AMT 'Super Boss' Barracuda Funny Car! Update! #16: 3/23/15

[Speedfreak]

Got this in the mail yesterday, ebay auction, $40.00. Will probably work on this slowly as I work on other builds. Not sure how hard it's going to be to get paint/glue off of a kit that's probably somewhere around 45yrs old. Since it's really not much of a glue bomb I might just leave some parts on in some places and just remove the paint, we'll see. The only breakage is with the three wheels that are off, that should be an easy fix. No cracks in the glass anywhere! It's going to be a slow go like I said because I don't want to flub this up. It looks like enamel paint so I guess the purple pond will be the first order of business for most of the car. The engine looks really good and was never painted, the chrome has taken on this really cool effect with age that I've never seen, it looks almost like Alclad. So I might just leave the engine white, (? yuck!) and work with washes for effects, instead of risking trying to get it apart and breaking something. Pretty much everything else looks like it can go to the pond. Any words of wisdom will surely be appreciated.

Box art

(You can see where the original builder tried to match the blue on the box and then changed their mind. Possibly inspired by the gold on the blower decided that a single color was better/easier):

The original Kmart price sticker:

Side view of the car as it is now; (I should have stuck the slicks in for this one

Everything laid out together:

Floating in mid-air:

The front end and rear glass; (the grill insert is in the " Everything laid out shot") :

Close-up of the engine:

Notice the mold sharpness and the hue of the aged headers:

The interior:

As you can see it's doable, I'm excited!

Gene

Edited March 24, 2015 by Speedfreak

[W-409]

That sure looks like a good starting point for a build. Saving these old Glue Bombs is a lot of fun. It's really nice to see them coming back to life and I bet it will happen with this one as you're a talented builder. Taking these apart might be interesting, too. Sometimes the parts come apart really easily, but sometimes it seems to be an impossible task. I hope this is one of those easier ones... My AMT '58 Impala definitely wasn't.

I can't wait to see more.

[Davewilly]

this should be fun....Love the box art!

[Speedfreak]

Thanks Niko. Ya, Dave I love the box art too.

The original builder of this kit did a pretty good job as far as glue goes, there's not really much excess glue, there's a 'lot' of paint though, it looks like they just poured it from the bottle in the interior. My main worry is getting the engine apart, as there's no paint on there holding stuff together. We'll see how it goes. I should have the body and chassis in the pond today! I just need to get the front grill/bumper piece off.

Edited December 31, 2014 by Speedfreak

[vintagedragcrazy]

you can always use the hemi under glass kit for parts they are the same kit i might be able to help if you need anything i have some leftover parts.

vince

[Speedfreak]

uoooooooo, very cool Vince thanks! I didn't know that about the kits being the same. 'Cause something tells me that I'll end up breaking the other front wheel off when I try to remove it, which I can fix maybe. I'm really going to go to great lenghts to retain all the original parts on this car. I'll let you know if I get into trouble.

Does anyone know the original release dates of these two kits?

Edited December 31, 2014 by Speedfreak

[slusher]

Gene, old glue can be sanded and you can always use putty. If you put parts like the engine in the freeze the parts many time come off fairly easy and the glue is brittle. Looks like a brush painted body so should come off ,,,,

[iBorg]

How far is this from the Hemi Under Glass that was reissued a few years ago?

[Speedfreak]

Ya Carl, it's brush painted, and , with a lot of paint. Carl, what do you think about the Chrome? Do you think it looks savable? I like the way it looks. I'm thinking of washing the engine with soap and water to see what happens to it.

[Speedfreak]

How far is this from the Hemi Under Glass that was reissued a few years ago?

Vince says the Hemi Under Glass and the Hemi Hustler are the same kit, I don't know for sure, they are both AMT kits.

Edited January 1, 2015 by Speedfreak

[Chris in Berwyn]

The HUG and this are the same. I noticed that the valve covers are glued on upside down, so you will have to fix that. As an aside, the Chezoom Corvair FC that just came out has the same chassis (don't know if the Chezoom has the hemi or if they might have put a chevy in there. I think the Chezoom decals say "427" which would imply a Chevy.

[Speedfreak]

Thanks Chris, I did not notice the valve covers thanks for pointing that out! The breathers for the other side and what appears to be the cap for the gas tank where in the bottom of the box, so , all the parts are present. I'm going to have to replace one of the rear wheels because the top rim of one has a section broken off.. I 'might' be able to match the new one to the hue of the older one, I'll try. If not I'll replace them both.

The whole kit has been in my freezer for about an hour as of this post, I'll leave it there until later today.

The Chezooom Corvair is my next (new release) purchase.

[Speedfreak]

Things are falling apart,......................., in a good way.

From the top fellas:

Deep Purple Six:

" Window Trim bubbles " , and a weird reflection from my work light:

The chrome just came off like butter:

Parts:

Things are going well, the only part I've broken so far is the collector off the header that you see.

Thinking about keeping the grill/bumper piece the way it is, kind of looks like aluminum, the foot peddle will work too.

I washed up the glass, and it's really not bad, but , I forgot to photograph it. I should be able to rub out the minor bad spots with some kind of mild abrasive.

The only real problem so far is that some of the parts on the engine don't want to come off, so it's back in the freezer, I think it's doable though.

So far so good, now all that has to happen is that the paint comes off the chassis and the body. Yeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaa!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Edited January 1, 2015 by Speedfreak

[AC Norton]

......the corvair Chevoom release has a mopar hemi, not a rat motor as the decals would indicate.............the ace.......

[tim boyd]

The entire chassis/suspension/interior is identical between the Hemi Hustler and the new CheZoom corvair reissue.

Also, the rocker covers show upside down in the instructions, but if you follow the locaters, they install correctly because the engine is essentially a second gen 426 Hemi (with its attendance rocker cover design), but with a first gen 392 Hemi distributor/magneto location. .

In fact, the original kit design mostly apes the first Tom McEwen mid engine California Plymouth Dealers funny car from late 1965, which was not originally planned as a wheelstander. This is the car that went airborn during early testing. If you look up chassis/engine pictures of this car, you'll note the similarities in most every design area (other than AMT's strange location for the magneto). And you'll also note that the unusual oil breathers location low on the rocker covers shown in the pictures above, is an exact match for the McEwen car.

Hope that helps and good luck with the resto! TIM

[nitro norman]

$1.14... Those were the days !

[Speedfreak]

Tim, thanks for the info, it helps me to know what I'm building.

Tim, Do you know which kit was released first, HUG, or , the Hemi Hustler?

Norman, You must be as old as I am!

Edited January 2, 2015 by Speedfreak

[tim boyd]

Gene....the Bob Shelton/Bill Coulter Directory of Model Car Kits with price guide, v6 lists:

Hemi Under Glass as a 1966 intro kit # 6776.

The Hemi Hustler first issue is listed as 1967, #6752.

Next is the "Barracuda Funny Car", 1968, #F-152

Then a "Hemi Hustler" rebob reissue, 1969, #T152

Followed by the "Mad Mackerel" release, 1975, #T160, as part of the "Street Freaks" series.

Also reissues in 2004 and 2006 during the dark days at Learning Curve, the earlier one (I think) being the notorious incorrect MPC '68 HUG box art with the '66 AMT kit innards.

My experience is that the Value Guide is usually correct, but occasionally omits a kit or gets a date wrong, so consider this info as directional but not guaranteed.

Best..>TIm

Edited January 2, 2015 by tim boyd

[Speedfreak]

Thanks a lot Tim! That means that this is a first issue kit!

The Castrol Super Clean is taking the paint off of everything except the tires, not sure why that is, they are flat black. Also, everything is off the engine except the rear engine mount thing. Not sure what kind of glue this person used but, man , it's doing it's job.

Will post some update pics later tonight, thanks.

[Snake45]

Flat Black is for some reason troublesome in some cases.

Here's a possibility: They were painted with AMT lacquer flat black. Lye-based paint removers sometimes won't touch these, but they succumb to common rubbing alcohol. You might give that a try.

[Speedfreak]

Here's the pics I promised: We are down to 45yr old bare plastic!

You can see the paint bubbling up here, this is after soaking for one day in Castrol Super Clean:

Bare Plastic! This after lighly scrubbing with a firmer brush, then using the tooth brush that you can see:

Here are the tires, looks like I'm going to have to try rubbing alcohol as per Richard's suggestion, (also interesting is that the tires have no brush strokes visible at all, and, the car was covered with them): I'm conflicted here too because I could use the AMT Custom/Competition version I have for the slicks, and , get some after-market tires for the front, but , somehow that seems like sacriIege on a kit such as this. I guess in the end I'll do what circumstance dictates, but, I'll try and use the original tires if at all possible.

And lastly the engine block, not sure what kind of glue was used but it was VERY effective:

I've got the front cover off the engine, but, am having more difficulty with the heads, and , the shatter shield/engine mount. The reason I started working to get the heads off is because I thought it would be easier to sand them, as there is heavy glue build-up where the headers attached, I'm not so sure now this was the way to go, lol. The engine mount because of ease of painting, feels like I'm too far in (?) to quit now.

Back to the utility knife! (And praying to the modeling gods for guidence), Thanks for checking in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tim boyd]

Gene and all others reading this thread....why is it that sometimes a complete tear down and reconstruction of a kit (such as you are doing here) is so much more interesting than than a straight build of one of the reissues of a kit like this?

I can't figure it out, but I know I am enjoying watching your project come together....

This was always one of my favorite old kits....I helped a neighbor friend build this very kit back around 1967....Pactra metallic green body, Testors Competition Orange engine....flat black elsewhere....and later on back in the 1980's I secured an already-built example not unlike the one we are watching here to do a rebuild myself but didn't happen....I'd never built the kit for myself until I completed the Corvair CheZOOM version myself a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway....sure enjoying your build thread so far...

TIM

[Snake45]

Gene and all others reading this thread....why is it that sometimes a complete tear down and reconstruction of a kit (such as you are doing here) is so much more interesting than than a straight build of one of the reissues of a kit like this?

I can't figure it out, but I know I am enjoying watching your project come together....

TIM

I can't explain it either, but I'd rather restore an old glue bomb--especially a rare or long OOP one--than build the finest new kit on the market.

"New" copies of this kit are readily available, yet "rescuing" an old original is still just so much more satisfying!

[afx]

How far is this from the Hemi Under Glass that was reissued a few years ago?

Looks like the same kit to me.

[Speedfreak]

Thanks Tim! I 'still' love Competition Orange! Interesting history with you and this kit.

Richard, I didn't know the 'Hemi Hustler' had been reissued?

JC, looks like the same kit, but , the Hemi Hustler has different wheels. Also, what ever that part is that's 'under' the headers, (some kind of 'Cherry Bomb' street exhaust?), isn't in the HH kit, nor do they show it on the instructions.

BTW, The tires are now soaking in rubbing alcohol, 91%, (that's not gonna harm the plastic is it? ) . All night in Super Clean, then some rubbing alcohol, with cotton rounds, then Spic and Span for a few hours, and , then me rubbing on one slick for like 15minutes with cotton rounds and the slick is still mainly covered in flat black, there is 'some' white showing though, wow!

The engine block is in the freezer

Edited January 3, 2015 by Speedfreak