'57 T-BIRD from AMT...it's historic!

[LennyB]

4 hours ago, customline said:

Greg gave me advice and I finally acted on it. The resin top is a good fit at the windshield and after spending $12 for it I felt compelled to make use of it.  I shaved the "trim" off and sanded the mating surface under the backlight to better conform to the curve of the rear deck.  Man, does that stuff stink!  ?   I replaced the trim with .030 Plastruct triangular strip and sanded it down to match the rest. It's not perfect but it's acceptable. Now I can move on to the body. Thanks for checking up on my bird ?

Before

After....good enough? 

I would say it’s saved from box duty.   Carry on then sir, doing a fine job?

[David G.]

Good call on the roof, nice work!

David G.

[customline]

59 minutes ago, LennyB said:

I would say it’s saved from box duty.   Carry on then sir, doing a fine job?

43 minutes ago, David G. said:

Good call on the roof, nice work!

David G.

Thank you, gents, and happy Monday to you both. 

[NOBLNG]

6 hours ago, customline said:

After....good enough? 

That looks great Jim.? I wonder why they wouldn’t make it to fit in the first place? Could it be possible that all AMT ‘57 T-Birds are not created equal…or more likely a little body warpage after packaging?

[customline]

26 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

That looks great Jim.? I wonder why they wouldn’t make it to fit in the first place? Could it be possible that all AMT ‘57 T-Birds are not created equal…or more likely a little body warpage after packaging?

It's the resin top, Greg. It's a very thin casting and pretty flexible. I think the part I received was just sort of slightly misshapen due to storage or handling or who knows. I could force it to sit down properly with light pressure but it would just spring back. It's okay now after the work I did on it. All's well that ends well, right? ?

Edited July 8, 2024 by customline

[Steve H]

Hi Jim! You have been busy. The Ol Bird is coming along nicely. Chassis detail painting looks really good, the front fender mods, and roof fix, all looking great. A thought on the green colour, have you tried the green over white primer? That “should” lighten the colour up a bit. Just a thought, bust out a spoon and test.

[Sledsel]

On 7/8/2024 at 9:39 AM, customline said:

It's the resin top, Greg. It's a very thin casting and pretty flexible. I think the part I received was just sort of slightly misshapen due to storage or handling or who knows. I could force it to sit down properly with light pressure but it would just spring back. It's okay now after the work I did on it. All's well that ends well, right? ?

Warm water will help you shape it better.

[customline]

8 hours ago, Sledsel said:

Warm water will help you shape it better.

With my luck, Andy, I didn't want to break the resin top too. Thanks, though.

[Dave Darby]

On 6/22/2024 at 11:43 AM, Can-Con said:

Not actually an old promo, just an old kit originally issued around '62. 

According to what I've read, and According to the instruction sheet pictured, the 57 kit from 1962 was derived from the promo tool. In fact, if you compare, most of the promo parts will interchange with the glue kit. There were actually more than one 57 Tbird promo tool cut. That may be what the Craftsman version was derived from.

[Dave Darby]

On 6/26/2024 at 8:15 PM, customline said:

There is a roof by Drag City but it looks like a clone of the kit's.

The roof by Drag City Casting is based off of the Craftsman kit version, which is much better than the glue kit version that was added to the second issue in 1966. It's really nice. Both of these roofs are from Drag City Casting.

Edited July 12, 2024 by Dave Darby

[Dave Darby]

On 7/1/2024 at 2:53 PM, customline said:

I would like you T-Bird lovers to know I just scored a copy of the Monogram '56 from '82 on ebay today for 19 bucks total. I hope it wasn't a blunder. Tell me it was a good purchase,  please....?  my thought is that its better than the AMT '57 but not as good as the AMT '56. Am I right? don't spare my feelings ?  I also snagged an Avanti yesterday. Great fun there. I still remember one in my town back in the early '70s. It was bright solid red with Cragar S/S wheels and the registration plate was "RAT".  Awesome . I figure he had a 396 stuffed in It. That's how I will build it. 

In most areas, I find the Monogram 56 better than the AMT 56. Proportionally however, I think the AMT 57 beats both of them.

[Dave Darby]

Looking good so far! I drilled my headlights out, and added the reflectors from the 56 Ford kit, with lenses from the 50 Ford Convertible. Good call spacing out the taillights. Way more realistic.

Here's my review of the current version of the kit. 

https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/187750-round2-57-thunderbird-amt-139712-2023-complete-detailed-review/

Edited July 12, 2024 by Dave Darby

[lordairgtar]

21 hours ago, Dave Darby said:

Looking good so far! I drilled my headlights out, and added the reflectors from the 56 Ford kit, with lenses from the 50 Ford Convertible. Good call spacing out the taillights. Way more realistic.

Here's my review of the current version of the kit. 

https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/187750-round2-57-thunderbird-amt-139712-2023-complete-detailed-review/

Now that makes that front end come alive with the reflectors

[customline]

 I got the bird in a fresh coat of primer yesterday. I am trying a technique some of youze are familiar with; foil before paint. I haven't removed the paint on this one but I did on the Starliner. It worked quite well. But I used chrome foil instead of gold ?. The bird has foil on all badges and scripts and also the fake louvers.

The first photo is with the modified kit roof.  Below that is with the resin unit. Regardless of  correctness,  the resin top looks the best. The next two are the kit roof first and below that is the resin.

The front fender/bumper mod was very easy and it's a big improvement. You can see I have added some shimming to the tail light sockets. That's it. Paint weather is about 60 days away. Maybe I can do some interior stuff to keep busy. Or.....nah.

[NOBLNG]

You did a marvellous job of modifying the kit roof Jim. But the resin piece does look a little sleeker. All in all, it is looking great!?

[customline]

10 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

You did a marvellous job of modifying the kit roof Jim. But the resin piece does look a little sleeker. All in all, it is looking great!?

Yeah, Greg, very often, it seems, I will see something in a photo that I didn't see previously. The kit roof looks wrong but it may be the angle is slightly different in the two broadside shots. But the resin top will be my choice, for sure.

[customline]

Progress!  Yesterday the humidity was down so I spent some time in the garage catching up on the painting. Of the three I've been working on, two of them were ready for color. I decanted a can of Testor's Extreme Lacquer for the T-bird and shot it through my old Wren. Left the bird in the dehydrator overnight and did the polish-out this morning. It could have used another coat or two. I came very close to rubbing through on the front fender ridges and finally did on the tight radius of the deck lid just above the badge. ?.  Gotta try an airbrush touch-up on it.  It's small but it's obvious. the Thunderbird scripts survived the ordeal but the white outline from the fine white primer is evident. I'm OK with it. It was an experiment. Thanks for looking and your comments are valuable and welcome.

[slusher]

Beautiful color and finish, Jim!

[customline]

1 hour ago, slusher said:

Beautiful color and finish, Jim!

Thank you, Carl. The color was a last-minute decision. I have a few of those Testor's cans and I want to use them before they start to leak.

[LennyB]

The ghost image around the script looks rather cool. Gives it an ethereal look.

[Russell C]

7 hours ago, LennyB said:

.. ghost image around the script looks rather cool. ..

Ditto!

[customline]

10 hours ago, LennyB said:

The ghost image around the script looks rather cool. Gives it an ethereal 

Yup, a learning curve, for certain. 

[customline]

3 hours ago, Russell C said:

Ditto!

You think it's ethereal  ?  Hey, maybe I'm on to something ?.

[David G.]

With the white roof, the white surrounding the scripts looks like a custom paint flair.

The effect is especially enhanced by the fancy, custom looking green paint.

David G.

[stavanzer]

David G is correct. You could try deliberately to get that effect, and not get it. It looks great!