1972coronet

Perhaps I'm just cynical about business practises in general . With the (fleeting) advantage of being in my teens during the great corporate-takeover-of-everything (1980's , ad seq. ) , I saw this --instances such as this , and many more-- coming... gradually at first , then before anyone knew it , fully-engulfed . My entire Gen-X career has been of the Blue Collar ( in California no less --- the land of no industry ) , from being a gas jockey to working in dealerships' parts departments . I know how all of the nonsense works ; I know all about the "good old boys club" and all of its greasiness . I wish that I could better convey my thoughts here... I recognise that many of you , my fellow modellers , understand where I'm coming from . I've watched the erosion of small businesses , smaller organisations , smaller manufacturers ( "cottage industry" , et alia ) , and just an overall comfortable daily existence . The whole Testors-is-being-liquidated ordeal is but one example of this . I suppose that I'm biased against the whole "stock exchange" mentality that's infiltrated every facet of the work force : "performance bonuses" don't mean squat to me , as it's all short-sighted . I loathe the day that I return to the work force --- same play , in a different theatre , with different actors . Maybe I'm overreacting ; this may come off as hyperbole and hysteria to some . I'm just passionate about the 40 years' coup de grâce I'm witnessing . While I encourage continued opinions are perspective , I also implore you to keep this discussion non-political . Thank you !

I'll admit forthright that I'm about as sharp as a bowling ball ---- which has actually saved me ! Haha . I analyse everything ; nothing's taken at face value with me . First time that I can recall reading about the defiant "____" MPG carburetor (and , later , its accomplice engine ) was in 1976 . Even to my 6 year old mind the article's assertions made zero sense .

I reluctantly buy Testors aerosols . I only 'acquiesce' when it comes to their (now-defunct) line of American Car Colors ( e.g. , Hemi Orange Metallic , etc. ) , as I'm too lazy to buy from Scale Finishes because of the required thinning / reducing of their (wonderful) automotive colours .

You bring up a valid point : Tamiya's colour chart is lacking . There's a considerable amount of assumption on their part in-respect to the builder of their (excellent) kits , that everyone wants to mix paint to achieve the correct shade of "x" colour . Certainly I'm not alone in not being a fan of mixing two or three colours of paint in order to achieve the requisite results ( I can only imagine that the aircraft and armour builders must be exhausted in this area ) . Ne'er-the-less , the paints and finishing products that they do offer are fantastic ---- flawless finishes , and easy to work with ; long-lasting , too ( I have a bottle of Tamiya Clear Red that's every bit of 35 years old , and it's just a fresh as the day I opened it ) .

Ah , yes , the ages-old "_________ MPG Carburetor " ( I've seen '50' , '100' , '200' , and '300' MPG claims ) . I've also read about the similarly-ridiculous 100 MPG Engine . There are so many holes in these theories that it's not even funny ! While an engine its self has the ability to return 50+ MPG , the vehicle it's placed-in is the variable ! Like , put a Pinto 2.3 litre engine in an F-350 --- worse fuel economy will result vs. an FE 360 / 390 ! I can imagine that that book would be an entertaining read ---- in the same place where Sears-Roebuck catalogue used to be "employed" .

Hamtramck Historical is your --and everyone's-- friend for this kind of info : https://www.hamtramck-historical.com/dealerships/1970DealershipDataBook-05.shtml

Absolutely ! Matter of fact , that was the only way to get an "R/T" convertible for 1971 !

...has a long-standing , outstanding business model . I really , really wish that Tamiya would seize this opportunity to expand their ( excellent ) paint colour chart ---- I'd buy the "BLAH-BLAH-BLAH" out of any "Big Four" engine colours and body colours that they could offer ! I need to write another message to Tamiya , USA... maybe even a 'petition' signed by my fellow enthusiasts whom want for Tamiya to pick up where Testors (et al.) left off ?

Yes and yes , precisely . As I've been saying since the late 80's : "Strive for Mediocrity" --- my cynical ,Gen-X , Blank Generation mantra that I've been uttering to a largely inattentive audience since I was 17 (1987) .

The "corporate-pruning" of Testors Model Masters line from Rustoleum (et alia) is nothing new --- however , the reasons are typical of corporate mentality (esp. over the last 40 years...) . I'd learnt a long time ago to take whatever the new owner(s) / ownership representatives say with a tonne of salt ; that whatever they state is going to happen ( or , in their parlance , what's "not going to change" ) , that the opposite is true . To wit ; this is an excerpt from the Model Roundup email newsletter in regard to the whole untidy mess : " Rustoleum has the worst timing. Right when demand was ramping up, they killed one of the most popular paint lines in modeldum. Rustoleum, indicates they had too many duplicate products and wanted to consolidate to be more profitable. They have indicated a continued commitment to the Testors line. We intend to increase our Testors coverage to replace the Model Master line, but have had a hard time getting any support from the company. "Too many 'duplicate products' [...] [ consolidation ] to be more profitable ... "[...] continued commitment to the Testors line... "[...] hard time getting any support from [Rustoleum]." Sorry-not-sorry , but I have a real hard time believing that kind of trite rhetoric . At whose behest did they conclude that they have "too many duplicate products" ? Some out-of-touch college kid whose modelling experience is equal to my experience in disease research ? Notice that "continued commitment" and "hard time getting support" are , in es . , in the same sentence ? Ostensibly , Rustoleum (et alia) is horribly out-of-touch with their consumer base . Just because Rustoleum-branded paints cover , say , 'Gloss Black' , doesn't mean that it covers styrene-specific aerosol paints ! Same goes for bottled 'brush-on' paints --- those are gone , too ! Such a capricious and arbitrary move on the part of Rustoleum ---- but , not surprising , either . Certainly , they're not alone in this "consolidation" game ; profits-and-products OVER people is the "new normal" , and I for one am sick of it . Rant over .

Verbatim from the email from Model Roundup regarding the (long-awaited) Grumpy's Vega : " We do expect those kits to start arriving in our warehouse in about a week to ten days. " Certainly , that would seem to allude to M.R. shipping them as soon as they're received-in-their-system ( "inventoried" ) --- realistically , about a month from now .

Beautiful work , @Tom Geiger ! The Open Road Camper reminds me of this :

Oftentimes , assembly line parts vary from their 'service replacement' parts . Back in the 90's , it was discovered that Chryslers left the plant with a goldish-green , pebbled-finish oil filtre . The school of thought was the white MoPar filtre , which is what the dealerships had (think : P.D.I. & Service) . Could it be that G.M. had a similar situation ?

Thank you . In my research , I'd obviously neglected to mention the supplier-manufacture's name .

Outstanding save and reassembly ! I wonder how long ago it was originally built ? I wonder more-so about how and why it ended up in the dump ? For some reason I'm thinking that it was built , say , 20 years ago , then something happened to its builder ---- maybe he went into the armed services ; the unthinkable happened ; his heirs tossed the stash of kits . Or , perhaps less-dismal : he "outgrew" these "toys" and decided to chuck 'em ? Whatever kinds of (hypothetical) events lead to its destiny , it's nice that you saved it , and carefully cleaned and restored it ? . Looks GREAT !

Chrysler's nomenclature for those wheels was / is Road Wheels . In spite of what's been seen the last 30+ years on many "restored" cars , all of the Road Wheels were only 14" --- the width varied-slightly ; 5.5" - 6" . Ford ( et al. ) called theirs Magnum 500s . Now those were 15" with a 6"-7" width . Chevrolet refers to them as Sport Wheels : "SPORT WHEELS: Special 14x7 wheels include deep inset trim ring and bright spokes . For SS Coupe only." ( reference : 1970 Nova brochure . No mention of their name in the 1969 Chevelle & Malibu brochure , though a couple of images are provided ) : http://oldcarbrochures.org/United States/Chevrolet/1970-Chevrolet/1970-Chevrolet-Nova-Brochure/slides/1970_Chevrolet_Nova-11.html AMC refers to their offering as "Mag-style wheels" .

That stuff was the rage back in the 80's ! Virtually every article in S.A.E. at least mentioned it in some fashion . I didn't get around to trying it until the early 90's , and was impressed with it back then . Heck , I still have the 2nd jar of the stuff that I bought almost 20 years ago ! It's still good !

Looking quite nice ! Is that Burnished Brown ?

California has / had some truly Draconian vehicle emissions rules-laws-regulations . Those horse dung roadside "inspections" ceased in 1975 , 1976 --- sometimes you can spot a vehicle with its original windscreen , and the CHP decal affixed to the inside . Oddly , there was a time when a vehicle's emissions equipment ( or , lack thereof ) was based on what year the engine was ! Lots of Vega's and LUV trucks around with Buick 215 V8's , which were sans any smog controls ( other than the sensible CCV / PCV valve ) . On the flip-side of that ; an older vehicle with a newer engine suddenly had to meet requirements ( ! ) . I believe that it was Hot Rod which had a project '65 Chevy II / Nova . They bought a 400 SBC 'Target' engine for it ; they had to add that (dreadful) A.I.R. Pump to it ! This was in 1974 , by the way... These days , 1975 & earlier vehicles are EXEMPT . I'm shocked that that ruling hasn't been overturned ; been on the books since 01/01/1998 . And with that , I'll stop that discussion here , as it's now fringing on political discourse .

Great news about the '56 coupe coming back ! MUST have it this go 'round !

Life-long California resident here ( haha ) . The A.I.R. Pump setup of 1966 & later was one of the worst emissions control devices ever ! I was lucky with my Mopars over the years , as they didn't receive the dreaded A.I.R. Pump until the 1972 model year (excepting , for some reason , the 318 , 340 , and 360) . The air cleaner assembly was also part of Noise Pollution regulations ( I don't know how many Corvettes I've seen with the "49 State" side-exit exhaust ! Same with tail pipe embellishments on certain Chrysler models , particularly the 1970-1971 Barracuda --- California cars had the plain valance panel with turned-down tips ; muffling was different as well ) . Thankfully , the Revell 396-427-454 engines during the 90's era were sans A.I.R. Pumps . For some reason the newer representations of the same series include the pump , but lack the appropriate plumbing and hoses . I wish that they would add those remaining items , in addition to a "delete" option ( I doubt that a modified 427 Camaro from Nickey would have the 'pump *and* dual four barrels and headers ) .

That's what make the 1966 L34 so unique : the Holley carburetor . Late '66 & up 350hp 396 were equipped with the Rochester atomiser ; same as the 325hp version . The 1969-only , 2 Bbl 396 was an epic failure . I believe that it was a truck-only engine ; a friend of mine had a '69 C-20 that had that two barrel 396 originally . It was replaced with a complete 360hp 396 backed with the truck's original TH-400 . My friend's uncle replaced that 396 with a warmed-up 350 , as the L34 went back into the Chevelle he'd pulled it from in the mid 70's .

I just remembered that (the now-defunct) Muscle Car Review ran a retro-article from Hot Rod of an L34 powered '66 Chevelle SS ----- it had the open element air cleaner . It's the only image that I could find of a stone stock 360hp engine ; most are either the 325hp version or the L78 , or are modified . Thanks for your assistance !

Thanks much ! And , yes , I meant to type "Red" instead of 'Orange' . Same air cleaner as the 325hp version then . I'll heed to your advice ?

As a companion piece to the 1965 Chevelle Wagon I'm building , I've started on the Revell 1966 El Camino 396 . I'm going to build it as an L34 , 360hp iteration of the 396 ; however , I'm unclear on how that one-year-only iteration appears STOCK . The kit provides 2 different air cleaner assemblies ; one which covers the 325hp version , and one for the L78 (open element) ---- but , which one is correct for the 360hp version ? I know that the intake manifold is engine-colour ( and is cast iron ) , and that the rocker arm covers are plated , but the correct air cleaner has me stumped . P.S. - Thanks to @Snake45 for mentioning that the Testors Chevy Engine 'Orange' is of the correct shade (e.g. , more-red than orange) .