When you're talking full-fendered rods, the '36 Ford three-window coupe in an absolute natural. You certainly can't argue with success, and the popularity of this machine with generations of street rod enthusiasts says it all! For many street rodders the counterpoint to the current popularity of the high tech look has been the nostalgia or "retro" rod. Speed equipment and rod goodies from the late fifties and early sixties are in demand once again by the rod enthusiast who is looking for a more distinctive approach to his machine.

The Kit

This is a reissue of Monogram's classic fat-fendered hot rod kit that's been around for many years, done in white plastic for the first time. Eighty-three (83) parts greet the modeler upon opening the box. There are five bagged sprues molded in white, and most parts are amazingly flash-free considering the age of the tooling.

The clear tree contains the windows and headlight lenses but is packed loose in the box. Luckily, mine are only slightly scuffed. The "chrome" parts are shiny and smooth but are also packed loose in the box. Mine are in perfect condition despite this.

The decal sheet is the only really new thing about this kit and includes a nice set of flames plus optional scallops. There's also a set of California "SLIK 36" license plates correctly showing the difference between the front and rear tags.

The instructions are presented in twelve clear steps. Typically, these use the usual international symbols rather than text, but the parts are named! A welcome return of a feature that used to be common in Monogram and Revell kits.

Revell gives this kit a '2' skill level which should be well within the capabilities of a beginning modeler, but care is needed to get a good clean mating of the separate roof section to the body. This kit in its first issue contained parts for both the coupe and roadster, along with parts for a factory stock version, and a *lot* more custom options. While it has been reissued at least once as the roadster, I sure would like to see this released in its original form and wonder if the tooling for the stock and additional custom parts still exists.

Thanks to Revell-Monogram for the review sample.