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AMT 1966 Buick Wildcat


Joe Handley

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I just got that kit myself last month sealed from a Hobby Town store for 12 bucks and very impressed with the kustom goodies! I had got it for parts like many kits I buy but I will build a kustom car out of it cause it seems like such a cool kit and we don't see many of them either whether its the real one or model kit. Have fun!

~ Jeff

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Mine's an early-90s Buyers' Choice, & i've tangled with it a little bit more since i saw a white ragtop '66 @ the dreamcruise; the engine's is pink, i sharpie-colored the valve covers so far & i plan to doctor up the distributor cap w/ spark plug wires as well as finish tutoning the interior, & do you know that this chassis is the '70 Wildcat's chassis?

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Only problem with it is AMT didn't see fit to tool up a '66 dash for it ,, they carried over the '65 which is completely different.

I thought the whole interior, not just the dash, was from the '65 Wildcat. The optional bucket seat interior for the 1/1 '66 W'cat has inserts that are like a fine (1") horizontal tuck and roll pattern. I don't remember what was in the '65.

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I did the "customizing kit" a few years ago. It was alright. I did it stock. I got rid of the front axle and filled in the engine block. It was pretty much out of the box except for a few detail techniques. I did my first fabric interior roof liner which came out nice.

66WildcatFinished-Rear2.jpg

Anybody know if they kept the 'bicycle-wheel monitor' in this kit? (it was a 'Road-and-Track' inspired device, a 'unicycle' trailer with some gauges to monitor road speed, acceleration distance, and braking distance. I remember it on the box art and in an earlier release. Looking for one of those!)

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What they said- its a great kit (and the tooling isn't junked out) with the caveat being the incorrect interior. So for mine, the story goes like this- it was a '65 that needed a front clip, rear bumper and tailights and the donor car was a '66. BTW, the road test equipment is in the '65 GP kit.

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As I've only had the "Buyer's Choice" reissue of the 66 Wildcat, & it didn't have it I can't say for sure on other reissues. However I always thought that those parts were in the AMT 65 Grand Prix. Every review I've read of the reissues, ("Prestige" series in the late 80's/early 90's & "Buyer's Choice" a few years ago), mentioned them included in the Grand Prix, & they were in my "Buyer's Choice" reissue. Perhaps you have the kits mixed up? If not, I can say they are in the last two reissue of the Grand Prix.

:lol:

Mark is correct. I have at least one copy of every release of the 66 Buick Wildcat, including the original, and none of them have the road test parts. The original 65 GP had them, but I don't know if any subsequent releases did. However, the Wildcat is missing 2 parts from the original release. It had seperate side windows that you could use if you wanted to. They're mentioned on the plan for the Customizing series issue, but they weren't in the kit. I can only assume the mold containing them is lost.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Mark is correct. I have at least one copy of every release of the 66 Buick Wildcat, including the original, and none of them have the road test parts. The original 65 GP had them, but I don't know if any subsequent releases did. However, the Wildcat is missing 2 parts from the original release. It had seperate side windows that you could use if you wanted to. They're mentioned on the plan for the Customizing series issue, but they weren't in the kit. I can only assume the mold containing them is lost.

Thanks, guys. Reason for the question (on 'Road Test' parts) in Buick kit was the kit my son had, with that road test wheel pictured on the box! I am sure of the Buick ancestry, as he sent me the Buick Nail-type engine for my model of the Ivo 'T' I was doing at the time.

But if it was indeed in the Pontiac kit, I will continue my pursuit. Again, THANKS!

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  • 6 years later...

Here are two more kits I'd like to have a history on - I would like to determine if their tooling is old-school ('60s) or modern tech ('80s & up), so that I can start looking for them on ebay...

Edited by fseva
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'66 Wildcat= old, mid/late-1960-s era tooling. Still can be built into a nice-looking model with alittle care and effort. Body is very well-done; interior and engine not bad. Chassis is one-piece using steel axles, (front one goes thru the engine block, I think).

'69 Riviera= newer, late-1990's/early-2000's tooling. This is an excellent kit with a great-looking and well-detailed engine, chassis and interior. The body is also excellent. This kit came about when AMT/Ertl was at its high-water mark for kit execution. I seem to remember that this kit nearly won the "Kit of the Year" competition put on my a particular model car publication back then.

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'69 Riviera= newer, late-1990's/early-2000's tooling. This is an excellent kit with a great-looking and well-detailed engine, chassis and interior. The body is also excellent. This kit came about when AMT/Ertl was at its high-water mark for kit execution. I seem to remember that this kit nearly won the "Kit of the Year" competition put on my a particular model car publication back then.

You are thinking of the '66 Riv modern tool. He asked about the '69, which is an original '60s annual that's been reissued a few times..

Edited by Rob Hall
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