Chuck Most

Local radio station used to do something similar with an old Ford sedan delivery.

Though I included it in the post but here's the real life inspiration. I took a few liberties but this is where I got the idea...

Loosely based on a local bit of land. Main attractions are the AMT 1972 Chevrolet C10 and the body and interior from the AMT 1966 Chevrolet Nova Pro Street kit. Various shrubbery and whatnot came from Woodland Scenics, JTT Scenery Products, Bachmann, and Gamer Grass. This is also something of a practice run for a small rural salvage yard idea I've had in mind for a while. The mailbox was scratch built. Also never mind the fact that the Woodland Scenics flags are blowing into the wind, as indicated by the wind turbines in the background. ?

Foil over the emblems in the raw plastic, prime, and GENTLY sand off the primer. Repeat the process for paint. Depending on how well defined the emblems are that's about it. I burned through the foil on a couple corners and touched it up with paint from a Molotow chrome pen applied with the point of a toothpick. I tried the same thing on the little round emblems on the C posts but they are too faint so they were foiled after paint.

When Moebius announced the 1965 Nova Gasser, I couldn't wait to get one. Because my first thought was to stick a Johan F85 body on it. It took me this long to make it happen but here we are. The chassis is more or less out of the box, with the firewall modified to fit against the Cutlass cowl. The Johan interior tub has the floor cut out, and I used the tach, aux gauges, wheel and column from the Nova. Seats came from a Revell Rat Roaster, because the Nova seats were too wide for the Johan tub. The engine and transmission are AMT 1969 Cutlass, the blower came from a Revell 41 Willys. I used the small block headers from the Nova even though they don't even come close to matching the Olds exhaust ports. I had to move the electric fan up front because it's tight in there! Paint is Tamiya Pure White outside and Italian Red inside. The Rocket Man decals came from a Gopher Racing sheet. A 1962 Michigan plate from Three Inches Under is the finishing touch.

Oldest custom car trick in the book... Swap on the grille and/or complete front end sheet metal from a newer, fancier, or upscale vehicle. Basically that's all I did here. Basic kit was the new AMT 1992 1500, and the nose from a 2005 Escalade was grafted on. I also used the Escalade side mirrors. At one time there was a kit that provided bespoke fenders and a few other doodads to enable you to fit a GMT800 Escalade front end to a GMT400. My "DIY" example doesn't exactly match those but I think it works well enough. Wheels and tires are from the AMT 1998 Chrysler Concorde, paint is Tamiya Brilliant Orange, and the Cadillac style taillights are just foil and clear red. The tonneau cover and roll pan are .030" plastic sheet.

A year and a half or so ago, I built a stock-ish 1961 Ranchero, with door graphics for a "Quality Automotive Chemicals" business. I had the notion of this company running a fleet of red Rancheros, and even though the company is long gone, a few of their old runners are still around in private ownership. With that in mind, I built a 1960 version on a modified AMT 66 Nova pro street chassis. It's painted the same red as the 61, and has a dual quad 302 from an MPC 1988 Mustang. And of course it has the Quality Automotive Chemicals logos on the doors. And it's in it's own post but since I'm too lazy to look for it, here's the 61.

All you need is the GMC grille emblem from the AMT Sonoma for the grille and a decal for the tailgate. But yeah, would be a nice little twist to get a box stock, factory stock GMC variant.

Minor correction. The 3500 with the GMC grille has a tonneau cover, not the shell. The shell is in the 1993 Chevrolet C1500 extended cab long bed Snapfast Plus kit. Stock green truck on the box. The shell isn't shown or mentioned on the box but it's in there.

Yessir. The original 1996 dually was part of the Snapfast Plus line. Basically an unassembled dealer promo. There was a Brickyard promo that was a short box regular cab, but I think this is the first time AMT offered this configuration as a curbside kit (they did a 454 SS kit but it was full detail).

Spoiler alert... The dash snaps into the interior tub. The tailgate snaps in at the hinges but won't stay shut without glue. The grille doesn't technically snap in but there's enough of a tension fit you *might* be able to get away without using glue. ? But yeah, Easy Build just means Easy Build for these kits and I'm happy to say they're exactly as described in that aspect.

I might add some more stuff to the bed, a little more weathering will happen then. Or I'll just say screw it and leave it all as is ... But add some blue stains to the toilet bowl. ?

Finally found a cheap diecast Lincoln Mark LT. It was a scratch and dent kinda deal... A couple paint blemishes, a missing wiper and passenger side mirror, but for my purposes I'm not gonna spend $200 on a pristine example.

It isn't. It's curbside. Lots of people just assume that means it snaps together. He's going to be really pleased to find out both those kits require glue. ?

A while back, I snapped up a few AMT Ertl Rides Magazine Escalades for dirt cheap. Mostly to rob the 4x4 specific parts for other projects. This was one of those. More than enough of it left to do a quick slammer. The remainder of the kit was used to create a fauxtina'd, bagged, and body dropped street truck. Other than the Michigan plate from Three Inches Under, everything is out of the box. I even used one of the Rides Magazine decal plates up front. Paint is Tamiya Light Green, sanded through to expose primer and weathered with Vallejo acrylics. I avoided rust on the plastic parts of the truck, though doing this to a real truck would probably be done with a vinyl wrap. I left the bed cover off because Ertl inexplicably did a great job replicating the Avalanche/EXT cargo bed, and eventually I plan to put something back there.

As you said,may not be an accurate representation of a MH conversion, but dare I say I think it looks better.

I'm pretending that Coke cooler is just absolutely crammed full of snakes ?

Nice added touch with the fuel filler cap, something MPC forgot to really address as the 1:1 trucks moved away from the in cab fuel tank. Also, great job with the grille/splash apron fit. That's easily the worst part of the kit as far as parts fit goes.

New AMT kit with a few minor alterations. The front bumper and lift gate were scratch built, and optional mirrors from the 1992 1500 kit were swapped on. Don't try any "spot the stuff from Iceman Collections" drinking games. The base model grille came from Iceman Collections , and so did the kegs and milk crate in the bed. That fantastic little toilet is from jaysresinwheels1948 on ebay, though Iceman also sells a toilet as part of a diorama set. The vending machine and cooler came from a couple AMT Coke branded kits, and a Moebius F250 spare tire and wheel fill out the rest. The body was weathered and damaged and I gave the rear suspension a sag. Not sure where Larry is taking all that stuff but the truck can almost handle it.

Could be it is or it could just appear that way because I didn't detail the cargo light areas at the ends.

Yep, it's the newly re-created AMT kit. I built it out of the box with three exceptions. First, it has a current style Michigan plate from Three Inches Under. It had originally planned to use the kit's Lazy Larry markings but opted to save those for a junker version and I used Magic City Car Wash graphics from a Gopher Racing sheet. And I used the optional mirrors from the 1992 1500 kit because they more closely resemble the aero towing mirrors available by 1996. Not much to gripe about. I could get the driver side quarter window to snap into the opening but the passenger pane didn't wanna play ball in that aspect. The instructions seem to have the upper and lower lens numbers mixed up. I installed what's called out as the upper lens in the lower bezel and vice versa and the lenses look and fit better. Paint is Tamiya Camel Yellow outside, Revell Ochre Brown inside. All in all I like this kit better than the 1992 1500. I'm kinda hoping AMT will roll out a crew cab version at some point.

Anybody take a look at the decal sheet? What is "constriction clean up"? Is Lazy Larry also a snake handler? ?

Makes sense. Since the only Expedition kits I have in my stash are the SSV version (2wd chassis plate) I tend to forget about the 4x4 chassis. ? And hey, since you just repositioned the axle it shouldn't be too much of a chore to adjust if the rear wheel placement starts bothering you too much. ?

Glad you actually read it. I can't tell you how many times I say something like "I got the grille from such and such a source" and the replies are "durrrrr... Where did you get the grille" ?‍♂️

Nice result, despite the shortcomings. Question. Why not just use the Expedition chassis rather than stretch the Lightning chassis?