AMT Surf-n-Go

[bill-e-boy]

The local FB group has a summer build going on so I thought I would play along. I have this incomplete AMT Surf-n-Go in the stash. I remember building this kit as a teenager way back when. The kit is what we refer to as NZAMT. AMT leased out the moulds to a local plastics company here in New Zealand in the late 60's and early 70's as we had at the time very restrictive import rules. If the manufactured item was seen to have some NZ input then that was OK. At the time our roads were teeming with English and Australian cars and they all had some amount of local content. American cars were few and far between. Luckily pre WWII there was less import restrictions and there were a number of American cars imported in that period. Hot Rodders delight

Any on opening the box I found that there was no motor but all of the body and chassis parts are there. The motor dress up parts were there too. It had been started and is a bit of a glue bomb. The chassis had been painted and the paint (poorly) stripped off. The body had been poorly glued together as well. A search through my parts boxes netted some bits from 2 other builds and a SBF from a 32

 

 

 

 

[Bullybeef]

An interesting custom for sure, I’m in to see how this one builds up. 

[bill-e-boy]

22 hours ago, Bullybeef said:

An interesting custom for sure

Yup and has a low parts count

Did some work over the weekend. Body got some primer laid down and now in the body shop for more work. The chassis was previously painted and then stripped so some effort went into the clean up and now is in the paint shop along with the motor. Paint is Testor metallic green in the little square jars. Ancient paint for an ancient model

 

[lordairgtar]

I have never seen this kit ever. It's interesting though.

[PatW]

Never seen this kit before anywhere. Interesting to see how things go. I'm a sucker for 'Already started kits' as a pensioner.

[Can-Con]

Humm, looks like it shares the chassis with the "Surf Woody" 

I do know it was originally boxed as "Denny McLain's Horsehide Hauler. The top of your box, Bill, is one of the side panels from the HH box.

[milo1303s]

11 minutes ago, Can-Con said:

Humm, looks like it shares the chassis with the "Surf Woody" 

I do know it was originally boxed as "Denny McLain's Horsehide Hauler. The top of your box, Bill, is one of the side panels from the HH box.

He's in Australia 95% chance nobody know's who Denny Mclain is so they used the side art instead !!!

[Can-Con]

25 minutes ago, milo1303s said:

He's in Australia 95% chance nobody know's who Denny Mclain is so they used the side art instead !!!

Wow, you just called a New Zealander an Australian ,,, brave man. ? That's a mistake I learned not to make long ago as I have friends from both countries. ?

BUT, AMT changed the packaging after McLain had all his trouble with the law.

[bill-e-boy]

Thanks or coming to the rescue @Can-Con. Yup, referring to a Kiwi as an Ocker is like calling a Canadian a Yank.....

 

 

I did a bit of google search for Surf-n-Go and Surf Woody came up a lot - it has the option of dual slicks. Otherwise it looks identical. I did not find the Horse Hide Hauler and there may have been some packaging changes due to local difference as hardly anyone in NZ would have heard of Denny Mclain. There was little or no coverage of American Baseball circ 1970 in the media down here. We are only likely to see it these days via Pay TV in the middle of the night.

 

[Can-Con]

19 hours ago, bill-e-boy said:

Thanks or coming to the rescue @Can-Con. Yup, referring to a Kiwi as an Ocker is like calling a Canadian a Yank.....

 

 

I did a bit of google search for Surf-n-Go and Surf Woody came up a lot - it has the option of dual slicks. Otherwise it looks identical. I did not find the Horse Hide Hauler and there may have been some packaging changes due to local difference as hardly anyone in NZ would have heard of Denny Mclain. There was little or no coverage of American Baseball circ 1970 in the media down here. We are only likely to see it these days via Pay TV in the middle of the night.

 

Yup. or to put it in terms out American friends will be more familiar with ,, calling a Texan a Yankee. 

Edited September 13, 2024 by Can-Con

[bill-e-boy]

Over with the name calling - nip it before it gets out of hand

I dug out the NZAMT catalogue for 1970. These were available towards the end of 1969 as I assembled the 32 Phaeton instead of studying for our big High School exams - what was then known as School "C".  AMT kits were being "Made under Licence" Tonka Manufacturing. Was there a tie between AMT and Tonka at the time - did AMT make the plastic parts for Tonka. IIRC there was a little jar of paint inside every box. It was shite - you could not brush paint it easily. It was like a lacquer paint - most probably the same formula as AMT rattle cans

The following is the box art. The top is repeated on the side and both ends are the same

The top and the sides are as @Can-Con posted above

I have a few of the boxed kits in the catalogue and have built the following - Surf-n-Go, 32 Phaeton, 37 Chev, Mod Rod, 56 Vickie, 57 Ford HT, 69 Cobra (convert), 27 T Hillbillry HR and one of the drag team. Some have survived and most not

Here is the body side of the Surf-n-Go I built. Quite posh in the day as it had a rattle can paint job. An interesting note is the interior is painted yellow - the same colour that the chassis I am using was painted in so that means my kit has some parts from my original build from 1970. It has lots of boogers in it and has been waxed. May have been rubbed out with tooth paste which was the choice of rubbing compound of the day.

 

 

 

 

[milo1303s]

Sorry for my confusion Bill I believe a beverage or 2 confused me anyway I  apologize  and model on !!!

[Chitown]

Had a Horse Hide Hauler decades ago.

Thought I had stumbled across something kinda rare, even for the early '70s.

Didn't realize at the time it was a retake on the Surf Woody, which didn't interest me.

I liked the look of this much better. Recently scored a couple bodies to fool around with on marketplace.

[bill-e-boy]

On 9/14/2024 at 12:40 PM, Chitown said:

Had a Horse Hide Hauler decades ago.

Thought I had stumbled across something kinda rare, even for the early '70s.

Didn't realize at the time it was a retake on the Surf Woody, which didn't interest me.

I liked the look of this much better. Recently scored a couple bodies to fool around with on marketplace.

What impressed me was the complexity of the frame and for the time good quality moulding. The frame was advanced for the late 60's with independant front and rear suspensions with coil over shocks. Even the motor is impressive and I have used one in a 29 Roadster build a number of years ago. Well times have changed and I now see it as twee and a bit clunky. At least the motor does not have axle holes through the block like a lot of the kits from that period.

On with the build -

A vintage kit deserves vintage paint. Used Testors small square jar metallic green for the chassis and motor. All good

Intention is to use Testors French Blue for the body as per the box art. First lots of prep with filling and priming. The clear top insert was glue damaged so I thought I would just paint it all body colour. To prep the body all of the vinyl like engraving was smoothed off and the rest of the body prepped with sink holes filled and all sanded. First primer was with SMS primer. Man this stuff has coarse finish but sands back nicely. More prep and a final prime with Tamiya primer. I use the square bottles thinned down to shoot though the air brush. Final sand and ready for colour

Mixed up the Testors with some lacquer thinners and shot a few coats. Some greeblies got in there so sanded back with 1500 and shot some more colour. Well it aint pretty.

 

This is the worst - the top of the body. Some other areas have been affected too. Very disappointed.

It looks like a paint reaction between the hot primers and the enamel paint or the use of too hot thinners in the paint reacting with the freshly sanded colour coats from the earlier session. Not too sure what from here. I will try to sand back and let it sit to gas out and have another go. All else fails into the tank it goes. Should know better

Oh well I can work on the chassis while the paint cures

So much for a quick build

 

 

 

[Kenmojr]

Cool...

I did not realize that AMT was affiliated with TONKA at one time. Or am I interpretating that old newspaper ad wrong?

[bill-e-boy]

Not a news paper add - a give away in each model you opened. A cool way to prompt you into deciding what the next model will be. Choices, choices

On the paint front - I sanded the body out and now trying with some more paint and some old Testors thinners. Will update when I see how it goes

[Mr. Metallic]

This is a neat kit. Awhile back when i discovered it's existence I started researching it and found how expensive they were. So i thought about combining an MPC or AMT 32 sedan body with the surf woody to make my own. Then I stumbled upon a builtup for a great price at a swap meet. That one is still awaiting resto, so i'll be following along to see how yours turns out. 

[bill-e-boy]

14 hours ago, Mr. Metallic said:

This is a neat kit. Awhile back when i discovered it's existence I started researching it and found how expensive they were

It is a neat kit. Just looked on line and $85 on Fleabay for a partly assembled kit and Model Roundup has one for $149 that looks mint boxed?? They certainly are a bit pricey. I dont feel so bad starting with a glue bomb but would think twice about laying out lots of readies for a mint one

 

[bill-e-boy]

Sanded body down and mixed up a new batch of paint using a brand new bottle from my stash. Last one of this colour. This time thinned with Testors air brush thinners. laid down 4 flash coats and one heavy coat and it is looking good except for a couple of boogers on the roof. Will sand those back and recoat but happy with way things are looking

Its great using old style Testors paints even with all the slow drying hassles and sticky paint residue. Like meeting up with a good mate you have not seen for a few years and your conversation just seems to carry on from the last time you saw him(her).

 

 

 

 

[bill-e-boy]

Its been a while since I last updated this post. Been on holiday and my wife has been in hospital so that pretty much took up all of the time.

I have been plugging away at it mostly background stuff.

Got 2K clear on the body and it has been colour sanded to 12k grit and I have the body rubbed out and polished

I had to spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning up the chrome pieces - just about all of the suspension is chrome and a lot of the motor goodies too.  There is a lot of chrome. The chrome tree had a real issue with mould alignment - not too much flash just poor alignment. So a lot of sanding was called for. Then a going over with a Molotow pen - my bulk refill has gone off so could not airbrush it successfully.

When I was doing a head count of all the chassis chrome I found the rear radius rod missing from the box. So much for thinking it was complete. Any way I found where a set was used - I have this and two other parts cars in my parts bins and there none there either. So I made some up from brass rod and tube. I made a jig so that I could solder them together. Also made some pins by heating the end of a styrene rod to give me a mushroom head that I chucked in the Dremel to clean up

This is where a set of radius rods ended up but is a way good of a build to go steeling them - and they have been modified

Til next time - thanks for looking

[bill-e-boy]

I have been progressing the build but it has been a battle. Crucial bits missing saw me dumpster diving the parts bin - some bits I found some I didn't. I have found bits for two more of these kits but not one complete model out of three. Oh darn

Got the motor together which is a plus

And the front end assembled onto the frame

Next up drive shaft - guess what - had to go looking and I found one from one of the parts kits. Yahhoo. It was a bit short as the Revell 32 SBF that I used must be a bit shorter - easy enough to make longer after a clean up - you can see the bit I cut off above the lengthend shaft

 Assembly for the rear end is now in WIP

Thanks for looking

[Zippi]

Everything is looking Super sharp Bill.  I'm really liking that blue.  

[Dave Van]

Nice work!! gotta be a super rare kit

[Speedpro]

Great save on the paint! I agree that this must be a super rare kit. I don't ever remember seeing one.

[bill-e-boy]

Thanks Zippi, Dave and Speedpro. I do believe it is a rare kit but it was in my stash and our local FB group are having a Summer Build Off in the lead up to summer down here at the other end of the world. The kit had been started and it was a bit of a glue bomb so I do not have any issues with building it. And it was not complete either.