Oldcarfan27

The parts bins and bags of junkers are my absolute favorites, I spend most of my time looking UNDER the tables rather than what's set up on top of it! While everyone else is looking through the unbuilt kits, I'm finding gems and bargains in the junk. A seller, at the local kit show I go to, sets up multiple very large boxes (5 to 10) of bagged parts, projects, pieces and glue bombs. That's all he brings, and he's constantly busy during the entire show. He probably takes home more cash than any of the other vendors - I know he gets MOST of mine! Best fun I ever had at a kit show.

Top 10 list of things to help you KEEP the stuff you brought to sell: 1. Don't price anything, let people have to search for you to ask for prices. Never be at your own table and leave an uninformed friend or spouse there to have to keep saying "I don't know" to everyone - they'll love it and be sooo glad they came. 2. When someone asks you "how much?" Be sure to open the box and look through it as if you've never seen it before and are just now trying to think up a price. A real booster is to go on Ebay at that time and try to find another one for sale, that way you can put an accurate price on it. If one sells at that price, they must all be worth that much, right? 3. Spend all your time being on your phone or too busy talking with your buddy to talk to potential buyers. Works best with rule #1 4. Put everything behind locked cases as if it was a museum. 5. Don't let anyone touch your stuff, after all it's too valuable to let them see what's in the boxes! 6. Be indifferent and snobby to answer questions, if they want it they'll pay whatever your price is. (Refer back to rule #1) 7. Be sure to RAISE your price if someone dares to make an offer on something. Better yet, smash the said kit in response to their offensive offer, that'll show 'em! 8. Always put your most interesting stuff in plain view with a sign that says "Not For Sale". Even better, get really irritated that people keep asking you "How much for it". 9. Tell everybody that you don't really need to sell this and say - "If I don't get what I'm asking I'll just put it up on Ebay". With an attitude like that, buyers will absolutely be dying to pay whatever your price is. And finally rule #10. Overprice everything to be sure you don't get ripped off! Even glue bombs and broken parts must be worth a lot..... somewhere. Honorable Mention... Pack up your table and leave early. After all, if they haven't bought anything by now, they must not be looking to by anything at all! Later on, reminisce about the day by complaining to your friends that nobody goes to these shows to buy, they just want to window shop. Of course they don't, that's why they willingly paid admission to get in and then had to elbow their way through crowds of other "window shoppers" with cash in hand, trying to find special deals that snobby sellers don't think they are entitled to. Please understand the irony in my advice. These are just some of my personal pet peeves, and I've seen them all!

Probably true. I wrote to Round 2 asking to reissue this gem. I found a badly built one that I'm converting to a Hurst. That half vinyl top and moon roof are perfect for it. I cast the front area from a stock version and the rest of the kit is still "stockable". I remember seeing the Sweathogs version in the hobby store when I was a kid, I've been trying to find an affordable one ever since. One of my grails. I love this Grand Prix kit!

I agree 100% Most of us old timers may already know what's inside the box, but what if someone is new to the hobby sees this? Do you think it's going to instill a fire to say "Oooh, I've gotta spend my hard earned money on that!" It's all about selling. You wouldn't buy a bottle of putrid, cloudy-looking green beer in a dirty bottle, or a box with rotten looking food pictured on it, would you? What's ON the box is supposed to promote what's IN the box! Point is, some art director in packaging and product promotion signed off on this, saying "This is good enough to sell this product." At that, I'll say they were wrong. OK, I'll put away my soapbox now.

Why do you think it's a clone? The story I read about, was that they simply acquired the forgotten and abandoned tool from a shop. It had been left there since the late 70s - early 80s, around the time AMT was in transition to Matchbox. The new owners simply forgot it was missing. Glad it was never scrapped!

If the grille is intact, you could drill out the headlights and replace them with clear ones.

Whether they cloned it or not is irrelevant. As I said, the parts from the original kit DO fit the body. You would have to cut away the mounting posts inside to clear room for the glass, interior shell, bumpers and chassis - but it can be done! The only body alteration is the slightly shorter wheelbase at the rear wheel openings to fit the hopper chassis. It even has the hood emblem - and the Cadillac script (IIRC). That's a pretty detailed clone. If it is a clone, my question would be - Why go through all the trouble to copy an old Johan body? Why not just do a new body of a more current Cadillac or some other more popular lowrider? Either way, it is what it is and I'm glad it came out at all. I can use it to restore some old junkers I have.

I gotta wonder, does anyone know if the parts from the Mod Stockers series could be used to complete cars like these? Or are the grilles and bumpers too butchered to use here? BTW Snake, you're so lucky to have so many of those gems to be able to trade - I mean restore! 'Ahem' ?

Was this the seller on Ebay who would take complete kits, current or vintage and part them out to sell as parts? I remember seeing mint or restorable kits that he posted that way. Bodies were $25-30 or more, chassis $20, interiors $20, chrome $15-20, tires or wheels $12-15. Just absurd pricing, without any regard to rarity or desirability. All I could think was, "I would have wanted that as a complete kit, not the parts" or "That's a current or recently issued kit that can be bought for a fraction of what he wants for just parts". It was frustrating to me because I just saw him as an opportunist who just want to make a buck out of every little piece, not a hobbyist who enjoyed the kits themselves. The way I saw it, whatever he couldn't sell, he probably just threw out! I don't feel his costs and overhead justified his pricing. He could have gotten broken or damaged parts kits, sold off the good, usable parts for a FAIR price and we would have been happy to keep buying from him time and time again. As it was, complete kits were simply scattered to the wind and probably very few parts actually SOLD for what he was asking. Such a waste!

Nah, I was there. The 80s was all about Pastel, Monochromatic paint jobs with swoosh wave inspired graphics. Cars back then looked like decorated Easter eggs with big fat tires a huge blowers! The Nova and VW are "Totally 80s - to the max, fer sure!"

If you want to build a salt flats racer, I'll trade you an unbuilt one for it instead. That one looks too nice as is.

And besides, the Camaro and Trans Am bodies are SUPERIOR to anyone else's version. If you want one right, Monogram is the only game. Corvettes are really good too!

Stock.... And Custom....

I'm feeling a bit "gassy" myself!

If you think that one's bad, this is my opinion of THEE worst box art - bar none! Box art is supposed to sell the kit, not chase buyers away - laughing! I can't imagine who approved this abomination, it certainly won't attract first time buyers. Luckily the contents are a lot better than the cover.

Judging by the color behind the missing side trim, it was probably a copper or dark gold paint - with a deep red or brown interior. It sounds like a stunning color combination! If you decided to return it to original.

Beautiful cars, Tim.

Can anybody help me with this? Does the twin scoop hood on the Revell 70 Cuda have the correct shape? It looks too "lumpy" to me. The bulges look too big, especially the area between the scoops. I'm converting one into a '71 and I'd like to use the hood if it's correct, but I'm not sure. MrMopar are you listening?

Easy, just use an inner tube, or "Fix a Flat".? J.K. Seriously, I had that problem. The weight of the built model was making the tires go flat. Especially on large scale kits. What I did was pack the inside of the tires with florists modelling clay (the green kind that never hardens) and then attach the wheels inside them. They're still round to this day! Plus you can put a little flat spot on them for realism. Hope this helps.

Nice job, I really like the weathering and the stance of the Chevelle - it's got "70s street hero" all over it! Go see my post under "General" regarding gassers and street freaks, this is exactly what I had in mind. Thanks for the inspiration.

Really nice work!

He always seemed to have bizarre taste in styling. He ended up making an expensive Caddy look like a cheap, used Studebaker with Dodge Phoenix styling thrown in. Both cars he had already designed, so I have to ask "Why?". Just my opinion, though.

Now were talkin'!

I have to believe that their inspiration for this... Was this...

So true!