Fat Brian

Since you're using the 1/24 scale Arii kit the Monogram T/A kit is probably your best bet for donor parts. That kit has a flat hood for the custom version but it has a hole cut in it for the tunnel ram intake. You might be able to use the T/A hood to cut a patch panel from. Here's a pic I found of the flat hood.

Your body does need to sit a little lower on the fenders, it should rest on the notch on the front of the rear fenders. I also had to sand the front of the body to fit between the front fenders fully. What I ended up doing was cutting the floor pan out so I could attach the fenders to the body and still get the interior in. Once I had the body in the fenders correctly I had to bend the sides of the hood out so it would go over the cowl fully then trim the back edges of the hood until it laid on the fenders right.

This is an area where whether you're building something as a factory replica or a custom build plays a large roll in what color it is. Also, to get super nit picky I would call the areas shown the engine bay and the underside where the tire is the wheel well. Chrysler products in particular mostly had body color engine bays and the underside wheel well area would be body color, gray or black depending on who painted it and whether undercoating was applied.

Yes, you can get good results from cans. I would strongly suggest sticking with hobby paints at first, not all types of spray paints play nice together and you can minimize the risk of those issues by keeping to one brand or type of paint. I know they're more expensive but any value gained by trying general use paints is usually lost in time stripping it and ruined parts that have to be replaced. One of the most important things that improved my paint jobs was wet sanding my primer. Out of the can primer is too rough and paint won't lay down smooth on it. Hitting it with 1500 grit under the faucet makes a huge difference. Another thing is building up the paint slowly. Cans put out a lot of paint so giving it a few minutes to tack up between coats can help prevent runs. Another aspect of this is how far away you hold the can, too close and you gets runs but too far and the paint texture is rough.

I just bought a sealed California Sunshine kit a couple months ago, I'm very glad I didn't over pay now.

I would try to strip it first and see if the plastic got etched or if it was just a paint reaction. If you can get it to strip then you can better decide if you can save it or not.

The rear tires were used as fronts in the Big Al Thunderbird drag car with different wheels.

I put together a kit for my wife's cousin to build with. I used the Revell kits, a stock 69 and the Dick Landy 68. You need the body from the 68 for the smooth top and the 69 tail light panel and lenses along with the grille. Most everything else comes from the 69 kit but I did add the roll bar and back seat delete bar from the Landy kit if you want a racier build. The good thing about this mix and match is that there is a complete 68 vinyl top car left over.

I think part of it is that for a long time turbos were looked at as "diesel stuff" and due to the horrible attempts at passenger car diesels in the 70s and 80s there was bias against them. They also didn't have the immediate visual impact of a huge roots blower sticking through the hood.

If anything I would cut a small piece of plastic where the lens is to fill the deepest spot so it won't be just a big fill of putty.

Yes, this is the problem with the current crop of "AI" word calculators, they have no frame of reference for what is factual. They just regurgitate words frequently seen together without knowing their actual meaning. There's no actual intelligence to the "intelligence".

What bothers me most is how AI speaks so authoritatively about things it can't possibly have any knowledge of, though that is probably its most human quality.

The guys at Grind Hard Plunmbing Co did buy a very similar 4x4 Camaro recently.

Bare metal foil is a great skill to have in general but I would practice on a scrap body just to minimize the chance of messing up the paint on an expensive and fragile 3d print.

This is the same issue that caused me to strip a body 4 times. What I found is needing to work in very light coats and double up on the tape or switch to an automotive grade tape. I find it very odd that Tamiya tape doesn't protect against Tamiya paint.