Retooled 65 and 68 GTO's

[Sledsel]

Has anyone upgraded to an engine in one of these? I am wondering about what firewalls you used? The kits do not have a firewall. 

[Skip]

Thinking of doing similar with the '65 GTO, I am looking at using the firewall and any under hood details from the AMT '65 GTO Convertible / Hardtop kit.  I thought it was pretty much a no-brainer swap, that is unless you've looked at it a different way than I am. The '65 GTO Convertible / Hardtop kit essentially is the same as the New Tool '65 GTO Hard Top so, using the old '65 GTO kit seemed easiest start to me. Another possibility would be the Revell '65 Chevelle, that's too nice a kit to rob the firewall from though, maybe a junker off of eBay? You could always make a mold of the Revell '65 Chevell's firewall and start there.  

Once you start correcting the firewall, then you'll be looking at the 389 engine, the older AMT '65 GTO kit does not have a very good 389 so this is going to be my major issue for such a conversion. It's like a detailing domino effect, you start with one thing and a bunch of other things keep popping up! 

[thatz4u]

30 minutes ago, Skip said:

Thinking of doing similar with the '65 GTO, I am looking at using the firewall and any under hood details from the AMT '65 GTO Convertible / Hardtop kit.  I thought it was pretty much a no-brainer swap, that is unless you've looked at it a different way than I am. The '65 GTO Convertible / Hardtop kit essentially is the same as the New Tool '65 GTO Hard Top so, using the old '65 GTO kit seemed easiest start to me. Another possibility would be the Revell '65 Chevelle, that's too nice a kit to rob the firewall from though, maybe a junker off of eBay? You could always make a mold of the Revell '65 Chevell's firewall and start there.  

Once you start correcting the firewall, then you'll be looking at the 389 engine, the older AMT '65 GTO kit does not have a very good 389 so this is going to be my major issue for such a conversion. It's like a detailing domino effect, you start with one thing and a bunch of other things keep popping up! 

or use the firewall from an AMT 442 & engine from a Revell 68 Firebird...

[Sledsel]

50 minutes ago, Skip said:

Thinking of doing similar with the '65 GTO, I am looking at using the firewall and any under hood details from the AMT '65 GTO Convertible / Hardtop kit.  I thought it was pretty much a no-brainer swap, that is unless you've looked at it a different way than I am. The '65 GTO Convertible / Hardtop kit essentially is the same as the New Tool '65 GTO Hard Top so, using the old '65 GTO kit seemed easiest start to me. Another possibility would be the Revell '65 Chevelle, that's too nice a kit to rob the firewall from though, maybe a junker off of eBay? You could always make a mold of the Revell '65 Chevell's firewall and start there.  

Once you start correcting the firewall, then you'll be looking at the 389 engine, the older AMT '65 GTO kit does not have a very good 389 so this is going to be my major issue for such a conversion. It's like a detailing domino effect, you start with one thing and a bunch of other things keep popping up! 

Well, that is a no brainer for sure, going thru my parts stash I do have a Revell '67 Chevelle parts kit and I think I'll rob it for the '65. Somewhere I have an AMT 69 Chevelle and that should work for the 68. Neither will be correct, but will be acceptable to me. 

[Fat Brian]

The Revell 66 might be a good start for the 65, you'd get the entire chassis and running gear from one kit. For the 68 I'd try the 69 Cutlass and the engine from the 68 Firebird when it's back later in the year.

[dino246gt]

Here's the '66 Revell GTO underhood area fitted to an original AMT '64.