AMT 61 Impala

[Brutalform]

Noticed an AMT 61 Impala in my searches. Does anyone know if this AMT is new tooling? Wondering if its one of those old screw bottoms. If not, is the Lindburg have better detail?

[Art Anderson]

It's the Lindberg '61 Bel Air HT, in an AMT box.

 

Art

[unclescott58]

It's the Lindberg '61 Bel Air HT, in an AMT box.

 

Art

Lindberg '61 Bel Air? Isn't this Lindberg's '61 Impala?

 

[Rob Hall]

Lindberg '61 Bel Air? Isn't this Lindberg's '61 Impala?

 

It's a reissue of the Lindberg '61 Impala with new optional wheels added and new AMT box art.  There is no Lindberg '61 Bel Air. 

Edited October 24, 2016 by Rob Hall

[Fat Brian]

Noticed an AMT 61 Impala in my searches. Does anyone know if this AMT is new tooling? Wondering if its one of those old screw bottoms. If not, is the Lindburg have better detail?

To answer your question about construction this is a modern kit tooled in the 90's with separate frame and floor pan, clear head and tail lights, and other goodies typical of a new kit.

[Exotics_Builder]

Here's the Lindberg version I built back in the mid-90's.  Wheels, tires, engine and interior details added

 

[Art Anderson]

Lindberg '61 Bel Air? Isn't this Lindberg's '61 Impala?

 

Correct!  That is an Impala--I forgot that the bubble top was an Impala feature for 1961.

[JollySipper]

To answer your question about construction this is a modern kit tooled in the 90's with separate frame and floor pan, clear head and tail lights, and other goodies typical of a new kit.

This kit doesn't have a separate frame... but the interior you build into a tub (which I love any kit like this).... It has separate suspension and 4 of the tail lights are molded in red, two in clear..... It's an excellent kit, I'm building my second one now! 

[MrObsessive]

Correct!  That is an Impala--I forgot that the bubble top was an Impala feature for 1961.

They're very rare, but there was a Bubbletop Bel Air for '61. Four taillights instead of six (different side trim too IIRC). I snapped a number of pics of one at a show last year, but they've seemed to have gone AWOL on my hard disc.

 

[ChrisBcritter]

Here you go, Bill:

Back in 1988, I spotted an ad in the L.A. Times for a '61 Bel Air bubbletop at the Caddy dealer in Beverly Hills. Turned out to be a 25,000-mile metallic beige car with a six and Powerglide. That thing was near mint and drove like it too; they were asking $4,888 for it. I scraped up every dime I could and offered them my nice '66 Coupe deVille in trade - but no deal. For some reason I kept the ad; it listed the car's license number, DIS 246. About a year later, I saw an ad for a red '61 Bel Air with a 409/4-speed - license DIS 246. Out of spite I called the consignment dealer selling it; he said it was presented to them as original. I told him the car was a fake and how I knew; the guy said he was going to have a little talk with the owner...

[DaveM]

The Lindberg kit is pretty decent.  The main glitch is the very shallow interior.  The dash goes about 2/3 of the way to the floor and is still quite compressed.  If you can live with the interior, it is a very nice looking kit.  If the interior bothers you, it is a pretty tricky fix, with almost every part having to be rebuilt and stretched vertically.  It is not quite as well detailed under the hood as the AMT and Revell kits of the '90s were, but it's pretty well done.  The body looks the part, and I have seen some really nice ones on tables over the years.  I have one in the to do pile, and I will tackle it as soon as I decide on a color for it.  

The Impala also looks great as a mild street machine with the wheels and tires from the Revell  '32 Ford 3W kit too.  I built one like that right when the '32 first came on the scene.  I already had my Modelhaus wheels for the '32 picked out and I had the '61 Impala in the bench with fresh non factory paint, so I needed some street machine wheels for it.  I was building the two kits side by side and started holding the mags up to the Chevy.  The rest was history!  It was a long time ago, but I remember it being a fun kit to build, and I don't recall any issues or swearing fits while putting it together.  I just built the interior the way it came from the box.  

 

[Mark]

Here you go, Bill:

Back in 1988, I spotted an ad in the L.A. Times for a '61 Bel Air bubbletop at the Caddy dealer in Beverly Hills. Turned out to be a 25,000-mile metallic beige car with a six and Powerglide. That thing was near mint and drove like it too; they were asking $4,888 for it. I scraped up every dime I could and offered them my nice '66 Coupe deVille in trade - but no deal. For some reason I kept the ad; it listed the car's license number, DIS 246. About a year later, I saw an ad for a red '61 Bel Air with a 409/4-speed - license DIS 246. Out of spite I called the consignment dealer selling it; he said it was presented to them as original. I told him the car was a fake and how I knew; the guy said he was going to have a little talk with the owner...

The dealer should have figured that out; I don't think the 409 was offered across the board in '61, as it was '62-'64.  I'm led to believe that with Fifties and Sixties Chevies, where both sixes and V8 engines were offered, they can be told apart by either the VIN or by other information on the ID tag. 

[Brutalform]

Thanks for the replies. I know about the Lindburg kit. I have built them before. I was just wondering if this kit had better detail than the Lindburg kit. I probably should have phrased that differently. I think I might just pic one up anyway. 

[berr13]

Has anyone bought one of these and checked out what's inside?  I'm curious what Round 2 has added to the Lindberg kit, other that those mag wheels.

[Rob Hall]

Has anyone bought one of these and checked out what's inside?  I'm curious what Round 2 has added to the Lindberg kit, other that those mag wheels.

I got one last week, the only difference from the previous issues that I see are the optional mag wheels.  Box art is much better as compared to the awful Lindberg donut boxes.  A pair of slicks are included also, presumably left over from the drag version.

Edited October 30, 2016 by Rob Hall

[Daddyfink]

[berr13]

I got one last week, the only difference from the previous issues that I see are the optional mag wheels.  Box art is much better as compared to the awful Lindberg donut boxes.  A pair of slicks are included also, presumably left over from the drag version.

Thanks, Rob, that's what I needed to know.  I've got at least one of the older issues, so I guess I'm good.  Gotta agree with you on the box art--between the red car on the box ends and the blue one on the box side I almost bought a new one!

 

 

[Fat Brian]

Thanks for the replies. I know about the Lindburg kit. I have built them before. I was just wondering if this kit had better detail than the Lindburg kit. I probably should have phrased that differently. I think I might just pic one up anyway. 

That's what we're saying, this is just a reissue of the Lindberg kit. The same company owns the names Lindberg and AMT and all their respective molds and they have decided to reissue the few really good new tool Lindberg kits under the AMT name since the Lindberg name is synonymous with unbuildable BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH to a decent percentage of the modeling public.

[horsepower]

Sounds like they took some of the parts from the AMT '62 Bel-Air kit and put them in this one for street machine pieces.

[niteowl7710]

Sounds like they took some of the parts from the AMT '62 Bel-Air kit and put them in this one for street machine pieces.

Straight reissue of the Lindberg kit, the only thing different are the new mag wheels, they aren't the ones out of the '62 kit.

[horsepower]

They looked like them but chromed from the pictures I could see. But I haven't seen any good resolution pictures, or even the kit either. So don't go off of what I said, that's why I said it SOUNDS like that's what was done.

[pack rat]

Sounds like they took some of the parts from the AMT '62 Bel-Air kit and put them in this one for street machine pieces.

Straight reissue of the Lindberg kit, the only thing different are the new mag wheels, they aren't the ones out of the '62 kit.

The mags are the same ones that were newly-tooled for the Lawman Plymouth as shown in these two pics.

I'm not sure which optional rear tires are in the re-issued Impala.  I believe the original plan was to use the Lawman slicks, but they were found to be a tight fit on the Impala, so I'm not sure what the production kits contain. Note the the Impala also has added parts to raise the rear suspension height as well.  

[horsepower]

Thanks for the news on what's actually there, now if we just had a 1/25th scale guy who would check out the tires we'd be perfect. ?

Edited November 6, 2016 by horsepower