RDean58

Except for decals, the engines are done. I know I will need to straighten out that air cleaner on the Revell engine. I had to remove the pin from the air cleaner to get it to fit on the carb right and it did not glue down level. Minor fix. Except for some flash around the parts for the alternator, power steering pump, and A/C compressor, the only other problem I had with the AMT engine was a lack of mounting hole in the alternator. I had to cut the mounting tab off the fan belts to get the alternator on. But all the brackets lined up great on the AMT engine.

Another interesting "feature." On my copy the mounting pin that is on the fan clutch, that is suppose to go through the fan and into a hole on the water pump, was not there. My copy just had a very small nub, so you will need to clean off the paint from the backside of the fan and face of the pulley to glue it on.

I've ran across a fit problem with the Revell 68 Chevelle engine. It seems like the water pump needs to be thinned on the back side and the upper pulley hole needs to be reamed out in order for the alternator bracket to line up on the engine. Otherwise the whole assemble sits out to far and the pulley bracket is about 1/16 of an inch away from the block. On the other hand, both alternator and power steering pump are a push in fit, no glue required. More later!

Oh yes, I love those aluminum heads!

The engines are coming together, here is where they are right now. An observation I've made, the Revell power steering pump (number 163, has no cap to put fluid in. The AMT one, even though it is not the correct shape, does. AMT 396 Revell 396 AMT 396 Next up will be the exhaust manifolds and belt & pulley system then the engines will be done. Both engines are turning out really well and represent a big block Chevy great. Thanks for looking, all comments welcomed!

The Revell rear suspension. I've got to give AMT points for the front and rear suspension, and the overall look of the frame. Revell tire/wheel on the left, AMT on the right. The AMT tires are depicted as L60x15. On one side is white lettering while on the other is the redline. The real life Chevelle SS 396 came from the factory with F70x14 tires. I am not sure the Revell tires are suppose to be that size, but they do physically look a lot smaller. My personal preference is the bigger sized tire, it looks better under the El Camino wheel wells, but probably the Revell tires are more proto typical correct. I think both wheels will respond to detail painting very well.

How do the frames stack up? I think AMT did a better job on that. Here is some photo proof :-) Overall look of the frames, AMT to the left, Revell to the right. The AMT kit has separate springs, upper and lower control arms, shocks, and sway bar while Revell molded the springs to the axle, and molded the upper control arms together and the bottom control arms and sway bar as one piece. Also what I found curious was the fact that Revell choose to have the transmission mount cross member molded separately. Now, as you can see there is a difference between the Automatic mount and the Manual transmission mount, so does this mean we have an Automatic equipped Chevelle in our future? Just putting this thought out there for speculation. Revell Front suspension, has a total of three parts. The springs are separate but everything else, lower A-arms, tie rod, front spindles, and front sway bar are molded as one item. To get the tops of the spindles to glue to the upper control arms, I had to use some super glue and clamps to keep them in place until the glue set. AMT front suspension, The lower A-arms, tie rod, and front sway bar are molded as one piece. You get separate upper A-arms and more realistic spindles in the AMT kit. The spindles have a positive mounting system whereas there are two mounting pins at the bottom, one that goes in the lower A-arm and the outer goes into the tie rod, so the front tires will be pointing straight. Neat. The AMT rear suspension.

Here we have some in progress photos of the engines. The AMT engine allows you to do silly things like this, Overhead views. I think the Revell kit has a bit wider valve covers but I'm not sure. Both of them represent a big block Chevy pretty well. I can see that both engines have a problem with the mounting pins for the valve covers, I will need to fix that. The Revell has the pins at the bottom of the cover while the AMT kit has the pins on the front and back. The Revell engine looks more realistic from the front view.

I think the Chevelle kit is based on the Nova kit, at least the engine has the same mounting slots as the COPO and Yenko big blocks. The front suspension looks suspiciously like the front end in the 66 Chevelle wagon, which was based on the 66 El Camino. I think Revell went through their parts bin and picked pieces that would work for a new kit. Excellent use of already molded items by the way and I'm not faulting them in the least. I would love to see the 69 Chevelle, and perhaps a 68 or 69 Pontiac GTO/La Mans version in the future. Heck, maybe even a new 1/25 scale Buick Skylark/GS, now that would be very cool indeed. Of course, Revell could also use this frame and modify the snap 70 Chevelle which would be awesome! The AMT versions leave a lot to be desired as far as I'm concerned.

Doing some painting on the engines of these two kits, and I have some observations for you all. First off, the Revell kit depicts a 375 HP 396 (L-78) with a low rise aluminum manifold. Revell's kit comes with the timing chain cover molded to the block but with a separate water pump, AMT molds the water pump and timing chain cover together as one unit. Point to Revell, it is easier to detail paint the separate water pump. Revell has a 4 speed while the AMT kit has an automatic. I believe the AMT 396 depicts the low 325 HP version with a Turbo Hydro 400. The AMT also has the Air Conditioning system which was probably not a big seller for the race oriented Chevelle. but probably was for the luxury oriented El Camino, a point for each. Revell detailed the heads with end bumps (or casting identification nubs) while AMT did not, point for Revell. The AMT oil pan is a three step sump while the Revell oil pan only has 1 sump at the end. Since I have a 68 396 I know that the low HP version came with the three sump pan, but do not know about the racier version. I suspect though, that the Revell oil pan is incorrect, so a point to AMT. Revell has a separate fuel pump and oil filter, the AMT engine does not, 2 points for Revell. The Revell kit has a better defined distributor and separate coil, while the AMT distributer is smaller and the coil is molded to the intake. Neither one has the vacuum advance canister molded to it. 1.5 points to Revell. The AMT fan is all one piece whereas the Revell version has a separate clutch which is on the chrome tree. It should be aluminum but either way, better detail and easier to paint, point to Revell. Revell uses slots in the engine to mount it to the frame, AMT has pseudo engine mounts molded to the block that fit on numbs on the frame, point to AMT. Both kits show the correct alternator mounting bracket for their individual engines, a point for each. While it does not matter too much, the AMT carb looks better than the Revell unit, 1 point for AMT Both kits have chrome valve covers and a chrome open element air cleaner. It's hard to tell from internet pictures, but I believe the AMT version better simulates the stock one, a point to AMT. So, as it stands now, Revell has 8.5 points to AMTs 6. Once I get the engines put together we will see which one "feels right." Sorry for no pics, but I will have some when the engines are assembled.

Started on these today. Got the frames down and will wait for good weather to paint them. Thanks for looking!

Here are some pictures of the Chevelle Grille in the Elky, and vise versa. They don't work. First up, Chevelle Grille in El Camino Next, El Camino Grille in Chevelle. While someone COULD, if they REALLY wanted to, I don't see a reason to do that.

Here are some comparison shots of the AMT 68 El Camino re-issue and the Revell Chevelle for your enjoyment! It looks like, if one wanted to, they could convert the El Camino A/C dash to the Chevelle, along with all the corresponding A/C unit from the El Camino to "ride in style" so to speak.

You know, I think sometimes we take building these way to seriously. "Window not right, Shock Towers wrong, roll bar mounting in interior, no arm rest (well, little) arm rest detail! It's horrible! a RIP OFF! I WON"T BUY IT!!!!" That's fine, leaves more for us who would like to have a 69 Boss to sit on the shelf. The interior is going to be black, so what's the difference if you can see arm rests or not? Roll bar mounting? That might have been a good plan in real life, especially if someone raced this on the weekend. I mean, after all, Ford built these things just to qualify the Mustang for SCCA racing. If the windows both you so much, I understand it's an easy fix. Why don't we all just settle down and relax and have fun building this model? Why do we have to nit pix everything to death. I understand the importance of accuracy, but let's give it a break, I mean, it's not like the wiper motor is off or anything :-) (Off my soapbox now and looking at my new 68 Chevelle and re-issued El -Camino kits!)

I've looked a lot of pictures of the 69 Boss 302 and don't see a lot of them with hood pins.

Sorry for the multiple entries, I had problems with the original subject, kept getting a 404 page not found error.

This one will be painted Testors' Nassau Blue, a stand in for the Le Mans blue that I don't want to source from MCW. As you can see, I have some white wall tires from an AMT parts pack while the rear "double stripe" tires are the Firestone cheater slicks from another AMT parts pack. The rims are actually from the new release 59 El Camino as I'm using the Nova rims on a 69 Chevelle kit. I'll be using the hubcaps from the COPO Nova. The engine for my Yenko will be a bit more crazy than what was offered. I've decided it will portray an L-88 version of Chevy's big block. 12:5 to 1 compression, 430 (very conservative) horsepower rating from Chevy. Actual horsepower rating was in the 500 to 540 range. The L-88 has aluminum heads, dual plane aluminum intake, and a Holley 850 cfm carburetor. This version will also have the chambered exhaust and headers from the Revell 69 Camaro convertible kit. Thanks for looking.

Originally, this was going to improve the AMT Old Pro kit, but then I decided it would make a better Yenko than a parts car. As a lot of people know, you cannot make an accurate Yenko Nova just from this kit alone, you need the COPO Nova as well. Mainly for the bench seat, none SS grille, and poverty caps and white wall tires. Fortunately I picked up the COPO Nova kit when it was available, so I have the parts on hand. I did a bit of research on these Novas and here is what they did to build these monsters. First, Don Yenko ordered the SS 396/375 HP Nova from Chevy. Then they used the heads, intake, and exhaust manifolds from that engine and put them on the 427 short block to come up with about 450 HP. All of these cars were ordered with bench seats, rubber floor mats, black interior, and the white wall tires on stock steel rims with poverty caps. Yenko did hang a 8,000 RPM tach from the steering column and put in a 140 mph speedometer. I do not know if the decal sheet shows the speedo going to 140, numbers are too small to read! It was also only available in a select few colors. 37 were built, 28 with the 427, and about 8 survive now. Thanks for looking.

Test

From careful web searching I have deduced that AMTs "Old Pro" Nova is a 71 model. I cracked this kit open the other day and was thinking of getting the Revell 69 Nova for it's frame, engine, and interior, and then I thought, "Why?" Let's just put this one together! The drivers side "C" pillar has a weird bulge to it that I managed to sand out a bit, although it is still there. The frame and interior fit into the body loosely, so I'll have to make sure I have them well glued in. Tires are an aftermarket set of white line Goodyears from Modelhaus. A close up of the wheels shows where I painted the aluminum and black vents. After looking as some pictures of the wheels in real life I discovered that AMT made them with too much depth and slant from the outer edge to the center cap. I matched this engine up with one from the Revell 57 kits and I can definitely tell you that the engine block is way too long. It is supposed to be a 350 which is the same outside size as all the other "first generation" (265, 283, 327, 302, 307, 350) small blocks but AMT decided to do this one differently :-) Later on I'll shoot some comparison pictures to show you the difference, as you can see in the picture, the distance between the rear of the intake and the beginning of the transmission is how much longer this engine is. Perhaps an 8th of an inch maybe, which translates into a little over 3 inches difference in a 1:1 scale. I have not put a ruler to it to confirm the gap so it may even be larger! Obviously, this will not be a super detail build, just straight out of the box (with a tire change), some flocking, and paint. Thanks for looking, all comments welcomed!

Well, I ordered my Chevelle and Boss earlier today so I hope there is enough for me :-)

First up, started back in 2003 or so, painted in short cuts "Iris," I'm trying out the red window glass from the new release in it. What do you think? Next, remember when this was a new release? Well, that is when I started this one! I lowered the rear suspension by trimming the mounting tabs and then cutting a hole in the floor above the rear axle so the pumpkin could set lower. It is still not as low as the front but it will work for me. Tires are from the new issue 55 Cameo while it's sporting a set of AMT 64 Chevrolet SS hubcaps. It's truly a period piece because I am using the 63 Mercury grill in it as well. Last, but not least, the "retro rod" build. Engine is from the Revell 57 150 kit with the standard shift. Thanks for looking, all comments welcomed.

Painted Tamiya pure white and TS-44 Bright blue, this was supposed to be a rebuild of an older one. The older one is still soaking in the paint remover so I decided to start a new one. The engine is from the original issue of the 57 kit while the twin 4-bbl intake and valve covers are from the new tool AMY 57. That's it for now, thanks for looking!

Got some more done on these, here are some updated Pics! This one is pretty much completed, except.... I had painted the floor flat red but then I ordered some Ken' fuzzy fur in red so I want to redo the carpet area with the fur. Got the green paint put on this one, still waiting on the interior. Paint and decals done on the 150 racer. BelAir sedan is painted Convertible has paint on it as well. That's it for now.

Revell 57 painted Testors' Icy Blue.