Amt 70 Camaro?

[KWT]

A friend brought me the orange kit to build a replica he used to own. During the conversation of what he his looked like, he mentioned his was a full bumper not a split. Because of being who he is, I'm using the full bumper kit from my stash for his build... I'm never gonna build it anyway.

Will someone please tell me what to be looking out for?

I've read several times this kit can be a nightmare build, but can't find a lot on what in particular is so bad except the front suspension maybe... I'm about to start getting thing ready for the build so I can get it back to him. Now gotta find a set of centerlines...

Edited January 22, 2023 by KWT

[Keef]

The headlight area on both sides will need some work to make it look acceptable. The entire front subframe(suspension, engine,trans, and radiator) needs to be installed last! Otherwise you’ll need therapy trying to install it! ??

But it does build up nice 

[NOBLNG]

The windshield is thick and may need some trimming so that the interior tub will fit. It can cause issues with the floor pan meeting up with the firewall. And, like keef said install the engine and subframe after the body is on. Good luck with it!? My build thread:

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/133121-amt-70-12-camaro/page/2/#comment-2381071

Edited January 22, 2023 by NOBLNG

[John King]

Glad I seen this post I just picked this kit up yesterday for a price I couldn't turn down. 

[KWT]

4 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

The windshield is thick and may need some trimming so that the interior tub will fit. It can cause issues with the floor pan meeting up with the firewall. And, like keef said install the engine and subframe after the body is on. Good luck with it!? My build thread:

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/133121-amt-70-12-camaro/page/2/#comment-2381071

Dang Greg... that was a big gap. How hard was it to cut that back?

Thanks for the info and link.

[NOBLNG]

4 hours ago, KWT said:

Dang Greg... that was a big gap. How hard was it to cut that back?

Thanks for the info and link.

It wasn’t easy.? I wound up trimming a bit off the corners of the door panels too. I think I may have done something wrong in order to wind up with such a large gap?? So don’t judge it strictly on my experience. Do some test fitting early on to save yourself some grief. JMHO.

[Beans]

The body on mine was warped like crazy.

[tbill]

So glad this came up, I was looking thru this kit just the other day and thinking of posting the same questions.

[doorsovdoon]

Some good info here. I recently bought the new full bumper version. Does it have the same or similar issues as the older split bumper release? I remember reading that Round2 made completely new tooling for the front on the full bumper version.

Edited January 24, 2023 by doorsovdoon

[1972coronet]

I built the Baldwin Motion version some 20 years ago, and I encountered zero issues (including those headers). I have the Zed "full bumper" and two of the c.2015 reissued Baldwin version, but haven't touched any of them yet. 

[KWT]

I'm going to try to start on it this weekend... really not sure I'm looking forward to it. But since he is who he is, I'll do what I can.

[mustang1989]

On 1/23/2023 at 10:18 AM, Beans said:

The body on mine was warped like crazy.

Joe's brought up a great point with this kit. My car body was warped the same way. 

As others have said, look out for the interior tub fit into the car body. The  lower edges of the windshield contact the dash in the corners and along the whole bottom edge of the windshield. Trimming the corners and lower edges back some will help this. 

The exhaust....OMG the exhaust. Test fit and reshape the exhaust as necessary. 

This is what it'll look like OOB.

I put a bevel on mine, drilled holes in the end of the pipe to make it look like an exhaust pipe outlet and made the necessary bends to correct the angle

The dash is a real pain in the bohunkus to work with as well. The flash around the pedals is horric and the parking brake pedal is dang near as long as the brake and clutch pedals. LOTS of clean up involved and shortening the park brake pedal is a must but all the work is worth it.

OOB

The seats need alot of clean up too in the seat front and seat back seams. They show up BADLY. Filling and sanding the seams will take care of that in short order though. 

Make SURE you test fit the parking light and head light lenses WELL in advance and trim the diameter of them as necessary so they'll fit INTO their buckets and not ONTO them. 

Sand the top of the package tray behind the rear seat because it's got ribs that'll show. Shown here:

Also, sand the top of the roof on the car body because it's got imperfections that'll show in gloss coats. You'll see what I mean if you look at the roof of the car body against light. You'll see molded detail from the bottom side of the roof bleeding though on the top of the roof.

This next point is probably the biggest point of them all. Buildup, paint and assemble your front subframe first. Then.....set it all aside and save it for final assembly when you have the rest of the model pretty much done and the body in place over the chassis and THEN install the front subframe assy up into the completed chassis/ body. I used alot of test fitting to ensure the right stance along the way but don't make the mistake of gluing the front subframe to the rest of the chassis at the first of the build. It'll be a nightmare to put together at the ending stages of the build.

Sanding the front of the inner wheel housing at the rear of the chassis will help with body to chassis installation as well. Or at least it did on mine. I'll illustrate here:

All in all these build up into a respectable product if alot of care is taken. 

Edited January 28, 2023 by mustang1989

[KWT]

Thanks Joe.. much appreciated info!

I may have bitten off more than I can chew lol

[mustang1989]

3 hours ago, KWT said:

Thanks Joe.. much appreciated info!

I may have bitten off more than I can chew lol

Naaah! You can handle this one Jeremy. Once you know where the areas of the kit are that need attention you'll be able to navigate well through the build.

[Speedpro]

I'v been working on one of the baldwin kits (the green one) and have invested alot of time getting this thing to fit together properly. The things that everyone have mentioned in areas of concern are spot on. One area that is a big problem is the winshield to dash. I have found that trimming the front of the dash to give clearence at the bottom of the windsield has the best results to get the interior bucket to fit properly. It's the dash that don't fit, not he windshield. So before you go cutting up bottom of the windshield, give that a try. It worked out really good on my project.

 

 

Speedpro

[Fat Brian]

1 hour ago, Speedpro said:

I'v been working on one of the baldwin kits (the green one) and have invested alot of time getting this thing to fit together properly. The things that everyone have mentioned in areas of concern are spot on. One area that is a big problem is the winshield to dash. I have found that trimming the front of the dash to give clearence at the bottom of the windsield has the best results to get the interior bucket to fit properly. It's the dash that don't fit, not he windshield. So before you go cutting up bottom of the windshield, give that a try. It worked out really good on my project.

 

 

Speedpro

I'm glad you posted this, I was wondering if this was an option.

[KWT]

Well thanks to the info you guys have provided, looks like I may have the first hurdle almost cleared...

[mustang1989]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaatta boy Cheecho!!!!?  Looks like you got that part under control Jeremy.

Edited February 15, 2023 by mustang1989