Sledsel

Another engine option is the Revell 66 Shelby 289 or the conv base 289. Is that an early or later release? I know the original releases there was no place to mount the front bumper.

FYI When painting the hood, and body for that matter, keeping the part vertical helps keep the dust from settling. If the body is vertical, there is not much area exposed to dust. The BMF is gonna set it off nice.

That is a nice kit. Glad the seats and body were corrected. Does the new release have the photo etched tail light honeycomb?

I have run into this in the past, that is why i do a lot of test fitting and I have added tabs inside the fenders of a few as mounting points. I know the Revell 64 Fairlane had nothing to mount the bumper to.

Just remember, the AMT's and MPC's are all repops..... kits of yesteryear. Most build up to be very nice.

SOTA..... State of the Art.... you would think it means better, but not always. Glad you are pleased with your build, it is a nice kit. Are you going to post pics of it?

I'm with you there, especially since many "new tools" are less correct than 40-50 year old kits

That wood grain is looking good. How good is all the fitment of the body to the chassis? I have had some overly thick resin bodies I needed to grind the BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH out of. As for the valance, they were silver, even in the cars. The valance was added after body paint and assembly, and by them all being silver, they did not need to try to match to each car. They were like this from 49 well into the 60's (my friends all original 66 Galaxie has a silver valance/filler panel) This car is supposed to have its original paint. http://barnfinds.com/original-paint-1953-ford-country-sedan/ A 53 that matched your build, with only 13,000 miles was in the BJ auction and the valance was silver. 1954Ford.com has some really knowledgeable people for this era Ford.

Looking good so far. Doing good on the interior, and those are tough to paint. Some red flocking or felt for carpet would stand it out nicely. I need to pick this kit up someday. I have the ElCamino version, but have not started it. Many times in these old molded suspension kits, I omit the front axle and glue in pegs thu the holes to eliminate seeing the axle with the hood off. Some have been plastic pegs, or finish nails epoxied in place. Be sure with action twist you find a driver!!! LOL

I am tossing my 2 cents in here. This is a pretty nice kit, and can be built up very nicely with little to no extra work. Is it dated? Yup, but it is accurate when it comes to the appearance? Sure is. Want better detail? Whack off the front inner fenders and add some shock towers from another kit. That would make a huge difference. Funny how people gripe about a re-release of a nice kit, but ohhhhh, they find a vintage Johan kit for $40 or $50, you would think the gods looked down upon them. Would people complain if OOP kits cam back (Johans, AMT 69 Impala, 68 Galaxie ect ect) Sure, but most would be happy as pigs in mud. All the AMT kits are re-releases. R2 is doing a good job of restoring and correcting them also. Maybe next they will update some of them. Til then, I'll take the re-release over paying big $$ for something they quit making years ago. Some of the kits DaveM listed are really nice considering the age of their molds. Several have their major issue being the molded exhausts, others are old screw bottoms. Ironic thing about those kits are the accuracy of the finished product is pretty darn good. Put them all next to each other and the proportions are almost spot on.

Nobody is condemning these kits, merely pointing out inaccuracies that to some of us, stand out like a sore thumb. Want to fix the issue, great. Want to build it as-is, great, want to avoid the kit, fine. To me, I'd rather know if there are issues and decide for myself what to do (or not do) about it. Am I criticizing the kit? Sure am, constructively though. Not saying do not buy,or anything to that nature. Just pointing out things I noticed so those of us that want a better build that may not know the particular subject can possibly build a better quality kit. The 57, I will probably get one, spend countless hours fixing problem areas, then possibly cast some bodies for future builds. Some kits are just totally unacceptable (to me) and no consideration will ever be made to fix the issues. The POS 49 Merc is one of them. The body from the one I bought went in the trash. Does that make me wrong? Does it make you wrong for building it? Of course not. I, and anyone else that buys kits are allowed to be picky if we wish. We are the customers and it is our choice to buy or not. Personally "good enough" is a mentality too many have now and with that being said, we receive things manufactured just good enough. If the body on this car was better, I'd have 10 of them in my case. I prefer a nice, pretty accurate replica, not a "representation" Here is a representation of an Edsel wagon... As I mentioned, if it is good enough for you, great, enjoy it, but when you go out to dinner and your steak is not cooked to your liking, remember, "it's good enough" to someone.

Well, some are happy with it and some are not. The body lines on the old, multi-piece 57 Ranchero are 100% more correct than this kit. Some of the other issues pointed out I never noticed since I never bought the kit. I am still thinking of getting one to try to use the body panels from an old chopped Ranchero body or graft the roof and trunk lid to the Ranchero. If so, I'll do the same with the wagon, but only once. Hopefully the scales are close. The problem with the kit stems from the molding shop being in China and they do not know what the real car really looks like. This was a quote from Revell in a reply to my email. Anyone that is happy with it, that's your choice and it is all good. All kits have flaws and nothing is perfect, but at least don't make the body look like you rushed it out the door. Some of us like them to be a little better considering the cost of kits now. They will listen to you and sometimes do something about it (70 Torino is a good example)

Oh, I wrote a very lengthy email to Revell about it. The 57 Ford and 49 Mercs are my favorite cars and both their kits were unacceptable to me. The Merc I tossed the body in the trash after cutting out the quarter glass and removing the headlight bezels. I'm using an AMT body I chopped myself on the Revell chassis. As for the 57, after seeing builds online, I did not even purchase it. The problems stood out so strongly in my eye. I'll get a Modelhaus resin body instead. Ace, pay attention to where the shadows are on the body lines.... big help

That the Modelhaus Merc body?

Gotta get me that!

Looks great....

Test fit alot before you go to far. There are some fitment issues I hear.

This is looking really nice. Detailing is outstanding Been watching this build because I have one on the shelf I need to get too. As an FYI, original Fords (and correctly restored ones) the valance in front should be argent silver.

Sorry, was not on for a bit... I read that people feel the sedan it is dead on... wrong.... There is a 1:1 57 in my dads garage and the kit is far from accurate. Here are my major issues with this kit. the front wheel body line (bulges out instead of concave behind the tire), front valance (should wrap around the side to wheel well) front fender issue, (fender should not extend below the grill), rear quarter body lines (upper body line should extend almost to the rear bumper, lower is supposed concave, the kit looks like it was merely gouged out and does not extend back far enough) the front bumper is too short, should extend to wheel well) and the speaker cover on the dash should be flush, not sticking up a scale inch. Compare your kit body to some of the pics on here.

Personally, I do not like either of the Revell Mercs. Both have to flat of a windshield area (not enough center peak) the wagon still has the peaked hood and header, but it looks as if they attempted to remove the flatness of the sides that the coupe has.

From what I read, the grill was re-tooled

Again, another one I will not buy because I just do not want to fix the flaws it shares with the sedan. Sticking with resin for now