Longbox55

In the aftermarket, Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland has a very good selection of Flatheads and Flathead hop up parts. Unfortunately, he does not have a website, mail order only.

This is from the shop manual

Many of the old Lindberg kits were made to be motorized, too. Like their 1/25 scale Model T hot rod pickup and their 1/8 scale T Buckets, like the Lemon Crate.

You're not nuts, the chrome open wheels in the kit are not correct for a stock truck. They are much wider. Off the top of my head, I do not know of any correct width 6 lug open wheels, or at least not from kit sources. If you wanted to do the standard wheel with the small hubcap, the wheels and caps from the recently reissued AMT Chevy van kits would be pretty close.

Looking' good. One thing does stick out to me, though. The '76s didn't have a displacement badge on the grille. '75 was the last year for the displacement badge.

Just speaking for myself, Harry, I actually prefer buying in person than online. It's not so much about social interaction, as I prefer to be left alone while I shop, but rather than I like to see the product in person before I make a purchase. That really goes for everything, not just hobby related items, and is something I picked up from my Dad, who is the same way. I also like the "thrill of the hunt" so to speak. Especially at swap meets. That's not to say I don't shop online from time to time, though. Mostly, my online shopping is for specific tools I can't find locally, like miniature taps & dies, or for the occasional OOP kit.

The clay bar systems they sell for 1:1 cars are not for removing orange peel. They are for removing contaminants from the paint surface that normal washing can't remove. The only way to get rid of orange peel is either using a painting technique to reduce the amount of orange peel in the paint (I use the "Norbie Method") or wet sand/polish.

Tamiya X-34 Metallic Brown looks like a good match, too.

I have. So far, only on the Sock It To Me Corvette. I managed to salvage all but one decal on that one, and that one failed due to a secondary problem; The adhesive sets too fast on them as well.

That doesn't always work. Lost several that I bid in the last few seconds like that and still didn't win it.

As a farm equipment collector myself, I can understand the frustration with the lack of 1/24-1/25 scale tractor and parts availability. The problem is just as Ace stated, virtually no market. Most equipment collectors are not builders, and they tend to either prefer large scale (mostly 1/16 for the extra detail) or small scale (1/64 and 1/32 for space conservation). Some of this also is a carryover from the toy origins of most farm collectibles. That said, you may try looking into G scale (roughly 1/22.5) railroad. I have seen some farm equipment in that scale, mostly European, that could be adapted. Also, many Bobcat die casts are available in 1/25 scale.

Something I'm wondering, really just to be sure I'm right about it; The Back Home in Indiana theme, is it for cars that were manufactured in Indiana? If so, are there any limits on what brands of cars?

I stand corrected, Tim. What I really meant was the '78 issue of it with the 4x4 parts, which came out after the Annual kit, which was the only issue with the 2wd parts.

I used to go to the LHS back when we still had them in my area, then mostly Hobby Lobby after they closed up (HL had no bearing on them closing in this case). The hobby shops in my area closed due to varying reasons. A few closed due to the owners retiring/selling the business. One very good one we had, Black's Hardware, closed most of their non-hardware related parts of the business to downsize and concentrate on just being a hardware store, with a focus on commercial sales (they later closed up completely). The last full line hobby shop we had, Pet & Hobby World, dropped hobbies due to several reasons. One was competition from Wal Mart. Another was the fickleness of the hobby industry. One year, R/C cars are hot, nest, they're not. The major problems that really hurt them, though, and was the main cause of them dropping hobbies, was the internet and supply issues. The owner had a very hard time competing with online retailers. Not so much in direct competition, but in not being able to get new releases because popular selling kits would have the entire runs sold out to the online sellers. He simply could not get the product. The Hobby Lobby we had as actually very good. They ended up leaving due to the owner of the mall they were in raising the lease. The Wal Mart here hasn't had models in some time, only place locally I can get kits now is the Meijer that opened a while back, and their selection is very small.

There is another major error in this kit besides the bumper; The transfer case is 100% incorrect for the year truck it is supposed to be. The original 4x4 version of this kit, the '78 Annual, was tooled with the NP 203 full time transfer case, which was a very common on those trucks back in the '70s with automatic transmission. That transfer case was dropped in 1980, and replaced with the NP 205 part time for '80, and the NP 208 part time (1/2 and 3/4 ton) in '81. MPC did not alter the tooling to reflect those changes. The Monogram kit from the same ere has the NP 205, which was used with manual transmission trucks, optional on automatics. Other smaller errors, the intake and carb are incorrect 2bbl units. While not so bad for a later truck with the 305, the 350 trucks should have the Rochester Quadrajet. Also, in addition to the tool box engraving, the bed has the gas door on the right hand side for the optional 2nd gas tank, but no tank is molded to the frame. Neither problem is too difficult to take care of for accuracy.

Here's the instruction page for the suspension.

Don't be too quick to pass on it! The lift for the suspension are separate parts from the suspension itself. It can be built with stock height suspension. It's hard to tell from the box art as to exactly what wheels/tires are in it, though. Would have rather seen it with actual picture of what the kit includes. I do agree with you about issuing it with the older cab. if the tooling still exists. I have seen some resin conversion cabs/grilles cast from the original kits, though I can not speak for their quality or availability (lets just say the caster in question is in and out of the business regularly). Perhaps interest in this kit will spur Round 2 into repairing the tools for the older versions of this kit, or retooling the parts if the tooling doesn't exist.

Another hemi head example, this on is a a GMC 270 inline 6 cylinder from the '40s/'50s. Note that it isn't a crossflow head, the intake and exhaust ports are all on the left hand side of the head.

I suppose they were available until they used up the inventory.

No, it will not. The Sodium Hydroxide (lye) that's in it will dissolve the metal. It's one of the reasons it works so well at stripping "chrome" from kit parts, the "chrome" is actually vaporized aluminum. Aircraft stripper would be a better choice.

Yes, the primer sealer will work very well for models. Duplicolor also has a sandable primer, as well as a high build primer/filler that can come in handy if you get into doing heavier body alterations.

I've seen several sources that state they were not offered/discontinued, plus several people I knew that were in the Midwest chapter of the Corvette club have told me the same thing. However, looking at some literature, plus the Resto Pack, those do show them. Both seem to be dated as early '67, though.

The Rallys are correct to stock for that year Corvette, though you would really need the set from the Revell '67 Chevelle to get the correct center cap (1 year only short cap). The wheels included with the kit are actually incorrect for a '67, as they were discontinued after the '66 model year.