Just Another AMT 25…

[OldNYJim]

I picked up a few of these kits back when my local Hobby Lobby had them in stock regularly, and of the three or four hot-rod build options the chopped coupe was probably the one that interested me the least.  It’s hard to chop a T coupe by so much and not have it look squashed, to me - I’d rather see a much more subtle chop.

So, to overcome my dislike of this particular body style in what actually is a really cool kit, I’m gonna build one and see if I learn to like it.

Here’s the current issue of the kit which most of you are probably familiar with…

I’m actually more interested in building something that looks more like the ORIGINAL 60s box art - Moon disks, whitewalls and all…

Quick mock-up on the bench to see how it sits:

Right off the bat I’d like to drop that front end down a little and find some smaller front tires - these cars are so small that I think a big tire like that really dominates the look if you’re not careful.  I’m not TOO dissatisfied with the rear ride height, but letting the body channel itself over the frame in my mock-up here has helped with that somewhat too.  Will need to notch out some material in the trunk sides to allow clearance for the rear axle and leaf spring, which we’ll get to further down the line:

Something I do want to address early with this kit is the engine; the kit part is pretending to be Lincoln Y-Block, and it’s not doing a very good job of it.  I toyed with switching in one of the really nice AMT Parts Pack Small Block Chevies, but I’d rather go with a Ford something…

After some parts box digging and various test fits (Offie T anyone?) I settled on the T-Bird engine from the evergreen AMT 34 Ford truck kit as being close in dimensions to the Y-Block, somewhat more accurate and about of the right period…and it ALMOST does drop right in there, aside from having to tweak the pins on the frame’s engine mounts.

Thing is though, I wanted to use that cool Latham blower from the T kit too but it’s nowhere close to a drop-on fit.  Problem is, the one-piece intake manifold/heads on both engines are different in size, and I’d want to keep the 390’s heads anyway.

So, this evening’s half-project was separating the heads from the 390 so I could reuse them, and the (pretty accurate looking) manifold from the Y-block so I can make this work.

390 parts on the left, Y-block on the right, blower in the background:

With that done, I attached the heads to the block so it builds up like a more conventional modern kit engine, and the manifold will sit between them just fine and dandy and allow a realistic setup AND a more realistic looking block (whilst hopefully keeping the same general look as that old box art I’m being inspired by…)

Very early into the project, but it’s a start…next few days will be getting everything ‘roughed in’ and pointed the right direction…thanks for looking - more soon!

[Joe Nunes]

Looking forward to seeing this coming together. Nice start with your ideas. ?

Joe

[Zippi]

I also picked this kit up a while back at my HL.  I'll be watching this build.

[OldNYJim]

Thanks fellas!  Got to put in some bench time this weekend on this one - a surprising amount of bench time considering how little progress I made ?

First up, I wanted to run a much smaller tire out front - more like you would see on a little T-bucket.  I’m trying to reduce how squashed the body looks with the high sides and the low roof somewhat, so I’m gonna try and trick the eye a little by decreasing that front tire height significantly:

Already helped some, I think!  I’m starting to like it already!  I’m running the kit wheels right now so I can retain the option of using the nice chrome Moon disks, but they might not make it - we’ll see…

Comparison between kit tire and mine:

I was casually considering messing with the front spring mount on the frame, but I kinda like how it’s sitting now…I added a couple of little strips of styrene to the rear of the rails to make it easier to mockup and have the body sit itself in the same spot everytime…

Next up, I wanted to print some piecrust slicks to see if I could get crisper detail than normal kit tires come with…I had a spoonful of resin left and took a shot that I’d have enough to print at least a coupla sets…JUST managed to get two fully printed before I ran out:

(I’m trying a different brand next so I didn’t wanna just mix in from a new bottle…)

Took a scale two inches out of the new ones, to lower the car an inch - I think these will work and look nice and sharp:

Next job was laying out a new decklid with some louvres and printing a few at different thicknesses - they look cool from this angle…

…but even cooler from behind:

These parts are somewhat tricky to print and you need to do super-careful clean-up but the effect is cool I think!  Scribed out the kit trunk lid and installed the new piece as soon as it was printed and cured…thin resin like this can warp and bend and distort so I wanted to get it locked down before it had too long to consider changing shape:

Those little gaps seem to attract styrene dust, so I’ll need to keep cleaning them up until I get this thing to the primer stage I’m sure…

And that’s about how it looks so far - quick end-of-weekend mock-up:

Plenty to do, but I’m starting to like it!  Thanks for looking!

[OldNYJim]

A little more progress this weekend…

I’m trying to get everything far enough along to start the paint but I had a few little jobs to do first - including figuring out pulley placement on the engine to make sure I won’t have any surprises further down the line…I used the pulley assembly from the 390 engine but separated them so I can add a more in-scale belt later.  They’re a little (lot) not straight in this pic because it’s all held together with poster tack…

 As you can see in the pic above I’ve figured out the steering linkages too, swapped out the blobby kit steering wheel for a similar one from the parts box and smoothed out the kit firewall so I can add my own detail later.

Next, after a couple of rounds of filler and priming, I’m ready to shoot some color on this thing.

 First up, I mixed up some Pepto Bismal pink:

I wanted some real loose 60s seaweed flames for this one, so I laid some out in Adobe Illustrator:

The kit box art made for a useful template in this case, but a photo or scan of the body works well too, usually…

Cut some masks:

Next up, pearl plumb purple:

And some careful unmasking later…

Couldn’t resist dropping it on the body to see how it’s going to look, a little:

Next up, breaking up that big flat roof a little with some stripes:

These will be a LOT more subtle than the contrast between the main color and the flames…going for just a little color variation here, so I mixed up some clear with a pink pearl powder and some Createx Interference, which flips between white and blue:

Some more careful de-masking…

Looks really pretty as the light catches it at different angles…

Not done with the paint yet, but needed to seal in what I had finished already so I can do more this coming week…more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Edited March 13, 2023 by CabDriver

[Ace-Garageguy]

Purty cool, especially the bit about using 21st century technology upgrades on a bazillion year old kit, plus some good old fashioned hack-n-whack-n-fab.

Yup, use old parts, new parts, and all the tools in the box.