"Accurizing" AMT's '69 Buick Riviera

[Monty]

I happen to have an extra AMT '66 Buick Riviera and had a couple questions about using it to make another kit better.  

1) Will the chassis fit under the 69 Riviera without a lot of of modifications?

2) Is it a reasonably accurate swap (not looking for concourse-level rivet counting.  The 1:1 cars both have the X frame, right?

3) Anybody done this swap?  Anything else I should look out for?  

[Mark]

Only real choice is the AMT/Ertl '66 Riviera chassis.  Not yet reissued by Round 2, the '66 is newer tooling and has the same level of detail as other kits developed in the same era ('57 Chrysler, '71 Charger, etc).  I haven't tried it, nor do I intend to try.  You'll have to bring the two kits together to see how everything fits together.

You will notice that the asymmetrical fuel tank and spare tire well on the two chassis are mirror images of one another.  As I understand, the newer '66 kit is the correct one.

[SfanGoch]

It works. I did it a couple years ago.

[Can-Con]

2 hours ago, Mark said:

Only real choice is the AMT/Ertl '66 Riviera chassis.  Not yet reissued by Round 2, the '66 is newer tooling and has the same level of detail as other kits developed in the same era ('57 Chrysler, '71 Charger, etc).  I haven't tried it, nor do I intend to try.  You'll have to bring the two kits together to see how everything fits together.

You will notice that the asymmetrical fuel tank and spare tire well on the two chassis are mirror images of one another.  As I understand, the newer '66 kit is the correct one.

I used to own a '69 and can say with %100 confidence that the '66 chassis is correct. 

Use whatever you can from under the hood too except the engine. Buick dropped the nailhead and switched to the 430 in '67.

[Mark]

If the older chassis is correct, I'd be inclined to leave the '69 as-is (I've got an original '69 kit).  It's not like the chassis was ever the focal point of those cars.  I would, however, fix the mistake on the newer '66 kit.

[SfanGoch]

What mistake on the newer '66 kit would that be?

 

[Can-Con]

38 minutes ago, Mark said:

If the older chassis is correct, I'd be inclined to leave the '69 as-is (I've got an original '69 kit).  It's not like the chassis was ever the focal point of those cars.  I would, however, fix the mistake on the newer '66 kit.

 

33 minutes ago, SfanGoch said:

What mistake on the newer '66 kit would that be?

 

No, it's the newer '66 kit chassis that's correct. 

I had to take the fuel pump out of the tank on my '69 a couple times to clean it.

The tank is definitely on the passenger side and the tire well is on the driver's side.

[Can-Con]

[SfanGoch]

Thanks Steve, I knew that. I was confused by Mark's comment. I bought a few '66 kits as donors for the '67-'69 Rivieras I picked up on fleabay some years back.

[Mark]

My reply was in error.  With the older chassis (originally '66, updated through '69) being the incorrect one, if not swapping to the new-tool '66 piece I'd probably just leave it alone.  Using the newer '66 pieces gets you more detail and accuracy all around.  You do still have to keep the '69 engine however.

[Monty]

15 hours ago, Can-Con said:

I used to own a '69 and can say with %100 confidence that the '66 chassis is correct. 

Use whatever you can from under the hood too except the engine. Buick dropped the nailhead and switched to the 430 in '67.

Thanks for mentioning the info about the engine change.  I hope the engine from the '69 can be built up nicely.  Today's dumb question: what model paint best replicates the red on those Buick engines?