Longbox55

Here's another exellent MPC kit, the '33 Chevrolet Panel,

Here's a parts shot of the Street Charger, which was tooled from the Petty kit. Now, I'm pretty sure that not all of the original parts are there in this version, but the engraving and detail it top notch. This particular kit is the "One Run Of Fun" issue, which is scheduled to be restored back to the original Petty kit.

The Roadster (actually, it's a Cabriolet) isn't all that hard to come by, as it's been reissued in several guises by both MPC and AMT over the years, last time being in the Connesuer Classics line along with the '28 Lincoln and '32 Chrysler. The rare version is the original Gangbusters "9 in 1" kit, which also had the '33 Panel Truck body. There was also a version of the Panel releasd on its own, before it got butchered into the Barnabus Vampire Van. Both the Cabriolet and Panel are very nice kits.

I'm looking at a Pickup and Jimmy dash, I see what you mean about the differences. I'm not sure that one is supposed to be a lower trim level than the other, looks more like a case of a different person making the tool. You're right about the gauges being "off". I would say the the 4 gauges on the left are more undersized than "idiot lights", as even the trucks with the lights used the same size openings in the dash. BTW, on trucks with the factory tach, the gas gauge went in the pod , in place of the "fasten seatbelt" light. As far as the trim level the kit represents, I'm going say it's most likely a Scottsdale, since it is packaged as a Sport truck. That package wasn't available on the Custom Deluxe or Cheyenne, and since the Pickup is a '76 (grille gives it away) it can't be a Silverado ('78). Another thing that's odd obout the Monogram GM trucks is that they're all column shift 3 speed manuals. Most V8 GM 4x4s from that period were automatics with the NP203 Full Time transfer case (not available with 6 cylinder or manual transmission). That's one place where the MPC got it right. Side note on that, GM did produce a manual transmission full time 4x4 pickup for 1 year, 1974. Almost always paired up with the SM465 4 speed. from what I understand, lots of chain breakage issues.

The actual color is more of a blue-gray, than a straight gray. Battleship Gray is very close, with maybe a few drops of Dark Blue added (just enough to give a blue cast to it).

The MPC cabs have the badging. The early ones are badged Scottsdale, the later ones ('81) are badges Custom Deluxe. The Monogram and Revell trucks did not have any badging.

MPc also did a Petty Charger done that way. That kit went on to become the Street Charger (soon to be restored to Petty specs) as well as the basis for the 1/16 scale General Lee.

I have one in my stash that I started. My plan was/is to do do a cutaway style paint job, but not necessarily done on the car centerline. I even hunted down a Goodwrench Lumina from the Monogram Stock Car Plus line to get the figure to put in it.

There is a gas filler cap (feul doors didn't come until '79), it's on the passenger side. That would be correct for a truck with base single tank, which was on the passnger side, however, the kit has the optional (and very common) dual tanks, and should have fillers on both sides.

The front glass is one of the big weak points of this kit. I've seen several fixes for this, and they do look good, however, they're not correct to the 1:1 truck (not bashing anyone's builds). The glass on the '55-'59 Chevrolet truck doesn't fit flush, but is actually recessed, especially at the top. Here's a shot of what the upper part looks like on the 1:1. If you look on the bottom of the roof on the kit, you'll notice 2 faint lines. Placing the top of the windsheild at the that point puts it where it would be on the 1:1. You will have to add a little material to make it fit right. I'm thinking when the kit was originally tooled, the glass was supposed to go there, but it was changed for easier assembly due to the visor covering up the inaccuracy.I have not done this myself on one, but plan to do it on a '57 3800 Napco 4x4 I'm building. BTW, the moulding should be black rubber on a base model truck. The stainless trim (as seen on mine) was optional, and was not very common. I'll try to get more pix of the windsheild up tomorrow.

Yes, they did indeed sell them, along with adapters to bolt up Olds, cadillac, and Chrysler engines to the Ford transmissions. The really funny part, JC Whitney still lists them in their catalog!

But what if they had been Mennonites?

Art, that would be Slot & Wing Hobbies, a long time hobby shop in the Champaign County area. They've had a long standing relationship with Hobbico, and were instrumental in the founding of Great Planes (they sold the founder his first RC unit). I'm somewhat of a regular in there, they give exellent service.

I would suggest checking around for reference pix from 1:1 '53 Chevies with similar engine swaps, as well as chekcing out the catalogs for the hot rod/custom parts suppliers to see how the mounts are made. Speedway Motors would be a very good one to check, they seem to carry just about any engine swap mount you can come up with, including many that are vehicle specific. I don't know how far in detail you want to go with the swap, or which kit you are using, but on a pre '54 Chevrolet, to do an engine swap would pretty much require a complete drivleline swap in 1:1. The early Chevrolets used an enclosed driveline, plus the transmission to engine bolt pattern is different from the '55 and later V8 ('63 and later for 6 cylinder), so a trans and rear differential swap would be in order to get a different engine. I won't neccessarily say this is the case 100% of the time, as it's possible that someone could have made an adapter to bolt a different engine to the original trans. Not sure about Chevrolet, but there sure were plenty available for Ford, Cadillac, Oldsmobile, and Chrysler (early Hemis) engines. I also do know of a case where a '54 322 Nailhead w/Dynaflow was swapped into a '50 Chevy sedan, but I don't beleive that project was ever finished.

Upon further research, I've confirmed that it is indeed a Danbury Mint diecast '38 GMC Custom Car Carrier. No longer in production. Seems to have been made around '01. I have the dark blue stock version, they are VERY nice.

It's a 1938 GMC, possibly a Danbury Mint diecast. It's definitly not stock.

Since you're going for a cartoony look, how about the V12 from the Monogram '41 Lincoln?

I would strongly suggest testing on a scrap part or hidden area on any kit you try to strip with mineral spirits. I used to use that to strip kits way back in the day (about 25 years ago), it will damage some plastics. Revell kits from the '80s seem to be the worst at being damaged by mineral spirits.

Just for giggles, the related series, Demons, Saints, and Skips had the following; Demons '54 Chevy Sedan Delivery black '56 F100 red '29 Model A pickup (built as closed cab in the box art) dark blue '26 Model T Sedan delivery in white (Lil' John Buterra sedan w/filler panels for the rear windows) '41 Willys in light blue '32 Ford Sedan w/ flip up body in yellow (Orange Crate) Saints Henry J in dark blue '33 Ford Roadster in Burgundy (scale is way off, frame is Lil' John Buttera T based) '57 Ranchero in dark red Skip Fiesta Drive In (I'm only listing the kits I know for sure were in it, namely those i have in my collection) '55 Chevy in black (same as Hot rod red issue) '57 Nomad in dark blue (same as yellow Hot Rod issue) '59 Ford Skyliner in coral/salmon Of note, the Skips kits could be considered an extension of the Hot rod kits. I recall that they were even mentioned in Hot Rod Magazine when the Hot Rod kits were still being produced.

See, I knew I missed some! Another one to add, the '29 Model A pickup in red with Centerline wheels.

That looks pretty good, very close mathc for the 1:1. Edward, I didn't forget about the pix, just waiting for nice clear day where I can get you some good ones!

The Street Coupe was the GMC version of the Chevrolet Sport Truck package. Other than the brand difference, they are identical, even the RPO code is the same. Also, on further investigation, the Sport Truck and Street Coupe packages were available on 2wd shortbeds as well as the 4x4.

I don't know if I can give you the comlete list, but I'll pass along the ones I know for sure off the top of my head. '55 Chevy Bel Air (old tool) in red w/Centerline wheels '56 Chevy Sedan (old tool) in white '57 Chevy Bel Air (old tool) in black w/Corvette style wheels '57 Chevy Nomad in yellow w/Centerline wheels Chevy gift set; '54 Sedan in black, '55 Bel Air in blue (stock wheels) '57 Bel Air in red (stock wheels) '54 Chevy Sedan Delivery in red w/enterline direction spoke wheels '56 F-100 in dark blue '70s Chevy truck in black Truck gift set; '56 F-100 in red, Chevy pickup in green (note, the Chevy has the same decal set ans the black truck, only in green, including the "Hot Rod" magazine logo) Ford gift set; '27 T Touring in blue, '34 Ford in red. '78 Firebird in silver/gunmetal (not 100% sure on color) '78 Camaro, unsure about color Corvette gift set, '60 Corvette in black, '65 Corvette in red, '69 Corvette coupe in yellow '68 Corvette L88 convertible in red '69 Yenko Camaro in yellow Gift set, '87-ish Pontiac Firebird Pro Stock in yellow, Yenko Camaro in orange OK, those a just the ones I remeber off the top of my head. There may be a few errors, but I'm pretty sure it's accurate, as most of those are kits I have. If I can remember where they are, I have the Autoworld catalogs from the era ('87-'91), I'll cross reference to see if there's any I missed.

I'm not giving up mine, either. While I'll freely admit to using spray cans, particularly for priming (Duplicolor) and I do like the laquers from Tamiya and Testrors, plus some OEM colors in Perfect Match, I would never give p the freedom of color choice and finish quality in finish I can get from from an airbrush.

Actually, one would a suprized at just how much of the stock truck really exists, even with the alterations. The cab, bed, and frame are still pretty much stock, with the exeption of the hood and the removal of the side trim. The wheelwells were not altered (I just checked them against a known stock kit), and most of the monster truck parts are either on separate trees or on trees that contain parts that still exist in stock form on the LRE. Returning the longbed truck to stock can be done, it's just a matter of how much demand there would be to justify it.