MPC Super Charger - 1974 Charger rundown

[CapSat 6]

I’m starting a new topic here…I don’t want to fully hijack the “what should Round 2 run” topic…

The Super Charger kit. The last time we saw this, it was about 40 years ago. (!). It’s possible, however not confirmed that Round 2 still has this tooling. They did just bring back the MPC ‘72 Chevelle, after a similar length of absence. 

It’s well known that the body for this one, after being mildly modified, was used in MPC’s Richard Petty NASCAR race car kit. It was then retooled once more to something more street stock. Don’t let the build on the box fool you- it comes with nice factory stock ‘74 Charger bumpers and grilles, unlike the pictured built prototype. 

The question is: would it be worth Round 2’s time to pump some of these out? 

[CapSat 6]

I’m going to get more into this one. The Super Charger kit, this last release, came with an interesting array of custom parts, some stock parts, and a body that has some issues. 

The good: the body was mostly retooled back to stock. The interior and engine have stock building options. The custom parts (headers, hood scoop, front spoiler, mud guards, 80’s modular wheels, custom grille, Max Wedge style intake) are pretty neat. Some of these came with deep tinted windows (you may consider this a drawback), while others came with clear glass. I think the kit stayed in MPC’s, and later ERTL’s catalogs for several years, hence the variation. The body had nice proportions, and some of the details (the grille, and body shapes, for instance) looked really right. 

The bad: custom only tires, and no stock wheels. No stock body decals (although the annuals never came with stock stripes, either), some body details are incorrect (we’ll get into that down below), some only came with deep tinted windows, and lastly, this was a 1970-era tool, so the details and construction reflect this. 

[CapSat 6]

Prior releases tell an interesting story.

The kit started out as the annual 1971 Charger R/T. From there, it was used as a promo, then a Roland Leong Hawaiian funny car (body only- with ‘71 RT and ‘72 Rallye variants). The body was changed over to a ‘72 Rallye, but there was also a Buddy Baker stock car that used the same body tool, which was basically a stock Non-R/T or non-Rallye ‘72. 

The body was then retooled to produce stock kits and promos for 1973 and 1974. The stock ‘73 body was used for the late 1972 release of the Richard Petty NASCAR car. Those kits had a fully stock 1973 body, with hood pins engraved on the flat hood. The kits and promos came with flat hoods for ‘73 and ‘74. 

The ‘73 and ‘74 annuals came with some very interesting custom parts: many of the custom parts mentioned above that came with the Super Charger first appeared in the annuals. 

Perhaps the coolest custom parts from these kits were the optional “station wagon” parts. 
 

 

[CapSat 6]

After the annual kits, the body was once again modified for use for another NASCAR stock car- I believe the Buddy Baker #71 came first, then the later Richard Petty stock car. Both used an identical ‘74 body that had a Rallye style domed hood, and engraving for window clips and paneled in door handles. Racing front and rear bumpers were included as well. The wheel arches were hogged out slightly, obliterating the stock mouldings, and a hole for the fuel filler was added to the driver’s side rear quarter panel. 

Here are pics of a ‘73-‘74 annual body (white, top), a Petty body (blue, bottom) and a Super Charger (red, middle). 

As you can see- there is a gas filler on the Super Charger body where it shouldn’t be, and the wheel arches are still like they were in the NASCAR releases. Still- the restoration work was ok. They brought the body back mostly to stock. 
 

 

 

[CapSat 6]

The annual kits and promos all came with flat hoods- making the kit a standard Charger hardtop. Here are some hoods. 

The red one with callouts is one from the Baker ‘72 Charger kit. The blue one is from an early Petty kit, and almost identical to the ones in the ‘73 and ‘74 annuals. Note that there are no vents on the rear edge of the red one. These vents changed almost every year on real Chargers. You had a full strip of vents for early ‘71, a divider in the middle of the vents for late ‘71 and ‘72, and gradually smaller groups of vents for ‘73 and ‘74. The blue hood probably would be more correct for a ‘72 or ‘72 Charger. 
 

 

Edited June 11 by CapSat 6
More…

[Ron Hamilton]

2 hours ago, CapSat 6 said:

After the annual kits, the body was once again modified for use for another NASCAR stock car- I believe the Buddy Baker #71 came first, then the later Richard Petty stock car. Both used an identical ‘74 body that had a Rallye style domed hood, and engraving for window clips and paneled in door handles. Racing front and rear bumpers were included as well. The wheel arches were hogged out slightly, obliterating the stock mouldings, and a hole for the fuel filler was added to the driver’s side rear quarter panel. 

Here are pics of a ‘73-‘74 annual body (white, top), a Petty body (blue, bottom) and a Super Charger (red, middle). 

As you can see- there is a gas filler on the Super Charger body where it shouldn’t be, and the wheel arches are still like they were in the NASCAR releases. Still- the restoration work was ok. They brought the body back mostly to stock. 
 

 

 

Now I know that I wasn't crazy for buying a stock 74 Charger body for my used 74 Super Charger built-up I got from a good friend. Also, I bought a resin flat and domed hood, proper center cap rallye wheels, and Keith Marks  Charger Rallye decals. I also have a mint in box 73 Charger kit.  I'm tempted to re-do the guts, using the AMT 71 Charger R/T. I'm glad I bought some extra 71 Charger kits. I still have a 72 Rallye to resurrect.

[CapSat 6]

More…

The blue hood is the Petty/ Baker late hood. The red one is the hood used in the Super Charger, which would presumably still be in the tool. The annual kits did not come with domed Rallye hoods. 

[CapSat 6]

Custom parts from the ‘73 and ‘74 annuals. Most of these (tow hitch, station wagon pieces) did not come with the Super Charger, but it would be great if these were ever found / unblocked for a future release. 

The stock bumpers are shown. The front bumper is the same as what comes in the Super Charger. The rear bumper in the Super Charger does not have bumper guards like the annual ‘73 and ‘74 rear bumper does. 

Edited June 11 by CapSat 6

[Stef]

Bill, you have done the Lord's work here; thank you so much!

This is a fantastic bit of kit history many of us will appreciate!

Now, Round 2 is faced with quite the Mopar dilemma:

Will drksd4848 get his 71-72 Road Runner first?

Or will we get our 73-74 Charger first?

Heh.

[CapSat 6]

1 minute ago, Stef said:

Bill, you have done the Lord's work here; thank you so much!

This is a fantastic bit of kit history many of us will appreciate!

Now, Round 2 is faced with quite the Mopar dilemma:

Will drksd4848 get his 71-72 Road Runner first?

Or will we get our 73-74 Charger first?

Heh.

Thanks! I’m a big fan of both cars & kits. It’s been rumored that the ‘71 Road Runner is either lost or incomplete. I don’t think anything has been heard about the ‘74 Charger tool. I guess it would depend on what’s available and viable. 

[tim boyd]

Thanks, Bill, for digging deep on this one.  Your photos clearly show the issue I raised regarding the lack of 1/1 style body engraving around the wheel lip moldings, and lack of wheel lip moldings themselves, on the SuperCharger reissue.  That was back in the day, and still is today, a "no go" for me, but perhaps of much lesser concern to most of the kit buying public. 

The news on the vents on the hoods is new to me.  A similar evolution of hood vents on the '71-'74 Plymouth RoadRunner/Sebring resulted in the eventual complete elimination of the hood vents on the '74 RR, which I suppose was the primary reason the "Astro/Strato (or whatever it was called) Upper Ventilation" option on my 1/1 factory ordered'74 RR only ever blew hot (i.e.underhood) air and was essentially worthless.  Which then leads me to wonder if by '74 the 1/1 Charger hoods also completely eliminated the vents as well.  (MPC did not update their '73 RR tool for the '74 model year).

Anyway, big thanks for all your research on this...TIM  

  

[Stef]

2 minutes ago, CapSat 6 said:

Thanks! I’m a big fan of both cars & kits. It’s been rumored that the ‘71 Road Runner is either lost or incomplete. I don’t think anything has been heard about the ‘74 Charger tool. I guess it would depend on what’s available and viable. 

Right you are, Bill! Round 2 continues to surprise, excite, and impress with so many old kits and subjects being restored, updated, backdated, fixed, improved, optioned, resurrected, and given new life. These guys really know and love cars, they listen to us, and they deliver so many incredible kits to bankrupt us. And I could not be happier about it. Again, great sleuthing, thank you, and here's looking forward to more Round 2 awesomeness!

[Rbray47]

I'd be up for a couple more. Mine needs a shelf mate. With a little work, and some parts box magic, you can build the kits engine into a stock-ish 400. 

[Mark]

Nobody has brought it up yet...the engine/transmission and underbody parts in the '71-'74 annual kits are carried over from the '68-'70 Coronet.  Same short Torqueflite with the tailshaft molded as part of the exhaust/rear suspension piece, same headers, and so on.  Alterations were made to fit it under the Charger body.

The custom station wagon roof pieces are a pretty good fit on the new-tool '71 Charger.  I was going to go that route, but lucked into a built '73 that had already been converted.  The wagon roof was missing, as was the hood, but I did turn up replacements for both.

[CapSat 6]

1 hour ago, tim boyd said:

Thanks, Bill, for digging deep on this one.  Your photos clearly show the issue I raised regarding the lack of 1/1 style body engraving around the wheel lip moldings, and lack of wheel lip moldings themselves, on the SuperCharger reissue.  That was back in the day, and still is today, a "no go" for me, but perhaps of much lesser concern to most of the kit buying public. 

The news on the vents on the hoods is new to me.  A similar evolution of hood vents on the '71-'74 Plymouth RoadRunner/Sebring resulted in the eventual complete elimination of the hood vents on the '74 RR, which I suppose was the primary reason the "Astro/Strato (or whatever it was called) Upper Ventilation" option on my 1/1 factory ordered'74 RR only ever blew hot (i.e.underhood) air and was essentially worthless.  Which then leads me to wonder if by '74 the 1/1 Charger hoods also completely eliminated the vents as well.  (MPC did not update their '73 RR tool for the '74 model year).

Anyway, big thanks for all your research on this...TIM  

  

Thanks, Tim! This started with me goofing around with some old '72-'74's last week. I started looking at the hoods and noticed some things :). More to come, as they say...

The wheel openings aren't a deal breaker for me. The body shapes and details left over from the Petty modifications aren't terrible, although the wheel openings are a shame. One could always try to add a "molding" to each with corner round or very small tubing, I guess, or at worst, use some from the '71 AMT kit (along with the chassis and drivetrain...in for a penny...). I have seen a few builds using this as a base for sone nice resto mods. I always liked these cars, and MPC kits were always my favorites, warts and all.   

The question would be: "if Round 2 still has this, would it be worth it for them to run it as-is"? Or: "would it merit new simplified tooling". 

I'm going to press on with more pics and info tonight, and sum up my essay...

     

[CapSat 6]

10 minutes ago, Mark said:

Nobody has brought it up yet...the engine/transmission and underbody parts in the '71-'74 annual kits are carried over from the '68-'70 Coronet.  Same short Torqueflite with the tailshaft molded as part of the exhaust/rear suspension piece, same headers, and so on.  Alterations were made to fit it under the Charger body.

The custom station wagon roof pieces are a pretty good fit on the new-tool '71 Charger.  I was going to go that route, but lucked into a built '73 that had already been converted.  The wagon roof was missing, as was the hood, but I did turn up replacements for both.

From the other thread I was hijacking...  And yeah- those engines are exactly the same between the '68-'70 Coronets and '71-'74 Chargers...maybe they thought the chassis and drivetrain were missing when they revived the '70 Coronet in the early 90's, or knew the chassis had been altered? 

 

The ‘68 Coronet got a new chassis tool that year- it went under the ‘69, then the ‘70 Super Bee, and then the chassis and drivetrain went right under the ‘71 Charger tool. It stayed with the ‘74 Charger tool. When they found the ‘70 Super Bee body and interior, perhaps they thought it was missing, but really, it was with the ‘74. It might still be with the ‘74 Charger if they still have it. 

Pics are better than words. Here is a mint, original MPC ‘68 Coronet annual chassis (in white) compared to a used ‘72 Charger chassis (painted black and red). I’m sure the ‘74 is the same as the ‘72 except that screw holes have been blocked. It looks like they extended the front pan area, cut down the rear pan area, and took some length out of the wheelbase (correctly) when it went to the Charger in ‘71.

EDIT: Now that I REALLY look at these pics, it looks like the Coronet chassis is also a smidge wider. They still seem to have a lot of the same markings and details though. Either MPC modified the chassis tool, or cloned it heavily. It does seem like a lot of their kits reused certain design elements (wheels, engines, chassis), so maybe they somehow copied it and modified it to suit. 

 

[CapSat 6]

1 hour ago, Rbray47 said:

I'd be up for a couple more. Mine needs a shelf mate. With a little work, and some parts box magic, you can build the kits engine into a stock-ish 400. 

Excellent work! Using most of the kit, you made it look really nice.   

[CapSat 6]

More hoods. 

The white one on the left is from an original annual ‘72 Charger. It has the optional louvred insert glued in. It’s more or less the same as the one from the ‘71 annual. Notice there are no vents on the back edge. It looks like the 71 and 72 promos did have the louvres. 

The purple one in the middle had been cut from a Hawaiian funny car body. Notice the louvres. It’s the closest thing to correct for a ‘72- no scoop or insert, just a plain dome, and vents on the back edge, although there should be a small divider in the vents for a ‘72 hood. The vents are the early production ‘71 style. 

The gray hood is from the “new” AMT ‘71 Charger R/T kit. It has a better look all around, and the early ‘71 style vents at the back edge. 

[pack rat]

10 hours ago, CapSat 6 said:

The question is: would it be worth Round 2’s time to pump some of these out? 

This thread takes me back to when I first started doing some work for Round2.  

At the time I (repeatedly) suggested that a '73/'74 Rallye based on the Super Charger would make a cool reissue idea....however I didn't know then (or now) how do-able it is.  I was told at one point that they had the Super Charger tool and were considering running some plastic through it to see what they had.  This was quite a long time ago and I don't know what transpired after that.

Some pics of a wagon I did using a Super Charger beater and some spare annual bits. 

 

[Ragtop Man]

I could see a tune up (perhaps clone?) of the Super Charger that would use elements from the retooled '68 Coronets. I think that interest would grow if the program likewise included a retooled '72 Roadrunner of the same quality and fit. 

That said, I'd step on a row of boxes to get to the '70 Cyclone even though I'm sitting on several as we speak.

 

 

[Radretireddad]

Until recently I wasn’t aware of this kits history and since I’m no rivet counter, I’d be happy with a straight reissue of the Super Charger kit. It’s the only one I’m lacking to complete chronicling the Charger lineage in my collection from ‘67 to ‘74. A bash with the Mueller era ‘71 seems like a natural although the interior details probably won’t be accurate.

Edited June 11 by Radretireddad

[Radretireddad]

3 hours ago, Stef said:

Right you are, Bill! Round 2 continues to surprise, excite, and impress with so many old kits and subjects being restored, updated, backdated, fixed, improved, optioned, resurrected, and given new life. These guys really know and love cars, they listen to us, and they deliver so many incredible kits to bankrupt us. And I could not be happier about it. Again, great sleuthing, thank you, and here's looking forward to more Round 2 awesomeness!

They’re experts at separating me from my money!

[drodg]

51 minutes ago, CapSat 6 said:

More hoods. 

The white one on the left is from an original annual ‘72 Charger. It has the optional louvred insert glued in. It’s more or less the same as the one from the ‘71 annual. Notice there are no vents on the back edge. It looks like the 71 and 72 promos did have the louvres. 

The purple one in the middle had been cut from a Hawaiian funny car body. Notice the louvres. It’s the closest thing to correct for a ‘72- no scoop or insert, just a plain dome, and vents on the back edge, although there should be a small divider in the vents for a ‘72 hood. The vents are the early production ‘71 style. 

The gray hood is from the “new” AMT ‘71 Charger R/T kit. It has a better look all around, and the early ‘71 style vents at the back edge. 

I don't think 72 Charger Rallyes 1:1 had the louvered hood like MPC released with the original kit, just a domed hood.     You could still get an air grabber on the 72 though.   

[Mark]

The '71 annual kit included the Air Grabber and louver inserts as separate parts.  MPC probably just left both in the '72 kit not knowing about the change, or not wanting to spend the money to make the change.

[CapSat 6]

The '72 kit did come with the Air Grabber and Louvre inserts. Those hoods might have still been in Dodge's production plan early on, but by the time the promos came around, the '72 Promos had the correct domed/ plain hood. 

I think 1:1 '72's were initially available with the Air Grabber, but from what I have heard, they made maybe 10 or so cars with that hood (and even fewer with the 440 Six Pack engine). They went to the domed hood for '72, probably because muscle model sales were dropping significantly, and it simplified production, as it was just a stamping without any kind of insert.

I had read somewhere that by 1973, most dealers wouldn't order 440 cars unless they were paid for up front or with a huge deposit, since insurance and fuel became big questions for many potential buyers during that era.

Chrysler read the tea leaves- the Charger went from "Muscle Hero" to "Luxobarge" in just a few short years.