Revell 1/24 1964 Ford Fairlane
By Carl Kietzke
Overview
This kit is the latest new tooling from Revell in their Special Edition Series. This kit can be built as a vintage Drag racer or a “street machine”. The unibody Fairlane with the available 427 cid engine made for a very popular street and low budget Drag racing machine. Based on available data, this model scales out almost perfectly, and more importantly looks right. The box indicates that it is a 2 in 1 kit, allowing either a Street Machine or Drag racing car to be built.
The Kit
The kit comes molded on 10 sprues - 6 white, 2 clear, 1 clear red, and 1 chrome, plus the hood & body. There are 4 generic semi-hard vinyl tires and 2, two part Drag racing slicks. The split in the two part slicks is at the sidewall tread break, so it is well hidden. All parts are well molded and flash free. The plastic is a semi-hard white styrene that cuts cleanly at the attachment points. The main interior is a one piece tub with soft but distinct detailing. All body trim is sharp and well defined.
Now comes my only gripe in the parts engineering: the block for the 427 is two vertically split parts, which leaves a nasty seam on the bottom of the oil pan. Other than this one issue, this is the best-detailed Ford big block I have seen in a kit in a long time. There are 22 parts comprising the engine itself, with all the fiddly bits molded separately. You get both a 4-speed manual and a 3-speed automatic transmission-choices!
The front suspension is a simple one-piece molding that looks OK once installed. Rear suspension is comprised of 4 parts and again looks right. One of the nice little detail items is the inclusion of 2 filled panels to carry the firewall all the way out to the fenders. And one last gripe, no outside mirror.
This kit is about as accurate as modern techniques will allow, and looks just captures the look of the full size Fairlane perfectly.
Conclusion
You won’t go wrong with this kit. With a little parts transplanting and extra detailing, a good quality showroom stock car can also be built. Since several State Police Departments used the big-engined two doors for patrol, there are possibilities there also.