1960 AMT Bonneville interior tub

[hedotwo]

After spending quite some time trying to return an abused interior tub to a respectable state I noticed that the tub appears to be for a convertible, when it came installed in the pre-built AMT hardtop I'd bought.  I know there was an SMP '60 Bonneville as well as the AMT hardtop.  Were there two tubs or just one?

 

[Mark]

Just one.  When a hardtop and a convertible of the same car were produced as promotional models and kits, 99% of the time both used the convertible interior.  There are a handful that used the hardtop bucket and "cheated" the convertible boot to fit, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

[jas1957]

16 minutes ago, Mark said:

Just one.  When a hardtop and a convertible of the same car were produced as promotional models and kits, 99% of the time both used the convertible interior.  There are a handful that used the hardtop bucket and "cheated" the convertible boot to fit, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

Yep, what he said,  through most of the 1960s AMT & later MPC on almost every kit used the same interior tub for convertibles & hard tops 

[ChrisBcritter]

This can be fixed; it's tedious but doable:

After using the top piece to fill in the armrest, add patches along the sides and next to the rear seat. Check Steve Guthmiller's '65 Plymouth Fury thread; he did a similar modification to it.

[ChrisBcritter]

1 minute ago, jas1957 said:

Yep, what he said,  through most of the 1960s AMT & later MPC on almost every kit used the same interior tub for convertibles & hard tops 

Which led to a goof on AMT's part once; the original '62 Impala kit had convertible top bolsters but used the hardtop upholstery pattern 

[jas1957]

1 minute ago, ChrisBcritter said:

Which led to a goof on AMT's part once; the original '62 Impala kit had convertible top bolsters but used the hardtop upholstery pattern 

Bet the car they photographed and measured was a HT and they just added the bolsters in later.

[Mark]

The convertible-interior-in-a-hardtop deal was probably done back in the day to keep production costs down on the promo models.  The convertible interior was used seeing as it would be more visible in the convertible promo, and in a hardtop you'd really need to look closely at the rear corners of the interior to see the difference.  Other little mistakes often slipped through, like automatic shifter in the interior with manual transmission detail on the underside of the car, little things like that.

[hedotwo]

1 hour ago, ChrisBcritter said:

This can be fixed; it's tedious but doable:

After using the top piece to fill in the armrest, add patches along the sides and next to the rear seat. Check Steve Guthmiller's '65 Plymouth Fury thread; he did a similar modification to it.

So, to make a HT rear out of the convertible would involve somehow widening the seat itself by making the center armrest space wider and the armrests narrower.  Because the backrests seem about the same width on both.   Here's a pic of a HT rear seat.

My creative wheels are turning....

[StevenGuthmiller]

As already stated, a large majority of annual kits from 1958 all the way through the 60s produced only one convertible style interior for both hard tops and convertibles.

There were a few exceptions when either the real car or model was not available as a convertible, or in later years when someone finally discovered that they could produce a top boot with the wells attached that could be slipped over the rear seat.

 

As also stated, it can be fixed, but there is generally a lot more work involved than just removing the top well itself if you want it to be some where near correct.

Not only should the top well be removed, but by doing so, you are now leaving a hole in the door panel that not only needs to be filled, but the rear panel upholstery pattern needs to be carried on to the rear seat back.

Many times rear arm rests should be changed as well.

And then there is the obvious question about widening the rear seat.

 

On a recent project I tackled this process to the best of my ability by removing the wells from a Johan 1965 Plymouth Fury, completely reworking the door panels, arm rests and rear seat.

I was lucky enough to get away without widening the seat due to the configuration of the '65 Plymouth rear passenger area.

I merely added "bolsters" on either side.

 

Yes, a project like this is quite time consuming, but very rewarding, and it was actually quite fun!

 

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

Before

 

 

After

 

 

 

 

 

[hedotwo]

Steve, I actually just finished going through your entire Fury thread, especially the rear seat mods, when I now see your reply to my post.  I can now see the issues a bit more clearly how I'd need to approach the rear seat of the Bonnie compared to how you did the Fury.  The gaps you had on the sides of the Fury backrests didn't look too bad at all when you look at the shape of the seats themselves.  I'm not sure the Bonneville's would look as good if I just filled in the resulting gap.  I'm going to mull over a few ideas on how to solve this problem and include them in a new post in On The Workbench.

Thanks guys

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 hour ago, hedotwo said:

Steve, I actually just finished going through your entire Fury thread, especially the rear seat mods, when I now see your reply to my post.  I can now see the issues a bit more clearly how I'd need to approach the rear seat of the Bonnie compared to how you did the Fury.  The gaps you had on the sides of the Fury backrests didn't look too bad at all when you look at the shape of the seats themselves.  I'm not sure the Bonneville's would look as good if I just filled in the resulting gap.  I'm going to mull over a few ideas on how to solve this problem and include them in a new post in On The Workbench.

Thanks guys

Or you could save yourself a boat load of time and effort in this circumstance and use the entire interior from the Trumpeter '60 Bonneville kit!

 

 

Seriously, I think in this circumstance, I would widen the rear seat by adding to the ends.

I don't believe that it would require enough added material to make it look odd.

Splitting the seat down the center and adding material there would require a bit more thought.

You have the speaker grille to deal with in that case.

 

 

Steve

Edited July 23, 2019 by StevenGuthmiller

[hedotwo]

That speaker would be a problem.   I'd thought about the Trumpeter Bonneville but didn't know if it was a tub also.  I see online (the Fotki instruction site) that the rear seat is indeed separate.  Definitely be the easiest route if I could find one.  I'll try and if not maybe I'd settle for just removing the sides and leaving the resulting gap as you did on the Fury.  Would definitely look better than not. 

You're right about this kind of stuff being fun though.  I've found that as I age my skill set building models has changed from being able to really detail engines and suspensions to one where I enjoy restoring early pre-built curbsides where you can sometimes get away with being ham-handed 

It's all about not losing the enjoyment and self satisfaction.

[SfanGoch]

The Trumpeter Bonneville interior isn't a tub. The door panel, front and rear seats, armrests, door handles, etc., are separate parts, all of which make for nice detailing. The floorpan is a separate part from the frame, too.

You can find the Sport Coupe for a reasonably low price if you look. Heck, you might be able to stuff the Trumpeter guts into the AMT body, and use the Model Car Garage PE set to dress it up.

[hedotwo]

3 minutes ago, SfanGoch said:

The Trumpeter Bonneville interior isn't a tub. The door panel, front and rear seats, armrests, door handles, etc., are separate parts, all of which make for nice detailing. The floorpan is a separate part from the frame, too.

You can find the Sport Coupe for a reasonably low price if you look. Heck, you might be able to stuff the Trumpeter guts into the AMT body, and use the Model Car Garage PE set to dress it up.

I'll try and find just the seats for now and see where that leads.  Like many of us here, I'm retired and every penny counts but I would buy the whole kit I guess for the right price if I found one.  I did, however, spring for the PE detail set and hopefully will see it in the next few days.  In restoring this Bonny I had a number of things to correct and one of the tougher ones is the PONTIAC script on the hood.  The T is very faint, while the remainder of the script is decent.  I'm trying to figure out how I'll go about getting that T raised up enough to chrome/foil.  

Thanks

[SfanGoch]

You won't need to worry about the "Pontiac" hood script. Remove it and replace it with the PE letters. They're visible on the middle left of the fret in the picture.

[hedotwo]

2 minutes ago, SfanGoch said:

You won't need to worry about the "Pontiac" hood script. Remove it and replace it with the PE letters. They're visible on the middle left of the fret in the picture.

That's what I was hoping for when I bought the PE set, but wouldn't be sure till I actually saw them.  Thanks Stan

[SfanGoch]

It's S-F-A-N! NO "T". "F".  SFAN!

[hedotwo]

2 minutes ago, SfanGoch said:

It's S-F-A-N! NO "T". "F".  SFAN!

....  Thanks JOE!

[SfanGoch]

 

[hedotwo]

On 7/22/2019 at 10:00 PM, StevenGuthmiller said:

Or you could save yourself a boat load of time and effort in this circumstance and use the entire interior from the Trumpeter '60 Bonneville kit!

 

Steve

So, I was able to possibly source the seat(s) from a Trumpeter kit but they appear to be a pleat pattern that I can't find on the internet as being correct for a '60 Bonneville.  Trumpeter's instructions (on the Fotki online site)  for the HT show a pattern very similar to my AMT and being correct for the '60 Bonnie, but the instructions for the '60 vert show this pattern.  So, unless I can find the rear (or both) seat from the Trumpeter HT I'll either try and widen the rear seat on my AMT tub or just go ahead and use it as is, even though it's incorrect for a HT.

[StevenGuthmiller]

8 hours ago, hedotwo said:

So, I was able to possibly source the seat(s) from a Trumpeter kit but they appear to be a pleat pattern that I can't find on the internet as being correct for a '60 Bonneville.  Trumpeter's instructions (on the Fotki online site)  for the HT show a pattern very similar to my AMT and being correct for the '60 Bonnie, but the instructions for the '60 vert show this pattern.  So, unless I can find the rear (or both) seat from the Trumpeter HT I'll either try and widen the rear seat on my AMT tub or just go ahead and use it as is, even though it's incorrect for a HT.

Hmmm.

It seems to me that I remember reading on another thread that the Trumpeter convertible interior had an incorrect seat pattern.

This might possibly be what you have there.

The seats in my hard top kit are correct.

 

 

Steve