Dennis Lacy Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 In regards to AMT's '37 Chevy coupe "Salt Shaker" Bonneville kit, do any other versions of the '37 Chevy coupe contain the parts to build the Salt Shaker version, or is it a one time only thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Kron Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 (edited) Hi Dennis, The Salt Shaker kit is simply a heavily de-contented AMT '37 Chevy kit. It's missing all the stock parts, the front fenders, the clear "custom" hood, and even one of the two "custom" bucket seats. The inner fender panels are present in the full 3-in-1 version and, most importantly, the Salt Shaker contains no additional parts when compared to the full kit except for the different decals. The tires are the same in both kits, i.e. narrow street fronts and drag slick rears. No Bonneville tires. The smooth hood sides are achieved, per the Salt Shaker instructions, by sanding the stock hood smooth. Most significantly, while the cover art of the Salt Shaker shows a raked car with an apparent dropped front end, this cannot be achieved using the kit front axle setup, since it is simply the stock one. To bring the front end down you must mount the front axle above the front springs, not below them as shown in the Salt Shaker instructions, and will have to modify slightly the front frame clearances and shock mounts as well. Per the assembly portion of the instructions, the Salt Shaker does not come with a dropped front axle. The parts illustration does show what appears to be a dropped axle but I really doubt that one is included, since it would be the single unique part provided in the kit. While my recent '37 Chevy Bonneville racer, built from the full kit, was full fendered. I did have smooth hood sides. However, I used the single piece clear plastic "custom" hood and simply painted it. I lowered the front end as described above and lowered the rear using lowering blocks. To make a box art Salt Shaker from the commonly available Stevens International full kit re-issue you would need to locate replica decals (I checked Decals by Gooche but could not find them there). Otherwise everything else from the Salt Shaker kit is in the box. However, you would need to smooth the hood sides and lower the front end. Bob Black's excellent Instruction Sheet archive on the Drastic Plastic Model Car Club (DPMCC) site contains both instruction sheets for comparison: Full Kit: http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc..._1937_chevrolet Salt Shaker Kit: http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc...alt-shaker-37-/ And here are some pics of my Bonneville '37 showing the single piece hood and the lowered stance. The smoothed Bonneville style tires were made by Raul Perez by taking a set of narrow AMT street tires and simply sanding them smooth with his Dremel.: Edited May 21, 2009 by gbk1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Kron Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 there were indeed unique to the "Salt Shaker" kit some Bonneville-ish tires. they were two-piece tires in a soft plastic. ... Cool! Was there a dropped axle as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodBurNeR Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 (edited) I own this kit, have a look and see what's included. I hope to see you build it! http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc...alt-shaker-37-/ Here is another more recent issue of the same car, you can compare parts. http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc...7-chevy-limite/ Edited May 21, 2009 by awbcrazy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Anderson Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 In regards to AMT's '37 Chevy coupe "Salt Shaker" Bonneville kit, do any other versions of the '37 Chevy coupe contain the parts to build the Salt Shaker version, or is it a one time only thing? AMT's "Salt Shaker" '37 Chevy coupe was a unique mix of deleted parts, with a few added to the kit to make a Bonneville Speed Week coupe a possibility. This one happened in the summer of 1976, during the years when I was involved in doing as many builtups for AMT Corporation (along with Dennis Doty and Phil "The Tidewater Trucker" Jensen. I happened to deliver about a dozen box art builtup models to the AMT Plant at 1225 Maple Road in Troy Michigan, and was accosted by Bill Brown, Vice President of Marketing, and Tom Valmassei, head of the art department. They had this cool notion of what to convert into a salt flats car, and together we all came up with the '37 Chevy coupe. But what for tires? I simply suggested they do exactly what Bonneville racers had done for decades, go to Firestone, who would mold up a batch of their old-style, tall and rather skinny Firestone Speedway Tires, then buff off the Speedway left-turn oriented tread pattern, and the siping along the juncture between the tread and sidewall--presto! A tire perfect for high speed runs on the salt! AMT simply inserted a set of their then-two-piece-Firetone 500 Champion tires from the reissued '63 Agajanian Willard Battery Spl/'63 Lotus Powered By Ford Indy cars, added a few bits here and there, deleted just about all the stock parts, for Salt Shaker. I built and painted the box art model a few months later, they added the graphics for the box art pics by custom-made dry transfers. A short story about how that kit came about. Art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Kron Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 The Salt Shaker kit is simply a heavily de-contented AMT '37 Chevy kit. ... The tires are the same in both kits, i.e. narrow street fronts and drag slick rears. No Bonneville tires. ... Most significantly, while the cover art of the Salt Shaker shows a raked car with an apparent dropped front end, this cannot be achieved using the kit front axle setup, since it is simply the stock one. ... The parts illustration does show what appears to be a dropped axle but I really doubt that one is included, since it would be the single unique part provided in the kit. Boy did I sell this one short! AMT's "Salt Shaker" '37 Chevy coupe was a unique mix of deleted parts, with a few added to the kit to make a Bonneville Speed Week coupe a possibility. ...They had this cool notion of what to convert into a salt flats car, and together we all came up with the '37 Chevy coupe. But what for tires? I simply suggested they do exactly what Bonneville racers had done for decades, go to Firestone, who would mold up a batch of their old-style, tall and rather skinny Firestone Speedway Tires, then buff off the Speedway left-turn oriented tread pattern, and the siping along the juncture between the tread and sidewall--presto! A tire perfect for high speed runs on the salt! AMT simply inserted a set of their then-two-piece-Firetone 500 Champion tires from the reissued '63 Agajanian Willard Battery Spl/'63 Lotus Powered By Ford Indy cars, added a few bits here and there, deleted just about all the stock parts, for Salt Shaker. I built and painted the box art model a few months later, they added the graphics for the box art pics by custom-made dry transfers. A short story about how that kit came about. Art Art, your "short story" from the golden age shows what a creative and committed bunch you guys were. That box art build is, of course, today a classic. And it was achievable with the thoughtful array of parts you all included in this very special kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raul_Perez Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 ...That box art build is, of course, today a classic. And it was achievable with the thoughtful array of parts you all included in this very special kit. And...I want one!! I'm just not willing to pay $50 for the ones I've seen on eBay for the relatively few pieces that make this version unique... Thanks for sharing, Art!! Later, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodBurNeR Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 AMT's "Salt Shaker" '37 Chevy coupe was a unique mix of deleted parts, with a few added to the kit to make a Bonneville Speed Week coupe a possibility. This one happened in the summer of 1976, during the years when I was involved in doing as many builtups for AMT Corporation (along with Dennis Doty and Phil "The Tidewater Trucker" Jensen. I happened to deliver about a dozen box art builtup models to the AMT Plant at 1225 Maple Road in Troy Michigan, and was accosted by Bill Brown, Vice President of Marketing, and Tom Valmassei, head of the art department. They had this cool notion of what to convert into a salt flats car, and together we all came up with the '37 Chevy coupe. But what for tires? I simply suggested they do exactly what Bonneville racers had done for decades, go to Firestone, who would mold up a batch of their old-style, tall and rather skinny Firestone Speedway Tires, then buff off the Speedway left-turn oriented tread pattern, and the siping along the juncture between the tread and sidewall--presto! A tire perfect for high speed runs on the salt! AMT simply inserted a set of their then-two-piece-Firetone 500 Champion tires from the reissued '63 Agajanian Willard Battery Spl/'63 Lotus Powered By Ford Indy cars, added a few bits here and there, deleted just about all the stock parts, for Salt Shaker. I built and painted the box art model a few months later, they added the graphics for the box art pics by custom-made dry transfers. A short story about how that kit came about. Art Thank you for the history on this one! Thank you for your work in this hobby, it's guys like you who made kits available that still inspire me today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Lacy Posted May 22, 2009 Author Share Posted May 22, 2009 WOW! Ask and ye shall recieve! Thank you, all, for all the great information concearning this kit. I, also, have been (so far) not willing to step up for a Salt Shaker on eBay, which is why I asked if the special parts could be found in any of the other issues. I'm not looking to make a "box art" version so the decals aren't of any real concearn to me. Bernard: Thank you for the links! I find it especially interesting that the instructions from the Trophy Series kit shows custom parts for the I-6 engine. Are these parts that have carried over with each re-release of the '37 Chevy? Does the convertible kit offer them too? Also, how do I get ahold of the version from Stevens International? I'm not familiar with them. Thanks again everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim boyd Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Guys, if you look closely at the Salt Shaker instructions sheet (the "body" assembly on page 3 of the instructinons), you will see that the front fender liners are different for the Bonneville version than any other issue of the '37. AMT commissioned me to build the companion kit in this series, the '53 Stude, that AMT used for the box art. I've always thought that these two releases, the '37 and '53, were among the most attractive "real photography" box arts that Dave Wilder and the AMT art department ever delivererd. TIM BOYD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Kron Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 (edited) ... I find it especially interesting that the instructions from the Trophy Series kit shows custom parts for the I-6 engine. Are these parts that have carried over with each re-release of the '37 Chevy? Does the convertible kit offer them too? The hop up parts for the I-6 are in all the releases of the "full" version of this kit as far as I know. Indeed, the version I got even had a few odd parts from the convertible, so, through some twisted logic one would assume the convertible also has the hop up parts. Stevens Internattional held the manufacturing and distribution rights to the AMT/Ertl tooling prior to Round2/Auto World who took over those rights last year. I was about to say the 37 Chevy Gasser kit is commonly available on line and at many LHS outlets, but I just checked and that's definitely not the case. There's one convertible available on e-bay at $14.95 Buy It Now and none for auction. Two of my LHS has/had a one or two coupes but most on-line stores I checked didn't have any. So finding any variant may be hit or miss. Here's a link, but you'll notice they're out of stock ( http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/stv/stv38556.htm ). And the Salt Shaker is another matter altogether! Edited May 22, 2009 by gbk1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhertz1 Posted June 6, 2010 Share Posted June 6, 2010 (edited) here's some "salty" pics of the kit that i have <img src="http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> i built most of it a really long time ago and then let it sit. the first pic is how it sits today which is how it's been for at least 12 years or so. the front axle on my build is from a Lindberg L-100 kit. there was a dropped axle included that was different than the stock one. suprisingly this morning i found the axle while looking for the tires. i do remember drilling the holes and then deciding not to use it. the decal sheet has "A/GS" class markings on it, but i'm not sure that's a class in land speed racing, it certainly is in drag racing though. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/davezinn/random%20stuff/Picture001-4.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/davezinn/random%20stuff/Picture002-5.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/davezinn/random%20stuff/Picture004-3.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v720/davezinn/random%20stuff/Picture003-5.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Dave Hey,How ya doing, I am new here, I recently obtained a 1937 chevy bonneville salt shaker on ehell. Just wondering if there is anywhere or anyone who has the decals pictured in this thread. ( the sheet with 67 and some sponsors pictured in this thread and the box cover , either The original or aftermarket sheet, great site and any help would truly be appreciated. Thanx. Edited June 6, 2010 by mhertz1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camaroman Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 I was recently given this kit by one of my customers. Its an old, unpainted build up. The front fender fillers were not installed. I will try to post a template to make your own soon, if anyone is interested! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Cole Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 I was recently given this kit by one of my customers. Its an old, unpainted build up. The front fender fillers were not installed. I will try to post a template to make your own soon, if anyone is interested! Please do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhertz1 Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 (edited) Hey guys, I am still looking for decals for this kit (the 37 chevy Bonneville kit.) Any help would be more than appreciated. Thanks again. Edited July 21, 2010 by mhertz1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torinobradley Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Have any of the fine resin casters on this board ever looked into casting up the parts to convert the current (or at least latest) version into the illustrious Salt Shaker? I'm sure more than a couple of us would throw money at them. Especially if they can get the decals done too... Just a thought... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brett Barrow Posted July 22, 2010 Share Posted July 22, 2010 Stevens Internattional held the manufacturing and distribution rights to the AMT/Ertl tooling prior to Round2/Auto World who took over those rights last year. I was about to say the 37 Chevy Gasser kit is commonly available on line and at many LHS outlets, but I just checked and that's definitely not the case. There's one convertible available on e-bay at $14.95 Buy It Now and none for auction. Two of my LHS has/had a one or two coupes but most on-line stores I checked didn't have any. So finding any variant may be hit or miss. Here's a link, but you'll notice they're out of stock ( <a href="http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/stv/stv38556.htm" target="_blank">http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/stv/stv38556.htm</a> ). And the Salt Shaker is another matter altogether! The '37 Chevy was one of the first exclusive kits we did, I'd say it's been close to 5 years ago! I want to say there was also a Buyer's Choice issue of this kit from AMT/Ertl/RC2 either shortly before or shortly after we did our run, I wouldn't think it would be that hard to find, I'm surprised there's none on Ebay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted February 13, 2018 Share Posted February 13, 2018 Does anyone have a picture of these tires they could share? There are a few on eBay, but no good images of the tires themselves. Chuck Most's image from this previous topic is long gone, too. Best image I could find on eBay: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted December 6, 2020 Share Posted December 6, 2020 (edited) On 5/21/2009 at 7:34 PM, tim boyd said: Guys, if you look closely at the Salt Shaker instructions sheet (the "body" assembly on page 3 of the instructinons), you will see that the front fender liners are different for the Bonneville version than any other issue of the '37. Here's the Salt Shaker instruction sheet page Tim mentioned, courtesy of the Drastic Plastic 'site: Street Rods series reissue: The Salt Shaker decal sheet: On 5/21/2009 at 7:34 PM, tim boyd said: AMT commissioned me to build the companion kit in this series, the '53 Stude, that AMT used for the box art. De-contented (appropriately so) chrome plated parts: A not-so-great image of the two-piece tires both kits shared: Decals: Edited December 6, 2020 by Casey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 On 5/21/2009 at 7:34 PM, tim boyd said: I've always thought that these two releases, the '37 and '53, were among the most attractive "real photography" box arts that Dave Wilder and the AMT art department ever delivered. Agreed. From the 1978 AMT catalog: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted May 6, 2021 Share Posted May 6, 2021 Looks like it's being reissued: AMT 1266 - 1/25 '37 Chevy "Salt Shaker" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 On 5/21/2009 at 9:29 AM, Art Anderson said: AMT simply inserted a set of their then-two-piece-Firetone 500 Champion tires from the reissued '63 Agajanian Willard Battery Spl/'63 Lotus Powered By Ford Indy cars Hmmm, perhaps the correct tires will be included, especially if they are shared with the Gurney Lotus car, too?: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Metallic Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 So, after re-reading this thread, was it ever determined if this kit actually includes a dropped front axle, or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Van Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 12 minutes ago, Mr. Metallic said: So, after re-reading this thread, was it ever determined if this kit actually includes a dropped front axle, or not? If you watch the OCT R2 video the back of the box shows a all new tree to make it able to build the 'SALT' version. Big drop axle and filler parts to replace the stock front fenders and splash pans. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted October 7, 2021 Share Posted October 7, 2021 (edited) Not the best screen grab image, but circled in yellow are the newly created parts-- inner fenders and a dropped front axle, as Dave mentioned above: Edited October 7, 2021 by Casey 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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