AMT 1/16 Scale 1985 Thunderbird

[jjsipes]

Has anybody built one of these? I remember building one in my youth but do not remember how badly molded the body was. Trying to work on it to getit to look better. The window side looked to big, the window sill looked to low, the quarter window wrong shape, the body line through the door appears to low ( should align with the same line in front bumper and behind the rear wheel opening).  

I grabbed my razor saw and started to cut. I moved the window sill up and recontoured the flow into the quarter panels. Reshaped the quarter window. I still need to look at the body line through the door. Would like to do something with the bulging front fenders but not sure about the front track width yet.

 

First picture is what is in the box. The second picture is what I have done so far. Thinking it looks better to my eye.

 

[MarkJ]

Jason, I'm sure you can do whatever is necessary to make this build a winner. Who is the team and driver?

[dwc43]

WOW, that window looks ten times better now. Surprised they shipped that body as screwed up as it is. 

[jjsipes]

1 hour ago, MarkJ said:

Jason, I'm sure you can do whatever is necessary to make this build a winner. Who is the team and driver?

I have decals for kit decals for the 7-Eleven Kyle Petty, kit decals for Cale Yarbough Hardees and an aftermarket set of Bill Elliott Coors from MPR. Not sure which I will build first. I have 2 of these Thunderbird kits that I picked up locally at my Hobby Shop that bought them from a collection. I think he still has the 85 Richard petty Grand Prix kit but, I already have one of those in my stash.

[MarkJ]

I'm rooting for the Hardees car but whatever it is, it will be awesome.

[jjsipes]

I've studying what to do with the bulging front fenders. Looked at the front track width and determined that I could not narrow up the front fenders without alot of suspension work. Started measuring the body and found the the width from driver side to the passenger side in front of the rear wheel opening was wider that the width right behind the front wheel openings. That means the body pinches in from rear to front in the door area. Just determined that maybe the best avenue to take would be to try and blend the front fender bulge into the doors. The body is looking better to me. Need to finish up cleaning up both sides and to see about whether I need that body line back in through the doors or not. I feel like it's hard to get a picture to illustrate what I have done.

[magicmustang]

You have a lot of work ahead of you.

AMT's attempt at NASCAR stockers in those days was poor. Here's a pic of their 1/25th curbside 1983 Earnhardt Thunderbird stock car one piece chassis. LOL. The 1.25th body is fair but the glass was a joke and the interior was toyish. I kept the 1/25th body, wheels and tires, the rest went in the trash.    

Edited April 6, 2024 by magicmustang

[Sledsel]

5 hours ago, magicmustang said:

You have a lot of work ahead of you.

AMT's attempt at NASCAR stockers in those days was poor. Here's a pic of their 1/25th curbside 1983 Earnhardt Thunderbird stock car one piece chassis. LOL. The 1.25th body is better but the glass was a joke and the interior was toyish. I kept the 1/25th body, wheels and tires, the rest went in the trash.    

From what I have seen in box art pics the body was not that great. I personally liked this body style and actually have 2 1:1 82 Thunderbirds.

 

 

[Sledsel]

The 85 is looking so much better!!!!

[jjsipes]

Took a minute before the rain and storms hit today and sprayed some primer to see what I had and what I need to work on yet.

 

[MarkJ]

Man, that's really looking good Jason. Never worked in 1/18 before. What's the main thing different you notice about it pro and con wise?

[jjsipes]

14 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Man, that's really looking good Jason. Never worked in 1/18 before. What's the main thing different you notice about it pro and con wise?

Mark, haven't really gotten into much other than the body. The way the body was molded sucked! Not saying mine is perfect but  I feel it looks closer to the actual car. What little rollcage I have looked at, it is different than the old Monogram TBird. The passenger side door bars have padding molded on them, I did take time and cut them out and replaced them. The firewall looks to be a little narrow. Will let you know the other stuff as I move forward.

[MarkJ]

Thanks for the reply Jason. You have done a wonderful job so far fixing the glaring errors this model has. I'm sure the final build will be spectacular.

[Mattilacken]

Nice build! Your body mods looks great and improves the look many times!

 

On 4/11/2024 at 10:33 PM, MarkJ said:

Man, that's really looking good Jason. Never worked in 1/18 before. What's the main thing different you notice about it pro and con wise?

I have a couple of 1/16 kits and seen some more, and I feel like they are just upscaled 1/25 or 1/24 kits with low detail overal. Some might be better but the ones i have all need allot of work to be worthy the scale difference to their smaller siblings. And over all allot of things have been simplifyed and might look toyish. I can not talk for the Chargers though since i have not seen these.