1/25 AMT '66 Chevy Impala Modified Stocker

[Casey]

[Motor City]

Did ANY of the stock parts survive with this such as the chassis, engine, and exhaust manifolds?

[Casey]

1 hour ago, Motor City said:

Did ANY of the stock parts survive with this such as the chassis, engine, and exhaust manifolds?

 

[Mark]

1 hour ago, Motor City said:

Did ANY of the stock parts survive with this such as the chassis, engine, and exhaust manifolds?

The basic engine is stock (except exhaust manifolds and air filter).  This exact same engine, with stock exhaust manifolds, was used in the AMT '60/'61 Ford Ranchero kits also.

[stavanzer]

I hope the decal sheet is updated.

['70 Grande]

I think this was my favorite of the entire series of AMT Modified Stocker kits.  The box artwork on this one in particular is outstanding, (even tho the artwork depicts the actual car and model at about 2/3's of its actual wheelbase and overall body-length... its an awful-stubby Impala)!

[stavanzer]

A quik look at my copy of the '66 kit. Rear Axle,Drive Shaft and assorted small rear suspension. Dashboard, Front Roll pan, & Radiator top. Racing Cowl Mount Air Cleaner. Those are about the only 'stock' parts left in the box. Hopefully, Round2 will have opened up any small bits left in the tool.

That said, I strongly suspect that Round2 will take the easiest way to release this kit. A straight re-issue, from the 2000-some version, with no changes to either the contents or decals. That is what the box art leads me to believe. However, as these are some of my favorite kits, I'll take the Un-Changed Kit all day long if that is what we get.

[Force]

The exhaust manifolds are the ones used on the "Mystery Engine" MkII Big Block and the air cleaner is a NASCAR unit so it's perfect if you want to do a 1963 Chevy Mystery Engine Impala.

[the other Mike S.]

Back in the day, was it really necessary for them to carve out the wheel well openings like that?  They could've just scribed the openings on the inside and let modeler do that.  At least that would've kept the body unmolested for future stock and modified track reissues.

I wonder how hard it would be to slice in the stock wheel well openings from the new Revell '66 Impala kit into this one.

  

[stavanzer]

Mike, I'd guess, harder than it looks.

[Snake45]

4 hours ago, the other Mike S. said:

I wonder how hard it would be to slice in the stock wheel well openings from the new Revell '66 Impala kit into this one.

I bought a cheap (HL 40% off) Foose '65 Impala specifically to do exactly that. Maybe I'll get around to that next year. 

[Mark]

4 hours ago, the other Mike S. said:

Back in the day, was it really necessary for them to carve out the wheel well openings like that?  They could've just scribed the openings on the inside and let modeler do that.  At least that would've kept the body unmolested for future stock and modified track reissues.

I wonder how hard it would be to slice in the stock wheel well openings from the new Revell '66 Impala kit into this one.

  

At the time these were done (1970-71) the alterations were probably seen as "let's get one more hit off of these tools before they hit the scrap pile".  Some of them didn't sell well in the last issue prior to the alterations.  I picked up a couple of both the previous-issue '65 Fairlane and '65 Olds kits from the clearance pile AFTER the Modified Stocker issues appeared.  As a kid, I knew nothing about engineering or tooling, but one look at a Modified Stocker kit made it plain that the original stock versions were gone for good.

[Sledsel]

This coming out again? Hope so, I only have one....

I for one, I do not use the tires, too big IMO. The 1/24 Nascar tires from Monogram do look better to my eyes.

Still working on the Impala I have. Like my Olds here, I will be using the Monogram tire wheel combo and de-radiusing the rear wheel wells.

Edited November 14, 2019 by Sledsel

[ZTony8]

AMT managed to turn the '65 GTO and the '69 Torino back to stock bodies ( with varying degrees of success) so I've wondered why it's not possible to do it to the other kits in the series. Or maybe it's just that they don't want to do it.

 

[stavanzer]

Tony, I don't think that the sales potential of the restored kit, is worth the cost of rebuilding the tool. If you look at what is in the box of most of these Mod Stocker kits, there is almost nothing left of the original. In most cases, even the chrome trees, have been trimmed down to tiny nubs, with just bumpers, grills and wheels. And some times, you don't even get wheels. The '64 Galaxie and '69 Torino kits have un-molested chrome trees. All the others are pretty much skeletal remains.

[Mark]

6 hours ago, ZTony8 said:

AMT managed to turn the '65 GTO and the '69 Torino back to stock bodies ( with varying degrees of success) so I've wondered why it's not possible to do it to the other kits in the series. Or maybe it's just that they don't want to do it.

 

The Torino was the least altered of the series.  AMT didn't wipe the emblems, trim, or even the windshield wipers as they did with other kits.  Ertl created some new body tooling sections (body sides), tooled separate parts to put the exhaust pipes back in, new stock wheels, and that was about it.

The GTO might have been the most butchered kit of the series.  A lot of the "new" stock one was new tooling: interior bucket, chassis, all outer surfaces of the body.  The GTO was probably chosen for its popularity and sales potential, the Torino Cobra because it was (relatively) easy.  All of the others are somewhere in the middle: too much work and not enough potential sales to make them worthwhile.

[stavanzer]

The only Three of these kits I'd like to see restored are the Olds, Buick and '64 Galaxie. The Chevies are both Meh kits to start with, and the others just don't have any appeal. Partisans for other kits, will of course disagree with me. And I understand that.  But, given a Big Sack O'Money, those are the only ones I'd fool with.