'69 Chevelle SS396--A "Then and Now" Build. "Now" pics added.

[Snake45]

Back in 1969 (I was 14), I built two then-new AMT '69 Chevelles, one as a Modified Production dragger, the other as a “day two” street terror. (Most of the AMT '69 annuals couldn't be built factory stock. Virtually no one noticed or cared at the time.) Paint was Testor Orange, vinyl top by holding a can of flat black a foot or two out and dusting it on. I see that I didn't remove the incorrect lower body chrome strip (left over from the '68 body), but I also didn't paint or attempt to “chrome” it. Hey, what can I say? As Warren Zevon sang, “Time treats everybody like a fool,” and this is how these two once-proud models looked around 2005 or so:

Couple years ago I had a fit of industry one day and decided to do a quickie clean-and-fix on the orange one. Didn't change anything, just blew it apart, cleaned it all up with dish soap, put it back together, and did some minor touchup. Contemporary Testor “little bottle” orange was an EXACT match for the 40+ year old Testor spray paint. You gotta love that kind of consistency!

Thus endeth the "Then" part of the story.

Meanwhile, back in the early '90s (I know because Model Car World paint had just come out), I decided to do another one using my adult skills. This time I did remove the incorrect lower body chrome strip. The MCW Hugger Orange paint went on like a champ, and I clearcoated it with Testor Clear Top Coat enamel. Everything was going just fine until the clearcoat rubout, when it looked like I polished through the clearcoat on the trunk lid. Onto the Shelf of Doom with it (also known as the Museum of Broken Hearts and Other Disappointments). For about twenty years.

While rebopping my original old build, it occurred to me that I could just mask off the trunk lid of the “new” one, clearcoat ONLY that, and drive on. I dug the poor unloved thing out and took a look at it under an Optivisor and discovered that I hadn't burned through the clearcoat at all, everything was just fine back there. Happy happy joy joy! BTW, if I were doing this project today, I wouldn't have clearcoated the MCW paint at all, just rubbed it out direct. Live and learn. I finished up the rubout job, and everything else, and then it was time to apply that white side stripe decal, which looked to be a Big Stinky Mess. Back onto the Shelf of Doom the thing went to serve another two-year sentence. I have to be in the MOOD to do decals, dimmit, and the mood did not happen to strike me during that time.

More to come...

Edited September 11, 2014 by Snake45

[TooOld]

Nice restoration Snake ! Looking forward to the second one .

I've got a few survivors I still need to restore one day .

[bbowser]

I always thought the '69 was the best looking Chevelle, yours proves me right Nice work.

[disabled modeler]

Nice... I have a few old survivors left from my childhood days but they need more work and parts than those....

[Snake45]

So the other day, the Decal Mood finally struck me. The job turned out to be even worse than I'd been dreading. They were a pain to cut out, they were too long, and it was MUCH harder than you'd think to get them on straight and in the right place. Later, they even fought me about cutting them away at the door lines. About the only positive thing about them was that they were properly sized to slip between the door handles and the locks, as they should. If I'd known they were going to be THAT much trouble, and add THAT little to the look of the model, I'd have completed it as a "stripe delete" car.

Oh, and the taillights on the "new" AMT kit are totally hosed. I spent several hours trying to modify and work with them and finally just gave up and "borrowed" the old rear bumper and taillights from the green dragster in the "before" photo above. I'm gonna order the Good Stuff from Modelhaus, eventually, and replace these parts.

So here it is. Have I gotten any better over the years? Or would you say I'm in a rut?

[Snake45]

And here's the old and new together. Notice that the MCW Hugger Orange, which is a perfect match for the '69 Chevy showroom color chip brochure, is slightly "redder" than the Testor Orange. I believe that Hugger Orange (AKA Pontiac Carousel Red, as seen on many '69 GTO Judges) is a fairly good match for Ford Calypso Coral/Mercury Competition Orange as well. At any rate, I think that's what I'm gonna use on a '69 Cougar I hope to get to sometime soon.

Oh, just noticed that I need to add the side marker lights, too. I sanded off the incorrect '68-type markers, and will get around to replacing them with foil copies of the correct '69 style from the Revell '69 Camaro.

[slusher]

Sweet pair of Chevelles. Great work..

[Chris White]

great job

[rmvw guy]

Nice job on the model and great story.

[impcon]

They both look really sweet, to say the least! I have to admit that I like the vinyl roof look better than the non-vinyl car but either way is nice. A friend of mine had some '68 Chevelles and while I prefer them to the '69 model year in some aspects, both are attractive. It's a shame that AMT screwed up so badly on the tail lights on the reissue ... another example of "What, if anything, were they thinking when they OK'ed production of this one". Stuff like that really suggests that there are people there who are not doing their jobs... Thank goodness for Modelhaus - may that business exist into eternity! Nice builds - you need to revive that green car though as it is a part of your life and past and deserves to be displayed even if you do not think it worthy. Just a friendly suggestion...

[TFchronos]

Very nice work!

[Bob Ellis]

Nice restoration of both. I never got an original '69 Chevelle back then. I caught the Chevelle kit in 1977-8 when the Countdown kits came out and I opted for the convertible.

During the dark days at AMT, a large amount of kits got the solid chrome replacement and elimination of the red lens between 1968 and 1977. Included with this Chevelle are; 1953 Studebaker, 1965 Galaxie, 1959 Mercury, 1963 Chevy II wagon, 1969 Corvair just to name a few. I think the modification of the '69 Chevelle tail lights are the worst of all of them. A simple solution is to buy Modelhaus replacements.

Some of the '69 AMT kits could be built stock like the '69 Impala. Just the engine on this '69 Chevelle was non-stock, I thought? I believe the front marker light and the trim on the side of this Chevelle are incorrect, but again it can be fixed easily. Better to have these kits with some flaws, than not at all.

I wish that I had saved more of my kits back in the '60s like you did. My '64 Impala with lights is the only one.

[Snake45]

Yeah, it was mainly the engines that were nonstick--no stock induction or exhaust systems. I think the Corvette and Camaro and Mustang might have been the same way--I'd have to look at the old instruction sheets. I think more recent issues of the Chevelle now have a 4-bbl and manifold and stock exhaust manifolds.

The Crower injection in the Chevelle kit was pretty cool, though.

[Maxicoop]

a pair of great lookin' Chevelle's !!!!!!!!! super builds !!!!!

[cswilliams1963]

Nice restorations.

[om617]

You did a great restoration on this,looks really nice.