Motor City

thanks for the info, David

Did you use an original issue of the '74 or '75 kit?

David, That's a sharp model of a rare car!

Beautiful job! I wish I had bought one. My aunt and uncle had one like this, but it was blue, when the got married in 1960. He was working at a Chrysler plant. I remember the car and the wedding, and I was just a little kid.

David, What a strange coincidence that is to have accidentally found the original owner of your car. At least the guy you bought it from didn't swap the carb and manifold! Tom, I've read they were good kits. Those models look great! It's nice to have the '56 that Harry built. I'm going to paint the '57 to match the medium tan and dark brown my aunt and uncle bought new. We had a '57 Bel Air hardtop at the same time.

David, I figured I would wait for the next reissue of those kits. The '57 has opening doors. The '56 would be kind of unusual to do as a Crown Vic on one side, and a regular hardtop on the other, but I'll probably buy 2 just to do both versions. By the way, the AMT promos for '56 were the convertible and a four-door hardtop. For '57, they did Fairlane hardtop and convertible and Custom 300 2-door sedan. The 300 is less common and goes for the most money.

Thanks for posting that information, Mark. I was going to get rid of the kit since I have the convertible promo, but I guess I'll eventually build it. I've got every year of the big Ford from '48 -'70 except the '56 and '57. All are AMT except for the Revell '59 Skyliner and PMC '59 Ranchero. I have to get the '56 and '57. The '48 - '52 AMT are all 4-door sedan promos.

Mark, People have complained on this forum about the missing letters. The squareback hardtop and convertible promos had the letters, so I just figured the fastback kit originally had the lettering, too.

It looks like the Galaxie kit includes a lot of decals (for example: front fender emblems, trunk letters). I wonder if the engraved trunk letters have been restored?

Yes, great news that Round 2 is making improvements to some of their kits.

Snake, "It's either a Torino or a Cobra, but it's not a Torino Cobra. Both are variants of the Fairlane." Yes and no. I have a mailer sent to my Dad from 1969. It's a colorful bi-fold with a snakeskin pattern printed on the outside. When you open it up, a Cobra head pops up! Part of the text reads, "In 1968, Torino Cobra scored the Grand Slam - stock car racing's triple crown - the championships in all three major racing circuits: NASCAR, USAC and ARCA." When introduced for 1968, it was considered a sub-series of the Fairlane. Calling it just Cobra in conversation was causing confusion with the Ace-based Cobra sold by Shelby. Obviously if someone were to see the cars side-by-side, there would be no confusion. I think it's now usually referred to as a Torino Cobra to differentiate it from the Shelby Cobra. Shelby sued Ford over Ford's use of the Cobra name without his permission. I don't recall what the outcome of that was. In any case, it would be nice to see the hardtop/convertible kit reissued.

I'm waiting for a reissue of the '68 Torino GT convertible Indy Pace Car, but I'm afraid that might be a long wait.

Maybe since a '66 Impala SS promo was made, and the '65 Impala SS kits and promos sold well, the interior tooling changes could be justified. If the '65 Wildcat kits and promos didn't sell very well, AMT and/or Buick decided to just make exterior changes for the '66 kit. A '66 promo was planned and then dropped. My Dad had a mail-in form to order a '66 Wildcat promo. I wish I had kept that!

This has been frequently discussed under Round2 (AMT/MPC) monthly kit reviews.

nice!