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Fixing a Bird (or There He Goes Again!)


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Doug, probably because Johan's Road Runners while getting somewhat scarce, can still be found at relatively reasonable prices. AMT's take on this bugged me for years, and it's something I always wanted to tackle to see if it could be done. 

BTW, Revell's '67 Coronet suffers from the same malady. :( I have a fix in mind for that one too, but it'll be quite a while before I'll get time to take on that one.

I'm glad I have three Johan 69 Roadrunners in my stash ,your a big help bill Thank you!

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Bill,a standing ovation to you for your bravado in taking on this somewhat of 1/2  assed  iteration of a beautiful muscle  car (and kicking its butt!) Also props for putting your seasoned experience out here where even the novice,builder can understand what is going on! Thank you Bill!

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  • 1 month later...

Ok I started to do the fix on AMT's 69'GTX  and change it to a 69' Roadrunner ,one thing you must have is a 69' roadrunner Johan rear bumper because it has the peak in the meddle of the bumper , and cut out the rear panel of the AMT GTX and make the bend in the meddle , will have photos later of work.

 

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Doug, you might not need to get a Johan bumper to correct the AMT body. One can make the "splits 'n' bends" in the AMT one to correct it. If you've got extras excellent! But not everyone does and sometimes just getting separate parts for those old Johan kits is like pulling teeth.

I'm curious as to your take on how you fixed AMT's bad body. This is beating a dead horse, but why they keep missing the mark on body lines is frustrating to me, and in this day and age with CAD systems and all, they should be spot on.

Shouldn't they??

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I'm curious as to your take on how you fixed AMT's bad body. This is beating a dead horse, but why they keep missing the mark on body lines is frustrating to me, and in this day and age with CAD systems and all, they should be spot on.

Shouldn't they??

Keep in mind the AMT RR body was tooled up almost 30 years ago...

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Ok I started to do the fix on AMT's 69'GTX  and change it to a 69' Roadrunner ,one thing you must have is a 69' roadrunner Johan rear bumper because it has the peak in the meddle of the bumper , and cut out the rear panel of the AMT GTX and make the bend in the meddle , will have photos later of work.

 

Be carefull.

A 69 rear bumper has the 2 round backup lights in it, 1968 does not

http://st.hotrod.com/uploads/sites/21/2015/12/1969-plymouth-road-runner-rear-view.jpg

1968

http://images.canadianlisted.com/nlarge/1968-plymouth-road-runner-muscle-car-yuuup-19000-coquitlam_8016904.jpg

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Keep in mind the AMT RR body was tooled up almost 30 years ago...

Yes, I know..........but the problem persists. Johan had no such thing (CAD, and whatnot) in the '60's yet their bodies were spot on-----for the most part.

And it ain't just AMT that's guilty of this. ;)

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one thing I did notice was Johan left out the seam lines on the rear deck ,from the rear window to the trunk ,and Amt got it right .

Those are easily scribed in. Thanks for bringing them to my attention--I might have missed them on my next JoHan RR build! B)

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

I have done the backdating of my 69 road runner to a 68. The trunk tail panel was cut from the amt body along with the tail light housings. One other thing is the side marker lights on the amt are recessed into the body. Those lights are supposed to mount flush on the body. 

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16 hours ago, mikemopar70 said:

I agree 100%, i planned to fix my Road-Runner this way comparing it with the Jo-Han...

You did a prefect job correcting it!!

Now the proportions are correct and the body looks like the real car!

Another thing that I did was fill the underhood scoop cutout in the 68 hood. I have found if I don’t it will leave a ghost cutout line after painting. I think the thinner plastic on the cutouts, has a different expansion rate than the thicker plastic surrounding the cutout  on temperature changes. As the thicker plastic around the scoop cutout warms, it expands enough to push the thin plastic cutout line up. It’s doing the same on the other side of the cutout line. No matter how much sanding and paint the cutout line will always show on top. Anybody on the forum ever experienced this or is it just me?

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