vamach1

I have hesiated for years from building several of my AMT and MPC 71-73 Mustangs due to the engine compartments being so lame. They are like promos but with incorrect engines, and the only extra being a battery. Brake booster and master cyclinder, windshield washer fluid container, shock tower brace - forget about it. So some of my build will not have an engine for now and some will include parts sourced from other kits and Danbury Mint diecasts to make them respectable. Here is a comparison on the Testors (based on the MPC mold) metal kit compared to the Danbury Mint. Why it may not be a fair comparison based upon the costs, when you see the potential it is hard to accept the far inferior attempt at a realistic engine compartment.

Seen today

Any pictures of the body? Is it the narrow one or full size that is roughly the same size as the street car?

Did you make any more progress on this one? The kit is far from perfect and I hope to build it someday. You have some great improvements already.

Sorry for upside pic.

I wish.

Looks like this one.

Here are pictures of mostly 73's. The front bumper is almost twice as large as a 72. For some reason you see a lot of 73s with 72 stripes.

MotorCity Resin grilles/bumpers and Various decals.

Both the AMT and MPC kits have too many faults to list but are pretty similar. To make a good street version you need an accurate front bumper, grille and of course a real 351C or 429CJ engine would be a bonus but neither kit ever had one. Motorcity Resin sells correct grilles and bumpers on ebay and Keith Marks has decals there are few alternatives (old Fred Cady). I am currently working on a stock MPC 73 Mach1 with an outsourced 351C, grafting a 67/70 Revell engine compartment. No matter what you build (street or race car) be prepared to fix as many shortcomings as you want. My #1 gripe with the MPC kit is the vents in the hood. No 71/73 Mustang had these vents.

Other than it a hybrid 72/73 with a 70 Boss 429 engine which never came in a 71/73 Mustang it is a nice shellf model. The stripes are from a 72 but the front bumper is from a 73. The grille is a 72 and the rear mach1 decal is a 73. The door panel wood grain is too large. The rear spoiler sits too high. The dual exhaust should have oval mufflers and not resonators. There are a few things I do like - the clear headlights and Mach1/Boss grille, the wheelsand tires are good as is the nine inch rear compared to the plastic kits. The paint is nice and the hood is actuallly painted correctly - even better than most real cars I have seen. So, you can repaint it and make either a 73 with Keith Marks decals and put a 351C in it and the correct grille from the MPC kit or build it as is and build the all plastic versions correct. I built this yellow one as is.

Before I tackle the paint I was wondering what you all think about this. The front fenders have the Mustang script molded in the fenders which is correct for a 73. The problem is the decal will have to be cut up to not cover up the script and painted to match the stripe. The alternative is I use a 73 body that does not have the script molded in or simply sand it off. I hate to do that as it is engraved nicely. If I do I have some photoetch that should match the script pretty close. Decisions decisions.

I'd call the cleanbuild a nice tribute. The rac car had a different grille, black spoiler, fender flares, no rear gas gap, rear window braces, and wider rear wheels. I'm not sure about the air box, location of the battery and the front bumper (chrome or aluminum or other). I suspect the gas tank was probably replaced with a fuel cell. So, the builder has to decide to build a modified street car of full blow race car with many modifications. The picture I posted above (Randy Ayer build) got very close to the latter from what I can see. Here is another build for fun which has its share of issues.

Guess I missed a picture. There are not a lot online of this car. There were a few other 71-73's that raced in other series.

The builder added them.

Test fit.

You know I would chime in. It's a stock street body with a race car interior which is supposed to replicate the car Warren Tope raced in 1973. As you can see from pictures the race car had wider body work and a pretty hopped up engine. It's a multi-color paint scheme so it's a challenging build but one I would to do eventually. The large AMT decals on the box art cannot be found in any pictures of the real car.

Parts I plan to use plus what the kit has.

Building a replica of a friend 73 Mach1. Used the 69/70 engine compartment from Monogram. Cut out the fold down seat from the AMT 71 Mustang interior. Door panels are resin cast cut to fit. Steering wheel from AMT Mustang. Decals will be from Keith Marks. Engine will be 351 Cleveland with C6 trans. Other details will be added to engine. Will have to modify exhaust for single since it is a 2 bbl engine with Ram Air.

More to come

Test for 404 error.

Get cranking on it and hope you meet your deadline.

I have been getting the 404 too. I guess I will try again tomorrow.

Anyone having this problem?