Sport Suburban

Very nice, I also can't wait to see this one finished. I have supported Modelhaus and am sad to see that end but they have given us some great products for many years (decades). I'm sure their retirement is well earned. I have finished 3 or 4 full kits and have 5 more that I can think of off the top of my head still to build. I also have many finished builds with their parts plus many more unfinished restorations.

That is what I recall, they have been coming to our show. Cool guys that bring many Lowriders and Customs.

Down 2 Scale is a California club right?

I like to research this kind of stuff and the term Mopar originally was a adapted the parts like by Chrysler. It was taken from MOtor PARts! Another interesting one is AC Delco. AC came from the AC spark plug company and was kept when they merged with Delco. Creating AC Delco as it stands today. AC actually stands for Albert Champion! Yes the Albert Champion that created Champion spark plug company and lost control of his company to investors and was booted out. Then he started the AC spark plug company.

I have not built mine either. I have lots of future projects and buy resin items as soon as I can. The aftermarket stuff comes and goes and may only be available for a short time. Plus with resin if you need to sell it and it's no longer available you can usually sell it on eBay for more that you bought it for.

Very nice. I have been enjoying your build and I even bought the kit from Historic Racing Miniatures. My kit does not have those wire wheels in the front but it does have a note that decals will be available from Vintage Racing Miniatures (v-r-m.com). Might check with them on when they might be available and what car they include.

AMT did do the 58 Thunderbird Promo only. No kit was offered. AMT did offer the 59 and 60 in both kit form and promo. They offered both hardtop and convertibles. You can make a 58 from AMT parts. Here is Mine. I grew up around Squarebirds. My dad has 5 of them so I know them well. Three of them are 58's and that is his favorite year of them. To make this 58 I used Modelhaus 58 bumpers, and wheels. The body is from a 60 as it's hood opens and has an engine. The interior is from a 59 kit as there is no difference in the patterns from a 58 and 59. Only color options and black gauges for 58 and white for 59. The 60 body I used had all the emblems already sanded off so it was perfect for this. I then foil cast the 58 emblems from a 58 promo and applied them to this build. Also the convertible up top is from the AMT 65 Thunderbird and fits like it belongs on this car. The only thing I couldn't change was the 60 chassis is incorrect. 59 and 60 Thunderbirds have rear leaf springs and 58's have coil springs. Since the AMT 58 promo had a metal plate for a chassis no correct AMT chassis was made for a 58.

The Elvira version had the custom Elvira parts only and no other custom parts. I don't remember it having the stock parts in it either. I also understand that many of the first 58's had 57 wheel covers on them. I have built two of these over the years. The molded in green stock 58 and the first Elvira kit. The real Elvira car is a 59 hardtop with the roof cut off. My Monogram T-birds are long lost but I do have another Seafoam green issue to build.

BTW don't forget to sand off the 70 Chevelle marker lights off the front fenders down low between the bumper and the wheels. All the AMT kits had those for some reason.

I left it in place and painted it body color. That rear bumper is so much nicer than the original that when I rebuilt my 71 Chevelle annual I used it instead and did the same. The original kits had smooth bumpers that were missing some of the molded in body lines and no rear SS emblems. Original AMT 71 Chevelle SS before rebuild. Same 71 Chevelle SS after. and my 72 Chevelle SS.

Revell announced it's release this month. I think I will be picking this one up.

I wish them the best and thank them for all the products they have provided me and the hobby! Many of my projects could not have been built without them plus the many waiting projects I have not built but didn't put off ordering the parts I need to build them.

Very nice. I love it.

Do they also have the correct GTX grill and rear bumper with the back up lights. I had stocked up on a few of these kits and got the 68 hood with 440 emblems. Ironically the 68 Roadrunner hood says Hemi. My convertible kit had the 68 Roadrunner grill and rear bumper without the back up lamps. The back up lamps were in the tail lights for 68 and in the bumper for 69.

Same with Geo. From 98 on they were just Chevrolets.

I bought an 80s issue molded in dark blue and it had the 70 seats in it. The body was way better than the BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH that was in my later issue RC2 kit. That was the worst I have ever seen. I heard round 2 did clean it up. Also Modelhaus has the correct seats in resin. I bought those for mine.

Those are some nice builds!

Very nice! Who's A12 hood or kit did you use? I built one many years ago using Perry's Resins kit and it came out nice. I recently bought Modelhaus's A12 kit and it is very nice and has an interior plus wheels and tires. I have started restoring the Johan parts but have not really started the build yet.

I have not purchased anything from them in quite a few years. When I was buying it was fast and the stuff was nice. When I heard he bought a hobby shop and his resin business was suffering I have not bought anything since or heard anything good since then. If this is any indicator of the demand for his stuff. When it does show up on eBay it sells for way more than he was asking. I recently watched a 68 GS 400 sell for almost $300!

BTW the valve covers, air cleaner, strut tower braces and master cylinder booster were all glued in place after the chassis was mated to the body. Otherwise the engine will not fit into the body. Also note that 69 Boss 429's have body color hood scoops and the 70 Boss 429's have semi gloss black scoops.

I built one using the Revell 1/25 69 Mach 1 and the Revell 70 Boss 429. It is easier than building a 69 Boss 302. That was more work in my opinion. The scale difference is slight and the motor is a tight fit but not impossible. I used the hood scoop engine from the 70 as they will be needed. Everything else but the decals came from the 69 kit. On the 69, the only body mod I did was remove the molded in battery from the engine compartment. The real car has the battery in the trunk. Plus the air cleaner snorkel would hit it anyways. I assembled the engine without the valve covers glued on as it will not insert into the body from underneath. You will need to mock it up with the air cleaner in place as you will need to cut the hole in the hood and fit the scoop. This needs to be carefully measured as the air cleaner will actually fit in this hole for the hood to close but the scoop covers it. I think the motor being larger also gives the right look to the size of the real motor in the real car! I also used the exhaust from the 429 kit and shortened it to fit the 1/25 chassis. The tires are from the 429 kit and the wheels are AMT and I believe from the 68 Roadrunner kit.

I do and I don't. My finished models are done and I don't keep build notes on them. Sometimes I think I should thou and could see the value in it but having close to 200 finished builds on my shelves my notes would take a while to look through. Most of my builds jog my memory of what I did and some products used. I do keep worksheets of my inventory of unbuilt kits in my stash. What my plans are if any or I'll list it as a "donor" for parts or resin kit. I'll list it as "spare" if I have no plans. I will also put simple notes like that on the boxes also. Build detail notes will go in the box as well as any parts I still need for that project are also marked on the outside of the box. I have another worksheet for my stash of resin parts and also rebuild projects. I also have a worksheet of parts I know I need for projects that I update regularly for trades and stuff. My last sheet has my started projects with the year I started them and what the finished project plan is. I put that info also on the box and what parts I need or if it's waiting on chrome or whatever.

Very Nice! I like how your tail lights came out. I'm going to do the same with mine. I love these restorations too and will be watching this one. I recently finished a 59 Edsel convertible and started the restoration on my 60 also. Mine has some serious crazing on the tail panel from paint. I remember that one coming up on eBay and almost bid on it but was worried about the fender skirts. Here is mine from when I got it but it is much farther along than this. Thanks again for the tail light tip!

I send my chrome work out to Chrome Tech USA. I do so many restorations that need chrome redone that I usually send out two racks loaded with parts to be chromed at a time. In this batch of finished builds only the Nomad and GT40 have not seen any rechrome work. The Nomad almost got it's front bumper redone. The GT40 didn't have any chrome anyways.

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate it!