Toner283

I would love to see this one reissued. Would love to build one of each engine option and line them up in a case.

Hopefully it will sell well enough for Revell to tool up a G body Malibu. I own several and would love to build them in scale but finding decent resin ones is difficult and costly.

With a 405ish average on a 392 mph record, he didn't just break the record, he smashed it completely. Usually records are raised by small increments 2, 3, 5 mph etc. To raise it by 10 mph is no small feat. Big congratulations to Danny are in order.

Hey Andre, google image "1978 dodge truck". There are a bunch of pictures of the big towing mirrors. As far as I know the kit has the wrong mirrors in it. All LRE trucks had the small sport mirrors from the factory. As far as mounting the big mirrors, if it was me I would pin them to the model so they would stay put. Ideally you would drill the holes for the pins before painting the cab. It can be done after painting, it is just a bit more stressful. A small piece of low tac painters tape will allow you to mark the locations for the holes before drilling and should not harm the paint as long as it has cured pretty well.

Are you looking for tear drop shaped lenses or housings? Not sure exactly what you are asking. If you are after different sized housings, check out the new revell 29 ford roadster kit. 3 different sized sets of headlights in that kit. Or the many times reissued revell 32 ford series. 2 different sizes of headlights in those.

I hope that some of those pictures and measurements are helpful. If anyone needs any other detail shots or specific measurements, just let me know and I will get you what you need. It may take me a couple of days though. The car is not stored at my house.

Keep in mind when looking at the pictures of the firewall in this car that the firewall has been flipped 180 degrees. This was done to allow more room for the engine. This is not necessarily a common modification but a well-known trick in Model A circles to gain about 5 inches of engine room. The trade-off is that you lose 5 inches of cabin space. And to make people really scratch their heads, after the main firewall was flipped I cut the center section of it out and flipped it back to its original orientation. This was done so that the strengthening ribs are facing in the right direction. I enjoy watching hot rod guys and Model A guys looking at the firewall and discussing just exactly what I have done to it to make it look the way it does. Couple of progress pics of the firewall reconstruction. First shot is of a stock firewall before any modifications.

Here are some detail shots of the cowl area and the sunvisor. Also one of the inside of a bare door. The cowl is narrower at the bottom than it is where the gas tank top meets the cowl sides, that is not an optical illusion. I tried to take a couple of photos to illustrate this. The sunvisor is fairly flat but it does have a distinct gentle arch to it.

Someone asked how much the new kit is chopped. Here is the measurements for a stock height roof. Note the shape of the quarter windows. Also note that the top of the door window is not straight but has an arch to it.

Ok folks, a day later than I planned but here are the measurements off of a real deal Henry steel 1930 Model A Coupe. This is an unchopped unmolested original steel body. The only reproduction parts on the car are the rear fenders. Putting up the pictures will take a few posts so bear with me. First off, the measurement that Bill asked for. This is the width where the gas tank top meets the cowl sides on each side. The gas tank top is black and the cowl sides are grey primer. The second pic is from the bottom edge of the body to where the cowl side and the gas tank to meet.

Actually, that one will be easy. The firewall is flipped in our car. I will get it for you tomorrow afternoon.

Just be aware. Not all issues the Cutlass have the uptop. The Hurst Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 "special edition" kit does not include the uptop. The Olds Cutlass Supreme Custom 2n1 kit (red and black on the box top) does have the uptop. I do not have one to verify but I am told that the Oldsmobile Indianapolis 500 Pace Car w/Linda Vaughn figure (most recent current reissue) also does have the uptop. Maybe someone with the kit can verify for certain. Other than that, they are the exact same kits with different gates open in the molds.

Sounds good. Looks like I am going to toronto tomorrow.

Bill, I have a real deal Henry steel 30 Model A coupe in the garage. If you give me a rough drawing of the firewall and what and where you want dimensions I will measure them and post them up here. I have not being able to compare any measurements yet because I have not seen the Model A coupe kit for sale up here in Canada yet. The last time I asked at my LHS they told me probably mid August before we will see it north of the Border.

The uptop in the 72 Cutlass kit fits the Amt 69 Chevelle convertible very nicely.

What Bill has explained and shown pics of is how it was done back then. Henry didn't waste time, money or effort unless it was necessary. The dimples that are on the cowl top to hold the trim band in place are also in a couple of places on the sides of the cowl as well. Couple of other Model A facts that some of you will find interesting. 28/29 passenger cars had a steel radiator shell that was nickel plated (not chromed). 28/29 commercial vehicles had a steel radiator shell that was painted. 30/31 rad shells were a stamped stainless steel part that was polished on the outside for all models. The 30 rad shells were one piece plus a crank hole cover. 31 rad shells were 2 piece with the top piece on the front face of the shell (where the Ford oval emblem mounts) color matched to the main color of the cars body. The Ford oval emblem on the rad shell was a nickel plated emblem with the familiar blue background done in ceramic on the USA built cars. On the Canadian built cars, same emblem but with a black background. USA built Model A's used flathead drive screws in the woodwork inside them and the Canadian built cars used robertson (square) drive screws. The frame for the model A's was the same for all 4 years and the same for all light duty models (passenger cars, pickup trucks, panel vans, sedan deliveries and coachbuilt cars). Heavy trucks (AA Models) were on heavier frames. Early 1928 models are known as Model AR's. Several differences set them apart from regular production models. A couple of the easiest to visually spot are the handbrake handle on the left of the driver instead of in the middle of the car and the AR's all had red steering wheels. Regular production cars all had black steering wheels. In the middle of 1927, Henry finally admitted that his long running Model T was not what the buying public wanted anymore and he was losing sales to his competitors. At that point, he stopped production at his factories for approximately 5 months and his designers and engineers took a clean sheet of paper and designed and built a totally new car. Almost nothing was carried over from the Model T production. Could you imagine that today? A car manufacturer not making any vehicles for 5 months? Wouldn't happen.

Ace, We filled the roof on our 30 coupe as well. We used the roof panel out of an 81 malibu 4dr sedan. Used the rear 2/3rds of the roof skin turned 180°. Matched the compound curves of the car perfectly. Probably a lot easier to find than a Volvo 122 roof if you are going to fill a roof.

Even on a car with a stock height roof if you are first or second in line at a traffic light, you have to bend your head down to look up to be able to see the traffic lights. I have gone a lot of miles in behind the wheel of a 30 A Coupe and they are a lot of fun to drive but you have to learn how to drive them. it is a lot like riding a motorcycle. People in big trucks and idiots in their cars don't even see you so you have to drive defensively and be hyper aware all the time.

Tim, For the record, I have built one of the new Revell 1929 Ford roadsters and I have another in the works. I will also build several examples of the new Coupe kit when it becomes available in Canada. I have 2 on pre-order at my LHS. I have no doubts that the Coupe will build up into a decent looking model without any major issues. The roadster is an excellent kit as far as fit, finish and ease of assembly goes. However even it has issues. The most noticeable to myself and pretty much anyone who is familiar with them is the exhaust port spacing on the nailhead engine. The ports are not spaced correctly. That error cannot be explained away as anything other than a lack of math skills on the part of whoever did the scaling on that part of the kit. I have a 401 Nailhead in my garage so that one was easy for me to measure when it looked "off". The gap between the center two ports is too wide. With all of the modern technology available, measuring properly should be a no brainer. In comparison, the Tommy Ivo showboat dragster was drawn, mastered and the tooling cut 60 some years ago. There are four nailhead engines in it and all 8 of the cylinder heads have the exhaust port spacing correct. The error in the port spacing is not an opinion. It is a mathematical fact. Anyone with a tape measure and a calculator can verify it for themselves. You have stated that the firewall for the new tool kit was changed at some point to allow the use of a hood for a future version of the kit. The Revell 1930 Ford Tudor sedan tooling that was also created 60 some years ago has a full hood included in the kit and the firewall is far closer to a correct scale representation than the one in the new tool kit. Again, if they got it right back then, why is it so difficult to get it right now? Modern measuring, drawing and computer modeling programs should have made errors like these a thing of the past but in recent history, several of the new offerings from Revell are full of small (and some not so small) proportion and measuring problems. I will not name the kits with the errors that I am speaking of due to the fact that it would probaby open up a big can of worms that we don't want opened but quite a few of the folks reading this will know which kits I am referring to. Excuses can be made as to why things were done a certain way but IMO most of them are exactly that - excuses. Some are definitely valid reasons but most sound like the folks at Revell know that mistakes were made but they dont want to or won't admit it so they create an excuse that they think the general buying public will accept. I know that you are somewhat an industry insider Tim, and I appreciate the insight and behind the scenes information you bring to the board as well as the detailed reviews that you do so please don't take any of my comments in this thread as a personal issue. As a consumer, I just get very frustrated with all of these errors getting past the test shot stage and being put into full production and then the manufacturer acts like it is no big deal. Or as I experienced with my interaction with Mr. Sexton at the NNL East this year, they ignore the issue entirely. Seems to me to be a counter-productive attitude that may eventually come back to haunt them.

Not surprising. They dropped the ball hard on the roof "insert" and the firewall so not a shock that the sunvisor also has issues. I know that it has been pointed out that maybe the car they used as an example has a roof and firewall like the ones in the kit. I do not believe that to be true. IMO, that is the excuse being given for someone at Revell not properly doing their homework on model A coupes. If someone can post a couple of pictures of a hot rod 1930 model A coupe with both a firewall with a 3 inch shelf around it (to match the 3mm shelf on the kit firewall) and a deuce style roof insert, I will publicly apologise. Until then, pics or it didn't happen. I have been around hot rods and customs my entire life and around Model A's as long as I can remember and I can only recall one model A with a roof insert like the one in the kit. That one being the Bass coupe and it is a 29. By Brian Bass's own admission the modification was a massive amount of work. I have never seen an oddly modified and proportioned firewall like the one in the kit on a real car. I spent quite a bit of time examining the kit sprues and the built up example at the NNL East and judjing by the fairly rude response I recieved from Ed Sexton when I asked him about the firewall, I am not the first person to have questioned him about it. When I asked about it, he asked me to show him a photo of a car with the firewall different than the one in the kit. I showed him several different photos of several different cars. At that point, he mumbled something under his breath, went behind the table and ignored my presence. That reaction alone tells me that they (Revell) know that they made a mistake. I feel that Ed wouldn't have gotten upset that quickly if there wasn't a sore spot there.

Wasn't it a limited production kit? The rumor floating around was that it was a one shot deal with the blue bandito/beetle parts. Didn't make sense to me but the model companies do lots of stuff that makes me scratch my head.

If you look into it they were on part of the straight away at the track. The car came back down on all 4 just as they were entering one of the banked turns. Bob tried to turn so as to not go into the banked section and the car was still moving too fast to turn. if they had had proper run out room like a drag strip has, the car probably would not have turned over. Definitely glad everybody was ok. Sheetmetal can be fixed.

Great trucks. I have a 1990 2wd reg cab shorty stepside. Currently 402,XXX kms (250,000 mi give or take a little) and no major issues. Transmission rebuilt @ 160,000k and have changed the alternator, the water pump and the fuel pump. Engine internals have never been touched. I have had the truck since I was about 20 years old and like a typical twenty-year-old I wasn't gentle on it back then (120,XXXk on it when I got it). Still gets driven spiritedly on occasion and will chirp the tires shifting into second if I have my foot in it. You will like yours. They are close to bulletproof IMO. Sticker removal is easy. A fresh razor blade and some patience. You'll never know it was there.

My personal rule is not to park within 5 spots in any light post for that very reason. I may have to walk a little farther to get into whatever place I'm going to but I do not have to clean bird exhaust off my car. A fair trade-off as far as I'm concerned.

I am pretty sure the fender units are different. The custom engines are for sure different between the coupe and the sedan. The coupe has a buick nailhead and the sedan had an olds OHV engine. Not sure what engine is in the sedan delivery.