Parts kits - what's your favorite?

[Chuck Most]

Guess I could chime in with a list-

AMT Phantom Vicky- Fantastic Ford Mod motor with tasty capped headers, killer street rod frame with IFS and an 8.8 coil sprung rear axle, and those 17/20" Halibrands.

Revell Beetles- Really good engine and chassis pan

Revell '32 Fords- Especially the newer 5 window and Tudor variants. I bought a couple Tudors just for that yummy Flattie and those chrome wire wheels.

Monogram Ford F-350- great dually wheels (tires? not so great) nice 460 385-series engine, Dana rear axle

AMT and Revell Model A Fords- the Revell kits have some very sweet period speed parts for the four banger, and great big and little whitewalls. The Red Ram hemi in the AMT roadster is pretty good as well. Even the AMT Woody/Pickup has some nice parts.

Revell '64 Fairlane/T-Bolt- Awesome 427 FE with four speed or Lincoln automatic, nice M&H slicks, teardrop hood scoop, and the newer issues have FOUR sets of wheels- stock steelies with caps, drag steelies, a set of Keystones and a set of Radirs.

AMT '25 and '27 Model T- the '27 has a nice Frontenac head setup for the four banger, the '25 has a simplified but convincing Lincoln 430 MEL engine. The '27 also has a cool dropped front tubular axle.

Revell Beatnik Bandit- cool wheels, narrow slicks, a very nicely done Olds V8 with a blower and a sweet-looking blower drive guard.

AMT '40 Willys- Nice blown Olds V8, lots of neat gasser suspension pieces, extra pickup cab and bed for a rat rod if you build it as a coupe.

Revell Willys- the street rod version has a great chassis with IFS and a four-link rear, as well as a mean early Hemi. The SWC and Big John kits have a period blown Olds and a nice gasser style chassis.

AMT '70 Super Bee Pro Street- the chassis will fit under just about any midsize Mopar kit in existence, and that prototype DOHC Hemi engine is just plain cool.

AMT '66 Nova Pro Street- I've used that chassis under nearly everything but a Nova. The extra stripped engine and stand is a nice touch, too. It's also loaded with speed parts for SBCs if you get off on that kind of thing.

Odd Rod kits (Tom Daniel kits, Vampire Van, AMT Lil Mixer, etc.)- Loads of weirdo stuff for off the wall hot rod builds.

Military Kits- All sorts of different kinds of doodads and widgets for post-apocalyptic buildups.

NASCAR and drag kits- beefed up axles, engine parts, roll cages, MSD ignition boxes, shifters, seats, tires, wheels, etc.

Edited November 23, 2011 by Chuck Most

[Dr. Cranky]

Greetings, folks, I am hoping everyone will help with this new series.

What is it? It is not (or has to be) a formal review of a kit. I am looking for great kits from your collection or from your recollection that are perfect for robbing parts from.

For example: 41 Willys (Revell), 66 Nova (AMT), and 70 Super Bee Street Machine (AMT).

I am hoping to get a discussion going fo what great parts are perfect to rob and use from the good kits that exist out there.

[Draggon]

Heres three!

[Dr. Cranky]

That Nomad looks like its got lots of great suspension parts for other Gassers.

And the hood from the DOUBLE WHAMMY can be cut and grafted on to some other kits.

Thanks, Glenn.

[horsepower]

The '53 Ford p'cup has a ton of nice choices for early Hemi induction pieces, & the "Chevy" rear fenders are truer to scale than the ones in the AMT '55-'57 trucks, & if you want to build a mild custom you can leave the 'Caddy" tailight option in it.

[Draggon]

Yea, Nomad for suspension and great torque thrusts, a beautiful small block, Stude for hemi engine, wheels and tires, hood, and Ford for a great hemi with 8 carbs and a lot of customizing parts!

[Dr. Cranky]

You guys have inspired me to do a video series in the Lab-RAT-ory. Hope you enjoy:

[mikemodeler]

This a great start but the only problem I see so far with the 3 kits posted is that they have not been around for a long time, making them expensive to the person looking for them for the aforementioned extra parts.

Hopefully there will be posts here that have more contemporary kits and their parts for those that cannot find one of those older kits.

Of course, it would be nice if the kit companies started putting those extra parts in the kits again (hint hint)!

[Dr. Cranky]

Mike, you have a good point, but some kits are bound to get re-released or some builders might have them in their collections.

As long as the "WHAT CAN I ROB AND USE FROM WHAT KIT?" discussion continues, I think builders will find this thread useful.

[Jantrix]

I like the Revell '68 Vette.

L-88 hood scoop

A well cast 427 with options.

Front and rear suspension that works well in older vehicles.

[mikemodeler]

Mike, you have a good point, but some kits are bound to get re-released or some builders might have them in their collections.

As long as the "WHAT CAN I ROB AND USE FROM WHAT KIT?" discussion continues, I think builders will find this thread useful.

I agree Doc, the only problem I see is a newbie comes along and we (the forum) tells them to find one of those original issue Nomad kits and they faint at the price.

The information is very useful in that if someone was looking for a part from an older kit, somebody may have it in their spares box with no intention of using it and can make it available without having to purchase the expensive OOP kit.

I bought two newly released (re-issues) kits last week expressly for certain parts and commented about it only to have another forum member send me a PM to say he had those very parts and wouldn't be using them and did I want them?!?!?! HECK YES! So to your point, this can work better than some of us may imagine, me included!

[Dr. Cranky]

Rob, I have a couple of those in my collection. Great engine on that kit.

Mike, the youngsters will adapt and grow, I hope. Money is always an issue no matter the age.

[MachinistMark]

The recall 69 nova. The non cool kit. Nice drag wheels. Slapper bars, great SBC, a cowl induction setup.

[southpier]

[Guest]

My favorite parts donor kit is the AMT '57 Corvette Street Machine (green on box). This kit has lots of great parts for street models like a nice big block with a TH400 automatic, headers, real nice intake and carburetor. It has one of the best molded nine Ford rearend I've seen yet. Also has trail arm/coil over setup with wheely bars if you like those. Separate chassis that could be used under something,but I've never used it yet. It has some nice Pro Star wheels with it and a decent looking hood scoop. Best part is that you can easily pick them up on ebay for five bucks plus shipping if you're patient. Someday, I want to build one to kinda pay homage to all of the ones I've sacrificed.

[george 53]

The recall 69 nova. The non cool kit. Nice drag wheels. Slapper bars, great SBC, a cowl induction setup.

What? recalled?? Whats that mean? ALL the Revell 69 Novas are cool kits. Please elaborate. When was it recalled?????

[Greg Myers]

[Greg Myers]

"And the hood from the DOUBLE WHAMMY can be cut and grafted on to some other kits" .Interesting, never thought of that, for that matter, never seen it either.

[MachinistMark]

No recall. I meant revell . ###### auto correct

[Draggon]

The rat roaster is gonna be a great parts donor!

[Fat Brian]

The AMT 39 Wagonrod has some nice modern engine and suspension pieces along with the full build Boyd Smoothster kit.

The AMT 70 Super Bee prostreet has the overhead cam Hemi motor.

The AMT 66 Galaxie has one of the mort accurate 427 Cammer motors along with the 33 Willys coupe/van kits.

I agree with Roger that the Corvette street machine kit has some great donor parts.

Revells 50 Ford truck kit has a great flathead and optional Ardun conversion heads along with some decent wheels.

Revells new five window and Tudor have great optional engines along with great 302 Fords with either a carb or Mustang style fuel injection.

[ChromeIt]

I wanted to point out that the recent re-issue of the AMT/Ertl 1953 F-100 pickup still has all of those original custom, hot rod, and welding tools parts in the box, although all the box art on all sides shows only a blue bone-stock version.

These are readily available on Ebay for under $20. I just got one for $10.

[Funkster]

Wow, Built that 53 Ford pick-up 35 plus years ago. Like to see all these old model car kits being reissued. Doesn't do anything for for my model car collection from the 60'S, 70'S. and some 80'S.

[Hawk312]

Im sure Im not going to surprise anyone by putting these three up. All of them are nice (big!!) kits in themselves. But they all can be built three different ways, and the race/drag parts are all different in each kit. Combining all of them, you have Cragars and Centerlines, white walls and red lines, slicks and skinny stockers, blowers and hi-rise intakes, big block and small block engines, etc.

[Dr. Cranky]

How does extra parts relate to anatomy?

Head bone connected to the neck bone . . . connected to the ham bone . . . connected to . . .

You known, parts, limbs . . . general anatomy. How parts go together. What parts can be used from one kit to another?

STYRENE ANATOMY.

Danno, Gregg sends you to your room, Doctor Cranky wants YOU to come OUT of your room for some fresh air! LOL!