garagepunk66

I would be in line for one or two of these kits as chassis upgrades for the AMT/SMP 59 Imperial and, if Atlantis decides to bring back to us the Revell 62 Imperial annual, would be a lot nicer piece than the kit parts, in spite of being curbside in nature.

... and a Chassis Research TE-440 with the "pillion" front end (basically a hollow steel tube filled with "rubber doughnuts", rumored to be radiator support bushings for GM X-frame cars). The NHRA took a dim view to this feature, as they felt it was too close, functionally speaking, to a solidly mounted front axle. This is very much like a real one that I owned as a roller in the early 90's, but that one had been updated to a Ford style buggy spring per NHRA mandate

The DD frame seems to be somewhat of a composite between the Fuller and Fenn designs. The x-brace behind the driver and the more upright angle of the "dogsled" hoops are pure Fuller, but the main frame rails made from one large diameter tube and much smaller diameter trusswork is Chassis Research style all the way. The dogsled tubes are considerably more laid down on the Chassis Research cars (causing lots of future NHRA safety concerns), and the back brace tubing was configured unusually as well. I'm not certain that an accurate Chassis TE-440 or TE-448 has ever been produced in scale. Picture of a 1960 TE-448 for comparison

I'm very happy to finally see the "dogsled" style Parts Pack dragster frame being properly identified properly as a Kent Fuller chassis, and not a (Scotty Fenn) Chassis Research chassis. Tommy Ivo was a steady customer for Fuller from 1958 onward. Ivo's second, 1959 era, Chrysler powered, single engined car (the first Buick single engine car being sold to Prudhomme) is pictured below. This car is probably the most representative of the Parts Pack frame, though I would bet not many were built with the Ford buggy spring style front end. Fuller was an early proponent of the single VW torsion bar front suspension that would grace some of the most beautiful open wheel drag cars of the 1960's and 1970's. The absolute best donor kit to reach for pretty much all the chassis bits is the 22jr Model T bodied dragster in the Tony Nancy Double Dragster set, as that was a Fuller car built in 1963. Though you would have to scratch-build a torsion tube to mount to the front to accommodate the front end bits.

The only woeful thing about the Jo-Han Maverick kit, aside from the wear and tear the tooling ultimately took, is the promo style chassis. Everything else is first rate. The Boss 429 engine is better than anything AMT or MPC ever offered, and the kit is a plethora of early pro-stock parts, including nice representations of Fenton mags. The interior presents very well too.

The body tooling for the AWB funny car body already exists. The "hanger shot" that AMT/Round 2 uses to identify the tool has been shown in several threads, including the ones for the current kit.

Oh heck yes!

I believe all you have listed there have at least a fighting chance (with the possibile exception of the 67 Bonneville), with most being knock-it-out-of-the-park foregone conclusions. Other, very obvious choices for cloning 67-68 Cougar. Lots of pent up demand for that one. 66 Skylark is similarly a no brainer 71 Firebird Formula 400 61-63 Ford F100 60 Chevy wagon Craftsman Plus 59 Galaxie Craftsman Plus 58 Fairlane 500 Craftsman Plus 60-62 round body Falcon sedans, wagons and 63 Falcon Sprint Craftsman Plus 66-69 Falcon Futura 66 Comet Cyclone GT Craftsman Plus 64-65 Barracuda 67 Barracuda annual 71 Roadrunner or GTX 68-69 Grand Prix Touch Tone Terror Dodge A-100 (clone the missing TTT parts) ... which also brings me to my picks for "spinoffs" 65 442 68 Tempest with OHC 6 option 64 or 65 F-85 wagon 65 Tempest wagon 68-70 Coronet wagons 68-69 Belvedere/Satellite wagons 67 Fairlane GT/GTA kit variant from current kit tooling 68 442 kit variant from current tooling ....and some "out there" picks (cloned) Aurora 1934 Ford 5 window coupe (Polar Lights Retro Deluxe boxing) Aurora Racing Scenes - re-scaled and cloned to 1/25 (not so crazy, as part of the series has already been done with the AMT Garage Scenes parts packs) MPC 70 AMX re-scaled and cloned to 1/25 MPC 68 Econoline re-scaled and cloned to 1/25 (this could be a real coup)

If Round2's recent cloned curbsides are any indication, it will already have an opening hood and will later be offered as a full detail in annual type format

Hoping for an optional exposed headlamp grille in the 68 GTO kit

Barris did very little in building the XR-6. LeRoi "Tex" Smith built the frame, running gear and suspension, as an ongoing magazine project car for Hot Rod. Steve Swaja designed the body, which Jack Hagemann and Gene Winfield made the aluminum panels for it. Barris' shop finessed it together, but his involvement was only dictated by AMT, as they partly funded construction of the car

The basic issue seems to be that the front fenders ahead of the wheel opening hang too low, and the front body filler below the grille is similarly too tall, and the grille/headlights too squat. In fact I have compared the grille to the rough Jo-Han 70 GTX promo I have, and save for the grille being too wide, it measures 1/25 in height. That is only one of the glaring proportional issues with the kit. After 38 years we really deserve a proper, new tool 1970 Roadrunner or GTX that can match the proportional accuracy of the Jo-Han body

Actually the Torino's 429 has one glaring problem.... There's a weird thing going on with the cylinder bank offset, so the two cylinder heads are unequal in length! Worse yet, neither head will fit the far superior Jo-Han Boss 429 block. I hope they do better should they kit a big block variation in the future

Looks like maybe a Clutch-Turbo 400

I also have big problems with the execution of the grille, headlamps, the shape of the grille opening and leading edge of the hood. The overall effect is too flat as viewed from the top. The grille almost then seems too flush as a result and from straight on front view, the bottom of the hood that forms the opening is too arched. The headlights are also too large, and too close together

These are really, really nice builds of these kits. Just beautiful

Assuming that it uses material rods of the same diameters commonly found in Evergreen and Plastruct round stock, I can't see why it wouldn't. ABS and Styrene should have pretty similar melting points.

This video will give you some idea of how it can be used. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29dsCVFI0HM

I have seen a couple of YouTube videos on these gadgets. Kind of like a tiny hot glue gun, but has an automatic feed for the medium. Just thinking aloud what someone could do with one. The one that I saw used ABS rod, but I would not be surprised if Evergreen round styrene stock might work as well

It's a common mistake to make but the company that did the GM conversions was called NEAPCO. They made driveline parts clear into the 80's at least. I bought NEAPCO brand U-Joints at my local mom and pop parts house in 1985 for my Pinto

That's essentially what it was. Can Am in those days was wide open to experimentation, being pretty much a Formula Libre class. Still, I would not want to lose an argument with some Armco Barrier in that car. That would be a quick route to a burial plot

I'll go out on a limb and vote for your first choice in wheels, the custom ones from the 64 Cutlass annual. I think that they lend a more aggressive visual interest to the car, and maintain the mid-sixties vibe

All I can say here is WOW! I am slayed by your efforts here Steve! Fantastic work.

Because, in that period of time, the AMT annuals (and promos alike), where a convertible variant was offered, never had hardtop specific interior tubs tooled up for them. The hardtops invariably had a convertible tub supplied in the kit

At the risk of hijacking/derailing this thread, I would love to see "what's inside the box" of that Premier kit!