AMT 1963 Mercury Monterey Revival

[LennyB]

After a lost summer of dealing with family issues I'm trying to get back to the bench. Picking up where I left off on some projects just isn't stirring my juices so I figured I would start a new one. Probably not the smartest decision but I recently bought an AMT 1963 Monterey that was in seriously sad shape. I have a soft spot (in the head) for these types of rescues and I love these vintage kits.

 

The best part of this is probably the box because the car itself is beyond sad.

 

And if it wasn't for the box I might not have been able to identify what this car was.

Dig that groovy paint job. It's amazing that the windshield frame is intact on this beater. Also came with some spare bits but the engine and interior bucket are MIA. But the front bench seat is there which is key.

Interior bucket can be sourced from the readily available 64 Mercury Marauder kit, which by the way is the convertible bucket, not the hardtop. The dash for both years is the same except for a change in the color of the gauge faces. Interior pattern is different but it's close enough for me. Maybe we'll call it a 63 1/2.

 

Getting the paint off the body was a chore as there were so many different layers of paint. Purple power took the paint off the sides, brake fluid took most of the paint off the topside. But the remnants required some oven cleaner.

But the paint crazed the plastic in areas so we didn't completely get away clean.

 

The hood took it the worst. 

After a lot of work and some primer it doesn't look half bad. 

Hoping to save the emblems but I think it ended in a draw. Emblems on the rear flanks will survive but the front fenders are barely there.

 

Aside from the paint the body was slightly warped. See the extra space on the sides of the chassis, the left more then the right.

I put a wire tie around the body with the firewall and chassis in place and sent it off to the dehydrator for a few hours.

I did have an after pic showing the nice tight body but I seem to have lost it along with the chassis for now. Doesn't matter as I'm not going to use that chassis anyway.

 

Perhaps one of my favorite bits from this kit is the up-top, that's a keeper. Just needs some trim added around the perimeter of the well to make it look factory.

Well that's what we have for now, see ya next time.😀

 

[NOBLNG]

Wow!😳 That body was really rough looking. It looks pretty good now though. That kit was very lucky to have found you Len.😬

[meechum68]

Following this, such a wild story that car has gone through and the work your doing to make it silk purse is awesome.

[stavanzer]

Great Work so Far.

You are doing the Pig's Ear/Silk Purse thing!

[slusher]

Vvery nice work so far!

[Spex84]

Holy moly that crazing was bad. Ambitious save!

[bobss396]

The fact that the windshield frame is intact... that is awesome!

[gtx6970]

Ill be following along

Curious what you do with this with this

I have both 63 and 64 builders. Both verts.

One I'm gonna keep

The other will be making an exit soon

 

Just not real sure which one 

Edited September 24 by gtx6970

[LennyB]

22 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

Wow!😳 That body was really rough looking. It looks pretty good now though. That kit was very lucky to have found you Len.😬

Greg, we shall see how lucky it was a month from now if I'm still plugging away at it. 🤞🏼

19 hours ago, meechum68 said:

Following this, such a wild story that car has gone through and the work your doing to make it silk purse is awesome.

I just felt sorry for the poor thing Michael, I couldn't help myself. 

19 hours ago, stavanzer said:

Great Work so Far.

You are doing the Pig's Ear/Silk Purse thing!

Thanks Alan, after almost spending a month removing paint I almost gave up.

[LennyB]

18 hours ago, slusher said:

Vvery nice work so far!

Thanks Carl, we still have a long way to go.

 

18 hours ago, Spex84 said:

Holy moly that crazing was bad. Ambitious save!

Chris if I knew it was that bad when I started I probably would have left it in the box. 

[LennyB]

13 hours ago, bobss396 said:

The fact that the windshield frame is intact... that is awesome!

Bob, that was one of the things that made me attempt this. If it was gone I would have just scrapped the whole thing. I did loose the RH vent window frame in the stripping process, still in the brake fluid tank I think, but that's no big deal.

2 hours ago, gtx6970 said:

I have both 63 and 64 builders. Both verts.

One I'm gonna keep

The other will be making an exit soon

 

Just not real sure which one 

Bill, I prefer the 64 myself and have plenty of 64 hardtops but no verts.

[LennyB]

Anyone know which version of the 1964 Marauder kit these decals come in?

 

[Donny]

That's an incredible save mate, can't believe you've got it looking that good. So much work, I take my hat off to you. I think the worst is over, keep at it.

Don 

[Bainford]

Great save, Lenny!  Shame about the fender scripts. Did you get the rear bumper and tail lights, too?

[BK9300]

1 hour ago, LennyB said:

Anyone know which version of the 1964 Marauder kit these decals come in?

 

Screen capture from hpiguys workshop video -

[LennyB]

13 hours ago, Donny said:

That's an incredible save mate, can't believe you've got it looking that good. So much work, I take my hat off to you. I think the worst is over, keep at it.

Don 

Don, appreciate the kind words, thanks.

13 hours ago, Bainford said:

Great save, Lenny!  Shame about the fender scripts. Did you get the rear bumper and tail lights, too?

Trevor, yes bumpers etc are all there and look quite nice. Thinking I can use the 64 Marauder decals for the missing scripts.

12 hours ago, BK9300 said:

Screen capture from hpiguys workshop video -

 

Thanks Brian. I found the decal set on fleabay but I can buy the whole kit for just a bit more

[customline]

Welcome back, Len. You have been scarce lately but family takes priority. I hope all is well on the home front. Now....this isn't the silk purse. It's more like getting King Tut breathing again. Amazing restoration so far, Len. You started with a total horror. (You should see what I just "won" 💩)

[LennyB]

22 hours ago, customline said:

Welcome back, Len. You have been scarce lately but family takes priority. I hope all is well on the home front. Now....this isn't the silk purse. It's more like getting King Tut breathing again. Amazing restoration so far, Len. You started with a total horror. (You should see what I just "won" 💩)

Won??? do I dare ask 😲

[customline]

1 hour ago, LennyB said:

Won??? do I dare ask 😲

Probably not, Len. It seems like y'all are revamping old beat-up roaches with eight layers of paint and every decal on the sheet and brown glass and broken A-pillars.....I thought I would join in the fun. 😏 ......ya really wanna see it?

Edited September 26 by customline

[LennyB]

15 hours ago, customline said:

Probably not, Len. It seems like y'all are revamping old beat-up roaches with eight layers of paint and every decal on the sheet and brown glass and broken A-pillars.....I thought I would join in the fun. 😏 ......ya really wanna see it?

Can it be any worse then a 41 Plymouth?

 

BTW I have an original AMT Edsel that's a real beater, wanna give that a go.😱

[customline]

2 minutes ago, LennyB said:

Can it be any worse then a 41 Plymouth?

 

BTW I have an original AMT Edsel that's a real beater, wanna give that a go.😱

It's a '40 tudor. Lots of Testor's enamel applied with a brush. (Funny you should mention the Plymouth, though.) I think it's recoverable enough for a chop. The skirts have me fantasizing about a tail-dragger. I may explore the possibility of using the Plymouth chassis (ready-made I F S - just a thought 🥴) I'll post pix on my old '40 tudor thread; I don't want to devalue yours 🤣

[LennyB]

Just ordered another 64 Marauder kit off fleabay in order to get the decals with the fender scripts. The cost of this cheap kit keeps going up. Could have bought just the decals for $9.99 but decided to buy the whole kit for $15.00. Not that I need another 64 but people who take kits and part them out just for profit rub me the wrong way. I say this after I previously bought an interior tub off fleabay for $6.99. Some times I'm not so smart because I could have taken that from the same kit. But then again I would need another tub for the 64 and it would just escalate from there. 🤪

In the meanwhile as I wait for the decals/kit to arrive I'm gonna start on the interior. As I said there was no tub with the 63 when I bought it so the 64 tub was the easiest solution. Here is the 64 on the left next to an original 63. If you can make out in the photo the interior pattern is quite different. But I'm OK with that.

The 63 kit did arrive with a bench seat but as I now know that is not original to the kit. Funny however the pattern on the bench matches that of the rear seat quite nicely. The size of the pattern is larger on the front but the style is the same. I don't know the origin of the seat but there were also Buick Riviera parts in the box. 

Here is an original 63 tub with pleated seats.

The original 63 came with these pleated buckets.

The only problem with the bench seat is that it disagrees with the center console. So I guess the console has to go. If you are sharp you'll notice the clutch pedal in there. Should we go toploader or C-6, mmmmm🤔

 

Dash is identical on both the 63 and 64. Can you tell which is which.

 

 

One of the previous posts I had joked that this was going to be a 63 1/2 because of the interior tub swap. Doing research on a model can sometimes be as much fun as building. Now while you can't believe everything you read on the net there are stories that say in 63 1/2 Mercury  did a Marauder based on the S-55 hardtop model and toyed with the idea of a convertible. Some 1:1 convertible models have been seen with a Marauder emblem on the trunk lid. But as the Marauder script and the Monterey Script both fit the holes in the trunk lid without modification, it would be an easy deception to achieve. 

 

Well time to warm up the Dremel and get rid of the console. Catch ya later.

[customline]

What's that smell?

[LennyB]

13 minutes ago, customline said:

What's that smell?

Damn, I plugged the Dremel into the 220V outlet again. 😫

[customline]

2 minutes ago, LennyB said:

Damn, I plugged the Dremel into the 220V outlet again. 😫

Hey, I did that to a company vacuum pump. More than once 🤫