Chuck Most

You'll need to trim the back of the 'cab' piece for it to fit over the kickup in the frame, but other than that it's a pretty good fit.

Yes, it would.

If I can find that Blue Oval kit, I'm turning it into a Mercury Colony Park, just because.

I know Norm has a '32 Ford grille shell reworked to fit a '37 truck insert, haven't seen any others from him though.

Ah. Okay! The Reliable castings I've seen were cast in a darker resin. I'd still try carefully heating it carefully one area at a time.

Finished 22, bought (or otherwise obtained) about fifty, and sold about thirty I'd had stashed, so I guess I can at least keep things in check.

I think that's an AAM body- in that case, a replacement would not be possible. Best I can suggest is using a hair dryer and CAREFULLY heating the afflicted areas, and reworking them by hand. With resin that thick, might be a bit of effort, but certainly not impossible.

Jim built his buggy from the start to run a 4.3- it does have quite a bit of rear overhang to make room for engine mounts, and an obvious rear-weight bias. His problem is he uses off-the-shelf half shafts (basically replacement OE units) and has a right foot made of lead. I will say the guy has been running buggies for longer than I've been alive, and all his previous ones had VW engines. I have heard of some of those issues with Corvair powered buggies, though I've only seen a handful of those compared to the VWs. Guess I know why now!

I heard Blue Oval Resin casters was out of business? I'll have to seek out one of those '88/91 kits, though, regardless.

Tell that to my neighbor- he has a buggy with a rear-mounted 4.3 V6. Talk about causing problems. To say the thing gets squirelly if you so much as look at the gas pedal funny is an understatement! And nevermind the number of half-shafts he's managed to rip to shreds on the dunes.

Same here. You can get the body style before that (Missing Link Resin) and after (Lindberg '97 Police Interceptor). Now that I think of it, nobody does the '98-up style either, so I guess that's two fullsize Fords not in kit form, though the 98 style is available in diecast.

I believe the Bandit transkit also has the early-style small bumpers as well.

Bad news- the '78-'91 Crown Victoria LTD is the one big Ford that hasn't been kitted, in plastic or resin.

Agreed, and the Holden wouldn't kill me, either. I don't see a Kaiser though.

If you don't mind mixing 1:24 and 1:25 scale pieces. Which I don't, by the way. Hey- for the most part nobody will know unless you tell them or they happen to notice the part, right? Craig- looks like you are a Manx kit, a set of MRC Keystones, and a can of Testors Mystic Emerald away from modeling your buggy!

$100 for an Airfix 1:24 aircraft kit? Last time I was at Dean's, he had two of them (Junkers Ju-87B-2 and P-51 D Mustang) for forty bucks apiece, sealed. Sometimes, if you can find the right deal, cost isn't even a factor.

In other news- hosed off the '52 in Mystic Emerald. Now I just need to pick up some BMF and set aside about a week and a half to do all the trim. Yes, it's a terrible photo- the green looks way better in person, or at least in better lighting.

To some, absolutely. But when you're talking about a kit this rare, might be another matter. Then again, I only 'collect' them until I have the chance to build 'em, so what do I know?

I believe the Tim Flock '52 kit has a full interior, and the upholstery is slightly different than the '53's. So it might be the better of the two kits to start with for the Porky's car because of that and the grille, wheels, and hood ornament. (Then again, the Porky's car had what looked like an old JC Whitney-esque hood ornament, so scratch that for your particular build. )Then you'd just need to rework the roof, re-scribe the door lines, and make copies of the door handles. But starting with the '53 would be feasible too, just a little bit more work to pull off the conversion. Not sure if the '52 includes the stock exhaust, but if it didn't, I know I've got a few perfectly good '53 exhaust systems I'll not be using. As far as getting both... well... of course you know I'm going to try to convince you to buy as many of these kits as humanly possible, right?

Hmmmmm. Might have to use an AMT Parts Pack Corvair Spyder engine and some K&S tubing for the axle tubes.

I know the most recent reissue (2002-ish?) had quite a few of the original Ala Kart parts in it, almost enough of them to build the Ala Kart in fact. I'd like to see them bring it back as a double kit, but being they have the newer-tool Ala Kart kit in the stash as well, I don't know how likely it would be. I suppose it would be a question of how much it would cost to restore the original molds as opposed to just reissuing the second Ala Kart kit.

Roger- best bet might be this, but they can be a bit pricey- This one might be easier to find, and way cheaper- Craig... THANKS for posting that. Now I'm going to have to build something close to it! That thing is wicked. Speaking of engines- how good is the engine in the Manx kit? If the engine in it is decent, I might be in for a few more just for the powerplants and transaxles.

Like that one, Wayne! Something on a similar note- A guy bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas. After hearing about it, a friend of his said, "Well, you spent a lot of money, but for that price, you could have bought her that sporty four-wheel-drive vehicle she wanted." The guy said, "Yeah, but where was I going to find a fake Jeep?"

Or, he could just consider the grand he spent an investment in having something cool in his collection. Then he'd be pulling pure profit.... after deducting the cost of rubber for his molds.

Nice! You did that particular kit justice.