Rick R

The customers I'm talking about would have taken the car as a second or weekend car, the same people who have restored musclecars and money to afford a toy. I know several GTO loyalists who bought the new car and absolutely loved it... waaaay fast, agile, 20-mpg on the highway, good sounds, excellent seats, great AC, and waaaay fast. Each one came with its own ticket book. I'm friends with Jim Wangers, legendary Pontiac ad guy, he says Pontiac was badly marketed for most of the time since DeLorean got kicked upstairs to run Chevrolet in 1969. That may be a bit exaggerated, I think the various Grands Prix and Firebird efforts were well-done, only in recent years were great cars ignored. The mantra of GM sucks is starting to appeal to me after the treatment of Olds and now Pontiac. Mercury really never had the challenge of success... neat cars, yes, but never lines waiting to buy 'em...

Look for the old-tooling AMT '57 Chevy... after you delete your duplicate posts?

Just a thought, but the Marauder was a neat effort, a good if not an 'outathepark' home run. It was developed at the top of the Impala SS resale market frenzy, but probably came a few years too late. It added the only mystique that any Merc showroom had seen for many years. Main demo age for a Grand Marquis buyer is 'dead'. I owned three of the German Capri series 1 cars in the 70s, loved 'em, and watched as Ford scuttled that product as a result of the Carter economy (high inflation/high interest rates/dollar devaluation) in the late 70s. Even when the domestic Capri and the Zephyr Z7 came along those guys reeeeeally wanted you to buy a Mark V instead! It's also ironic that posters here are shortsighted re: marketing to adults over 40. Bet they ain't getting younger either... The oh-so-proper over-educated MBAs at the car companies are doing their companies great harm through their short-sightedness. Case in point, the '04-06 Pontiac GTO, by far the best-performing Pontiac ever to wear that badge. It was marketed, though, by a woman who refused to use the word 'Musclecar' in ads, and refused to aim any effort at the people who remembered the originals from the 60s. That car was aimed at under-30, 3-series BMW coupe buyers, and it (and she...)deservedly flopped. Why not market it to the older group, those who knew the tradition AND HAD THE MONEY to afford the car? Probably because the Marketing Professors wouldn't approve...

I work with a charity, Fueled by the Fallen, that memorializes fallen American troops from the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters and law enforcement professionals lost in the line of duty. Founder is actor Kevyn Major-Howard, most famous for his role of 'Rafterman' in Stanley Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket'. The effort uses doorslammer drag cars as rolling memorials. Each car is painted in the accurate camoflage motif for a specific branch of service, then the names of soldiers are displayed on the sheetmetal. Each car- 3-Fox body Mustangs, 3-early Novas, a '70 Challenger, and two funny cars based on the East Coast- is a real operating drag car and they compete regularly at Irwindale Raceway in California. The Law Enforcement cars are a pair of Crown Vics with special graphics and electronics packages. Kevyn has a way of doing special events on Memorial Day weekend with the FBTF cars. Last year they were displayed at Arlington National Cemetary in DC. This year the cars were taken to New York City for display at the Fox News Channel and an appearance on the Huckabee Show which airs three times starting Saturday evening. Go to www.fueledbythefallen.com for more details and pics of the cars.

Nice work! Always great to see one rise from the dead!

IIRC the F&F Camaro kit was originally the MPC 69 Camaro, which was modified to a short track car during the 70s then 'modified back' during the musclecar fad of the 80s. Bad job on the body though, front wheel wells too low, sloppy detailing and loose panel fits, poor quality control, even bad plating on some I've seem. Get the Revell unless you really want to replicate the Camaro as it landed on the boat at the end of the movie!

Waaay back in 1986 we created and promoted an NNL-style model event that turned out to be really popular with the people who attended it. The first Western Classic was held alongside the Barris Model Car Auction (which was truly painful) and we ain't doin' THAT again, but the Saturday night event at the Beverly Garland Hotel in North Hollywood was a great event. Special Guests included many members of the original AMT Customizing Team as well as Budd anderson, Don Emmons, Pat Ganahl and other leaders of the hobby. Several great new 'builder heroes' started to emerge at that event and though print coverage was weak the word of mouth for the event was amazing! While many of those pioneers are no longer with us there is plenty of potential for attendance by the current leaders of the hobby. Time flies, so on the 25th Anniversary of that first event we MAY do a reprise, if there is sufficient interest among the participants in the hobby. We'd be shooting for the same general area if not the same venue, we would add sponsorship and vendors tables to the mix, and the event would be a benefit for Fueled By The Fallen, which aids the families of fallen and injured American military and Law Enforcement officers. I'm trying to gauge initial interest for such an event before I burn off a lot of time, money and energy preparing it. Times have changed a lot since 1986, which was pretty much the top of the market for the re-energized hobby, so I'm wanting to determine whether it's worth the effort, and I'd appreciate comments and/or feedback. Thanks!

How about some influence from the new GT350? Coolest looking Shelby since the original, designed by Larry Wood from Hot Wheels!

Good stuff! Rare to see agressive custom work on late model subjects... Only one thing... Look at the different shapes you're using, like the rectangular grille and the curve of the fenders on the Ford peekop... the grille on the real build would be done from metal stock machined to shape, so the squared corners wouldn't be used and there wouldn't be such a shape conflict. I could also see wider lights at the rear or a smaller center stoplight. Check out the current restyle-oriented magazines for ideas. Stuff looks really good for a start though!

Well done! Magnificent paint work! Those cars were NEVER that shiny! I recently got a dvd set of Streets of San Francisco, which used Galaxies of each new model year, '72-'77 gold with tan vinyl interiors, so there's another potential use... I remember Michael Douglas' last onscreen line as he was leaving the series... 'I'm gonna miss this old tank!' Bet Ford loved that one!!!

What a neat piece of work! I've done a few magazine features on Yenkos, that one is vary cool (and more fun than most 'real' ones)! Only addition I'd make is a cowl-induction hood and dual exhaust, but havinbg driven a Chevette for a few weeks a long time ago the dual exhaust would just be dead weight...

I dunno... An iconic lump of American Iron like a GTX kinda needs an cionic lump of motor to pull it around with authority. The ZX motor may fit in the engine bay, but it just doesn't 'FIT' the aura of the car. The GTX was a heavy fully-optioned car maybe 3600 pounds dry, not a lightweight. The real charm of the Hemi is the strump-pulling torque, useful for pulling all that weight, probably enough to take the low-profile tires apart in a block or so at full throttle. As an example the Fast & Furious II movie car crew tried to put a turbo import motor in the Mustang feature car they built, but it wasn't strong enough to do the job onscreen so they used a Foird crate motor to perform the movie stunts. Movie still stunk... How aout a simulated Aluminum crate Hemi with the B&M supercharger/Accel injection unit that came in the AMT custom '68 El Camino, with the headers described earlier? That'd give the high-tech vibe you're angling for... Oh, and the 440 was the standard engine in the GTX, the Hemi was optional...

I can relate to the problems you're having with this beast! The tooling goes all the way back to the original '67 GTO promo, which was a thing of beauty! Things have gone downhill a bit since then! First, the chassis ,the seats (I think) and at least one tree of parts is straight from the MPC '70 GTO kit, perhaps because someone at some point lost the chassis insert for the '67 A-body. The proper length of chassis may be found in the later-tool AMT '67 Chevelle, but I don't know if it'll fit easily. The unplated grille inserts are accurate! Those pieces is used on the promos... Of the AMT kits you listed, (NICE STASH, BTW!!!) only the 'GTO and the '70 SS454 are done from old tools from the promo era, and I may be wrong about the Chevelle, as I do not have one, prefer the Monogram/Revell. The MoPars were created during the second golden era of the hobby, in the 80s, and are 'borderline magnificent' kits that have made 'good modellers' of many of us who probably weren't all that great before. Gotta take the poster to task about Round 2, though. The people I talk to there in preparing model stuff for 'real car' mags have shown great energy and ambition. Tom Lowe, while he does wish there to be a profit, is doing a LOT for the hobby after the RC2 laziness/stupidity was mercifully ended. Had he not stepped in those dies mighta been sold for scrap... that's how bad it'd gotten, and no one at the business end cared one whit about our hobby! Count your blessings! The older product like this GTO kit is lacking in many ways, but modellers are famous for their determination and ability to kick a bad kit in the gonads, wrestle it to the ground, and make it right... right?

Not to say though that there are not body style options. I recently got a Highway 61 '53 Hornet Convertible (1/18th scale) that is a true vision of automotive class. If the Mobius kit captures the shape as well, it's expected it'll take about a minute for a resin caster to whip up a boot, a good 'uptop' and maybe a continental kit, though I think the Ckit would ruin the flow of the car. More likely I'll ramp up a couple as early Nascar racers, just a natural given the history of the cars. They will be a big hit and I'm thinkin' it'll get a lot of respect and business, raising the bar of the hobby yet again just as the 'better-tech' AMT kits and the Galaxie Chevies did in the late 90s. At least this time we don't have the spectre of 'diecast fever' tugging at our wallets!

Nope... '68 Shelby, red box art car with huge door mirror...

Depending on where you live, you may have a auto paint supplier who can match paint colors... here in SoCal we have Stan Betz, a legend in paint circles... but the idea is to have a supplier recommend the right shooter, someone with the correct hvlp gun and access to the proper additives like Flex agent. Don't forget the clear! Most I know would shoot the mirror cases for $20, some for a case of beerr and a fast roll around the block in your 'Stang!

Okay, wait... Thirteen YEARS? Geez, what's the rush? What would Dr. Laura say??? I recall David Letterman's old NBC daytime show in the very early '80s, he talked to an audience member, a woman from the Midwest who had come to New York to see the tv show instead of attending her daughters' wedding. Letterman was aghast, so with tongue planted firmly in cheek he made the best of it, 'Well, you made the right decision, madam! Your daughter will have what, six? eight? weddings in her lifetime, but this crappy tv show'll be gone in a few weeks!' Best wishes for a happy wedding! Champagne and the vitamins from the checkouts at 7-11s work just fine...

I have recently been spending a little too much on old kits and builtups on that big website... It has led me to an observation and a question. I have been a model builder since I was nine years old, never gave myself a lot of credit for 'killer builds' because of time limitations and my basic laziness. I've seen the best at the events I've been a part of, and I give no competition to anyone other than myself... However... After buying (and seeing up close) some of the kits I've found, especially stuff built decades ago by who knows what eight year old, I'm flat amazed at how well I was doing by comparison! I somehow avoided the trap of using three bottles of clashing shades of PLA enamel, every part in the box, all the decals, and a whole tube of glue to not-quite-finish a model... 'Yea, ME!!!' (Fat lot of good it does all these years later!) BUT... after seeing all the kits I've seen and built, one that I got today has me stumped! I have never seen anything like it... It's an unbuilt, early reiassue AMT/Ertl '68 Shelby GT500 molded in a deep metallic green... not a BAD metallic green, just an unexpected metallic green, and one that will be covered with something else pretty soon. Anyone ever seen one of these?

Remember though that the tax situation was quite different then than now. If the cars were valued at say 10,000 apiece the thrill would wear off really rapidly when the tax bill arrived! Probably made for a great dinner conversation somewhere in middle America... Dad! I won a car!!! No, son, you won a showcar! The cars were probably substituted for a smaller cash amount, but I would imagine that Darryl Starbird would know the fates of the cars if they are not in his custom car museum in Kansas...

Wow! The chassis is a work of art! As is the Hemi and the runnung gear and the interior and... I sense a trend... Showed the site and the Cuda project to a friend, one of my promotional contacts, and he asked about the seperate sale of the Hemi. Since you steadfastly!!! refuse!!! to offer financing for the whole package, his idea and product may be a cool thing, and I can make it happen if you wish. Ring up www.Easy-Run.com to see Al Freilich's Easy Run Engine test stand, a great resting place for the TDR Hemi while the rest of the TDR Cuda is in the works. It could be made in 1/8th scale with little hassle, but you'd want to talk to Al to get dimensions and feedback. He's stoked about the potential here, and is a good guy to have in your corner. I am too.

As a few here know I freelance write for 'real car' magazines, so if you really want some attention for these things, e-mail me direct so I can set some editors up for pics. I do the same thing for several diecast companies and aftermarket parts sources, with excellent results... (okay, MOST of the time...) I know you're gonna want to actually SELL the ###### things, (can't eat 'em, it messes up the paint) and I d be happy to help. I operate from one principal... 'You can't get the customers money til you get the customers attention'... Rick Rothermel 702-684-3418 rickr442@gmail.com

JF has always struck me as a really good guy who's passing on one of the benefits of his business accumen to his favorite hobby. He does a lot of, ummm, lets call 'em 'high profit' items for the fringes of the 'replica market'... look at his X-rated catalog for hints... and those folks are apparently all really wealthy (or really gullible) because those prices are through the roof... I always wondered about his 'research' and 'prototype authentication' methods... The JF entity has excellent products and the best prices in the hobby.

I can relate... The Challenger is a nmuch larger visage than the originals were and large masses of solid color, as in the red of the S&M cars, are a 'hard sell'. There were many of them at SEMA last November, the majority were just 'okay'. The absolute worst was done by a shop in Texas (where else...) at the direction of George Barris, called the 'Red Demon' or something, just painful to look at!

Matt: I don't know you from Adam, but I agree about the crappy attitudes of many of the critics. I don't care what your taste in cars is, but I am interested in seeing some Grand Prix parts for conversion of the AMT '62 Catalina. I would like to make a minor suggestion, though I understand I'm at risk of offending your taste in cars... The same Bonneville kit from which you took the front grilles had the other visual cue from the GP, the rear grille that sits between the taillights on that 'unspeakably ugly' car. That has in the past been a more difficult find than the front grilles. Bet if you offered the two elements together you'd sell more of the set. On the matter of 'taste', I'm sure Don Holthaus and Norm Veber aren't total fans of the asthetics of every piece they offer in their successful, profitable and popular lines after decades in business. That attitude might be something to emulate if you are in this for the long run...

Cool! I owned a real '64 in 1986-7 in San Diego, a 2-door post that had been a drag car years before. It reminded me of an early Z28, but with a huge trunk. Had the peaky 330/310 motor, a close ratio 4-gear, and 4-11 posi, Corvette Targa blue/white painted roof, and a white bucket seat interior. I put a set of take-off rwl Goodyears and Chevy Rally wheels from a new El Camino on it and drove the wheels off it. It was a great car! Cosmetically the only difference between the Cutlass and a 4-4-2 is the emblem on the lower front fender and one at the front and rear ends plus one emblem on the dash, so if the casting is taken from the AMT Cutlass the emblems can be done from one of the '66 p/e kits. Only other equipment mod would be a rear stabilizer bar. The resin body sounds and looks great and your build looks like a winner! Any price info?