AMT 1959 Chrysler Imperial: WIP

[David G.]

Hello Everybody.

My next project is the 1959 Chrysler Imperial by AMT. This is a rather simple kit having a chassis plate, body, and a rather shallow interior. The inclusion of a hard-top landau roof and boot provide the option of building it as a hard top or top-down convertible. There is no up-top for the convertible . There are, however two sprues (one of then plated) of extra customizing parts, most of which will go into my parts box for use on future projects.

 

Here is the basic start. Test fitting to check for any potential building issues and primer to help suss out any casting issues. First issue, each of the A pillars has spotlight mounting hole that needs filled.

 

The next issue is the gap between the grille piece and hood. I've already done some filing to remove the chrome plating and some of the plastic on the areas where the bumper fits into the recesses on the front fenders just ahead of the wheel arcs. This photo shows the gap that remains after those initial efforts.  I thought about adding material to the bottom edge of the hood to fill the gap but ultimately decided that I could live with the way it is.

 

I decided to use the trunk mounted "continental kit" because I remember seeing a few of these on real cars over the years and liked the way they looked. And of course, there are a couple of sink marks over the screw mounting posts that need smoothed over. But the rear bumper fits as it should, no complaints there. 👍

 

That's all for now. 

As always, thanks for taking the time to stop and look and please feel free to leave a comment.

David G

[OldTrucker]

I'm watching this one David.

I got this kit as a father's day gift.

 

[doorsovdoon]

Nice progress. I love this kit, they look crazy good when finished. I think the customising parts outnumber, and outweigh, the parts to build the basic car in this kit!

[slusher]

Going to watch your build of this Classic kit..

[FLHCAHZ]

Looking good.  I like the look of the continental kit

[Ceaser_Salad]

Will be following.

I have been considering this kit for a while, perhaps your build will sway me into getting one...

Excited to see your progress

[bisc63]

Looking good! I have a long-term work-in-progress going on one of these, and will enjoy checking in on your progress when I can't work on mine. As for the fit of the front end chrome piece, I think it's suffering from a few too many polishings of the mold, which has added material around the perimeter. That top chrome "eye brow" is a bit thick , and will nestle up much better if you carefully file the tops of the brows down, angling your file ( or sanding stick) just slightly to the rear. On the real car, the front facet of that brow piece is barely a half inch tall, so only roughly one half a millimeter on the model. That will bring the rest upward to meet the hood better. Hope this makes sense.

[David G.]

19 hours ago, OldTrucker said:

I'm watching this one David.

I got this kit as a father's day gift.

 

Thanks Johnny, it looks to be a simple yet satisfying build.

11 hours ago, doorsovdoon said:

Nice progress. I love this kit, they look crazy good when finished. I think the customising parts outnumber, and outweigh, the parts to build the basic car in this kit!

Thank you Gareth. It does have great looking body proportions but the interior is a bit lacking. I think you may be correct on the custom parts.

10 hours ago, slusher said:

Going to watch your build of this Classic kit..

Thanks Carl.

10 hours ago, FLHCAHZ said:

Looking good.  I like the look of the continental kit

Thank you Chaz

9 hours ago, Ceaser_Salad said:

Will be following.

I have been considering this kit for a while, perhaps your build will sway me into getting one...

Excited to see your progress

Thanks Declan. It's a simple curbside kit and I honestly feel that at full price, I may have overpaid a little for it. There are kits that offer much more in the way of detail for the same price but as far as I know, this is the only one of a 1959 Chrysler Imperial. And it does look like it should build out nicely.

9 hours ago, bisc63 said:

Looking good! I have a long-term work-in-progress going on one of these, and will enjoy checking in on your progress when I can't work on mine. As for the fit of the front end chrome piece, I think it's suffering from a few too many polishings of the mold, which has added material around the perimeter. That top chrome "eye brow" is a bit thick , and will nestle up much better if you carefully file the tops of the brows down, angling your file ( or sanding stick) just slightly to the rear. On the real car, the front facet of that brow piece is barely a half inch tall, so only roughly one half a millimeter on the model. That will bring the rest upward to meet the hood better. Hope this makes sense.

Thank you Rusty. That's one of the points I had considered adjusting but photos I was able to find didn't provide the detail that this one does. With this information in mind, I'll take another look at that area. It seems to me that even with adjusting these areas, the screw mounting tabs may need to be thinned a bit too but that'd be the easy part.

There is also a small bit of fender showing between the two moldings, which could of course be painted in.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

David G.

[Zippi]

Nice looking project.  It's coming along nicely.  

[olddude55]

I'm working on one of these at the moment, going through the same fit issues with the grille.  

[Mike999]

On 8/8/2021 at 7:57 AM, David G. said:

There is no up-top for the convertible . 

Missing Link makes a resin convertible up-top for the '59 Imperial, or used to.  I have one, it's very thin and "in scale."  I bought it off eBay, along with some other resin parts.

Here's the ML eBay store, the link still seems to work.

https://www.ebay.com/str/Missing-Link-Resin-cast-model-cars

[David G.]

On 8/9/2021 at 4:24 AM, Zippi said:

Nice looking project.  It's coming along nicely.  

Thank you Bob.

21 hours ago, olddude55 said:

I'm working on one of these at the moment, going through the same fit issues with the grille.  

I spent most of yesterday's bench time working on the interior so I didn't get to look into the suggestion that Rusty offered up above. I plan on getting to that today, I'll report back on the results. Thanks for your comment George.

18 hours ago, Mike999 said:

Missing Link makes a resin convertible up-top for the '59 Imperial, or used to.  I have one, it's very thin and "in scale."  I bought it off eBay, along with some other resin parts.

Here's the ML eBay store, the link still seems to work.

https://www.ebay.com/str/Missing-Link-Resin-cast-model-cars

Thanks for the link Michael. I took a quick look but they didn't seem to have any tops posted on that page. I'll keep them in mind for the future though.

 

Thanks again for the comments and suggestions.

David G.

[David G.]

@bisc63

Thanks for the excellent advice Rusty!

I followed your suggestion of filing down the area above the headlight pods. Doing that seemed to improve the fit but not quite as much as I would have liked.

 

With a little more test fitting, I realized that the thickness of the raised areas on the fitting tabs was about equal to the remaining gap between the grille and the hood. So I filed the lugs off the top of the fitting tabs and glued some styrene of similar thickness to the bottom of the tabs. This lifted the whole grille by about 1 mm.

 

That did it!

 

There's still a bit of a gap where the left fender rolls down into the hood but for the color I plan to paint this car, it will likely not be noticed. It wouldn't take much to fix it though... hmmmm 🤔

 

Now on to the next activity!

Thanks again Rusty, I do appreciate your advice.

David G.

Edited August 12, 2021 by David G.
typo

[Ceaser_Salad]

Wow that really little bit of modifications made a big difference.

Keep up the good work!

What colour are you planning?

[David G.]

21 hours ago, Ceaser_Salad said:

Wow that really little bit of modifications made a big difference.

Keep up the good work!

What colour are you planning?

Thank you Declan.

The colors I plan to use are Tamiya TS-42 Light Gunmetal for the body and TS-40 Metallic Black for the landau.

David G.

[Tom Geiger]

On 8/9/2021 at 7:14 AM, David G. said:

It's a simple curbside kit and I honestly feel that at full price, I may have overpaid a little for it. There are kits that offer much more in the way of detail for the same price but as far as I know, this is the only one of a 1959 Chrysler Imperial. 

We all know the origin of this kit.. as a promotional model tooled up in 1958.  It’s simplicity, odd fit and body thickness are all remnants of the norms and technical shortcomings of  injection molding back in the day.

It’s utterly amazing that through the last 63 years this tooling somehow survived so we can enjoy it today!

[Rodent]

There aren't any on eBay right now, but Paul Hettick makes a 4-door trans-kit for this. In case you want to build a 1/25th scale 1959 Imperial showroom diorama....

[David G.]

21 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

We all know the origin of this kit.. as a promotional model tooled up in 1958.  It’s simplicity, odd fit and body thickness are all remnants of the norms and technical shortcomings of  injection molding back in the day.

It’s utterly amazing that through the last 63 years this tooling somehow survived so we can enjoy it today!

I knew it was old just by the kit design but I didn't know the part about it having been a promo- that makes sense though. It is (unlike me) in surprisingly good shape for its age. 

Thanks for filling in the background for me on this one Tom.

10 hours ago, Rodent said:

There aren't any on eBay right now, but Paul Hettick makes a 4-door trans-kit for this. In case you want to build a 1/25th scale 1959 Imperial showroom diorama....

Thanks for the tip Steve. I may keep an eye out for that, I think this body style would make a great looking airport limo.

David G.

[David G.]

Hello everyone!

Not much progress to report on this one. I'm working on the final pre-paint prep for the body and finishing up some of the details on the interior.

I did however get the detail painting of the chassis completed.

I'm thinking that the track on this one looks a little narrow, especially when it's up on its wheels. I'll have to do a little more image research to check its appearance against 1:1 cars.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

David G.

[Ceaser_Salad]

Wow, I like the colour you chose for the undercarriage. Nice work

[doorsovdoon]

Underside is looking really good. I noticed too the track looking a little narrow when I built mine. I left it though being such a basic kit, you could drop a tin of paint on this kit and call it done! haha,

[ChrisBcritter]

You're doing real well on this Imperial, David! Trust me, that grille fit issue has been there since the beginning - I have an original issue kit that needed the same surgery. Then there's getting the roof to line up with the vent windows... 

[slusher]

17 hours ago, David G. said:

Hello everyone!

Not much progress to report on this one. I'm working on the final pre-paint prep for the body and finishing up some of the details on the interior.

I did however get the detail painting of the chassis completed.

I'm thinking that the track on this one looks a little narrow, especially when it's up on its wheels. I'll have to do a little more image research to check its appearance against 1:1 cars.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

David G.

David did you brush paint that sir?  If you did you have a steady hand..

[David G.]

22 hours ago, Ceaser_Salad said:

Wow, I like the colour you chose for the undercarriage. Nice work

Thank you Declan.

20 hours ago, doorsovdoon said:

Underside is looking really good. I noticed too the track looking a little narrow when I built mine. I left it though being such a basic kit, you could drop a tin of paint on this kit and call it done! haha,

Thanks Gareth. Thinking back on the cars of that era that I remember seeing, it seems to me that many of them had quite a bit of space between the fender and the wheel. The more I look at it setting on my build shelf, the less odd it looks to me. Especially next to the 59 Caddy I'm working on.

13 hours ago, ChrisBcritter said:

You're doing real well on this Imperial, David! Trust me, that grille fit issue has been there since the beginning - I have an original issue kit that needed the same surgery. Then there's getting the roof to line up with the vent windows... 

Thank you Chris. During my research I did see a few built-up models in which the builder left the gap unaddressed. I'm glad I decided to "mind the gap" so to speak.

Yes, I do see a little bit of a challenge with mating the lead edge of the roof to the windshield header and vents. Adjustments will be necessary, I'm just now working out what and where.

6 hours ago, slusher said:

David did you brush paint that sir?  If you did you have a steady hand..

Yes I did Carl, thank you. Although a little more of a challenge than it used to be, detail painting is one of my favorite parts of the build process.

[David G.]

Hello People.

I have the interior nearly complete so it's time to post some pics.

Here is the painted and flocked interior tub. It's a bit shallow and there's not a tremendous amount of detail but there it is. 

 

The rear view mirror offered by AMT is supposed to be mounted on either the ceiling or the dashboard.

 

According to my research, both of those options are incorrect. In all the examples I've been able to find, the mirror is mounted to the dashboard on the side of the instrument pod, not the center of the dash or the ceiling.

 

So it's time for a little corrective surgery.

 

I stripped the chrome from the mirror and drilled a hole to accommodate the bailing wire. I also drilled the barrel shaped casting at the bottom with the intent of using it for the base grommet on the mounting shaft. (sorry for the crummy cell phone pic)

 

Here is a test fit to check the angle.

 

The drilled bit on the mirror base didn't work out as planned so instead, I stripped a piece of wire insulation and trimmed it to fit.

 

Here is the rearview mirror mounted to its correct location on the dash. Just a few more finishing touches and the interior will be complete.

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to leave a comment.

David G.