....First off welcome
No comment on the price increases in everything we purchase other than we where warned that this was going to happen back in 2020.....I've stock piled quite a bit of model building material since then due to ,for the most part, it originates out of china.
Now on the '65 Fairlane Modified Stocker and its inherit woes.....
My first build out of the gate when I got back into model building in 2007 was the '65 Ford Fairlane Modified Stocker. Used the body was pretty much it, everything else came from the AMT/ERTL '66 Ford Fairlane or was scratch built since the Modified Stocker would not be able to be built the way I wanted it to look. The build is here in forums under the
cars with fenders section if your interested.
There has been some success, here on the forums, with this particular kit out of the box.......
http://www.shorttrackmodels.com/index.php?topic=923.0this is a link to a '65 Ford Fairlane Modified Stocker build that David Bogard did....lowering the body and use of after market tires and wheels really made a difference.
Here's the link to Davids Fotki page showing the the process for the above build....very useful information
https://public.fotki.com/DKBogard/65-ford-fairlane-mo/http://www.shorttrackmodels.com/index.php?topic=1829.0in this link it looks like all Gary did was to lower the ride height using the kit tires and wheels.....improves the over all looks greatly.
To lower the ride height of the '65 Ford Fairlane
frame you will need to drill holes above the original holes....this lowers the frame ride height and moves the tires up into the wheel well as with Gary's build using the kit tires.
To lower the rear portion of the body of the '65 Ford Fairlane to get rid of the "jacked up" appearance, remove the rear post on the frame/chassis and adjust the height using the real most post on the body....remove small increments until you get the height your after.