blizzy63

Yep. A bad time for Firestone. In August 1977, my family had a new Firestone Deluxe Champion bias-belted blow out on the I-5 in Washington State on a vacation trip home from California. But I recall that it was their radials that were having a real bad time of it. Put a real damper on their brand.

Built this AMT Prestige Bonneville about 20 years ago as a mid-'60s custom mixing parts with the AMT '65 Grand Prix kit. The taillights are Modelhaus '59 Bonneville units. The tires are AMT Firestone Supremes with white-stripe whitewalls from my parts box since the Prestige kit supplied incorrect-looking, overly-skinny, generic Firestone tires. The original AMT kit from 1965 had the original Firestone Supremes which AMT introduced new circa-1964 (see photo of original AMT '65 Bonneville kit below).

The slant 6 makes me chuckle. I used to drive a '75 Dodge D-100 pickup with a 225 Slant-6. Boy, I used to stomp on that accelerator pedal to try and make that thing giddy-up and go. The engine was bullet-proof but I wondered if I might have gone easier on her with a 318 V-8 under the hood...

It was a '60s show car...from the 1964 Ford Custom Caravan. The 'Alexa' custom '64 Ford Galaxie by the Alexander Brothers of Detroit. Nice model, John!

Looks like a typical, vintage 1958-60 build of this kit. (The next step for a typical vintage build would be to put on every decal on the sheet!) Interesting ivory coloring on that model. Looks like the color of vintage styrene from the early AMT/SMP annual kits. Is that paint or the plastic? What issue is your kit? I have one in white plastic (from 1974) and one in grey (2004).

While many may criticize this kit for not being up to today's model car kit design standards, it was cutting-edge for an annual model car kit in 1960. In 1958, AMT and SMP launched their 3-in-1 customizing kits, which were kit versions of their 1/25-scale annual promotional models (promos) that they produced for the U.S. auto manufacturers. They included custom and racing parts along with a decal sheet. For 1958 and '59, the kits (like the promos) did not have opening hoods or engines. This continued for the 1960 annuals except for three of the annual model kits that were featured with new opening hoods and engine compartment details (including V-8 engines). These three annual kits were the AMT '60 Ford Thunderbird, the AMT '60 Buick Invicta, and the SMP '60 Corvette. (The AMT '60 Ford F-100 and SMP '60 Chevy Apache pickup kits also began to feature opening hoods and engines as well.) When I see this kit today, I see a survivor of model kit history. The '60 Corvette and '59 Chrysler Imperial (both originally SMP kits) are the last remnants of the 1958-60 period of annuals that, along with the AMT Trophy Series kits, launched a model car kit hobby.

LOL. Not so fast, bud. It's up to you as the model builder to make the model look wavy, blurry and ripply...

AMT/Round2 has put into my hands an AMT annual kit that has not existed in this form in the last 57 YEARS! To me, that's dang-near MIRACULOUS! Decades ago, I used to look at the annual kits in the 1964 AMT catalog and just sigh... Now I say: Round2! Gimme MORE!!

Thanks for pointing out the origins of the kit's "Custom Aluminum Wheels". When I first saw the custom wheels for this 1964 AMT annual kit, I wondered what they were as I didn't recognize them from this period. All I knew was that Dean Jeffries was credited for designing the custom parts. Since your post, I've learned that the above car is a Lola GT Mk. 6 which debuted in January 1963 which sported one-off, custom-made magnesium knock-off wheels. It is odd that these particular wheels would turn up on a 1964 GM intermediate, custom or not. Oh, well. That's the spirit of the '60s for ya! (Here's a look at the Lola GT Mk.6 on "Jay Leno's Garage":

Hi, Phil: Replicas & Miniatures Company of Maryland produced a 1/25 '50/51 Mercury dashboard for the AMT '49 Merc kit in 10-pieces. (Item no. RH-301) At least they did at one time. You can email Norm of R&MCM at replmincomd@aol.com to see if he still supplies it.

Her name is Linda...and her eyes are up here...;) (Miss Hurst Linda Vaughn)

My build was to combine the look of the original 1963-64 AMT kit hot rod with the 1969 Hot Wheels 'Classic '32 Ford Vicky' flavor...(Lime flavor, that is...)

Last sighting...? (I haven't ever seen one of these in person...)

Thanks. ?

It's a beaut! What did that one set you back ($)? (Here's the AMT 'Grand Prix d'Amerique Cobra Racing Team' kit decals to compare:)

Was the 'Fireball 500' body really derived from the Valiant Signet promo tool? (I can understand AMT reusing the chassis/guts.)

I don't care how old the original post is. If there's a point to correct, I'll make it (assuming that I know something)... As for something new... November 2020 is a snoozer...

"...Fireball 500 is not a bad kit. They lifted that idea from the short lived trend of 'topless' funny cars..." I disagree on that second point. The 'Fireball 500' car was more Batmobile than 'Flying Dutchman'. George Barris' conversion of a '66 Plymouth Barracuda into a custom roadster muscle car represents the tail end of a trend of sports car roadster conversions of production cars, mostly compacts, by styling studios and customizers in the 1961-66 period. 1961 Corvair Sebring Spyder XP-737 1961 Pontiac Tempest Monte Carlo roadster XP-741 1962 Ford Mustang Concept I 1962 Oldsmobile F-85 X-215 roadster 1965 Mercury Comet Cyclone Sportster by Gene Winfield Two early inspirations...the 1959 Corvette Stingray XP-87 Roadster and the 1957 Corvette SS XP-64 (Sebring Race).

1963 Oldsmobile Cutlass J-TR Concept. Obvious inspiration of the AMT '64 Cutlass kit's custom version.

Hate to spoil the illusion, but that Goldfinger Lincoln had no engine/transmission when it was crushed... A few pounds off the old block, I'd say...

Here's my AMT/Ertl '69 Corvair build from a dozen years ago or so. I did it up as my own version of a late-'60s "Yenko Stinger" track racer. The wheels are those Firestone Super Sport GP tire faces over original 13" compact car tires on 13" open-wheel steelies that were in the original AMT Corvair kits from 1965-68.

Thanks. For this kit, I learned of it first here...

The wheel radiuses and rear end treatment were an improvement over the '55 (IMHO). The front end always struck me as a poorman's '56 Cadillac (which I love). Replacing the oddish '56 taillights with aftermarket red plexi units was an easy custom tweak.

It IS a bit of a teaser... If confirmed, I consider it a bit of good news.

What is the source for this? Revell is not good at doing 'Coming Soon'.