vamach1

Not sure why I even look anymore knowing I will see the AMT 68 Shelby GT500 kit in every Hobby Lobby I go to to buy paint and other supplies. I have built several of them but it’s one kit I swear has been on the store shelves for the last 15 years. Someone must be still buying them. I have used the parts to do a California’s Special and convertible and a GT350 and GT500. I guess enough of them are sold to justify reissuing the kit over and over versus the cost of an all new tooling that would certainly be welcomed but unless it was a convertible version that is unlikely to happen. Of course I never thought I would see an all new 71 Mustang Mach1 and Boss 351 so never say never.

Thanks for the shout out on the 71-73 Mustangs. ? Now add the single exhaust on the 65 or 66 AMT promo/kits to my pet peeve list too. I would not complain if it has the 68 Shelby chassis but the one piece chassis with molded in exhaust chassis is just awful. Here’ some screen grabs of the retooled kit from the video.

The folks in the Mercury marketing department were good at renaming things. ?

Oh yeah that’s a beauty. I bought the MiniGT set (1/64 diecast) at Daytona 24 hour race. From what I recall the 1/24 kit body is in two sections in the kit as I discovered with the street version snap kit it would next to impossible to mask the body for a multi-color paint scheme if it were all one piece.

Not sure which drivetrain you will use. Revell did a 67 GT500 diecast/kit similar to the Bullit Mustang mold. It has the big block engine and may go into the AMT chassis easily. The dark blue version did not require any assembly and included a Shelby figure. Keith Marks has decals for the 67 GT500. Here’s the engine I stuffed into the 67 Shelby GT350 chassis and Eleanor transkit. I’ll be following your build.

Nice reference picture of a Boss 351 engine.

Nice conversion. I know I’m beating a dead horse but where did Ertl/Autoworld ever get the idea that there are vents in the hood near the windshield on any 71-73 Mustang. All they would have to do is look at ANY Mustang those years to realize the vents do not exist yet the history of this mistake goes all the way back to the original MPC 1/25 kit that first had this error. Obviously creating a diecast mold in another scale (1/18) would give the company a chance to get it right. Many of my 1/18 diecasts are in storage but if I recall this version also has the same incorrect exhaust setup as the MPC kit. The MPC kit for 1973 did not have the rear bumper guards (73 Mustangs only) so I’m not sure where those are from on the Autoworld diecast. Rant over.

When there is no part and where typically I would just paint the area using the yellow or red Testors colors, I found some reflective bicycle tape and cut out the size to fit the recessed area and glued it in. The cool thing is the material has a nice pattern and is truly reflective just like a rear car.

Very cool. I never heard about this Shelby and I wonder where it is today.

I don’t think it was a very popular option on the real cars perhaps due to the time it takes to put it on and take off. I think most people bought them as a car they did not intend on driving in the rain or cold weather much. I lived in Virginia and had a kit Cobra for about five years and never even considered getting a top for it. The New Years Day club cruise was always fun.?

Looks fine to me.

Sounds like you have a plan but it’s a shame it takes multiple kits to make just one that is close to accurate. Bring on the Revell Boss 351 and Mach1.

Super nice. Maybe a few decals for under the hood would be a nice touch.

Actually Grabber Green was used on 69/70 Shelby, Bosses and Mach1’s and some other style Mustangs. The Grabber Green Metallic and Grabber Lime were new colors for 1971. I have a friend Bob Hahn that has a Grabber Green metallic 71 Boss 351. Here’s another 71 Mach1. Although FORD may not have bothered to change the paint code letter in their color charts, I can assure you the 1970 Grabber green and the 1971 Grabber green metallic are very different as you can see from the pictures. Some people have either never seen the 71 color or just do not like it but I can assure you it is the correct color for that year. That’s not to say there were not any 71 Mustangs painted in the 70 color but the picture you posted is the first one I have seen.

Yes the reflector was a requirement for all cars in Japan. It’s rare for sure. My 72 Mach1 was an export to France but there were no changes to it that I can find documented. The Mustangs exported to Germany were T5’s because Ford did not want to pay the Truck company a ransom to buy their trademarked name. The trademark expired in 1973 so I guess after that you could buy a Mustang II for export to Germany and not a T5.

As Austin Powers would say YEAH BABY. Anyone notice anything unusual about this grabber green metallic Mach1?

Yep. Non-chrome bumper. Different air-cleaner for non ram-air version for some years. Rear valence with cutouts and exhaust tips. Standard steel valve covers. Intake and carb. Honeycomb rear panel and quick release gap cap.

Lots of exterior color choices. Stripes are either black or argent (silver).

Found another company (jumbliesmodels.com) listing the Boss 351 kit is available for pre-order.

We have all been there. ? At least the 007 kit has some decent decals although good ones have been available from Keith Marks for many years and in black or argent (silver). Molding it in red however is pretty annoying. That should be left to just the snap kits as I doubt many modelers are not going to paint the body.

Yahoo. I hope this leads to multiple versions (Mach1, Eleanor, 429SCj, etc.). ? Kudos to Ed Sexton for getting this new kit made. Now what am I going to do with all those AMT and MPC kits I have?

Yes the top section was a pain to remove. I guess it would not hold together as a snap kit as two pieces and that’s why they are fused together. I saw both of these GT’s last Saturday plus two 2005s.

Based upon the recent Revell rehashed Sunny not an FIA Cobra kit, I doubt we will see any mold changes such as the rack and pinion setup used on the later cars. It’s improbable that there will be a 1/25 427 Cobra kit or a Daytona Coupe either even though there would be parts the new kits would have with the molds created almost 60 years ago.

I opened up my kit and noticed it was going to almost be impossible to paint as one piece so I took it apart like you did. Mine is molded in white so not sure what color I may paint it - perhaps red.

I finally started on two bodies which the plan is to make look as close as possible to these racing Mustangs from back in the early 1970’s. They both start with the stock body but of course the Tope car has radically widened fenders and a gas filler in the Tope of the trunk. The Wayne Andrews stock car has the front fenders cut out quite a lot plus the gas filler on the rear quarter panel and a rear spoiler. Once I get the chassis built for each I’ll post mock up pictures.