Amt 1939/40 Sedan

[porschercr]

Can anyone who has built these kits, tell me if there is any 

differences in the interior tub. As far as dimensions go, are they Interchangeable?

Thanks,

Trevor

Edited July 22 by porschercr

[Chris V]

They’re literally the same kit. 

The body is only completely right for building a 1940 as the windshield wipers are located at the bottom of the windshield frame (the ‘39 had the wipers mounted above the windshield)

[sidcharles]

the second box top is not a coupe.

[porschercr]

1 hour ago, Chris V said:

They’re literally the same kit. 

The body is only completely right for building a 1940 as the windshield wipers are located at the bottom of the windshield frame (the ‘39 had the wipers mounted above the windshield)

Thanks Chris. Just wanted to confirm.

[Mark]

The later issue kits were sometimes called "1939".  The original issue is a 1940, "with optional 1939 parts".

[DJMar]

6 hours ago, sidcharles said:

the second box top is not a coupe.

This was a pretty infamous mislabeling goof by AMT back in the day. 

[sidcharles]

in one of my "model train" decades, no doubt.

[Dave G.]

There are a few differences between 39 and 40, some of which remained in the 40 standard vs Deluxe. Others did not. Over the years I've possibly built more of these sedan kits than any other, the 49 coupe taking a close second. Anyway, besides the wiper thing, the grill is more obvious, to which in order to make the grill for the 39 included in the kit, look decent, it needs a black wash badly. Otherwise the grill looks like a very badly produced set of false teeth if used as supplied.. The tail lights are different for each year but come in the kit.. The 39 and 40 Ford hoods are different, both included in the kit. The fit of this takes some tweaking. The 39 had a stick floor shift, so remove the column shift details if to build the 39. What is not addressed in the kit is the 39 and 40 Ford dash boards are not identical. AMT did a bad job sizing wheels and tire size and style. It's livable but Revel did much better on their 40 Ford coupe in that regard. Much more period correct, imo...

None the less, you can get a very nice flavor of these sedans from the AMT kit without much added effort.. And on another note, the latest 39 I built took a lot of fender sanding, some for flash but also for contour. It took some work on the running boards as well, as the parts tree molded too far up the edge..

[Chris V]

On a side note: If you want to build it as a '40 you may want to grab one of Drag City Castings resin '40 Ford Deluxe Hoods while they're still available. 

Over the years part the molds for both the 1940 Coupé and 1939-40 Sedan have become very worn, most notably the hoods for both kits. Drag City Casting made a mold from the hood from a mint first-issue kit with the side detail intact - A vast improvement over most the hoods included in most reissues since the seventies.

Like most other kits, the tooling for the Sedan kit was also modified over the years. At some point the original plated headers for the optional Oldsmobile engine were replaced with some ill-fitting new headers, which appear to have been sourced from an early 1970's AMT Chevrolet Camaro kit. However in AMT's 1928 Ford Sedan you'll find an extra set of headers for the optional Chrysler engine, that bear a striking resemblance to the headers originally included in the 1939/40 Sedan, and thus are a drop-in fit for the Oldsmobile engine. 

[sidcharles]

Q: is there a resin sedan body available?

[Dave G.]

I'll add that the trunk lid handle size would be better suited for 1/24 scale ish, or 20th. Consider stripping that and putting it on a sand paper diet, then re chrome with your choice of chrome ( Molotow or whatever will do).

The 39 hood fits better than the 40, but I still had to do some contour work to help out the fit to the body cowl. Maybe 30 minutes worth of tweaking. Unlike the 51 Chevy kits lol. Those take some build up and filing and sanding to cover the cowl at the hood corners. It's really not nice of AMT to never have addressed that. So happens I have two waiting for surgery. I'm receiving an AMT 58 Impala today, just wondering what surprises I'll find in that kit, the last one of those I built being back around 1962 !

Edit: the 58 showed up. Nice surprise, everything looks very cleanly molded and nothing damaged in shipping. My wife ordered this from Walmart.com.

Edited Wednesday at 06:32 PM by Dave G.

[porschercr]

Thanks everyone for all the responses.

Trevor

[Calb56]

9 hours ago, Chris V said:

On a side note: If you want to build it as a '40 you may want to grab one of Drag City Castings resin '40 Ford Deluxe Hoods while they're still available. 

 

No longer available, I don't know if Ed has any intention in casting it again unfortunately. Spotlight Hobbies had one but when I found out Drag City didn't offer it, I went to get it and it was no longer in stock.

 

[blizzy63]

AMT's 1940 Ford Sedan kit was first released in 1960 with optional '39 parts and was first modified in 1969 ('Gasser', T278) with new exhaust headers, 5-spoke mags, and drag racing scoop and blank nose.

The 1939 Ford Tudor Sedan kit was first released in 1974 ('Street Rods Series', T144) but was a re-release of the same '40 Ford Sedan kit.

Rather than a '39 Deluxe, I think the kit best represents a '40 Deluxe or a reasonable '40 Standard (minus a Standard dashboard).