Chuck Most

With all the talk of Coronavirus, I thought I'd counteract that with a Corolla virus. ? It's the Fujimi TE27 Levin kit with wheels and tires from a Fujimi AE86. It's lowered a bit in front and converted to LHD. The idea was an old US market beater with a few JDM touches.

This was just a simple project based around an AMT kit. It has a bench seat from an Extreme, Rally wheels from a 1968 El Camino, and home printed decals. After taking these pictures I added backup lights using BMF. The kit went together OK, though I had to trim the throttle quite a bit to get the hood to shut over the intake duct.

That's.... certainly putting it diplomatically. I'll be keeping an eye on this one. I'm looking forward to seeing make a silk purse out of it. :)

This was a quick, simple throw-it-together consisting of an AMT F150 long bed, a Moebius service truck body, and 8-bolt wheels from Scenes Unlimited. It's loosely based on a mid '60's-ish Dodge I remember seeing as a kid near the local campground. I just updated it and Ford-ified the idea.

This was a hodge-podge (Dodge-podge?) of bits from a 1994 issue of the Little Red Express, the '78 long bed reissue, and a Slant Six with Hyper Pak from Motor City Resin Casters. It also has a slush-cast '74-6 grille, and steel wheels from the CHP Monaco, which are a far sight better than the steel wheels provided in the '78 long bed, though I did use one of those wheels for the "cowcatcher" spare.

Not very, at least until you stretched the Bel Air's wheelbase to match the Buick at least. As far as a good Nailhead, the '66 Riv has one, albeit with a dual quad intake. .

This is the second and likely last of my RedLetterMedia-themed models, the first being the 2003 PT Cruiser for Lightning Fast VCR repair. Here is the '76 Fury belonging to Chunky's Chicken, proudly serving the south side of Milwaukee since 1993. It is a later reissue of the Joker Goon car, with a Fury conversion from Missing Link, a Motor City Resin Casters Slant Six engine, home printed decals, and a giant chicken from Schleich. The steel wheels came from the MPC '78 Dodge pickup. Be advised, the steel wheels included in the CHP Monaco look better, despite not being correct Mopar cop wheels. http://chunkyschicken.com/

Modern Cryogenics Monthly went out of print in 2006. I let my subscription lapse in '03 but I can mail you the back issues I do have.

Because not everybody is into Chevelles and Novas. Then again, I'm the guy who will walk straight past those without breaking stride just to check out a mint '86 Plymouth Voyager out in the grass lot. Something like this is infinitely more interesting to me than just another silver, LS-powered faux-touring muscle car or lifted old 4x4.

Hello, neighbor! No, literally guys... he's my across-the-road neighbor. :P I'm the one who told him about this forum so I apologize in advance.

Just here to verify that the Miss Deal rear axle is, indeed, a tad too large to look convincing. It seems closer in size to a 40's 1-1/2 ton axle and would probably be more suitable for something like that, if it were a 2-speed. Reworking one of the aforementioned Revell Anglia kit axles might be the way to go. On the plus side? 8 bolt wheels are the easy part of your search. On the left are the W28 1:25 scale wheels from Scenes Unlimited, and on the right are the W44 1:24 scale units from the same caster. The separate floating hubs are below the wheels. Here is the W28 in an AMT M&H slick, with the W44 in a Revell M&H slick. The W44 is just a tad small for the Revell opening, despite the wheel being 1:24 and the tire being 1:25, but it would work if the wheel back pushed it out far enough to look seated on the bead. On the other hand, the W28s fit the AMT slicks like a tailored suit. The BNL castings of the old MPC 4x4 wheels were mentioned. Here's a comparison of them with the W28 in the AMT slick. You can see how large and deep they are. Now, Ford did offer a 19.5" wheel as an option on the F-250 in the '50's and early '60's. In a pinch these might be passable for those. But they were rare and much narrower than depicted in the MPC wheel. Sure, you could say they're widened Ford wheels but I doubt anybody was making a racing slick for a 19.5" wheel in that period, or today. Much less one that had been widened.

Nobody is going to rake Round2 over the coals for not announcing a C8 kit? I don't know how to feel about that...

Some of you are going to be really disappointed. I'm not building a Grand National. I'm not building a GNX. I'm building... a GM10 Regal. Yep. The one that initially came only with a 2.8 V6, automatic, split bench seat, and a sound system that only played Wayne Newton and gospel music. And those b-pillar door handles that looked so cool and broke so easily. Yes, eventually the GM10 platform got it's poop in a group and became halfway decent. Eventually you could even get a Regal with a supercharged 3.8 V6. I'm starting with one of those 1:24 scale promos. These things are cheap as dirt and for some reason I've accumulated about five of them over the years. They're all molded in a horrendous burgundy plastic that will bleed through eight coats of sealer and a skim of concrete, and most of them look like they were assembled by a blindfolded spider monkey. I did not take a before pic, but this one was filled with cobwebs and coated in a decent layer of dust and nicotine when I got it. I think I paid about five bucks for it... and I balked even then. The idea is that Buick continued the turbocharged Regal idea after the G-Body was canned with an abbreviated 1988 season. While the 3.8 was a mighty machine with a spinny-boy attached to it, a 2.8 could use a turbo just to compete with a healthy four-cylinder. Given GM's thing for turbocharging in the late '80's and early '90's, though, who knows? Maybe it could have been.... competent. Worst case scenario, they could cook up a Regal that at least looked the part. First, all of the trim and badging was removed. GM's penchant for parts-binning things gave me some ideas for what to add. The GNX fender vents would make a comeback, and there had to be a bulged hood scoop. This one was cut from an '83 Hurst Olds and grafted into the Buick bonnet. We'll say it's a plastic hood. Or... as GM would insist... it's a composite hood. An old Fujimi accessories set coughed up a couple of fog lights. All of the chrome was stripped, and the bumper guards were removed. I also opened up the vent in the bumper, even though it will be mostly unseen. The wheels came from a Monogram GNX, but the tires are from an Aoshima kit. Possibly an Infiniti Q45. They're just a touch shorter than the Goodyears in the GNX kit. There is more to come with the exterior touches but this is where we stand as of now. The promo includes a split bench, which is open in the back and mounts via two thick posts. The posts were ground down. In the spirit of GM parts bin logic, I used a center console from an MPC Cavalier tub. The Cavalier's seats were also test fit but I don't know if I"ll keep them yet or not. The GNX steering wheel was also used. Somehow this hallucination seemed to beg for a manual transmission. The molded brake pedal was ground away, and a clutch/brake pedal assembly was pirated from a NASCAR kit. I think the pistol grip shifter came from another Fujimi accessories set. Here you can see where the mounting posts for the stock seat used to be, and my less-than-pretty grafting of the center console. As the car began to take shape, I started to think that to compensate for the performance deficit of this compared to it's predecessor, Buick would probably try to offset that by giving the car more awesome '80's tech. That means a head-up display. The Regal's sisters Cutlass Supreme and Grand Prix offered this feature, but as far as I can tell, the Regal never did. Not even on the supercharged GS from the '90's. So I added one here. I basically made a rectangular appendage that I hope will at least resemble a HUD unit once it's blended in and painted. That's it for now. I'm hoping this will be a quick project, so... maybe five years from now you'll see it in Under Glass.

I just got one of these a month or two ago. I'm planning more of a luxury show-car theme for mine. Really liking your take on it.

Which specific kit from which specific manufacturer? You can't honestly expect a concise answer when you're talking about four decades worth of subject matter from three different manufacturers. The only general statement I can make is that the more recently the kit was released, the better it will be, which is true for pretty much any kit manufacturer.

And now you know why I prefer buying long-OOP oldies in glue bomb form.

I would love a kit of a newer Charger. I absolutely hated the pre-facelift version, though it has grown on me a bit in the years since. But I really like the look of the facelifted Charger. Especially the taillights- those look so cool at night. And I see lots of them in Michigan State Police trim, so there's that.

Last week I made my monthly/twice monthly run to Dean's Hobby Stop, and nabbed three MPC Dukes Dodge Monaco kits off the clearance table. Two were started but mostly complete. The third had the body, interior, and chassis painted, engine assembled, and included a Fury grille and resin full wheel covers. All I did was a little foiling and detail painting and finish it. The kit also had the Yodel tail lights. I thought they looked awful so I robbed the tail lights from one of the other MPC kits and detailed them. Is it just me or do the taillights in the MPC Monaco look more like Fury taillights anyway? The engine might be from a '71 Duster, with a resin automatic transmission behind it. The kit also had a 1966 Michigan plate that disintegrated the second it touched water. I had the Tomkinson Chrysler-Plymouth dealer plate, so I robbed a current Indiana plate from the MPC '86 El Camino for the back to use. After being unhappy with painted narrow whitewalls, I left the tires black. Finally, I stole the side view mirror from a Foose Cadillac of all things. So... Mr or Mrs MPC Monaco collector... if you're out there reading this... your Fury is finished.

Looks like he's getting more of my money when this is out! I need to bite the bullet and just start buying his truck wheel/tire sets in bulk...

Not quite... but, I've been kicking around an idea as to what happens to the Ranger later. I started thinking about that one while I was building this one. The idea is that Jerry gets a new daily driver, leaving the Ranger parked behind his barn where it's vulnerable to be swiped by some buddies and given the Overhaulin' treatment. Or, it might become the basis to one of Jerry's business vehicles. Maybe both. I was poking around an AMT Ranger kit earlier today so we'll see...

According to this builder, there's quite a bit of interchangability with the JoHan... https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/automotion/hasegawa-1966-cadillac-conversion-t419.html

I love everything about it! I would love to see that engine make a comeback, but I'm not holding my breath. ?

Maybe the one with the sleeper was actually designed and planned first, but the regular kit ended up being released first. Stranger things have happened. I have no idea if I'm right or not but it sounds plausible enough to me.

I would love that kit, even though I think I'd have more use for the wacky custom parts it includes.

Ask and ye shall receive... Here's the grille. I wouldn't even say it's bad, it's just that the insert seems to be recessed into the frame a bit. In it's favor it has better headlight detail (albeit engraved) than the '72 Cheyenne longbed I'm sure we're all familiar with. And it's clearly not the custom horizontal tube grille shown on the box. When I saw that the insert was recessed I thought it was because there was a separate overlay for that custom insert, but that isn't the case. The front bumper- which is not shown or mentioned on the box. The wheels on the box are a modular alloy type, but are deep dish, showing six lugs. The actual kit wheels are narrower, five-lug units, but also of modular design. And the oddly shaped rear fenders (below, in black) shown with the much better units from a '72 GMC (top, gray).