AMT Modified Stockers

[stavanzer]

I ma a huge fan of these kits. I wish Round2 would release the kits that Dirt Track Race cars had re-popped about 10 years ago. They are getting really spendy now on the secondary market. Maybe even put two kits in one box to share the pain a bit. There is not much to any of these kits, so two would fit. You could either re-use the ancient "One-Size-fits-All" decals that were used by DTR or Design a new OSfA decal sheet and use it in all the kits. And mebbe use some different tires. But, even with out any upgrades, I'd still be in line to get multiples of each. Easy, Simple, Fun kits, they are to me, like Potato Chips.  Can't just build one. But, they could just be not worth the trouble.

I know that my preferences in Model Kit Subjects, do not map well to the average buyer, so what I prefer is not always what will sell best.

[AC Norton]

54 minutes ago, alexis said:

I ma a huge fan of these kits. I wish Round2 would release the kits that Dirt Track Race cars had re-popped about 10 years ago. They are getting really spendy now on the secondary market. Maybe even put two kits in one box to share the pain a bit. There is not much to any of these kits, so two would fit. You could either re-use the ancient "One-Size-fits-All" decals that were used by DTR or Design a new OSfA decal sheet and use it in all the kits. And mebbe use some different tires. But, even with out any upgrades, I'd still be in line to get multiples of each. Easy, Simple, Fun kits, they are to me, like Potato Chips.  Can't just build one. But, they could just be not worth the trouble.

I know that my preferences in Model Kit Subjects, do not map well to the average buyer, so what I prefer is not always what will sell best.

....Well said, and I agree....fun, simple builds that with paint detail and a touch of skill, they look great in your display.....love 'em...the Ace...

[Mark]

6 hours ago, Bob Ellis said:

It took many tries for ERTL to get the 65 GTO right back to stock. The first one was bad.

There are only two different "restored" versions.  The first (1984) had the really bad headlamp engraving and too large/too-high-on-the-quarter-panel GTO emblems.  Those things were revised in the next reissue, along with the taillight panel.  The poor windshield wiper engraving, lousy interior bucket, and crappy chassis (both tooled by Ertl) remained untouched. 

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, sfhess said:

Scroll down in this page to see what Speed City Resins did to correct the 65 GTO body to make an AWB drag car:

http://speedcityresin.com/InProgressPage2.html

 

( I am in the process of "un-altering" one of these bodies to make a nice-looking 65 GTO/LeMans.)

Very impressive work! But it still doesn't look like they fixed the rear fender tips. (You can easily file/sand them back to shape yourself.) 

[shoopdog]

I'm working on the 65 Olds 88 right now and should have it finished up here for to long. Bought it a vintage toy shop a few weeks ago for 15.00. Not a very detailed kit but should finish up rather nicely.

[Mark]

54 minutes ago, shoopdog said:

I'm working on the 65 Olds 88 right now and should have it finished up here for to long. Bought it a vintage toy shop a few weeks ago for 15.00. Not a very detailed kit but should finish up rather nicely.

Even though the Olds is numbered 2, the artist still managed to get a second 2 in there.  Nine kits in the series, and they got two cars numbered 12 in...

[Snake45]

I bought several of the Skylarks when they were available because I'm a '66 Skylark nut. I'm planning to do one as a 4WD funny car like the Hurst Hairy Olds or Terrifying Toronado. A Monogram HHO will be the organ donor. I have a pretty much complete set of original annual custom parts left over from the one I built in 1969, so I can do one as an Alexander Bros-type custom.

The body's too far gone to go back to factory stock, but I'd like to try to do at least one street freak/pro street type thing out of another one. Big problem with this body is that the wheel openings have a recessed lip around them, which would be very hard to scratchbuild. I might try to take silicone molds off a good stock body (I have one) and clone the wheel openings in place, as someone here recently illustrated. Theoretically, it should be possible.

[Sledsel]

I hope to see them return..... I have a few, and this is the only finished one

[shoopdog]

On March 13, 2018 at 11:21 PM, Sledsel said:

ave a few, and this is the only finished one

Looks pretty cool!

[Sledsel]

3 hours ago, shoopdog said:

Looks pretty cool!

Thanks.... Did a bit of work to it first. I patched the front fenders, de-radiused the rear quarters and cut the front of the frame off and replaced with a Monogram/Revell 70 Chevelle frame clip. Not the best, but looked better than the kit front end.

[ChrisBcritter]

VERY cool! What kit supplied the wheels/tires?

[Mark]

On ‎3‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 8:25 AM, Snake45 said:

I bought several of the Skylarks when they were available because I'm a '66 Skylark nut. I'm planning to do one as a 4WD funny car like the Hurst Hairy Olds or Terrifying Toronado. A Monogram HHO will be the organ donor. I have a pretty much complete set of original annual custom parts left over from the one I built in 1969, so I can do one as an Alexander Bros-type custom.

The body's too far gone to go back to factory stock, but I'd like to try to do at least one street freak/pro street type thing out of another one. Big problem with this body is that the wheel openings have a recessed lip around them, which would be very hard to scratchbuild. I might try to take silicone molds off a good stock body (I have one) and clone the wheel openings in place, as someone here recently illustrated. Theoretically, it should be possible.

You can probably do the Skylark wheel openings with two thin pieces of sheet plastic: the inside one cut to the shape of the wheel opening, the outside one cut slightly larger to create the recess.  I was thinking about doing that with one myself.  I've got the wheel openings restored, flares and all,  on an Olds body (one of those actually ran in NASCAR in '65) and have a '64 Galaxie body started, though I may replace that work with parts of a stock body I found awhile back. 

[Snake45]

55 minutes ago, Mark said:

You can probably do the Skylark wheel openings with two thin pieces of sheet plastic: the inside one cut to the shape of the wheel opening, the outside one cut slightly larger to create the recess.  I was thinking about doing that with one myself.  I've got the wheel openings restored, flares and all,  on an Olds body (one of those actually ran in NASCAR in '65) and have a '64 Galaxie body started, though I may replace that work with parts of a stock body I found awhile back. 

I've thought of that very thing but the problem is, there's a concave radius between the two, and I can't find any kind of tool that will let me file or sand that around the curved "corners" at the top. Best idea I've come up with is to do it in two layers as you suggest, and then brush some paint/primer between the two and then immediately wipe it out with my finger, leaving some of it in the corner of the joint. Might take two or three apps of this technique to get it done, but it COULD work. 

Of course, on my custom, I'm going to disregard that recessed lip and make the wheel openings whatever shape I want--probably stock or close to it, but without the recessed lip. 

[Mark]

I've got to pull a stock Skylark out and have a look at it.  From your description, a brushed-in coat of unthinned primer ought to do the job.  When I do bodywork like this (like when I did the Olds body), I apply bottled lacquer thinner, unthinned, over the bodywork areas only.  When I was doing resin castings, sometimes someone would bring me something to cast and it would have loads of primer on it, like they took three swipes with the sandpaper and then blasted on a half dozen coats of primer.  Looks good, until the curing RTV mold material warms up a bit and raises all the sanding scratches and seams that weren't finished properly.

My older brother had a '66 GS in the late Eighties.  It was his daily driver in the summer; for winter he'd pick up a junker that ran good to drive in the slop.  His had the dual-pitch converter...I remember putting my foot into it going up a hill near my mom's house, only to encounter a Sheriff's car coming in the other direction.  I actually talked my way out of that one.  The GS didn't stick out in any particular way, it was just a fast, roomy, nice-riding, decent handling car. 

[Casey]

4 hours ago, Mark said:

I've got the wheel openings restored, flares and all,  on an Olds body (one of those actually ran in NASCAR in '65) and have a '64 Galaxie body started, though I may replace that work with parts of a stock body I found awhile back. 

I was going to ask which bodies in this series of kits need to most work to take back to stock, which are entirely too far gone to even attempt such a thing, and which might be worth the effort even though more work would be involved.

[Mark]

I think Ertl tackled the two most likely candidates (GTO and Torino).  The Torino wasn't altered anywhere near as much as the others; it didn't even have the windshield wiper detail removed from the body. 

The '64 Galaxie isn't really worth re-converting, except as maybe a circa '64 NASCAR.  The Craftsman/snap kit would be the way to go here.  Likewise the '66 Impala; just get the Revell equivalent.

The Chevelle and Falcon are too far gone to try and convert back.  Both were issued as funny car kits prior to the MS issues.  The Falcon wasn't an altered wheelbase car, but the rear wheel openings were reworked for the funny car issue.

That leaves the Olds, Buick, and '65 Fairlane.  I'd say if you want 100% stock, look for early issue kits.  There are two pre-MS issues of the Fairlane and Olds, three of the Skylark.  The MS bodies could, with enough work, be brought to a point where they could be used to build custom versions using leftovers from an annual kit. 

[Snake45]

3 hours ago, Mark said:

The Chevelle and Falcon are too far gone to try and convert back.  Both were issued as funny car kits prior to the MS issues.  The Falcon wasn't an altered wheelbase car, but the rear wheel openings were reworked for the funny car issue.

They did the '69 Falcon as a funny car? The only Falcon funny I've ever seen was the AMT first-gen funny '64-'65 body. 

I got one of the MS '69 Falcons just to see what was in the box. I think I could get it as far as a semi-stock version; if not, I'll do it as a custom. I have an original '69 Falcon kit and could pirate the custom parts from that. 

I also had the idea of converting it to a phantom "performance" version. Sort of the same sort of thing Chevy did with the '68-'72 Novas. After the success of the Mustang, Ford let hi-po, high-profile versions of the Falcon slip by the wayside. They had nothing comparable to a '69 Nova SS, particularly one with a 396 in it. If you wanted a hi-po Ford at that time, you had to get a Mustang or move up to the Fairlane/Torino/Cobra. 

[mk11]

Almost looks like a guy could use the falcon roof for a two door post version of the fairlane, if nothing else.

 

mike

[Snake45]

19 minutes ago, mk11 said:

Almost looks like a guy could use the falcon roof for a two door post version of the fairlane, if nothing else.

 

mike

I do believe the two shared roof sheetmetal. You'd have to add all the post framing all around, though--AMT cleaned all of that out on the MS, making it a hardtop. 

[Robberbaron]

2 hours ago, mk11 said:

Almost looks like a guy could use the falcon roof for a two door post version of the fairlane, if nothing else.

mike

 

1 hour ago, Snake45 said:

I do believe the two shared roof sheetmetal. You'd have to add all the post framing all around, though--AMT cleaned all of that out on the MS, making it a hardtop. 

Yup, and I've seen resin 2 door sedan versions of both the Fairlane and the Mercury Comet available from a couple casters.

Ford did some weird stuff.  I believe the Fairlane & Falcon wagons shared the same wheelbase, just different front clips, and maybe taillights.

The '66 Ranchero had a Falcon front clip, then for '67 they used the Fairlane front clip.  I'd like to see someone bolt a Fairlane front clip onto a Falcon sedan body, just because.

[Snake45]

17 minutes ago, Robberbaron said:

The '66 Ranchero had a Falcon front clip, then for '67 they used the Fairlane front clip.  I'd like to see someone bolt a Fairlane front clip onto a Falcon sedan body, just because.

Or, better yet, a Falcon front clip on a '66-67 Fairlane hardtop body. 

[Mark]

3 hours ago, Snake45 said:

They did the '69 Falcon as a funny car? The only Falcon funny I've ever seen was the AMT first-gen funny '64-'65 body. 

17 minutes ago, Robberbaron said:

 

The '66 Ranchero had a Falcon front clip, then for '67 they used the Fairlane front clip.  I'd like to see someone bolt a Fairlane front clip onto a Falcon sedan body, just because.

There was a '69 Falcon funny car kit, after the annual but before the Modified Stocker.  Basically the annual kit with radiused/flared rear wheel openings, and the exhaust removed from the chassis.  It came in a narrow box like the AWB kits.

The Falcon and Fairlane were on the same basic body for '66.  The sedans used the same roof and doors, and the wagons were the same except for the front clip.  The Mustang stole sales from both the Falcon and Fairlane (so much for Iacocca's "marketing genius") so both cars were consolidated onto one basic body.  The Falcon coupe and sedan were on a shorter wheelbase though.  Ford Australia tied the two cars more closely together; they did build Fairlanes with Falcon front sheet metal because some of the body (Fairlane quarter panels) was imported, so the rest needed to be locally made.

 

[Don Sikora II]

11 hours ago, Mark said:

 

Quick pic of the Falcon Funny Car box.

[Snake45]

Wow. Like my Old Dad used to say, "You learn something new every day if you're not careful."

[Mark]

I've got two of those: one MIB, one builder.  I didn't know about it back in the day, learned of it when I found the builder some years ago.  AMT got their use out of that Falcon tool...