Rotorbolt73 Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 (edited) After finishing my Wraith Corvette build, I started digging around in my unfinished projects stash looking for something to mess around with before I start building the yellow firebird from that movie. I typically enjoy building super stock drag cars and gassers. So I jumped back on this build that I've been working on periodically. This is the reissued AMT 1961 Ford galaxie styline kit. I got this as a christmas present from my inlaws a couple years ago. Its a pretty basic curbside kit centered around exterior 60's style customizing with very little chassis detail. Comes with some neat custom parts but I don't normally build customs. The hood is molded shut on the body and it has a one piece chassis plate. But since this was so different as a subject, I immediately started brain storming with it. First thing I noticed was the large rear wheel openings in the chassis plate. I had a set of AMT MH Racemaster jumbo slicks that fit perfectly in there and my decision was instantly made to build it as a super stock drag car. Since I wanted an engine in this, I carefully cut loose the hood and set out to make the necessary modifications to convert this kit into something better. I moved on to the chassis plate and cut out the molded in front suspension/ engine bottom and the molded in rear end. Used my dremel tool to grind off the molded in drive shaft, stock single exhaust and muffler. I filled the rear hole using the plastic customizing sheet that came with the kit. Also filled the rear sections of the gas tank and frame with plastic where the plate screws normally went. The 61 galaxies shared the same if not similar suspension chassis parts as the 57 Fords. Luckily, I had these front suspension pieces in my parts stash thanks to the generosity of a friend in my model club. He had build a Revell 57 Ford sedan into a gasser and gave me all the left over stock parts. After some minor fit work , the front upper and lower A arms fit rather nicely. I used the engine mount cross member from the AMT 57 ford kit. The AMT Ford suspension parts will work as well, but the Revell parts were better detailed. Heres the engine bay detail in progress. I had a firewall in my parts stash that fit perfectly with a little trimming on the edges. I have no idea what kit it is from..Note the use of the Revell Ford steering box and the relocated master cylinder wall mount and steering column section. I had to cut small slots in the fender wells to slip the upper A arms through to glue them to the frame. I have yet to figure up a radiator support. Edited May 26, 2015 by Rotorbolt73 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10thumbs Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Hi Matt, it's good to see that you're bashing this kit and making it more up to date. I think it's a good model to make a rowdy stocker with. Maybe trim off the "chrome" detailing around the roof and make a plain jane race car? Did Ford even have a plain model with this roof line? Good work. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotorbolt73 Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 Heres an overview of some of the main pieces I'll be using. The AMT jumbo slicks and some skinny front white wall tires with the steelie rims from the Revell 64 fairlane kit. The Ford rear end and leaf springs I found in my parts box. No idea what kit this is from either. It was from an old unknown gluebomb and was broken in a few places. I repaired and narrowed the track width with evergreen tube to fit the Ford chassis.. More digging through my parts turned up this early 60's Ford engine. I think its from a AMT Thunderbird kit but i'm not sure. Most of the pieces for it were there and it fit pretty good. Has a tri carb setup but I might change that later. I filled in the metal axel hole slot in the block that was typical of early AMT kits. Heres a shot of the rear end with the AMT Racemaster jumbo slicks. The fit is great. Still have to find some shocks and a driveshaft in my parts. Shot of the engine mockup in the opened up bay. Everything seems to clear nicely so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High octane Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 I'm likin' where you're goin' with that Ford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotorbolt73 Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 Shot of the underside of the front suspension section. The Ford engine fits asweome here. Note the "slushbox" transmission and how it transitions into the molded in tailshaft behind the cross member. Excellent illusion to blend in with. Amazingly, the offenhauser headers clear everything with no mods. I also cut down the kit wheel back shafts to fit the suspension track width. I even retained the metal axel piece for added strength. Shot of the rough chassis mockup and stance. Stay tuned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modelbuilder Mark Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 off to a great start Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10thumbs Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 (edited) Matt, isn't that car a Fairlane? Cool, that will make a nasty little stocker for sure. Michael Edited May 26, 2015 by 10thumbs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
booboo60 Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 nice, looks good, a lot of work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotorbolt73 Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 Thanks for the interest and comments guys. This isn't near as much work as it seems Alan. Its a pretty straight forward conversion/ update. Now the corvette I just built..that was a lot of work.. No Michael, this is a Galaxie. Fullsize car of the era. The Fairlane was redesignated as a midsize in the 60's. They both look similar in styling. Been messing around with it some more today. Got a few details like the rear shocks and drive shaft figured out. Glued the firewall into the body and filled the center floor gaps in the transmission tunnel area to blend better with the lower edge of the firewall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10thumbs Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Hi Matt, OK. I was thinking it was a smaller body. I had a buddy in High School who had this one; It was a 62 though. Thanks. Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotorbolt73 Posted May 27, 2015 Author Share Posted May 27, 2015 Man I could be mistaken about early 60's Fords. I'm not much of a Ford guy. Fairlane could have been a trim level designation at that time. Just like the starliner bubble tops and sunliner convertibles. I just know by 64 the Fairlane was a midsize model line. But the 60-63 models I'm not familiar with much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
booboo60 Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Im have 1 wip! Its the 64 ford 427 thunderbolt! Fairlane i beleive! Its the revell kit with the redish/orange paint and flames on the front, but this was a Fee-Bay buy! No decals, but i have a guy that makes killer real fire flames! Anyways! I cut the stock chassis off at the fire wall! And added the tubbed half of the 66 nova! And a 4 link rear end! Worked out good! Ill post a page this week..thanks Matt~ wanted to share,, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintagercr Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Looking good so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotorbolt73 Posted May 27, 2015 Author Share Posted May 27, 2015 (edited) Thanks for the continued interest guys. That would be neat to see how the nova chassis fit in that fairlane body Alan. Heres a few pics of my progress. As I said earlier, I found some coil over shocks, I believe from the Revell 32 Ford kit, made some shock mounts on the spring hangers and crossmember, then made up a driveshaft from my parts box items. Since I cut the hoof off, I had to cut off the molded in locating posts for the front chassis plate and interior tub. This left the underside kinda' plain and rough looking. So after looking at some referance pics online, I made the underhood bracing out of thin evergreen sheet. Now it looks better like it should. Digging around in my parts again, I found a radiator support that would work and had a nice upper brace curvature already. This is one I had cut out of a AMT 65 Chevelle wagon body 26 years ago. Never throw parts away. you will eventually use them. It did have the molded in screw posts as typical of those old AMT kits. I cut the post humps flush with the support wall and filled in the remaining recess with evergreen half round rod. I then added some evergreen sheet scraps to the ends to extend the support on both sides. I amazingly still had the Chevelle radiator from the same wagon kit as well. I cut a upper fan cowl and side tanks off another parts box radiator and glued them to the Chevelle radiator for better detail. I then notched the mounting section on the front bumper to clear the radiator bottom tank. After a mock fit of the front engine bay, everything seems to be going together fine. Edited May 27, 2015 by Rotorbolt73 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragcarz Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Wow I'm lovin this, thanks for sharing !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmobie Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Fairlane was the name of Edsel Ford's Michigan Estate, it was used for full size cars from 55-61 then moved to the smaller chassis in 62-68 (?) A Factory race only 427 big block first appeared in 63 but the most famous were the factory 64s. In 66 Ford offered the 427 in the Fairlane, AMT kitted both the 390 and 427 Fairlane along with the 390 Mercury.Comet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w451973 Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 Nice work so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Hamilton Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 Excellent work!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoatGuy Posted June 14, 2015 Share Posted June 14, 2015 Looks really good. Your kitbashing skills are working well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotorbolt73 Posted June 15, 2015 Author Share Posted June 15, 2015 Thanks guys. a lot of it is in paint now. Waiting on things to dry while being distracted by other projects. Several small details to do now.. Hopefully I'll get this together soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRIPTROIT 71 Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 I'm liking this build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sledsel Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 I'm following also! Great looking build. As an FYI if you want to go a step further, the Galaxie line was offered in a 2 door sedan. The Custom series had a different roof line though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sledsel Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 (edited) Two and four door sedans in the Fairlane series had a wrap around rear window Edited June 15, 2015 by Sledsel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 Great work so far Matt, just found this been missing out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1 bad55 stan Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 Dude it looks way cool,and im a Chevy guy...nice work.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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