@Ahitpy, I never much purchased any of the unassembled cars, nor really followed them. Obviously they were very early production, when K-Line was being made in Chapel Hill, NC, and most likely a cost saving move to eliminate assembly and decoration when K-Line was first getting started. I got back into the hobby around late '88, early '89 and by then, K-Line had already begun to establish themselves. I don't recall seeing unassembled cars in their catalogs either.
Every once in a while though, you see them pop up for sale. I don't recall seeing too many of the 5000-series cars in kit form, but mostly the Kusan based rolling stock like the caboose and the offset hopper. Though I have seen the 5000-series hopper this way. And I seem to remember seeing one of the 027 auto loader flat cars too, which would be a plus for repainting.
I have to wonder at this point in time, how many of them are still out there in original kit form?
I also wonder, with the thinking some have that the whole hobby is going scale 
, where are all these K-Line 027 cars? Some of them are getting real hard to find, and when you see them for sale, the prices being sought for those make the scale cars look like a bargain.
