Fit Question of the AMT 40 delivery

[Smart-Resins]

Yes, I have a 1940 AMT Ford Sedan Delivery model. Played with it today. I see the rear fenders do not fit tight against the body. Likewise, the frame seams to not sit right at all in the rear as there seams to be no notches for the frame rails to pass through. If it sits under the body, then the frame seams to not get any wheres near the floor pan? Likewise, the floor pan seams to lack a bunch of plastic from fitting snuggly against the inner fender wells. What is up with this? Now yes, I think I may tub it for the addition of a Ford 9" with pro-street tires and steelies with baby moons. SO I can fix that problem. However, the rear of the frame will still be a issue for me as otherwise I want the bumpers on it? How is the best way to adress that issue. Next, the issue of the fenders, how is the best way to remedy that? Last, where would I desire to cut the hood if I decide to pancake it? Thanks for any help. Jody

[Eshaver]

Jody get back to me on my Yahoo. Uh, do you want to street rod the thing or do you want to go for stock? The stock will take a lot of explanation as the kit aint right . Ed Shaver

Oh go take a look in diorama on the progress of the Amoco projek too!!!

[Art Anderson]

Yes, I have a 1940 AMT Ford Sedan Delivery model. Played with it today. I see the rear fenders do not fit tight against the body. Likewise, the frame seams to not sit right at all in the rear as there seams to be no notches for the frame rails to pass through. If it sits under the body, then the frame seams to not get any wheres near the floor pan? Likewise, the floor pan seams to lack a bunch of plastic from fitting snuggly against the inner fender wells. What is up with this? Now yes, I think I may tub it for the addition of a Ford 9" with pro-street tires and steelies with baby moons. SO I can fix that problem. However, the rear of the frame will still be a issue for me as otherwise I want the bumpers on it? How is the best way to adress that issue. Next, the issue of the fenders, how is the best way to remedy that? Last, where would I desire to cut the hood if I decide to pancake it? Thanks for any help. Jody

For those of us old enough, it's wise to remember that when AMT kitted the Sedan Delivery back in the middle 1960's, they utilized their already-in-production '40 Ford coupe/'39-'40 Ford Tudor sedan kit--the body and interior unit are simply tooling sections that could be inserted into the original tool, which dated from 1960.

Given the way this series of kits was laid out way back then, with a one-piece fender/running board unit, it's not surprising that there are fit issues--both the coupe and the Tudor have the same looseness around the rear fenders. But that was then, this is now.

There is a much bigger issue with this kit than just the sloppy, early 60's fit of the body, and the hood. That is simply that in order to utilize the coupe fender unit, they made the sedan delivery body too narrow in its rear portion. Where the sedan and coupe in real life, do use the same rear fenders, the sedan delivery (and the woodie station wagon as well, which used sedan delivery rear fenders) body comes out to just past the crown of the rear fenders, and does so all the way back to the rear end of those fenders. I measured the kit body once, compared it to a photo-spread of a 1:1, and determined that the body shell is almost 6 scale inches (approx 1/4" on the kit body) too narrow in the cargo area, the body tapering rather sharply from the windshield header back to the B-post, with a somewhat "football-shaped" planform between the B-post to the rear of the body itself. The rear door appears to be about 3/16" too narrow as well, based on my study of the proportions of the rear of the 1:1 car itself (photo feature was in a mid-1990's issue of Collectible Automobile).

To widen the body shell for a more correct appearance will require splitting the body shell from just behind the top of the windshield all the way to the back, and then making several "pie cuts" along the sides of this cut, removing slivers of styrene to give clearance for making the centerline cut parallel to tapering back in a bit from the B-post back to the header over the rear cargo door. Any and all filling of the resulting gaps can be done by using bits of .040" Evergreen sheet styrene, and I was planning to use gap-filling CA glue to make this a quick-setting deal, to get the shell corrected without having to wait days between steps.

With the excellent Revell '40 Ford convertible kit out there, that's the one I would use as the base kit, just adapting the modified AMT body shell to that cowing (bear in mind, the sedan delivery does use the coupe/sedan windshield, not the convertible unit), and then gluing the Revell rear fenders to that body to eliminate any gaps (the real fenders are bolted on tightly, with a 1/4" bead welt between the two sheet metal surfaces. The rear load floor is raised above the driver's seat floorboards, so that it is flat all the way back, but high enough to clear the frame kickup in the rear, and the inner fender panels, part of the actual steel body, are straight up and down, and follow the shape of the fenders themselves, but intrude into the interior only enough to clear the inner sides of the rear wheels. Otherwise, the chassis and all the other sheet metal, including the Deluxe level dash and steering wheel, and the Deluxe hood and grille, are correct for the Sedan Delivery (it was never done as a Standard trim car), and the car was also continued unchanged for 1941.

Long post, but hope it helps a little bit.

Art