1/16 AMT 57 T-Bird question

[Mack_Mechanic]

Ok gurus of styrene....I have a chance to pick up a 1/16 AMT 57 T-Bird for 25.00 factory sealed.Anyone here have any experience with this kit good or bad?

[my66s55]

I have built this kit. To me, It is a nice kit. No fit problems, etc. It went together well without a hitch.

[Mike Kucaba]

What he said, Older issues usually had a damaged windshield frame.

[zenrat]

I built one about 30 years ago. It's long gone now but I remember no problems.

[espo]

I built one around '78 or '79. Great kit, besides the nice T-Bird valve covers it had some real deep dished Ansen slot type wheels and maybe 60 series tires. Still in the basement a little worse for wear after all these years and a cross country move. I think you will enjoy this and at $25 it sounds like a great buy.

[Mack_Mechanic]

Thanks for all the info guys,I think I might add this one to my stash

[1959scudetto]

I built one myself in '82 or 83: kit is o.k., but does not have more detail than the average 1/25 kit.

The only small problems I remember are the opening doors, which do not stay closed always

and show considerable gaps when they are shut.

[Casey]

To be honest, AMT's 1/16 scale '55 & '57 Chevies, '57 T-bird and '64.5 Mustang kits aren't all that great IMHO. The detail in these kits isn't all that crisp, the optional tires are usually the horrible Goodyear Rally GTs (just as bad as they are in 1/25 scale), and just the overall "feel" of them turns me off. The bodies and optional wheels are easily the best parts, but the rest, meh, not so much.

[ZIL 111V]

As mention those AMT 1/16 kits, not the best. AMT tried to get in the 1/16TH car kit scale "battle" with rival MPC & Revell back in 1976, '77, '78, the path chosen was big simplified assembly kits of "modern classics", for "moderatly" experience buiders.Built them all in the late 70's early 80's.

Basic level of details & assemblies for frames/susp (front metal axle: no steerable wheels this size???), basic interiors, on the better side engine & optional "70's Street Machine" parts are indeed the best features of these kits (forget the huge vinyl "tubing" ...for spark plug wire!!! As mention Body proportions in most of them are not bad, also mention fitting "gap" on both T-Bird kits not the best, similar on the '55-57 Chevies + seperate door handles in all kits but...molded wipers??? at this scale? also few fitting problems with body frame alignment ... but with TLC you can achieve a not so bad replica.

[bisc63]

Yeah - pretty much just scaled-up tooling from 1/25 scale kits, and the details suffer. The mustang is probably the "best" out of the box. That being said, a lot of us like to scratch-build and improve upon our 1/25 kits, so why not one of these?! It should be easier to do larger than smaller parts, and as has been noted, these do capture the overall shapes fairly nicely. Have fun with it, and test your skills a bit too, I say!