ChrisPflug

Another eBay purchase in not too bad of shape - no big plans for this one, just a basic rebuild keeping the MPC "character" I had a resin '74 hood in the parts box. For the engine I'm thinking of using the much maligned MPC Volare LA/ Torqueflite combo. Wheels will either be slotted mags or Keystones

Got some paint on it though quite a bit of orange peel (maybe lemon peel?)

Actually the vinyl tops were also offered in green and Gator Grain for '70- although definitely not "recommended combinations" with black side stripes and burnt orange interior

Quick mockup with an MPC Formula annual body, whitewalls and finned wheel covers from the Grand Prix and a Missing Link flat hood 1980 interior tub, modified Mopar bucket seats and three spoke wheel from a 72 GTO to make a deluxe interior Thinking yellow paint and white upholstery

They're not too hard to find ( unfortunately not that great of a kit either)

Did a little digging on the history of the AMT Cougar-as far as I could find the original and 70's "Countdown" issues had an FE engine, 390 badges and the XR-7 interior and trim. The Matchbox-Lesney "Street Machine" version had the same body and interior but a hole in the hood and a Boss 429 drag engine. The "revamped" 1992 ERTL 428CJ (6529, red car on the box) kit had the trim revised and the engine was actually the MPC 428 from the MPC Cougars through '73. ERTL later released the Eliminator version (6960, yellow car on the box) with a newly tooled Boss 302- all the releases since have used the Boss 302 regardless of labeling I've only got two in my stash, the "yellow car" Eliminator and "The Replica" plain box issue- the engines are both Boss 302s as far as the design of the engine, whether or not the engine is accurately scaled may be a different story The 352-428 Ford FE series engines look "cut down" for lack of a better term- the upper half of the intake ports are cast as part of the intake manifold and the top of the valve cover actually bolts to the intake rather than the head where the Boss 302/ 335 "Cleveland" series are much more conventional looking

The Cleveland engine isn't that much smaller than the FE in real life- having one slightly large in scale and the other a little small can easily make them the "same size" in plastic LOL Believe all the older versions of the AMT Cougar used a "428" and XR-7 trim- the Boss 302 was tooled up for the ERTL "Eliminator" versions- whether or not it's sized accurately is another story

That and if you remember when these cars were new and fairly common on the streets it seems they all had fender skirts and color keyed wheel covers- dark green or gold with a vinyl top probably made up 90% of sales Certainly didn't see many with the "sportier" look (i.e. "open" rear wheelwells, rally wheels or Cragars, "brighter" colors) like you do today (or even when they became old enough to become used cars cheap enough for younger drivers)

Hmm- I'd be tempted to do the opposite- keep the burnt orange interior and change the body color to black

Need another run of the Revell based resin kit with R/T or base options Are you guys downstate listening ?

If you're looking for a hardtop rather than convertible Dodge Challenger the original MPC is much better and worth seeking out

Be sure to test fit the rear valance -I ended up taking a section out of the gas tank as well (but forget if it was absolutely necessary for fit)

The MPC annual has a "solid" roof (rather than the T-Tops of the Monogram/ Revell) and decent overall shape, typical decent bucket interior and simplified chassis, The original kit is labeled "Street Savage" but is the "new car" Camaro kit for 1979. Generally can be found for reasonable prices It's a decent kit but the '79 is molded in green plastic and the grille insert has the '78 style "Z28" on the left rather than the correct emblem Also doesn't include the wheels youre looking for- the AMT 70 1/2 might be a good donor for wheels and maybe chassis

Was thinking of some extra fog lights from an MPC Volare- interesting how the molded in turn signals disappeared between the original issues and later hot rod versions

On a snap 'cuda project I was working on a while ago I made headlight buckets out of an AMT Duster grille For that project I managed to get a resin cowl and inner fender assembly separately and just cut back the snap chassis and fitted another front subframe assembly

Numbers I had seen for the 3rd gen were 96,108 for all models of the '68, 89,199 for '69 (and 49,798 '70s)- technically less than 200,000 68-69's but still almost a quarter million of the body style built and a relatively high percentage surviving today, the 300 or so used by the show a relative drop in the bucket Around 1980-81 within 15 miles of our small town in mid-Michigan there were 3 fully done up "General Lees"- have to imagine the number of copies (most of which probably were later restored to a more tasteful configuration) vastly outnumbered the actual TV cars Much less lamenting over the "Some vehicles supplied by American Motors" 4 door Matadors wrecked Personally I'm a big Charger fan, owned a 4 speed '68 for a while years ago, and outgrew the Dukes after about their second season (at age 8 or 9), In fact my first car ride was in a silver '68

I put the AMT Challenger chassis under an old '72 MPC 'cuda annual- ended up shortening the wheelbase by taking a small section out of the rear seat floor pan area. Also had to shorten the gas tank and modified the back of the grille opening and cowl to finally get a decent fit

And with a 400 block you want to avoid the 4 bolt main version

This thread is inspiring me to bring out some of my MPC "rebuilders" when I'm back home again

One of the reasons for going with the Charger for the General was before the Dukes these cars were cheap, worn out used cars - sure they looked cool but almost nobody was calling them "classic" and with a couple hundred thousand built the standard models weren't particularly rare or even exciting. In reality without the Dukes the cars would have gone through the "normal" cycle and its likely just about all of them would have been crushed anyways by the mid eighties At least with the show they went out in a final blaze of glory Probably likely the interest sparked by the show in the second gen Charger actually saved more cars than were trashed by the stuntmen

Officially the leather/ vinyl was standard on the SE and the cloth/ vinyl a credit option. Leather or the cloth was optional on the R/T. There were availability issues with the Challenger shaker hood off and on through the model year resulting in them being much less common than on the 'cuda

The rear window plug is visible through the vinyl in this shot- gives an idea of the proportions of the SE glass to the standard opening- enough other minor proportion issues with this kit to not be a big deal to worry about correcting- still a nice model with the "small" opening- like the original factory ad artwork Plug by itself

AMT 70 Challenger- Have a 1:1 Challenger R/T and was hoping to build a decent hardtop- was hoping the box art was just bad and the contents would be better decent convertible body after molding in the front valance and engine bay is nice but most of the other parts are misshapen compared to the original car- all the interior much more sharp and squared off compared to the 1:1, bizarre looking oversized shaker setup, crude engine, etc. The latest die cast based Revell was bad (with nice interior detail) but terrible enough to be obvious from the box The Lindberg '72 started out as Palmer's attempt to make a "normal" model kit of the '71 Challenger by copying the MPC annual- the update to '72 was very poorly done and the "custom" pieces pretty cheesy

The shaker hood from the AMT kit is horrible, the interior would also be incorrect for an SE (as well as having a weird "boxy" look compared to the 1:1)- haven't tried the fit but the MPC 70-71 tub and seats have a bit better shape and the upholstery pattern matches the leather or cloth insert seats normally found on the SE AMT chassis is decent but has some strange proportions to a few components The Modelhaus sells this interior for a reasonable price Have that body and a few Challenger kits in the stash- planning on triple green for mine with a Hemi

Mainly the era these engines were built- 60's Chevies are "classic" while the 70's don't generate as much enthusiasm automotive wise. There were also some great factory 327 high performance packages but the lower level 327s were a far cry from the Fuelies or higher performance versions. Actual performance 350s were only offered for a few years and not as widely available as the hotter 327s either- If the 350 had ended with the original LT-1 rather than being Chevrolet's main engine of the "smog era" they would probably carry a bit more "mystique" Used to be anyone that had a 327 always referred to their example as a "Vette motor" Lots more 350s built but the majority of them came in very mundane packages The 350 has quite a few construction "details" to make it more suitable for the extra cubic inches and heavier applications