1972coronet

You did a fantastic job with that kit ! It's definitely long in the tooth ; its chassis dates-back to at least 1971 ! The four door was bourne-out of the 1978 Force 440 kit , whose lineage dates to the 1975-1976 Gran Fury / Road Runner . Its tooling was changed in c.1981 where it became Roscoe's Patrol Car ; the sedan body was created / updated , as the rear fascia is markedly different between the 2 door hardtop and the 4 door sedan . My biggest complaints about the 1977-1978 Monaco Police Car are : - Those too-deep wheels / ridiculously-wide tyres ; - No underhood details ; - Manual transmission / big block combo (which disappeared after 1972 [440] and 1974 [400]) In spite of its faults , it's the only game in town . It builds well with some tweaks .

Hmm ...

Thanks much for the link , Casey !

Gorgeous SD-396 drop-top ! Casey posted this link in my post regarding Beaumonts and Acadians ------ VERY NICE !! I'm toying with the idea of building a phantom 1968 Beaumont El Camino ; nice to know that the MCG 1969 Chevelle etch includes Beaumont pieces !

The latest issue of Muscle Car Review features a 1965 Acadian L-79 , beautifully and painstakingly restored . The article re-catalysed my interest in those Canadian G.M. models , and got my mind going : Does anyone offer --in resin-- Beaumont and / or Acadian conversion pieces ? Has anyone built one --via scratch-building-- ? I'd really like to convert the new(ish) AMT 1968 El Camino to a phantom 1968 Beaumont SD-396 El Camino !

That Ranchero certainly was modified --- an early 60's custom , done-up quite tastefully (wish that I had a photo or two of that bad boy) . Its induction setup was three 1 Bbl Strombergs , IIRC ... definitely had three carburetors atop its intake .

I was being facetious with my 'Palmer Prototype' response ... though I recognise that you were hip to my snarky tone . The sample kit from the O.P. certainly is too accurate to be anything that Palmer plopped-out

Revell has certainly come a L-O-N-G way in the quality of their offerings ! It wasn't until the c.1988 merger of Revell and Monogram that Revell's kits improved ---- especially since the tooling was shared with Monogram ! The 'Tri-Five' kits from Revell were always "attractive" purely by their box art , and I constantly got suckered-in by the allure oft he finished product on said box art only to be defeated time-and-again by the impossible-to-build contents . Lord knows how many times I attempted to build the '57 ( from the c.1976 era ) , and never successfully . All of that archaic Revell tooling needs to be sent-off , Valhalla-style ...

The only intrinsic value of that kit to me is its aforementioned OHC 6 and its Spyders wheels (deeper-offset on the rear wheels) . I just might put that OHC 6 into the AMT 1953 F-100 ...

Same as the AMT-labelled kit , yes . By c.1988 or so , all of the old MPC kits were "rebranded" as "AMT" . A couple of years earlier , the MPC moniker was still in-use , but had "ERTL" ( e.g. , "AMT / ERTL" ) added . That lasted through 1986-1987 , then the 'MPC' name was dropped in favour of 'AMT' .

I've seen both setups , although the majority were bench-equipped . Oddly (or not) , CHP-spec Caprices had cloth front seat / carpet , and vinyl rear seat / rubber mat . The trick in replicating the LASD interior is replicating the " SPEEDS OVER 60 MPH : USE OVERDRIVE " sticker on the instrument bezel that was placed-under the speedometre ! Hahaha . By 1995-1996 , the Caprice was at its peak , especially in 9C1 trim ... then , yeah , front-wheel-drive nonsense ... blah , blah , blah ...

It's a 1979 "modified reissue" of the 1969 annual . No stock tyres / wheels , but can otherwise be built stock ; the (awful) T-Top deal is optional . And , yes , both engines are included : Pontiac V8 and , my favourite , the OHC 6 ! I got one , unbuilt , for dirt cheap --- mainly for its Spyders wheels .

Palmer Prototype

... I just can't wait to bash it with the 1991 Caprice and make a 1994 9C1 ( likely in L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. "A.B.C." ( "Artesia / Bellflower / Cerritos" ) livery) .

That's right : Ford-O-Matic ... that nomenclature escaped me for some reason . A friend had a 1958 Ranchero ; it had the 312 / Ford-O-Matic . Thanks for the additional info , my good man !

This one had the 332 (?) Y-Block . Seems like that series did not last long as an option , at least here in the U.S. ; the FE-Series replaced it by 1960 here . The FX was a 2-speed , right ?

Sounds as sweet as it looks , too . I love the '58-'59 Fords !

He's no Richard Simmons --- I call him the "Beach Boys' Roadie" . As one whose hair is a shadow of its former self , I must say that I envy that dude's hair !

IIRC , the last time that the AMT 1972 GMC Step-Side was issued was in c.1995 , right ? Neophyte question : AMT and MPC shared tooling with their 1967-1972 C/K Series pickups ? I thought that the AMT kit was a separate entity from its , in essence , "crosstown rival" ? The Cooter's Tow Truck was a c.1981 reissue of the old ----- SHOOT ! I just answered my own question ! I'd forgotten that AMT and MPC did share their 1967-1972 C/K tooling ! Does anyone make a good 1971-1972 GMC conversion for the c.1998 , ad seq. , "MPC" 1972 Cheyanne CST kit ?

This beauty is a customer's client's car : 1959 Fairlane 500 four door sedan 332 Y-Block , FX Auto I love its 1956-1962 licence plates ; further , the "S" on the plates is likely correct-to-the-year-of-the-vehicle , even though the car originally hails from Arkansas . Enjoy !

That kit needs to be reissued , period !!

** Prologue : I will add more to my story as time permits . In the meantime , here's the "brass tacks" ** In September of 1986 , I was riding my G.T. BMX bike in the Whittier hills (adjacent to Rose Hills , which is the largest cemetery in the Western Hemisphere , by the way) . It was a typical late-September night in this region : still hot and a bit humid , even at 2100 HRS . I was 16 years old , and in excellent shape (before I "discovered" cigarettes , driving a vehicle , and other unmentionable "recreations") , so pedalling-up a steep, narrow cement roadway and into the hills was no challenge to me . As I was making way up the roadway , I began to notice that the air was getting cooler in some spots . My rationale was , "Must be that these areas were in the shade all day ..." , while in the back of my mind , I felt uneasy --- like something was amiss . Never-the-less , I continued onward , enjoying the silence and what scenery was visible at that time of the night . But , the cool spots were now becoming more frequent , and much colder ---- cold enough that I could see my breath ! But , I kept going in spite of my "inner voice" telling me to turn-around and get-on-out . As I rounded the corner nearest the friend's house that I was travelling to , a very bright light appeared ; its source was unrecognisable ... perhaps its was coming from a vehicle ? I got off of my bike for whatever reason , and carefully walked-around the bend in the road . Just then , I heard some 'rustling' in the yard next to me --- maybe it was a horse ? Then , whatever was rustling about leapt-up-onto the street , stood on its hind legs , made a screaming noise -- vapours coming-out of its nostrils -- and then ran-up the cactus-covered embankment on the opposite side of the street . I made an abrupt about-face , and pedelled at a furious rate . I got home in less than a minute --- two miles in less than a minute ! I was so horrified at what I'd encountered that I couldn't talk ! I was perspiring ; totally drenched in perspiration ! "What the 'H' was THAT ?!?!?" In subsequent years later , a Navajo friend of mine told me that what I'd encountered was a "Skinwalker" ( Shape-Shifter , et al. ) , and that they are a common sight in the Whittier Hills . **Epilogue : This is but one-of-many "otherworldly" entities that I've encountered over my 48 years . Whittier (California) is notoriously haunted ; Spiritually-instabile **

... I must inquire in response to the hood tie-downs : does that kit also offer a crowd of early 2000's hipsters as shown on the box ? How about the dirt ? What if I was younger than the age 14 minimum age "requirement" to not only purchase the kit , let alone build it ? I want to see the return of the c.1983 Turtle Wax which was included-in the Monogram 1969 Super Bee , and the 1970 Challenger T/A ! The California Sun is a relentless beast on metallic paints !

Man alive , that's a beauty , Joe ! After the massive , requisite reworking of that ages-old Revell kit , the new one must've been an absolute pleasure .

I miss his voice ; that commanding voice that was concurrently calm . I've continued to listen to Coast to Coast as its entertainment value is gold to me . As one whom has encountered OOBE's and otherworldly entities on countless occasions , I tend to be able to pick-out the absurd tales from those which seem plausible . Ever seen a Shape-Shifter ( Skinwalker , et al. ) ? I have .