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remember the AMT "Iron Horse" Mustang?


62rebel

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i think it was a reissue of the Ford concept MachOne based on the '66 fastback; it had a chopped roof, trunk mounted filler caps, cibie headlamps, and a full window insert (all the windows in one piece)...

it had the same 289 with performance parts as the regular '66 mustang kit.....

anybody seen one? i got one waaaayyyyy back (probably the last time it saw styrene) and made the goof of putting cement around the window surround BEFORE putting the "glass" in place.... so, the glass was ruined an the model got trashed (what can i say? i was a kid...) instead of saved.

i have never seen another one; never heard a reference to one, and would like to have a second chance to add this one to the shelf....

maybe i have the name of the kit wrong in my memory... this was around 1974-75? maybe?

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George 53, feel free to chime in as i will have two restorations going on soon.... i figure the Shelby GT500 kit is the closest donor for these, but i had a Micheal's 40% off coupon that would have expired today, so i grabbed a Revell '68 Mustang in case it would wrk as well. i know Hobbytown has the AMT Shelby's in stock.... but i need a coupon to get a deal there...

so; the initial version of this kit was a Ford Concept car called MachOne (or Mach1) before the production car came about, amiright?

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There were four issues of the custom fastback:

Mach I concept: issued 1967 (though the box art resembles the '68 annual kits). The chassis and engine are from the Sonny & Cher Mustang kit, a custom-only '66 convertible itself made from the annual kit. (There were two AMT '66 Mustang annual kits: the fastback, and a convertible with separate glue-on roof with vinyl texture.) The chassis was altered to add dual exhaust (up until then, it had a single exhaust setup molded in). The Mach I body was new tooling, the interior probably altered from the '66 fastback annual (the body from that kit went to the altered-wheelbase funny car kit). The Mach I was molded in red.

Autolite Hi-Per Special: issued 1968. changes included different wheels (Appliance "Wire Mag" replacing the Mach I's Apache wheels). I believe the cut line for the "roadster" option was added to the body at this time also. Molded in metallic (not flake) blue.

Superstang Gasser: issued 1969. This issue had a full-length plated parts tree (Mach I and Hi-Per had half-length trees). This issue included a drag version. The Appliance Wire Mag wheels are replaced by the "baby moon/chrome reversed wheels" that AMT put into a lot of kits over the years. The drag version had slotted wheels, slicks, and 13" tires for the front. Molded in yellow.

Iron Horse: issued 1975 (possibly '74). This issue went is much the same as the Hi-Per Special; the drag version parts are removed. The Appliance Wire Mags are back, the chrome reversed/baby moons are out (though they are on the car in the catalog illustration). Molded in white.

The chassis/engine and half of the plated tree from the Iron Horse were later united with the '66 Mustang coupe promotional model tool (issued once in kit form, in 1969) to create the oft-reissued '66 Mustang coupe kit that we know today. Remember, the '66 annual was not a coupe but a convertible with separate hardtop roof.

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my sad little Mustangs arrived today; two bodies with tubs and chassis plates, core supports, seats, and an engine, some wheel inner halves.... like Dr Goldman looking over Steve Austin, a man barely alive...

i can rebuild these; i have the technology..... and some spare parts! i wish i hadn't given away the four or five Shelby GT500 donor kits i had, now.

a couple of hours in brake fluid and about an hour in the purple pond got most of what must have been a whole bottle of red Testors enamel brushed on... one interior tub must have a half bottle on it alone. it is STILL in the pond....

George 53; if you're on tonight; these are molded in metallic blue; the one i had was molded in a translucent white. any thoughts on the issue sequence these fall into?

i need some more box art views to see what the rest of the car was supposed to look like; else i'm going to use Shelby GT500 rear valance and grille/front valance/hood to repair/modify these.

interesting to note that, for a Ford Concept car, it has the cowl vents smoothed over and no wipers...

AMT also molded in a guide line for cutting the roof off across the B pillar for some kind of targa roadster..... more mileage from a mold!

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rebel

is this what you're building?

if it is, i'm just curious.

why did you buy a used kit?

lots of AMT kits ended up at Lindberg.

probably bought by lindberg from the time period after Ertl

and before Round 2.

No, the Iron Horse was based on a stock Mustang. The kit in your post was originally produced by IMC and depicts the 1963 concept car.

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i found a mis-named build thread on that "other" site (i mean, come on, the name is spelled right, right there on the BOX) that showed a concave full width custom taillight treatment on the IH. familiarity with both the AMT '66 Mustang hardtop and '68 Shelby GT500 kits showed me that some of the parts ended up back in the '66 kit, and a couple are in the GT500. i think i can use the GT500 body shell to repair the "funny car" header cutouts on one body, and to convert the nose so i can use the GT500 hood on both. the '66 kit has the custom rear bumper and exhaust quad tips and valance to do them, but neither has the concave taillight section, which i can probably scratch build. i popped my spare Revell '68 GT hood in place on the IH; it fits width wise, but has a pronounced downward droop towards the front and is about 1/8th inch too long.

the interior tub is a strange, redheaded stepchild: it looks like a stock Mustang 2+2 interior with the back seat folded down, but has squared off door trim panels engraved in it. the locating pins for the seats put them FAR too close to the dash IMHO. it also has the full length console from the '66 kit molded in, unlike the unit from the GT500 which is molded into the front seat unit.

so, i need four more kits to restore two old gluebombs... yikes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

i got a builtup GT500 from Josh in Lexington SC today, and it has already been sacrificed to the styrene gods to repair the "funnycar" header cutouts on one body. THANKS Josh!

it was a good opportunity to compare the Shelby parts against the IronHorse more closely; the interior tubs are similar at first glance but there are significant differences in length, rear cargo area design, and retainer pin presence. the GT500 grille/bumper won't fit the front clip without rework, nor will the valance panel. the GT500 tail panel fits the IH as well as it does the GT... i.e., it needs work!

one of the major things was the broken "A" pillars; the GT500 has noticeably thicker ones than the IH...

i can thin the GT500 ones down to use, but i was surprised to see that difference.

anyways: i now have two salvageable bodies to work from the ground up.....

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i thinned down one of the donor A pillars from the GT500 and backed it with a styrene strip, glued it in; it looks pretty darn close once you remove the vent wing detail and cut back the windshield trim. i'm building up one of the GT500 front valances to see how it will work. i discovered that the GT500 interior tub is too wide in the cargo area to work with the IH chassis plate; the IH tubs have relief contours added to clear the rear wheelwell tubs on the chassis plate. i could probably bypass most of this work and use the late issue '67 kit for full detail but then i'd be losing the period feel of this kit.

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  • 1 year later...

Interesting..never seen the Autolite Special or Iron Horse kits. Neither of those are the same as the 1:1 Mach 1 concept car that Greg posted, though. Did AMT do a kit of that concept car? I like the wheels...

Edited by Rob Hall
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