rear wheels are from the AMT 49 Ford, fronts are from the AMT 56 Vicky. Hubcaps are from an older issue 57 Ford, and the front tires are from the Revell Wheels of Fire 57 Chevy. Bringing up the rear are of course, a pair of early Trophy Series slicks. (Who says you can't hand paint whitewalls?) The bed is two Tweedy Pie boxes grafted together to make a longer one. Paint is Testors Candy Grape over Ruby Red Metal Flake. This next photo is where the project stalled, back in 2002, Those headers were a big question mark for me, but the Revell Tweedy Pie 2 kit came to the rescue. Still, being for a small-block Chevy, they were going to require some reworking to work with the Buick Nailhead, I started by drilling holes in the exhaust ports and header tubes to accomodate paperclip wire to use as locating pins. Then, using two sets of headers, lengthened and shortened the two center pipes to match the Buick port layout. The unmodified header on the left, modified on the right. Still not quite accurate for Tommy's car, as his were a pair of two into ones, meeting in a collector. But Tommy also started with a shortened touring body he found in a desert, and this build isn't going to be that ambitious. So far, so good, but the way that top just teetered on top of the interior tub, instead of sitting on the body as it should bugged me.. That windshield frame, by the way, is from the Monogram T bucket. So, using another top and body, I marked the relationship of the top with the body as shown in the below photo. I then set an interior tub in place, and transfered the marks to the tub. (Not this one. I had already trimmed the other one before I thought to grab a photo.) I then drew a line around the perimeter of the tub where the top sits so I could trim the that part of the tub even with the inside edge of the body to allow the top to sit down around the tub.. As shown below. And now, the top sits directly on top of the body like it's supposed to. I should mention that it will also be necessary to thin the sides of the top down from the inside for it to fit properly. They are pretty thick. I used a flat jewelers file for that. Now that the top fits correctly, I turned my attention to the iconic crescent moon rear window. (Casual tribute or not, that had to be!) According to Ivo, the top reminded him of an outhouse, hence the crescent moon rear window. I found a straight on rear view of the car online, and brought it into Adobe Illustrator. I had already measured the opening I was going to cut out of the roof, and drew a rectangle the correct size. I then sized the photo to fit the rectangle, and traced the moon, using two elipses, and then printed off a paper pattern, which I then taped to some .010 Evergreen sheet plastic. After the old panel was cut out, I laid in some small strips (not shown) around the perimeter for the the panel to sit on, then glued it in place. A little super glue (I like JB Super Weld) filled in my sloppy gaps. Speaking of gaps, that Monogram windshield is not quite as tall as the AMT windshield, causing the top to lean forward, creating the gap you see between the top and body at the very rear. Later on, I did some filing along the sides to bring the top down to sit fully flush. Turning my attention back to the ancient AMT Nailhead from the 40 Ford Coupe (don't ask me why I used two different color engine block halves - I don't remember.) I wanted a more accurate looking magneto, and a finned valley cover. For the latter, I used an MPC 32 Ford Grille insert. You may notice that I flattened the molded in valley cover, and drilled a mounting hole for the magneto. I later cut a hole for the valley cover to sit in, so it wouldn't be sticking up from the top of the engine as high. Again not shown, but I glued a pair of thin styrene strips to the sides of the opening for the valley cover to sit on. I also added another element missing from the old AMT engine, the water crossover, using a piece cut from the Cadillac engine in the 49 Ford. That's pretty much where this sits at the moment. Stay tuned for further progress. Hopefully it won't be another twenty years!

That looks really good Terry. Was there a kit involved, or is this partially scratch-built?

They've always been like that. The coupe too. Maybe somebody will offer photoetched replacements.

Beautiful color and paint job (not surprising from you) and I love the Day 2 wheel choice.

More information has been trickling out about what happened. From Autoweek: "Pat Ganahl passed away yesterday in a drag racing accident at the Estranged Car Club show," said Anna Marco, a former longtime staff member of Rod & Custom magazine who worked under Pat Ganahl for many years. "He was in the Iacono dragster when it happened. He never lifted and went into the woods at the end of the track. We think he had a medical issue in the car, possibly a heart attack. He said he wasn't feeling well and wanted one more run. His wife Anna was there and said he died doing what he loved because he wasn't a retirement home kind of guy." My wife and I think(and this is pure speculation) he may have suffered from a ruptured aorta, similar to how John Ritter passed. Guys that tall often have connective tissue disease. Chancess are, he may have died even if he hadn't made that last pass. But better to go piloting a drag car than in a hospital bed. Either way, how or why doesn't matter. We've lost a hero and a muse. https://www.autoweek.com/news/people/a40963863/pat-ganahl-rodder-and-writer-killed-in-drag-racing-accident-in-oregon/

Hi Tim, I learned about it late Friday night. I don't have a ton of information, other than he was piloting the Iacono GMC powered dragster that he restored, and from what Ive read that there was no attempt to brake or steer when he reached the end of the track. This would indicate that he either died or at least lost consciousness during the run. I corresponded with Pat occasionally over the years, but never got to meet him in person. Yet I feel like I knew him. His writing style was that personable. I first discovered Pat's writing on the pages of Street Rodder magazine, when he first joined the staff. His autobiography of a hot rod type articles really influenced me from the time I was a young teen all the way up to today. His passing has hit me extra hard. Life is precious and fleeting. And it can end in the wink of an eye. Godspeed Pat.

I believe almost all of the parts runners for the parts trees are open. The chopped Victoria roof, fins and skirts bit the dust to make room for the plastic slicks and straight axle. The Carson top is still in the kit, but modified to a targa style roof. There may be some small bits here and there, especially on the chrome tree, but as far as I know, what's there is what still exists.

I have an original issue Fireball 500 and I can confirm it did come with the smaller Indy car tires you mentioned. I'm running a pair on the back of this AMT Deuce. I wish Round2 would/could find or clone the 'implement' tires I have on the front.

From what I was told, they thought those cavities were gone. I then sent them photos of a short shot of the rear Styline extension from a 1990s issue.

You build some of the coolest stuff, Terry. This is a good example of that.

AMT didn't sell the 34 Pickup tool to Lindberg. It was left behind at the tool shop in Windsor during the sale of AMT to Lesney (Matchbox). After George Toteff purchased Lindberg in the 1990s, he was at that tool shop and recognized the tool. So he bought it, and added it to the Lindberg catalog.

I wonder if somebody repops the Mongoose decals. And did RoG kill off the Monogram name? Sign me up for multiples of that Deuce.

I'd say the whitewalls are a possibility, but I wouldn't look for any other changes.

x2. Looks really good!

That is just plain gorgeous!

Classics! I love these two.

My... Gosh! Breathtaking.

I've seen some just pure "Wow!" builds on there. Since it appears AMT can play as well, here are a few of mine, along with a survivor. I started this one back in 1994-95 and really need to get back on it some day. It's a somewhat replica of the late Dave Southwick's Dutch Eshelman built 29 Highboy featured in a 1990 R&C. I'm sure you've seen this one. It's also in the need to get back on it queue. it was also started around the same time priod as the highboy, but went through some heavy changes. Finally, this survivor I bought off ebay a couple of decades ago.