Dave Darby

Looks great! I had a 72 Demon in that same color combo. Mine had a 318 with a posi rear end though. I still miss that car.

Actually, looking at the ebay photos, it appears the scoop for the second issue (contrary to the box art) is molded in place.

Stella finally found her groove! Looks great! That reminds me that I have a stripped down AMT 32 roadster I built in 73-74 (at 12-13 years old) that went through a couple of iterations. I should decide which one, and restore it one day.

I found a sold one in completed auctions on ebay, and it looked a bit de-contented. Looks like they omitted the custom skirts and a few other custom parts. The current issue has one of the custom skirts back in. The other custom skirt got displaced by some wheel backs, probably for the Modern Classics issue.

Is that the end cap to this one? So the stock hardtop appeared sooner than I thought.

The Wonder Bird was part of the Elegance series, and was the first of the glue kits to have the stock hardtop. The Trophy Jr/Craftsman kit has the better hardtop, and Drag City casting offers both stock and porthole versions mastered from it. I seem to remember reading in an old review of the Ertl reissue that there were two promo tools. The Ertl reissue mentions that the kit was made from a promo tool, and comparing the front and rear bumpers, and interior construction seems to bear that out. We will be exploring the 57 T-bird in a future edition of the Vintage Workbench.

There's another cool period build. I like the extended front end, and 58 Chevy taillights. Great use of the AMT Willys interior - going to put that one in my recipe book. The paint color is icing on the cake.

Reissues, except for the Green Hornet, which is an all new tool.

Seems like the tool for the 61 Galaxie was misslabeled as the 60 Starliner.

Nice job on both!

The only thing I'd change is the zip code. Really nice work. What paint did you end up using?

Very cool build, Tim. Love all the changes. Especially the rear wheel wells. I like the chromed rocker covers too. Color and everything is spot on. Perfect early 60s vibe. Could have been in a 1964 issue of Hot Rod magazine.

The one and same tool used for the Yankee Challenge. But the stock version. Not bad if you want a convertible. Not ideal for a hardtop.

I think most of us know what this consists of.

We covered these roofs in the current (221) issue of Model Cars magazine, but we didn't have room to tell you why these are are better than the kit pieces. AMT did two versions of the 57 T-bird. The glue kit, and the Trophy Jr/Craftsman kit. The hardtop in the latter kit is more accurate than the one supplied in the glue kit. The Craftsman roof is wider in front, allowing it to cradle the windshield like the real car. The rear window is also more realistically shaped. (The DCC parts are the lighter colored parts on the left of the stock parts in the photos.) Here's the porthole roof. Like the non-porthole Craftsman roof it was mastered from, it's wide enough to wrap around the windshield frame, and presents a more level (and accurate) window line. For contrast, below is the glue kit roof. Note how the window line runs uphill, and comes up too high on the windshield. The difference in the rear window opening is readily apparent here. The Craftsman style roof has a more trapezoidal shape that matches the full size car. Both Drag City Casting roofs (Porthole and non port hole) share this feature. Ed also provided this cool teardrop hood that makes me want to build a period 60's 427 Drag Bird. So whether your preference is plain or port hole, these parts from Drag City Castings will help you build a better 57 T-bird. You can get these parts at http://Facebook.com/dragcitycasting

It does have a nice chassis. The floor pan would probably have to be narrowed down to fit though. The 56 (kit) body is a little wider than the 57. I actually used a number of 57 Engine parts on my 56.

X2 Tim. Makes me want to hunt one down and build it.

I think the AMT/Ertl issue had the stock coupe roof as well.

The AMT grille is so much nicer than the MPC piece!

Mine too. Haven't gotten to do a deep dive yet, but looks great. Tim K did a pretty cool Bronco conversion.

I think this is the first time I've seen a notchback with the TRX package. Prett cool looking ride. I was never huge fan of Fox body Mustangs but my 7 year old, Max loves them. They're his faves. He loves 80s everything. I was actually going to buy a new Mustang in early 81, until I saw you could only get the 255 for a V8. I decided to stick with my 64 Fairlane. I should have been more clear in my first post. A friend of mine had a 79 Mustang with the 302 in it (and the TRX package in Medium Vaquero Glow (kind of a coppery metallic). I just don't remember if they referred to it as a 5.0 at the time. Hence my statement of the 5.0 coming out in 1982. But yes, 80-81 topped out at 255.

The 255 was only available in 1980 and 81. They never referred to it as a 5.0. The 5.0 (as a designation) came out in 1982.

Good point.

Only thing is, Ford raised the roofline (above the rain gutter) on the 64 and later trucks.

I'm actually playing with one right now, and I think the biggest problem child fit-wise is the interface between the dash/upper door panel unit and the body. It fits into the notches at the top of the doors. It might take a little filing on the ends to fit into the notches. Also the lower rear outsides of the unit are are a bit thick (even after removing the flash), which squeezes it in a bit, not allowing it to expand out to fill the opening in the body. (It fits within a pair of tabs on the rear of the interior bucket.) Take your time test fitting and filing, and the rest should fall together. This is probably AMT'S oldest currently running tool, having been first used to make the original promo models in 1957. Looks like I need to file a little more off on the driver's side so it can come forward a bit on that side. (Note the uneven gap in front of the dash).