AMT 1969 Corvair engine

[Casey]

14 minutes ago, Mark said:

That's a mid-Seventies kit, the "budget series" that I described earlier.  It's the first one without the side glass, fog lamp lenses, and other clear parts.  A number of other optional parts were eliminated also, and a bunch of engine parts that were plated in other issues are not in that one.  Those kits came in narrower boxes, like the ones some of the Trophy Series kits came in in the Sixties.  

 Looks like the bulk of the parts were crammed into the bag to allow everything to fit inside the narrower box:

Looks like both 13" and 14" tires were included, though:

 

And those decals, too...wow:

Edited September 26, 2018 by Casey

[Ron Hamilton]

I have a deconstructed 66 Corsa in the base2. I may whack the roof off and do a model of a car my boss owned. A Marina Blue Corvair Corsa Convertible. It depends on how well it cleans up.

[DukeE]

Convertible boot from promo in the blue car box art, IIrC in Prestige too? Don't have latest release. but doubt it was removed. Most f you prob knew that. :^)

Edited December 7, 2019 by DukeE
spelchek

[Slick Shifter]

On 3/20/2018 at 11:59 AM, Casey said:

clear parts from the AMT '41 Plymouth kits. While not as drastic as the Corvair example, the below shows how space was consolidated and the ejector pin locations changed, even though the parts count remained the same:

There's no way that any mold shop is gonna plug and move the ejector pins such a miniscule distance. They made a new core for that clear shot. Who knows why.

There's a few cues to indicate that the cavity side is different as well. Maybe they lost the clear section in one of the many moves and had to recut it.

[Vince Nemanic]

Many years ago, Dave Burket told me that most of the kits he had reissued needed the clear parts to be retooled. Since the clear stuff was made from smaller tools, they often got separated from the rest of the tools, and since the tools weren't labelled it was easier to retool the parts than to search hundreds of molds to see if the correct one was there. A matter of time, effort, and money. It really surprised me that there was no master list of the tools (assuming that there was some kind of ID on the molds.

[Jon Cole]

1 hour ago, Vince Nemanic said:

Many years ago, Dave Burket told me that most of the kits he had reissued needed the clear parts to be retooled. Since the clear stuff was made from smaller tools, they often got separated from the rest of the tools, and since the tools weren't labelled it was easier to retool the parts than to search hundreds of molds to see if the correct one was there. A matter of time, effort, and money. It really surprised me that there was no master list of the tools (assuming that there was some kind of ID on the molds.

Tooling for the clear parts unlabeled? What Einstein dreamed that strategy up? LoL.
All I can imagine, is they were working for the moment. To them, they were just casting toys. Perhaps they couldn't ever imagine that the fruits of their labor would ever hold any interest many decades later? 

[Vince Nemanic]

I assume the tools had some sort of writing or stamping, but the index list was lost at some point.

[DukeE]

Tools are money. Idiotic to not keep good, up to the day inventory. Not hard to stamp kit no or whatever on the metal, or engrave it. How can you depreciate or value your investment if you don't know what you have?? SMH

[Flat32]

This entire thread fascinates me more now than when I first saw it. Thanks for adding to it.

Owned and loved a 1965 Corsa convertible, but the discussion related to the engine molds and Chevrolet prototype history are especially interesting.

[Bob Ellis]

The AMT Corvair turbo-engine debuted in 1965 and ended in the annual 1967 kit. The parts pack has a corvair turbo-engine with no transmission and generator. Swap those parts.  All 1968 and later Corvair kits had no turbocharger and 4 carb max engines

[Bob Ellis]

On 12/7/2019 at 2:36 PM, Jon Cole said:

Tooling for the clear parts unlabeled? What Einstein dreamed that strategy up? LoL.
All I can imagine, is they were working for the moment. To them, they were just casting toys. Perhaps they couldn't ever imagine that the fruits of their labor would ever hold any interest many decades later? 

The same one that eliminated the clear back-up light for this kit. A bean counter.

[Dave Darby]

On 12/7/2019 at 2:36 PM, Jon Cole said:

Tooling for the clear parts unlabeled? What Einstein dreamed that strategy up? LoL.
All I can imagine, is they were working for the moment. To them, they were just casting toys. Perhaps they couldn't ever imagine that the fruits of their labor would ever hold any interest many decades later? 

Keep in mind AMT's assets were moved at least twice from East Troy Michigan due to the company being sold first to Lesney, in Baltimore, then to Ertl in Dyersville Iowa. The paperwork for tracking all of that smaller tooling probably didn't make the trips. When I spoke with AMTs John Mueller in 2013, he told me he had just finally gotten to go through all of the AMT and MPC tools and inserts and get them sorted out. And that's no conspiracy theory.

Edited December 10, 2019 by Dave Darby

[Casey]

On 12/7/2019 at 7:03 PM, Vince Nemanic said:

I assume the tools had some sort of writing or stamping, but the index list was lost at some point.

I've seen lots of spray painted, stenciled letters and numbers on both AMT and Revell molds, but I would also think they were stamped (as in, with a metal stamp) at some point, someone where on both the cavity and core halves of the mold.

That said, here's a look at some inserts or smaller mold section for various AMT and MPC kits, wrapped in duct tape and labelled with an ink pen, stored in a Ziploc bag, or wrapped in paper:

 

The loose F/C American Racing 5-spoke front wheel inserts are a good example of what Dave Darby mentioned in the post above this one. Those could've been easily lost, damaged, etc.

 

Here are some Revell's molds, pre-Hobbico bankruptcy. I see masking tape, paper tags with wire twistie-ties, and painted on stencils:

Edited December 10, 2019 by Casey

[vairnut]

Was sorting through my Corvair kits today and remembered this thread. When checking kits I found the 1987 prestige series issue had most of the clear parts present that the 1969/1970 issue kits had. The clear sprue in the prestige kits have all the same parts in same locations as the late 60's annual kits and the 1970 issue "Corvair Monza"  (T374?).  The only difference between the early annuals and the prestige is that the runners between the front and rear windows is not as solid and a part of the sprue with 4 clear smooth "Lucas" headlights is not present. The prestige kit has the side windows, 2 rectangular headlight lenses, 2 ribbed round lenses, and 2 small gage lenses for the rally gage cluster.  The top engine shroud in the prestige kits is in the same sprue location as the original annual kits.

So the tooling for the  original clear parts was still mostly intact after the early-mid 70's "Corvair Custom" T159 kit. The 2004, 2007, and latest reissues only include the clear parts that were in the T159 issue as shown by Casey above. So the original tooling went missing sometime after 1987.

I have not compared the top shroud from the annuals/prestige kits vs the custom/2004+ issues to see if it in fact different. 

Funny that the 2004 and later issues are ones where all the sprue runners were opened up to include all possible parts even the promo convertible top boot that never appeared in any previous kits but the clear parts are lacking. The optional rectangular headlights, Lucas headlight buckets, and driving light parts in the kit have no lenses to go with them. 

  

[vairnut]

On 9/25/2018 at 9:08 PM, Casey said:

Here are the transparent parts Mark mentioned, from the AMT '67 Corvair Monza kit:

This is the same as what is in the 1987 Prestige issue except for the Lucas lenses in the lower right corner. The main glass part actually attaches to the sprue on the lower left.  The kit number 5727 is for the 1967 annual issue. This number was changed for subsequent issues although the parts and layout did not change. 

[1930fordpickup]

While kit numbers have changed over the years so would have the numbers outside of the molds. Every time there was a sale of the company there was a different boss that had their way of doing the cataloging of the molds. Again with different part numbers on the releases the make matters more confusing. I would think that someplace on the large blocks is a stamped or engraved number. The problem is that it may not be in the right spot while it is on the shelf. so they Paint the numbers on the side so you can read them. Most factories I have been in the mold storage room and rack was not lite very well.  Today's lights are much better and cheaper to operate.