AMT 1966 Olds 442?!

[Joe Handley]

We got one or two of these kits in at work and I've never seen it before in nearly 2 decades of screwing around with plastic and 14 years of working for retailers that carry kits It's an AMT Olds 442 that apppears to be a well detailed, modern tool, made like the AMT '67 Impala's separate frame and all form what the box art shows!



http://round2models.com/models/amt/66olds-442

Was this one ever released and I just missed it, was it lost in the shuffle of the Racing Champions takeover and just never released until now under the Round 2 label, or is this a newly tooled kit from Round 2 under the AMT label:blink:

Edited October 21, 2014 by Casey

[slantasaurus]

Yeah, this has been released before in 1998 or 99 along with a convertible version. One of the best from the AMT/Ertl era before Round 2 screwed with everything. I built a hardtop a few years ago the only issue is getting the ram-air set up to line up correctly.







One other note, according to what I've found the wide body molding that is molded in was only available with a vinyl top yet no vinyl top moldings are on the body. To build a car without a vinyl top you should remove the molding on the sides which would be a real b!t*h.

[niteowl7710]

The original issue was 1998. I believe the convertible version came out a year later in 1999. You can see the beginnings of the end of AMT/Ertl in this kit if you get an original one. Gone are the road-map sized instruction sheets, and coming in are the much smaller, less detailed, and no printed words (just numbers and arrows) that we've come to expect from RC2 era kits. Also has a color chart much like an old Monogram/Revell kit where you have to constantly go back to see what letter corresponds to which color.

One of the worst things AMT did was release this kit during the "REAL CAR ON THE BOX" era. Had they used a "retouched photo of actual model" then no one would have been the wiser. But the car on the front in all it's glory is a Fire Engine Red 442 W30, and what you get in the box is a car with the trim set-up for a vinyl top. In addition to needing to remove that side trim as Slant mentioned, you would also need to go back and continue the trim for the full wheel arches, as the trim as is on the kit stops where it meets the large side trim. That whole fiasco is why I've never built the one I have.

[pack rat]

As it comes out of the box the body is correct for a 442 with optional two-tone paint..given the popularity of vinyl tops during this era a two-tone car would be pretty rare.

I researched the availabilty of two-tone paint on '66 442's when I built the box-art kit, and I believe the roof was available in black or white...my memory might be failing me on that point though. I also learned that Ertl had corrected the front bumper at some point...the earliest release had an incorrect front bumper without the w-30 scoops.

[Chuck Most]

I was aware of this kit... but I've never seen the drop-top variant! You learn something new every day!

Now, maybe Lindberg will finally come out with a drop-top version of their '67... what a great way to show off that shallow interior tub!

[rollinoldskoo]

The hardtop was reissued a few years ago in walmart's last batch of model kits for sale....

[1972coronet]

The most-recent issue of Muscle Car Review is chock-full of Oldsmobiles , with an obvious concentration on the beloved 4-4-2 .

Among the many 4-4-2's in the issue is the one which was featured on the original issue of this kit : The fire engine-esque red with a paintedwhite roof .

[rick6343]

Were two-tones that rare? And was the second color restricted to black or white? I've seen one at local car shows that is definitely a two tone: silver over metallic gray.

[Joe Handley]

Thanks guys, I don't even remember this one being announced back then. I may have to pick one up at some point if it's that good!

[ChrisPflug]

If you can find the convertible version it has a beautiful 4 barrel engine and A/C

[Guest]

I have the Walmart release of the hardtop, it has the correct W-30 intake parts, and correct W-30 bumper and grille as well. I could be talked into a trade..............

[niteowl7710]

The most-recent issue of Muscle Car Review is chock-full of Oldsmobiles , with an obvious concentration on the beloved 4-4-2 .

Among the many 4-4-2's in the issue is the one which was featured on the original issue of this kit : The fire engine-esque red with a paintedwhite roof .

So are you saying AMT/Ertl airbrushed the roof red for the box art? I'm confused as to what you're referring to...the original issue, and the Wal*Mart issue the entire car including roof is red without the bulky two tone/vinyl roof trim.

[larrygre]

A little history here: When AMT/Ertl first issued the '66 4-4-2 in the late '90s, the first batch of kits came with the non-W30 front bumper. This was quickly corrected.

Despite its few flaws, this is a really fine kit. One can only wonder what might have been if Ertl had been allowed to continue creating superb kits like these post-sale to Racing Champions. Yeah, I know, shoulda-coulda-woulda....!

[pack rat]

The only flaw I can recall when building the kit was installing the dash-mounted tach properly.

Ertl's instructions show the tach being mounted in the centre of the dash which is incorrect. It should be mounted on the left side of the gauge hood. I managed to squeeze the tach in it's proper place on the box-art car (barely visible in the photos) but it's a tight squeeze due to the thickness of the vent window "glass".

[Chuck Most]

A little history here: When AMT/Ertl first issued the '66 4-4-2 in the late '90s, the first batch of kits came with the non-W30 front bumper. This was quickly corrected.

Despite its few flaws, this is a really fine kit. One can only wonder what might have been if Ertl had been allowed to continue creating superb kits like these post-sale to Racing Champions. Yeah, I know, shoulda-coulda-woulda....!

Well, hey... we actually DID get the Passionate Poncho verson of the '62 Cat, and given Round 2's penchant for 'modified reissues' of late, I wouldn't be too surprised to see this Olds get the same treatment somewhere down the road. I built this kit when it first came out, and for a wee lad I was quite proud of the result- even though I had no idea the bumper was wrong until now!

[Sport Suburban]

I have both of these kits in my stash. I looked them over before and noticed the chrome side trim and the moldings for the two tone top that I planned to do a vinyl top version. So I pulled out my kit and I have an early one with the non W30 Bumper. I have the convertible too and it's a nice one too.

[tbird92]

The most-recent issue of Muscle Car Review is chock-full of Oldsmobiles , with an obvious concentration on the beloved 4-4-2 .

Among the many 4-4-2's in the issue is the one which was featured on the original issue of this kit : The fire engine-esque red with a paintedwhite roof .

I saw that issue at Walmart-my heart skipped a beat! I had a blue convertible 1:1, black convertible top, Hurst 4 speed, tach on the console, 345 hp, manual steering and positrac, all on 14 inch wheels with wire wheel covers. All this at age 17, I paid $995 for it.

[JerryK]

Since I both sold and owned a couple of these puppies when they were brand new I thought I'd offer some data you might find useful about this kit...

First thing: the car on the cover and the car in the box are different models. The car on the cover is an F-85 Holiday Coupe, model 3617. The kit car in the box is a Cutlass Holiday Coupe, model 3817. Both equipped with either 4-4-2 performance option L69 which came with 3-2bbl carburetors or option L78 which included the more common Quadrajet 4bbl carburetor. Both of these packages included the red line tires shown on the box along with heavy duty wheels. A no cost white wall exchange option was also available.

Getting back to the box art, it was definitely Photoshopped. The tell-tail clue is the two-tone/vinyl top chrome separator between the windshield and the side windows that they forgot to remove when they were making the changes. From my experience, average buyers bought 4-4-2's with a vinyl top. Boy racers skipped the vinyl top but equipped theirs with heavy duty items for weekend fun at the strip. some of them ran at U.S. 30 Dragway in Indiana where I raced GT 350H Mustangs courtesy of Hertz.

Just in case you're interested, the following interior colors were appropriate for both the coupe and convertible versions of this kit.

Parchment Pearl (Opalescent) white with matching headliner and black carpet, black with Ivory headliner and black carpet, red with Parchment Pearl headliner and dark maroon carpeting and blue (matches 66 Olds color code D Lucerne Mist) with matching headliner and dark blue carpeting.

Vinyl tops came in Black and Beige (actually an off white)

Convertible tops came in beige (Khaki comes real close), black, blue (a bit darker then the interior blue and white.

I'll be posting the actual paint chips and swatches of everything at the Resin Realm after the first of the year. The pic is of two of the pages from the Olds Dealer binder.

Hope this has been helpful to you.

Jerry

http://resinrealm.net

[Tonioseven]

It builds up alright.

[RodneyBad]

It builds up alright.

Awesome looking Olds..

Super nice work.

[Art Anderson]

Were two-tones that rare? And was the second color restricted to black or white? I've seen one at local car shows that is definitely a two tone: silver over metallic gray.

The two-tone paint job pretty much went away by 1966 at GM, due mostly to body styling thatno longer offered a logical dividing line or point for color separation, which would have meant either an awkward-looking paint scheme, or serious delays in the paint & trim department of any GM Assembly Division plant, due to the necessity of being very precise in masking for the second color.

Even the vinyl tops of the era made for some interesting work for sure, particularly with Chevelle/Tempest/Cutlass/Skylark bodies having adopted the "flying buttress" roof design with the back window tunneled in as it was. As such though, vinyl tops tended to be either black, or white (at least those were the most common colors), with both colors being available with nearly every body color, I believe.

Two-tone, or even multi-colored paint jobs go all the way back to the earliest cars though, and became very popular in the 1920's with the introduction of spray painted lacquer finishes that began in 1924 at Oldsmobile (DuPont Duco Lacquer, provided by DuPont, at the time the principal stockholder in GM). Of course, most cars prior to about 1930 had black fenders, running boards & splash aprons, but that was pretty much a carryover from horse-drawn carriage days. Complimenting colors were used to highlight sculptured window reveals, even the raised moldings on those old upright, squarish body shells, along with pinstriping which was the primary body trim before chrome spears.

In the bottom of the Great Depression, multicolor car bodies went out of fashion, as those who could afford to buy a new car generally declined to "show off" anything that smacked of affluence in the face of breadlines in many cities. By about 1938 or so though, two-tones came back, at first limited to those fat fenders being painted a different, often contrasting color to that used on the body--usually black, or a dark color of some sort.

After WW-II, a few makes, notably Buick, Pontiac and Packard, became available with a complimenting color emphasizing the body character lines of hoods, roofs and rear decks. With the wholesale introduction of new, postwar body styling by 1949, most carmakers began offering two toning, but pretty much limited to the roof, where the second color could easily be separated from the lower body color either by the sharp crease at the bottom of the roof where it joined the lower body, or by the use of chrome trim to cover the masked separation.

With the popularity of "sun belt" oriented images in advertising, by about 1954 or thereabouts, the white roof came into serious vogue, although dark roof colors were still available. But with white, ostensibly that made the interior of the car cooler in the hot summer sun, in those days before the almost universal adoption of air-conditioning. Very quickly, a white top became almost mandatory, if for no other reason than to "keep up with the neighbors", darker optional roof colors beginning to disappear from the paint charts at the dealer's showroom.

But everything "has its day" of course, and by the early 1960's, two-tone cars, mostly with white tops, began to be seen as old-fashioned, "last year's" styling, the emphasis being on "new" every year.

Vinyl tops, on the other hand, have their roots way back in the horse-drawn carriage era, when closed carriages had black leather roofs to seal out rain. With early cars having bodies built in the carriage tradition (coachbuilt bodies), the same issue with roofs on closed cars remained, how to seal a multi-paneled construction body shell against inclement weather, so at first leather, then various treated or coated fabrics began to be used, with rubberized or plasticized canvas duck being used until the development of one-piece stamped steel roofs (GM called them "turret tops" which swept across the industry by 1936-37. Leather-grained black vinyl continued to be offered by Packard on their senior cars, Cadillac on Series 75 and Series 90 sedan limousines, even Buick on their Series 70 sedan limo. Chrysler installed a few on late-30's Imperial 7-passenger sedans as well, but by WW-II vinyl tops were gone.

Fast forward to 1950: Ford Motor Company, having been blind-sided by the unveiling of Buick's Roadmaster Riviera hardtop, followed very quickly by the Cadillac Coupe de Ville, Oldsmobile Holiday, Pontiac Catalina and Chevrolet Bel Air Hardtops, rushed to introduce up-trimmed 2dr sedans; Ford Crestliner, Mercury Capri, and the Lincoln Lido, all of which sported vinyl top covering, in black, as well as dark green, dark blue, and even maroon; as midyear 1950 introductions. Those carried over into 1951, but were overshadowed by the addition of the Ford Crestline Victoria hardtop, and the vinyl topped 2drs disappeared at the end of the '51 model year. Kaiser tried using vinyl tops on their 1955 Dragon, but to little avail, that car sold very poorly, and Kaiser exited the passenger car business by the end of that year entirely to concentrate on Jeep. The next fling with vinyl top treatment came at Cadillac, introduced on the all-new 1959 Eldorado Seville, the majority of those being produced with white vinyl on the roof (now you know why Monogram chose to do their excellent kit of the car with a vinyl roof!), and continued that into 1960. With the coming of the "formal roof" hardtops at GM in 1962 (actually, those were styled to imitate the shape of a raised convertible top!), they played around with offering vinyl covering on those, but I never saw very many of them. Rather, it was Ford who made vinyl tops a "have to have" with the introduction of their "quieter than a Rolls Royce" LTD sedans in 1965, which probably inspired Chevrolet to specify black vinyl roof treatment on the '65 Chevelle Z-16; the treatment spreading across the Ford line, very popular on the Mustang Coupe. Everyone followed suit by 1966, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Art

[Guest]

I dont think it was mandatory to get a black vinyl roof on the 65 Chevelle Z-16, in fact I've never seen a picture of one with it. Very interesting history here Art, amny thanks for posting it!

Edited January 16, 2011 by midnightprowler

[rick6343]

Art,

Thanks for the (as usual) thorough and detailed history! Confirms a lot of things I'd suspected.

[Guest]

Thanks for posting those Steve. Just for the record, I wasnt saying they didnt come that way, I was just saying that it wasnt mandatory. I have a few pics in books and magazines of Z-16's, and they have no vinyl roofs. I prefer it without it actually.

[Chuck Most]

Didn't the original issue of the Revell Chevelle kit have a photo of the 1:1 without a vinyl top? I wasn't aware until now that a vinyl top was even offered on the Z-16.