Motor City

David, What a strange coincidence that is to have accidentally found the original owner of your car. At least the guy you bought it from didn't swap the carb and manifold! Tom, I've read they were good kits. Those models look great! It's nice to have the '56 that Harry built. I'm going to paint the '57 to match the medium tan and dark brown my aunt and uncle bought new. We had a '57 Bel Air hardtop at the same time.

David, I figured I would wait for the next reissue of those kits. The '57 has opening doors. The '56 would be kind of unusual to do as a Crown Vic on one side, and a regular hardtop on the other, but I'll probably buy 2 just to do both versions. By the way, the AMT promos for '56 were the convertible and a four-door hardtop. For '57, they did Fairlane hardtop and convertible and Custom 300 2-door sedan. The 300 is less common and goes for the most money.

Thanks for posting that information, Mark. I was going to get rid of the kit since I have the convertible promo, but I guess I'll eventually build it. I've got every year of the big Ford from '48 -'70 except the '56 and '57. All are AMT except for the Revell '59 Skyliner and PMC '59 Ranchero. I have to get the '56 and '57. The '48 - '52 AMT are all 4-door sedan promos.

Mark, People have complained on this forum about the missing letters. The squareback hardtop and convertible promos had the letters, so I just figured the fastback kit originally had the lettering, too.

It looks like the Galaxie kit includes a lot of decals (for example: front fender emblems, trunk letters). I wonder if the engraved trunk letters have been restored?

Yes, great news that Round 2 is making improvements to some of their kits.

Snake, "It's either a Torino or a Cobra, but it's not a Torino Cobra. Both are variants of the Fairlane." Yes and no. I have a mailer sent to my Dad from 1969. It's a colorful bi-fold with a snakeskin pattern printed on the outside. When you open it up, a Cobra head pops up! Part of the text reads, "In 1968, Torino Cobra scored the Grand Slam - stock car racing's triple crown - the championships in all three major racing circuits: NASCAR, USAC and ARCA." When introduced for 1968, it was considered a sub-series of the Fairlane. Calling it just Cobra in conversation was causing confusion with the Ace-based Cobra sold by Shelby. Obviously if someone were to see the cars side-by-side, there would be no confusion. I think it's now usually referred to as a Torino Cobra to differentiate it from the Shelby Cobra. Shelby sued Ford over Ford's use of the Cobra name without his permission. I don't recall what the outcome of that was. In any case, it would be nice to see the hardtop/convertible kit reissued.

I'm waiting for a reissue of the '68 Torino GT convertible Indy Pace Car, but I'm afraid that might be a long wait.

Maybe since a '66 Impala SS promo was made, and the '65 Impala SS kits and promos sold well, the interior tooling changes could be justified. If the '65 Wildcat kits and promos didn't sell very well, AMT and/or Buick decided to just make exterior changes for the '66 kit. A '66 promo was planned and then dropped. My Dad had a mail-in form to order a '66 Wildcat promo. I wish I had kept that!

This has been frequently discussed under Round2 (AMT/MPC) monthly kit reviews.

nice!

I saw on Ebay last week that a promo box sold for around $130.00 - just the box!

Thanks for the details, Scott. I never understood why AMT didn't update the '66 Wildcat interior. The '66 Impala SS interior was updated, but didn't have the thin-shell bucket seats that GM starting using on the 'B' bodies that year.

I read that the interior is very shallow and generic. Is that true, Scott?

As I recall, the color-keyed wheelcovers were standard on the Caprice. I'm not sure they were an option on the Impala.

Michael, As I said in a new topic I posted, the forum changes are warranted and commendable. I think diecast deserves its own category since that is where a lot of the volume appears to be headed. For example, Auto World 1/18th scale has quite a variety of cars. Brooklin's 1/43 line, though they aren't cheap, has a good following. I think a lot of the 1/24 and 1/25 diecast are essentially the same size, so that could be another sub-category. A lot of these are kits that have pre-painted bodies. I guess I would also include the oddball 1/27 scale such as the F150 and Colorado. Finally, and I asked for this before, a sub-category on the old slush cast promos from National Products (1934-1949), Master Caster (1948-1955), AMT (1948 Ford Fordor), and Banthrico (1949-1956) would allow people to post restoration tips on these - even though they aren't kits.

I like the changes on the forum with the new categories and renaming of some others. Great job!

You must have a lot of catalogs, Casey.

Sorry, Scott, the most disappointing kits from AMT have to be the Rabbit and other econoboxes of the late 1970s. But, on the bright side, with the flat chassis, you could probably float the finished Porsche in your bathtub!

I think you did quite well considering it doesn't have the original tires, has what looks like a slight gouge or defect in the rear edge of the trunk lid, some wear on the chrome, and paint added to the exhaust tips and hood vents. It's a nice color combination, too. The rear bumper doesn't fit very well, either. My '67 GTO promo has a twist in the rear bumper on the driver's side. I always liked the '66 better.

Unfortunately, the last year for the bucket seats and 4-speed manual was the '69 model year. Unless I'm mistaken, every version of this kit came with the bench seat. I can't comment on the realism of the fire apparatus parts.

That Capri has a wonky front end, but reading through the topic, it was a gutsy decision to come out with these cars.!

If that was mine, I would at least get it back in running condition again.

That's unfortunate for the box art to be other than what's in the box, but that's nothing new. The wheelcovers pictured above don't look like what the '70 full-size brochure shows. The center of the wheelcover is supposed to stick out instead of being flat. The Impala also had the vaned wheelcovers and rally wheels as options. I had planned to use rally wheels from another kit if they aren't included.. If it's any consolation, fire chief cars I usually saw were red four-door sedans. standard wheelcover, vaned wheelcover, then rally wheel:

My boss bought a new '67 Mustang 390 fastback, and traded it in a year later for a VW bug because he was now a family man. He rolled his eyes when he told me. Rest in peace, Fred!