AMT's 1965 Malibu Wagon: WIP

[Snake45]

23 minutes ago, geemoney said:

if Bruce Dickenson says more groceries.......

I GOTTA HAVE MORE GROCERIES! 

[Oldmopars]

That thing is looking great. I love the stock look of it.

BTW, the transmission that is in the car, is a manual. In your first pictures of the engine and trans you can see it is a manual trans. It may have been easier to just add one more peddle. This is not a criticism but thought I would point it out as some don't know the difference between a Auto and Manual from the look of them. An auto will (Almost) always have a flat oil pan/sump.  

[David G.]

23 hours ago, Snake45 said:

I like your grocery bag A LOT, and if it's a little oversize, that doesn't bother me. But I question its placement. Who would open up the back end to put in one bag, which would tip right over the first turn you made? If you had one bag of groceries, you'd either put it on the passenger seat next to you, or on the back-seat floor right behind the driver's seat. 

Unless of course you were hauling a load of family/kids. Then you'd put it in the back, but you'd still face the tipover problem. The obvious prescription (to paraphrase Christopher Walken) is MORE GROCERIES!  Line up 3 or 4 bags across, or maybe a couple big cardboard boxes. 

Thanks Ricky. Yeah, that wasn't meant to be the final placement of the grocery bag, just the most visible one for photo purposes. Besides, I've seen worse.

I've been thinking about cutting the bottom of the bag down a little bit, but if it ends up on the floor in the back seat, I may want that extra height. Hmmm.

16 hours ago, geemoney said:

this car looks so good!

if Bruce Dickenson says more groceries.......

Thank you Michel. I have several more bags but the hard work  is in coming up with the groceries to fill them.

15 hours ago, Oldmopars said:

That thing is looking great. I love the stock look of it.

BTW, the transmission that is in the car, is a manual. In your first pictures of the engine and trans you can see it is a manual trans. It may have been easier to just add one more peddle. This is not a criticism but thought I would point it out as some don't know the difference between a Auto and Manual from the look of them. An auto will (Almost) always have a flat oil pan/sump.  

Thank you Scott, I'm glad you like it. 

On the transmission matter, I addressed that in a post on October 12. I decided that once the car is in the display case, the steering column would be more visible than the transmission and with the brake pedal cast into the floor as it was, removing that and adding a new three pedal set wouldn't add that much to the appearance of the interior. I had even considered swapping out the manual gearbox for an auto I wasn't sure if I should use a TH 350 or 400, or even if either of those would be correct.

But thank you for taking the time to point that out. Those are obviously things that do matter to me and I may have been a little disappointed had I not thought to address that.

On 10/12/2019 at 8:57 AM, David G. said:

 

There are a couple of design conflicts with this kit. The transmission is a manual shift unit with a hole in the floor for a gearshift lever. The interior has a brake pedal for an automatic and no gear selector or turn signal stalk on the steering column. So I added those, along with the gear indicator or "PRNDL"

 

Here's a different angle that shows the levers a little better.

 

 

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to comment.

David G.

By the way, any thoughts on the grocery bag proportions?

Again, thanks to everyone for the feedback. I now have some new thoughts to consider.

David G.

[Snake45]

6 minutes ago, David G. said:

I have several more bags but the hard work  is in coming up with the groceries to fill them.

I think I've seen some foods over in the dollhouse stuff at Hobby Lobby. And 1/24 is a standard dollhouse scale (though not as popular or prevalent as 1/12). 

Don't forget you could have a couple vintage car magazines and/or model car boxes in your grocery bags. Our supermarket when I was a kid sold model kits. 

[randyc]

On 9/28/2019 at 8:55 AM, David G. said:

I have two Lindberg '64 Ramchargers and I want to build one as an AWB racer but I currently lack the courage to start hacking it apart.

David G.

Go on and hack.   If you mess up, I have a Color me Gone with a warped body (bad dehydrator incident).    Bound to be a trade of some sort we can work if you need the kit other than the body.

['70 Grande]

I've been considering picking up the latest reissue of this kit, but the one-piece chassis holds me back. I might have a more-detailed parts box chassis swap, and was wondering if you might provide me with two measurements from that one-piece chassis. What is the one-piece chassis' wheelbase in inches and also its width in inches, (as measured thru the middle between the doors)? Thanks!

[1972coronet]

12 hours ago, David G. said:

I had even considered swapping out the manual gearbox for an auto I wasn't sure if I should use a TH 350 or 400, or even if either of those would be correct.

1966 & earlier were Powerglide only, regardless of engine (the T.H. 400 was reserved for the full-sized cars until 1967 ; the T.H. 350 didn't appear until 1968 , IIRC... ) .

[1972coronet]

Additionally ; I'm loving the way you're building this wagon ! They were plentiful when I was younger ( even into the mid-80's around here ) , as were their sedan counterparts . That gold paint is bringing back some pleasant memories !

[carrucha]

On ‎9‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 6:24 AM, David G. said:

Thanks. It's almost identical to the '65. By the way, if you want to trade that 250 L-6, let me know. I'm looking for one for a project.

David G.

Model Car World sells a resin copy of the L-6 230 based on this kit engine.  It sells for $10.00.  See attached link.  Scroll down to the parts section.   http://www.mcwautomotivefinishes.com/resin/resinlist.html

[David G.]

On 10/31/2019 at 11:04 AM, '70 Grande said:

I've been considering picking up the latest reissue of this kit, but the one-piece chassis holds me back. I might have a more-detailed parts box chassis swap, and was wondering if you might provide me with two measurements from that one-piece chassis. What is the one-piece chassis' wheelbase in inches and also its width in inches, (as measured thru the middle between the doors)? Thanks!

Thanks for your reply Mark. One-piece chassis never bothered me too much. They can really be brought to life with some good detail painting and I really enjoy detail painting. One feature that I do dislike is the tub style interiors that frequently accompany those chassis. Those can be a bugger to paint well.

Any way, you asked me for some numbers.

To my eye, the wheel base looked like 4-9/16 ". I know that the camera angle makes it look like 4-5/8" but it was 9/16".

Across the mid section, we have 2-7/16".

Hope that helps. Please let me know if there is anything else I can help with.

On 10/31/2019 at 5:55 PM, 1972coronet said:

1966 & earlier were Powerglide only, regardless of engine (the T.H. 400 was reserved for the full-sized cars until 1967 ; the T.H. 350 didn't appear until 1968 , IIRC... ) .

Hi John. Was the Powerglide that two-speed automatic? If so, that has to be one of the worst automatic transmissions ever! I had a two-speed auto in my '71 Pontiac Ventura with a 250 straight six and that thing was a dog! I used to say it would do zero to sixty in 4.6 days!

Yeah, I don't think I have one of those in my parts box.

On 10/31/2019 at 5:57 PM, 1972coronet said:

Additionally ; I'm loving the way you're building this wagon ! They were plentiful when I was younger ( even into the mid-80's around here ) , as were their sedan counterparts . That gold paint is bringing back some pleasant memories !

Thank you John. I do remember gold being one of the more popular Chevrolet colors not only for the Chevelle but also the Impala. Anyone who grew up in the '70s and '80s, chances are that you knew someone who owned a gold '68 Chevy Impala- if you didn't own one yourself.

13 hours ago, carrucha said:

Model Car World sells a resin copy of the L-6 230 based on this kit engine.  It sells for $10.00.  See attached link.  Scroll down to the parts section.   http://www.mcwautomotivefinishes.com/resin/resinlist.html

Thank you Hector, I'll take a look at that.

***********

 

OK, I finally settled on the "items of interest" for the interior.

 

 

We have a spare wheel, a cardboard box with a greasy rag and some miscellaneous tools in the back. It was pointed out to me by Snake45 that groceries in the cargo area are likely to topple over so they're now tucked safely behind the front seat.

Thank you to everybody who took the time to offer comments, tips and advise.

On to final assembly!

David G.

[TarheelRick]

51 minutes ago, David G. said:

Hi John. Was the Powerglide that two-speed automatic? If so, that has to be one of the worst automatic transmissions ever! I had a two-speed auto in my '71 Pontiac Ventura with a 250 straight six and that thing was a dog! I used to say it would do zero to sixty in 4.6 days!

Yeah, I don't think I have one of those in my parts box.

The motto was "Slip and slide with Powerglide", in those days they were dogs.  However they are widely used now in some of the comp dragster classes; and yes, they have been severely modified from the original.  I think they are even being produced with aluminum cases  As far as part box powerglides the Revell '56 Chevy DelRay and other variations of that particular kit came with a powerglide.