69 Impala

[The Modeling Hermit]

This was a Christmas present in December of 1968. It really could use some restoring or rebuilding. I'm torn as to what to do with it. When I built it, I painted the chassis and interior flat black, but left the body unpainted. It's held up quite well over the years. Part of me doesn't want to restore it for sentimental reasons, but part of me would like to make it more presentable.

[RodneyBad]

Personally, Factory stock.

It's a great looking car.

Tough call tho.

[Zoom Zoom]

Tough decision? '69's have always been a bit harder to get than the other '60's Impalas and they're also less plentiful by resin casters.

If you do keep looking at it like you want to refurbish it, go for it! If you want to just spruce it up you could have the chrome redone or replaced, you could polish the body or clean it up and spray it gloss white and either leave it undetailed like a promo or detail the body and leave the interior/chassis alone.

Or if you want to be more colorful, paint/detail the body to your heart's desire.

The '69 was a missing link in my collection, I finally scored a slightly ragged promo from a friend for a great price, and used the reissued '70 Impala kit (same tooling) to replace the A pillars. Then I painted it to match the color scheme of a '69 Impala that friends used to own. I swapped wheels from a new-age AMT '70 Corvette promo.

If you do detail it out, remember that AMT goofed on the emblems. The Impala emblem on the front fender should not be there, just the "SS".

[bobss396]

Polish it up, slap some BMF on it and call it done. Overall. it is probably more valuable as a collector piece left as is at this point.

Bob

[Guest 66dragfreak]

As hard as it might be, you might try finding a kit and building it the way you envision rebuilding your original car. then you could have the two side by side for comparison...kinda before and after,,ya know? Just a thought...

[Ron Hamilton]

If it were mine, I would re-do it, using the skills I picked up over the years, with a good paint job, Bare Metal Foil, and some Photoetch (if neccsessary).

I bought this one as a pristine kit off of Ebay a few years ago. Looking at the chassis and running gear, I decided to use the excellent AMT '67 SS427 for the separate chassis and running gear, floorboards, parts box wheels and tires, and some various pieces of MCG photoetch from various sets. Bob Downie's car was the inspiration for my build.

I have another one, and old built-up, and I plan to do it as a convertible (correctly), per Bob Downie's suggestion, as a bookend of this car (built the same way), but with an automatic transmission, and either Rally Wheels, or Custom Wheel Covers, probably in Red with a Red interior.

[george 53]

Doug, If it were mine ,and I wanted to keep it like it was, I'd just polish up the plastic, an BMF it. Then just put it back together and admire it as a "survivor"!

[KENNEDYJR]

Just dust it off and put it in the display case. Leave it alone.

[randx0]

If it was a christmas present in 68 and you redo the whole thing with your current skills that is a christmas gift that is still appreciated 40 years later!If you distinctly recall brushing on the flat black and other aspects of this particular build and it takes you back to that happy time leave it alone.

[John Goschke]

Well, Douglas, I guess it comes down to whether you value it more as an artifact from your youth than as a rare kit waiting to be built into a great model. If it was mine, seeing Ron's black beauty and Bob's fantastic blue SS would be the deciding factor for a detailed build. And with all the nice kits available of late '60s-early '70s Chevys you could build your car with just about any engine option available!

It's been waiting all these years for you to do it right. Go for it!

[The Modeling Hermit]

Thanks for all of the suggestions and pictures of your fine work. I'm fortunate, in that I have another involved build scheduled (a holmes 750 wrecker tribute to Phil Jensen), plus Christmas, which will give me more time to think about it. During that time I'll keep coming back to this thread for inspiration. It's a hard decision to make. Come the end of the year, it will have been exactly 40 years ago that I built this car. There's nostalgia in that, but I've noticed some yellowing on the left front fender, right beside the bumper. I'm fortunate, in that I did spray paint the interior and chassis, and they've held up well.

[MyBradKeselowski]

I would restore it using BMF and maybe painting it Fathom Blue or Butternut Yellow.

[studebot]

How about the factory green metallic ,with a Black vinyal top! It's yours to do what you want, and as years go bye, your thoughts might change!