Kit Review! AMT 1963 Chevrolet Impala SS Annual kit

[RDean58]

I recently acquired one of these for a really good price. After having a lot of the re-issues (prestige kit, the green kit one, and the latest) I was not sure what I would find. I have to tell you that the original issue of this kit blew me away on accuracy of body, engine detail, and chrome tree execution. Okay, the exhaust manifolds look more like small block ones than 409 exhausts but, it was a nicely designed kit with (except for the hideous {my opinion} custom treatment) was well executed. It's too bad Round two could not bring back all the original pieces for this kit.

Thanks for looking, enjoy!

 

More box pics and contents here!

[Casey]

The crispness of the engraving of original/early issue kits always blows me away, but I guess it's not surprising. It's also a great reason to seek out older issues instead of buying the latest reissue.

I think everyone has a pair of those custom tail fins/fender pods and custom seat backs in their parts bin, right?

[espo]

This kit along with the others that AMT brought to market were as good as it got in 1963. They did have some very small issues with some areas of trim and that can be seen in the picture of the tail light and trunk area of the model. Notice some flash along the edge of the chrome trim cast over the right side truck lid. This was still better than what you would expect at the time and a little carful carving and sanding and it was fine. 

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

The all important 409 emblem is perfect on this! I bought this and the 1964 Impala 409 back when they first came out. Sure wish the model companies would produce the 63 Pontiac with the 421 fender emblems.

[Bob Ellis]

I like the separate red clear taillights on the original. Some poeple say that the nice 1963 409 engine was used for the annual 1964 kit. That horrible one in the Ertl and later just is not suitable. I believe that the current kit was created by AMT before the strike and sale to Matchbox. Maybe it was going to be another Countdown kit?

[blizzy63]

Here's my 2 cents on the subject:

I picked up this partial AMT 1963 annual even though I already have a couple of AMT/Ertl repops in my stash. I was building a Shelby Cobra at the time and I wanted to have a close look at the original custom wheels which were renditions of the early Halibrand 'kidney bean' mag wheels.

My kit has a poor condition box, some pieces are missing (interior, open wheels, wheel backs, some novelty items, etc.). The original owner appears to have attempted to adapt the body and chassis for slot car racing purposes.

The body does have a crisp and bold quality that reminds me of a promo model.

The 409 engine in this original '63 annual appears to an exact match to the one in the AMT '64 Impala kit (see comparison photo) in its stock form. The competition/custom engine parts are different between the two kits. The oringinal engine offerings are far more interesting than that offered in the later AMT/Ertl offerings which seem like more primitive 1961-ish designs.

Edited December 18, 2021 by blizzy63
Add image.

[ChrisBcritter]

Hmm. Well, whaddaya know - it's a real address:

Wonder if the decal artist lived there?

[Mark]

The original '63 engine IS now in the '64.  Some "opening up" of tooling (revealing long-blocked off parts) is taking place under Round 2.  Their '64 hardtop reissue now has the fuel injection intake manifold, while the short injector stacks that go with it are in the '63 hardtop reissue.

[Luc Janssens]

2 hours ago, Mark said:

The original '63 engine IS now in the '64.  Some "opening up" of tooling (revealing long-blocked off parts) is taking place under Round 2.  Their '64 hardtop reissue now has the fuel injection intake manifold, while the short injector stacks that go with it are in the '63 hardtop reissue.

Plastic in those day's must have been expensive, that welding gates off was cheaper then the cost of the amount of plastic which filled the cavities during a run.

Kinda makes me think back on the elimination of the red clear taillites where they could've been added to the regular clear tree.

[Mark]

Dennis Doty said, and wrote, more than once that the cost of labor to weld those blockages in the tool to remove parts was way higher than the amount of plastic saved by doing that.  

 

[Luc Janssens]

52 minutes ago, Mark said:

Dennis Doty said, and wrote, more than once that the cost of labor to weld those blockages in the tool to remove parts was way higher than the amount of plastic saved by doing that.  

 

Sorry, didn't know.

But now I think we kinda understand why Amt went belly up in the late '70s..

Edited December 18, 2021 by Luc Janssens

[stavanzer]

Yeah, Luc. Penny Wise and Pound Foolish as the saying goes.

[slusher]

Really nice looking kit..

[Motor City]

On 12/18/2021 at 12:07 PM, Luc Janssens said:

Sorry, didn't know.

But now I think we kinda understand why Amt went belly up in the late '70s..

AMT lost a substantial amount of business when GM and Ford decided to drastically reduce their model car selection of promos and kits in the late 1960s.  The same situation happened to Jo-Han.  Trucks helped AMT in the 1970s, but not enough kids and adults were building them to sustain the business.