Snake45

Very cool original annual AMT '67 Camaro. I'm going to be starting a complete rebuild of one of those very soon, I hope. Modelhaus has everything you need to restore one.

In the late '60s, AMT issued some of their '23 T parts as the "Sand T"--no head or tail lights, no windshield, no afterbody options except the beer-keg gas tank, no options of any kind. Had some nice big rear tires, though--I wish I knew what happened to them. Anyway, I built the thing, with the frame painted silver for some reason, and the body and engine AMT Burnt Orange Metalflake lacquer (one of my favorite colors--I wish Testors had something like that in the new lacquer line). Over the years it fell into disrepair and eventually ended up as a sandwich baggie full of parts project. Been working on getting back together, for no particular reason. Stripped all the parts I could off the frame (the ancient tube glue refused to give up some of the front suspension), then I filled the frame's numerous and profound sink marks with Sikkins autobody filler, several applications and sandings. Doing the same thing with a new Tweety Pie frame too, while I'm at it and in the mood. Here's how the two frames look after several fill and sand sessions (the filler is the olive drab colored areas). This morning I spent several hours reinstalling the suspension stuff. Cut, scraped, and chipped off old original flash, mold lines, and tube glue before reinstalling the original pieces. One of the wishbones was broken and had to be glued back together. Thanks heavens for superglue. Took FAR longer than I thought it would, but looks like it's ready for paint. This time around, the whole mess is getting painted black, even the former chrome. I'm determined to get the evil little thing back together. Stay tuned....

Finished the old paint job strip cleanup, and then laid on a fresh coat of primer. This is my beloved cheap Walmart Color Place Gray Primer, one fast, slightly wet coat. The stuff covers great, dries very smooth, and so far has stood up to every paint I've thrown at it. One of the last true bargains available in this world. All it will need at this point will be spot-sanding of any dust with #800, that's how smooth it is. You might notice I've scribed out the door lines, and it doesn't show up much in these pics but I ran a black wash in there before the primer went on. The door lines are DONE and will require no further attention. I've found that putting the wash in before paint results in far more realistic panel lines than doing it after paint.

I'd love to see the Revell Parts Pack Fiat body back. The Double Dragster Fiat body has been stretched, and while it can be chopped and modded back to stock, it would be great to buy a ready-to-use body that doesn't require this. It's also more crisply molded than the AMT body, too.

The '64 roadster kit had an optional fastback top that sounds like what you describe. I'm talking about a clear top that was shaped like the regular removable hardtop. I think it was in the '67 roadster, along with a van top that's pretty cool (restoring one now).

Very nice indeed! What was the original kit? It looks good!

Hello Wisconsin!

If we're going with clear tops, I think one of the original annual AMT Sting Rays had a clear top. The '67, Maybe? Pretty sure I have one.

Friend on a model airplane board posted his Fotki and he's got a section on the McEwen '65 Cuda with detail pics I hadn't seen before. The AMT HUG chassis does seem to bear certain similarities to it. http://public.fotki.com/ScottABregi/my_modeling_projects/hemi_under_glass/

Thanks Greg and Zenrat for those pics. Very inspirational! I simply MUST get started on mine sometime soon!

Fabulous! I wish I had the skillz to pull off something like this. I gotta tellya, every time I see one of these things now, real or model, the theme song from That '70s Show starts playing in my head.

I'm gonna paint the Manx body, and then maybe play around with whatever's left.

This looks like a cool and fun project. Please do keep us posted, and good luck!

I bought one there a couple years ago. Resin repop, but magnificent--all the details and emblems are there. I'm gonna un-alter the wheelbase and make it a stock or stock-ish car, it's so nice.

I almost forgot about this!

After actually seeing the Revell '67 grille, I'm putting my Toy III build on hold for a while. I guess I'll eventually bash it up from an AMT '67. This first Revell '67 I'm building as a RS with a Modelhaus grille. If I can come up with a spare '67 Vette "stinger," I might do that nice Tahoe Turquoise Dana 427 car. Hopefully someone will eventually offer a corrected grille for this thing--or Revell will rework the grille (and the body to match) to actually look like a Camaro.

This thread reminded me of why I'm such a big fan of '60s Corvettes--the big ignition shroud (to prevent radio interference) virtually hides the distributor and the plug wires.

The kit body is a '66. It's a fun build.

No, it was built as a 396 but I don't know if it was originally a 375-horse one or not. AFAIK he ran it in SS throughout '67, but in '68, when the SS rules got goofy (and he had the '68 car as his starter), he would sometimes run it in A/MP as a protest to Super Stock rules. Sox & Martin and some of the other SS stars did the same thing and this was NOT popular with the little guy /MP racers at the time. This sort of thing was the birth of what would eventually become Pro Stock. In '67, Grump campaigned Grumpy's Toy II (the all-white '66 Chevy II) until the 396 Camaro became available/legal.

Okay, I just got my kit in the mail. Have seen the grille and can now Officially Comment on it: This grille is a no-go. In addition to the bar problems, the ends are wrong. They're too symmetrical and too vertical. Doesn't look like a '67-'68 Camaro grille shape at all to me. The good news is that the original annual AMT '67 Rally Sport grille (as repopped by Modelhaus) will fit in there. It's a few thousandths too wide to drop right in, but minor tweaking should get it in there. Actually, I've noticed that sometimes Modelhaus parts are a bit small due to mold or resin shrinkage (I test-fit an original AMT part), so a repro might fit even better. The V-angle between the two kits is a near-perfect match.

How are you building it--as the legal SS/C, as A/MP or match racer or what? This car lived several lives. I haven't decided yet which way I prefer.

Thanks for the clarification/information, Darryl. I spent a certain amount of time google-imaging for it yesterday, no joy. But I decided that your model is so cool that I wouldn't even care if it WAS a "phantom." It just perfectly captures the look of the very early '60s cutting edge rails.

Has anyone actually finished one of these yet? On a related note: Is anyone planning to use this kit to build Grumpy's Toy III? (I am. Maybe not my first one, but eventually.)

Okay, I've now tried the flat-coating trick. Masked off half the spoon. Airbrushed three or four light coats of Testor Dullcote cut with lacquer thinner (I use this stuff all the time on my model airplanes and have learned how to work it). After one hour, it had dried very flat (the stuff dries pretty fast), and the sparkle was noticeably reduced--down to about like the Model Master Car Colors enamels. Very encouraging! The color also seemed to have been lightened just a hair, but not a deal-killer. Then I hit the flat side of the spoon with one coat of Testor One Coat Wet Look Clear. Let that dry an hour. Unmasked the other half of the spoon. The sparkle is back. In sunlight, there is virtually no difference at all in the two halves of the spoon. If I handed it to you and you didn't know what you were looking at/for, you'd never see it. Even knowing the two halves are "different," you'd have to look VERY hard and close to see it. Under indoor light, the flat-coated side seems to have a very slight reduction in sparkle. In shadow (light not directly falling on it), the difference is slightly more visible. But even so, there's still way too much sparkle to pass as a factory paint job. No photos--the difference isn't worth photographing and uploading. I'm not sure it would show up in a photo at all. I might try the decanting and settling thing, but it's more likely I'll just break down and buy MCW paint for the jobs I have in mind. I do appreciate the idea. It was a fun experiment and I learned stuff, and that's not a bad thing. And I'll still find several things to use this paint on, I'm sure.

Cute, but not for me as long as real kits are still being made.