AMT 1967 Thunderbird Promo Hershey Rescue

[LennyB]

While I was working on my 1967 Galaxie project I was in need of a stock steering wheel. This brought me to look at other 1967 Ford vehicles in my stash as '67 was a one year steering wheel with an odd cylindrical shaped safety pad on the wheel. My digging brought up another poor soul from the Hershey flea market this T-Bird which had been in a flood at some point. Sad looking chap isn't it. But it has a nice steering wheel😁

This was a promo with a friction chassis the same as the Galaxie was.

But this was in much worse shape with broken "A" pillars on both front corners. And now the steering wheel is gone, what the....

And a bite out of the right rear corner. Also has a bite out of the right front corner as well.

 

But out of these ashes I want to see if I can build this. A Boss 429 powered bird. Not sure if I want to keep the shaker scoop. A huge 429 scoop would be more appropriate. WDYT?

 

First order of bushiness was repairing the "A" pillars. With the help of the forum who taught me this trick, I used some Amazing Mold Putty to cast the "A" pillars from another body. Looks rather ugly at this point as if it's being eaten by the blob and his younger brother.

New pillars in place and I noticed when I compare the body to the pic above that AMT didn't get it quite right.

Maybe it's because the sample above has a vinyl top, which I plan to recreate, but there is more trim present then what AMT molded in. Added some strip styrene to correct that deficiency . The area between the two moldings on the pillar is actually painted body color as well as the leading edge of the roof. Odd, but true.

Right rear corner has been mended as well. I'm not totally happy with the repair as I have lost some of the detail in the Thunderbird script in doing the repair from a few coats of primer. I'm looking at a photo-etched emblem to replace this one at this point.

From the parts bin I found this Boss 429 that I think came from the Monogram/Revell Mustang kit which is 1/24th. Thinking the bigger size might go well with the big bird.

And off of flea-bay I picked up this glue-bomb chassis which hopefully I can resurrect. We shall see.

Well, that is all the bits and pieces I have collected thus far. We shall see if it survives to ride another day. See ya!🙂 Comments & criticisms always welcome.

[sak]

Badass!

[Ace-Garageguy]

I had completely forgotten about this body style.

Your inspiration shot looks great. 

I'll enjoy seeing this one come together.

[Can-Con]

I'll also be keeping an eye on your progress.

These are my favorite generation T-bird, I've built two so far but don't have a '67. It's my favorite of the 3 grills though.

I think I'll find a different chassis next time though. I find those ones, especially when they've been glue-bombed to be more trouble then they're worth.

[LennyB]

21 hours ago, sak said:

Badass!

Thanks, got some Nightmist Blue Metallic from MCW to finisher her off.

21 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I had completely forgotten about this body style.

Your inspiration shot looks great. 

I'll enjoy seeing this one come together.

Bill these used to be quite popular when I was growing up, saw them all the time, now it's rare. Had a friend who had a 4-dr in black. He did body work in his parents  garage. One weekend he did a color change to white, jams and all. In enamel to boot. Sadly he passed young of cancer. Always wondered if the garage paint jobs were a contributing factor.

[LennyB]

21 hours ago, Can-Con said:

I'll also be keeping an eye on your progress.

These are my favorite generation T-bird, I've built two so far but don't have a '67. It's my favorite of the 3 grills though.

I think I'll find a different chassis next time though. I find those ones, especially when they've been glue-bombed to be more trouble then they're worth.

Thanks Steve, as to the chassis I'll probably just use the bare carcass, the rest I will re-create.

My next T-Bird project will be an updated version of the Alice in Thunderland bird with a scratch built chassis to replace the AMT chassis.

[LennyB]

Work progresses on the sad little chassis so I can do a mock up and figure out what is going to fit. First order of business is to clean up the glue bomb. Don't know if anyone else has ever tried this but I will actually apply liquid cement around the glued in pieces to soften the glue before I try to remove pieces. Got everything off and only suffered a little damage. The mufflers did not come off without a fight and actually left two gaping holes behind. Covered the outside of the holes with some duct tape and then poured some casting resin over them from the inside. Trunk floor will need some repair work and the area where the resonators were as well.

 

1/24th Boss 429 in place and it actually fits rather well. The transmission mount will need to be moved rearwards or the frame mount forwards.

We are a little cramped up front but I can move the radiator core support forward so we can squeeze a fan in. But the engine really fills in the engine bay. Think this is the engine we are going to stick with.

 

So off to clean things up a bit more, see ya soon.

 

[LennyB]

Some more chassis work done this afternoon. Didn't find exactly the type of rear axle I was looking for so I settled on one from the AMT 1965 Galaxy. Problem with this axle happens to be the fact that it is open on the underside. Closed that up with some styrene strips.

Axle is coil spring mounted so I added some spring perches to the underside of the axle. Can anyone identify the source for the spring perches?

 

Found some springs lying around which I cut to the approximate length. Size will be determined later when I establish the ride height. Axle in place and it seems to line up all together pretty well.

 

That's all for now, dogs have been fed and now it's time to cook dinner, chow🤓

 

[Lunajammer]

This is an inspiring restoration. Keep it going. A huge hood scoop? I dunno man, sure kills the cool.

[customline]

Wow, Len. Wow. I know you're going to bring it back better than new but WOW !  What a trashed out p.o.s. The question that comes to my mind is "how bad does it have to be before it becomes a parts car?" 😳.  I'm following 😶

[espo]

Great save on this T-Bird. 

[LennyB]

17 hours ago, Lunajammer said:

This is an inspiring restoration. Keep it going. A huge hood scoop? I dunno man, sure kills the cool.

Thank Mike, I'm thinking to skip the hood scoop altogether.

16 hours ago, customline said:

Wow, Len. Wow. I know you're going to bring it back better than new but WOW !  What a trashed out p.o.s. The question that comes to my mind is "how bad does it have to be before it becomes a parts car?" 😳.  I'm following 😶

I know Jim, I might have gone too far with this. Maybe I should have just left the friction chassis on it so you can sit and push it around on the floor. 🤣

I only paid $3 for the thing, the POS chassis cost me four times that. And now I'm looking at 3-D printed wheels that will completely break the bank. 🏦

 

3 hours ago, espo said:

Great save on this T-Bird. 

Thanks David. I may be crazy but I enjoy saving this old junk more then starting with a fresh kit.

[LennyB]

Starting to have second thoughts about this old bird.  It slipped off my lap one day last week and when it hit the floor it broke off the right rear corner and the left front corner. I was able to pick up the pieces and repair the damage but it got me to thinking that the body seems rather fragile. You can usually drop a body 2 feet and it doesn't  break like this.

Then to add to this I was going through the stash over the weekend and I found I had two more '67 birds. Once I saw them I remembered them, one I build years ago and painted with Testors out of the can. Paint job sucked so I stripped it. For some reason I didn't strip the hood. Other is a builder I picked up at a show at some point that has  the custom bumpers on it.

 

 

Put the painted one into the drink this evening and the lone hood. See how they come out and I might rethink my path on this build.

Another issue that makes me think the jump might be the way to go is I can't get the dash and front seats out of the promo interior. Whatever AMT glued things in with is exceptionally stubborn.

 

Stay tuned...

 

 

[LennyB]

Here is a quick mock-up of the Bird, this is still with the original body. But now I'm going to switch to a different body that seems more stable, because I'm not.

 

I picked up some 3-D prnted wheels from Jay's Resin Wheels. 17" Halibrand-Eleanor wheels. I like the look of them but I'm thinking I want to go with something wider in the rear. Dug this  tire on the right out of the parts box.

 

But to get them to fit I will have to tub the rear wheels. Even thought I'm switching to a different body I will stick to the junkyard rescue chassis. If I screw it up I still have a good original chassis to fall back on.

 

As for the body, I took the two alternate choices I had, one needed to be stripped of paint, which took some oven cleaner to accomplish. It came out looking like new, so I decided to save that for another time. The other was stripped years ago but had some issues. Body number three had some errant scribe lines around the trunk from someone in the past. Don't know if there is a better way to handle this but I took some Tamiya masking tape and ran it over the proper trunk opening leaving the stray scribe line exposed. Then I filled the line with Tamiya putty and wet sanded smooth when dry.

Another issue with this body and the main reason I choose it is the 'C' pillar emblems are very faint. Not a problem as this is getting a vinyl top and the emblem has to go anyway. Vinyl top models have a carriage hinge type trim on the pillar but as my inspiration from this build is blank there we don't need to bother with it. Also looks like the rocker trim has to go as well.

 

 

Next on the agenda is the strip that needs to be added around the base of the 'C' pillar for the vinyl top as well as a trim piece on the 'A' pillar. But that will have to wait for another time as the dogs are bugging fore their dinner, and I'm sure Wifey won't be far behind. See ya next time, same Bat channel...

 

 

[SSNJim]

Loving your work! You did a nice job on the restoration of the original body. I'm not sure I've seen anyone do a Landau (that's what they called T-birds with a vinyl top) conversion before. I'm a huge fan of 67-69 Thunderbirds. We had a 69 Tudor we bought new.

I think I'll be contacting Jay's Resin for a set of those wheels. They're very similar to what I have on my 2007 Mustang V-6. 

I'm looking forward to seeing this completed.

[LennyB]

Thanks Jim. After all the work on the original body it might seem a shame to walk away from it. But it has broken twice in different places since I started on it and now has had three of the four corners repaired.  Don't want to go and paint it only to have something else break on it then. If I didn't have a second body I would have kept on with it but as I have two others it makes more sense to move on.

[NOBLNG]

Nice work so far Len!👍 I never really realized how elegant these T-Birds were.😎

[LennyB]

2 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

Nice work so far Len!👍 I never really realized how elegant these T-Birds were.😎

Greg, it seems like these models have been forgotten. In fact I wouldn't have thought to build this if I wasn't searching for a steering wheel for my Galaxie.

[LennyB]

New body is starting to take shape. Added some .030 half round to the perimeter of the roof to represent the vinyl top trim. Also needed to add a piece to the "A" pillar as Ford has the very center of the "A" pillar painted body color between two stainless moldings. Also ran two strips of .020 square stock down the roof for the seam of the vinyl top. You will also note the "C" pillar emblem is now a thing of the past.

 

 

Also working on the chassis to fit wider meats inside the fenders. Cut the original wheel wells off and shifted them inwards about the width of the frame rails.

 

Added material back on the outer edge of the wheel wells and have some cleaning up yet to do. Also have to 'z' the rail in the rear to make it continuous.

And now we have this fat tire tucked in place.

 

 

Might make something out of this piece of junk yet. 😁

[LennyB]

Been messing with different wheel combinations.Set in the first pic are  17"

Second pic is 20 and 21's

 

Which looks better?

Edited March 18 by LennyB

[Russell C]

4 hours ago, LennyB said:

...Which looks better?

Top set. '80s fan I am of steamroller width tires, but not so much of the "rubberband dimension" sidewalls which virtually makes my back hurt from thinking how much rougher they ride over bumps.

[Sledsel]

This is looking good! My vote is the 17" wheels also.

I ran into the same issue with losing detail when doing repairs and priming. I now mask over any details when I prime. 

The hardtop cars had the Thunderbird emblem on the C pillar like the kit does (or did) The vinyl top Landau's had Landau bars found in the '66 Tbird kits. Not that you need them just giving some info.

As an FYI, the '65 and '66 Galaxie chassis is a good swap but needs a little stretch.

Edited March 18 by Sledsel

[LennyB]

8 hours ago, Russell C said:

Top set. '80s fan I am of steamroller width tires, but not so much of the "rubberband dimension" sidewalls which virtually makes my back hurt from thinking how much rougher they ride over bumps.

 

8 hours ago, Sledsel said:

This is looking good! My vote is the 17" wheels also.

I ran into the same issue with losing detail when doing repairs and priming. I now mask over any details when I prime. 

The hardtop cars had the Thunderbird emblem on the C pillar like the kit does (or did) The vinyl top Landau's had Landau bars found in the '66 Tbird kits. Not that you need them just giving some info.

As an FYI, the '65 and '66 Galaxie chassis is a good swap but needs a little stretch.

Thanks guys, I'm kinda leaning that way also.

Andy, I'm using the suspension bits from a 66 Galaxie chassis on this one.

[dino246gt]

The 17s do look great, but the nice thing about your larger diameter ones is that the tires do have some nice sidewall, they're not the dreaded rubber bands, so for me, either works. It's a very large car so it can handle the look of 20s and 21s. I'd say it depends on how modern the other mods will be.

[LennyB]

1 hour ago, dino246gt said:

The 17s do look great, but the nice thing about your larger diameter ones is that the tires do have some nice sidewall, they're not the dreaded rubber bands, so for me, either works. It's a very large car so it can handle the look of 20s and 21s. I'd say it depends on how modern the other mods will be.

Oh man, now you put me back on the fence😆. Rest of the mods are really going to be vintage, '70 Boss 429 engine.

But what led me to look at other wheels is the fact that while the 17" look really good they are too wide to leave room for an exhaust. Unless I go with side pipes and I don't think that would look right.