1966 Ford Fairlane 427

[ModelcarJR]

Picked this one up last week at HL. I've built the GT/GTA years ago. It was more detailed and had a 390 in it I believe. This one is pretty simple, bench seat, steel wheels with dog dish hubcaps. I've painted the body Dupli-Color Bahama Blue Metallic. I foiled the Fairlane lettering before the finish coat of paint and then revealed the BMF lettering with some lacquer thinner. So that's done. I painted all the other parts today so this one is ready for assembly. I had a partial can of Tamiya light blue metallic so I used it on the interior hoping for a little different shade of blue. Actually, it is very similar to the Dupli-Color. I just used some Dullcote on the seats and painted the carpet dark blue. I'm out of pre-wired distributors and I guess they are backlogged. So this will be a simple box stock build. Not too many parts anyway and its looks like a simple assembly. I'll rub it out and foil it tomorrow. Thanks for looking! ?

[TransAmMike]

Looking great there John, perrrty blue.  I haven't tried the foil under topcoat paint.  With my luck, I afraid to try if for fear of messing up the paint.

[ModelcarJR]

Its pretty easy, Mike! Make sure the foil is cut so it covers the letters and toothpick it down good. When the topcoat is dry after about 1/2 hour, use a small Tamiya cotton swab dipped in lacquer thinner (not too wet, wipe it a bit so that lacquer doesn't run) then rub it across the letters only, very carefully. Use more than 1 cotton swab, if necessary. It is much easier than foiling the letters after and then tediously cutting out each letter.  That takes awhile. And using a chrome pen will probably clog the letters or run the chrome on more than the letters. Give it a shot. The worst that can happen is that you have to re-paint over the letters and try again. Or not! 

[bobss396]

My brother does his emblems the same way and they turn out great. The foil has to be trimmed close around the scripts/emblems so the line is minimized.

[ColonelKrypton]

11 hours ago, ModelcarJR said:

Its pretty easy

Sounds easy enough. I will have to give a try - nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Up till now I have struggled with using a silver Sharpie. Never like the look and have been hesitant to use one of the much more expensive chrome pens fearing that I wouldn't have gained anything over the Sharpie.

I always liked the 66 Fairlane. It looks good in blue.

cheers, Graham

 

[ModelcarJR]

Thanks, Mike, Bob, and Graham! I appreciate your comment! ?

Rubbed out the body today and foiled it. The Ford lettering on the hood and trunk are too shallow to foil either before paint or after. I'll have to use the kit decals on the trunk and hood. There's rocker chrome also included in the kit. I'll be working on the interior tomorrow. Thanks for looking! ?

[customline]

Hey, John, I see the hood looks like it has pins on all four corners but I can't tell if they are decals or "real" PE items. I'm just curious because I'm in the middle of using the Detail Master kit on a build for the first time ever. I'm also curious about this Fairlane kit as far as the chassis goes. Is it a full detail kit or another old screw bottom? ?  

[Zippi]

The 66 Ford Fairlane is looking pretty nice John.  The foil work on the script looks pretty sweet and I'm liking that blue.  

[LennyB]

20 hours ago, ModelcarJR said:

Thanks, Mike, Bob, and Graham! I appreciate your comment! ?

Rubbed out the body today and foiled it. The Ford lettering on the hood and trunk are too shallow to foil either before paint or after. I'll have to use the kit decals on the trunk and hood. There's rocker chrome also included in the kit. I'll be working on the interior tomorrow. Thanks for looking! ?

John, love the color choice on the Fairlane works really well. Coming along great?

11 hours ago, customline said:

Hey, John, I see the hood looks like it has pins on all four corners but I can't tell if they are decals or "real" PE items. I'm just curious because I'm in the middle of using the Detail Master kit on a build for the first time ever. I'm also curious about this Fairlane kit as far as the chassis goes. Is it a full detail kit or another old screw bottom? ?  

Jim, this is a detailed chassis, not the old promo style. And those hood pins are molded in place.

[TransAmMike]

On 4/10/2024 at 9:36 PM, ModelcarJR said:

Its pretty easy, Mike! Make sure the foil is cut so it covers the letters and toothpick it down good. When the topcoat is dry after about 1/2 hour, use a small Tamiya cotton swab dipped in lacquer thinner (not too wet, wipe it a bit so that lacquer doesn't run) then rub it across the letters only, very carefully. Use more than 1 cotton swab, if necessary. It is much easier than foiling the letters after and then tediously cutting out each letter.  That takes awhile. And using a chrome pen will probably clog the letters or run the chrome on more than the letters. Give it a shot. The worst that can happen is that you have to re-paint over the letters and try again. Or not! 

Thanks John and the Fairlane looking terrific.  Yep, gotta try the paint over foil method.

[Rattlecan Dan]

Lovin that color. Looks like a great paint job. Good luck with the rest of the build. Anxious to see the finished product.

[customline]

2 hours ago, LennyB said:

Jim, this is a detailed chassis, not the old promo style. And those hood pins are molded in place.

Oh...cool....I can't wait to see the rest of it as it progresses.  Why am I not following this one? ? <- that's why....I am now ?

[KWT]

nice color choice. shaping up good so far.

[ModelcarJR]

Thanks, All! I appreciate your comments! Jim, I didn't see your question until just now.  Len, thanks for bailing me out!

I am not spending a lot of time with this one as it is not as detailed as the GT/GTA kit. That kit, that I build years ago, had bucket seats, console, nice wheels, rear quarter windows, poseable steering, etc. I realize that this one is a different model and style. But it still would be nice to have bucket seats and nice wheels. I don't have the right bucket seats in the parts box and no sense looking for an alternate set of wheels. I'll just built this one quickly and move on. Here's a photo of the one built years ago. Thanks for looking! ?

[customline]

The red one is sweet, JR. I just looked at a couple of reviews on this kit and my thought is that the car depicted for this version is kinda, sorta, almost a Thunderbolt and it wouldn't take much to get it there. Just add a crossmember and some traction bars like the '64 'Bolts. The hood depicts what could be a fiberglass lift-off with those pins on all fours. I'm just thinking of maybe picking this one up. The reviews are good and I like the box art. Was the hood scoop a separate part?

Edit:  https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/fe-rocious-427-1966-ford-fairlane-500-427

Maybe you've seen this, but if not...

Edited April 13, 2024 by customline
Added text

[ModelcarJR]

Thanks, Jim! I appreciate your comment! Yes, the hood scoop is a separate piece and without it they would be a long trough in the hood. I think that this kit is mainly a quarter mile race car just like the box art, although there aren't any race car parts like a roll bar, etc. I haven't seen the article that you forwarded but I can't view without disabling an ad blocker which I don't want to do. Thanks though!

Here are some photos of the interior. The speedo decal included in the kit has no registration of the numbers so it looks like a black decal. I didn't use it I just painted that the panel black and trimmed the outline with chrome pen and added a chrome piece of trim on the bottom of the dash. The chrome trim on the doors is probably too thick but its what looked good to me. I also added wood trim as it was engraved that way on the door but I left off the chrome trim around the wood as I thought it looked too busy once I got one door done. So I removed it. I re-painted the floor black as the blue I had on it clashed with the blue on the seats, doors and dash. I didn't add any chrome trim on the seat because its not molded on the seat.  Thanks for looking! ?

 

 

[customline]

That looks great, John. The wood grain is a nice detail.  AMT has apparently used the same interior tub as the previous "normal" street versions. This version attempts to depict a rare lightweight special, a 427 equipped race-ready model. Only 53 were built. They were equipped with "slow steering" to be more user friendly on the strip. No sound insulation, hood hinges, or radio among other things. All were painted white.  It seems a roll bar wasnt required to run in the Stock classes; they weren't fast enough, I guess (??? ?). I wonder if they even required a seat belt. I would add one, just to be diligent (but I wouldn't wear it ?). 

[ModelcarJR]

Thanks, Jim! I appreciate the info! I noticed that the instructions indicate that all 66 Ford Fairlane 427s were white out of the factory. 

Almost done with this one.  I built the engine box stock, finished he chassis and installed the window glass. I wasn't able to get the steering poseable. I checked the red one again and noticed that it was the same front suspension but one of the wheel kingpins is loose on the left side and that is why it is turning. The steering linking has also broken free. So I guess I'll have to fix that. I also had to shorten the front wheelback stems on the the one I am currently working on in order to get the front wheels to sit inside of the front fender. The hood at the cowl sinks so I will have to make sure that I get the body glued down tight in front. They put a set of redline tires in this kit, I am not sure why. They look a bit too close to the wheel to me and they are hard to see with the blue but I am going to use them since I don't want to look for other tires to fit the wheels. I might turn them around since they don't really add anything, IMO.  

While installing the window glass I noticed that there were no mirrors in this kit. No interior mirror and no outside mirrors. I guess this model was meant only for straight line racing. So since I have no extra interior mirrors in the parts box, I stole one from another AMT kit, the Petty stock car released not too long ago. I have already built one of those and have robbed other parts from this second kit so I won't be building it anyway. But I had intended to enter this one in box stock at the annual IPMS contest in a few weeks so that out now. But mirrors are a pet peeve of mine because you can't drive a car without at least an interior mirror. But I have plenty of other possibilities, so this one is destined to be a shelf sitter. Thanks for looking! ☹️

Edited April 15, 2024 by ModelcarJR
Copy text

[Noah H.]

This build looks great. Nice work.

[customline]

I agree about the tires, John. I'll never understand why anyone thought those red lines looked good anyway (unless you had a red car ?). This drag car would be devoid of mirrors but you would think they would still be on the tree.  The radio was still there, right?  This tells you about who designs these kits. Shouldn't they have an expert making these decisions?  Sorry, there I go again...?

[espo]

Great looking paint color and finish. For what it's worth, your problem with the wheels sitting to wide is an issue that I encountered as well building the original GT/GTA Fairlane kit years ago. Just something that AMT got wrong, but it is a nice kit. 

[LennyB]

2 hours ago, ModelcarJR said:

Thanks, Jim! I appreciate the info! I noticed that the instructions indicate that all 66 Ford Fairlane 427s were white out of the factory. 

Almost done with this one.  I built the engine box stock, finished he chassis and installed the window glass. I wasn't able to get the steering poseable. I checked the red one again and noticed that it was the same front suspension but one of the wheel kingpins is loose on the left side and that is why it is turning. The steering linking has also broken free. So I guess I'll have to fix that. I also had to shorten the front wheelback stems on the the one I am currently working on in order to get the front wheels to sit inside of the front fender. The hood at the cowl sinks so I will have to make sure that I get the body glued down tight in front. They put a set of redline tires in this kit, I am not sure why. They look a bit too close to the wheel to me and they are hard to see with the blue but I am going to use them since I don't want to look for other tires to fit the wheels. I might turn them around since they don't really add anything, IMO.  

While installing the window glass I noticed that there were no mirrors in this kit. No interior mirror and no outside mirrors. I guess this model was meant only for straight line racing. So since I have no extra interior mirrors in the parts box, I stole one from another AMT kit, the Petty stock car released not too long ago. I have already built one of those and have robbed other parts from this second kit so I won't be building it anyway. But I had intended to enter this one in box stock at the annual IPMS contest in a few weeks so that out now. But mirrors are a pet peeve of mine because you can't drive a car without at least an interior mirror. But I have plenty of other possibilities, so this one is destined to be a shelf sitter. Thanks for looking! ☹️

Why go to the trouble of eliminating the mirrors. What's it save them???? Pennies per thousand.  I liked it better when they put whitewalls on one side and red-lines on the other.

 

These tires look wider then the ones from the earlier kit. Could that be part of the offset problem?

43 minutes ago, customline said:

I agree about the tires, John. I'll never understand why anyone thought those red lines looked good anyway (unless you had a red car ?). This drag car would be devoid of mirrors but you would think they would still be on the tree.  The radio was still there, right?  This tells you about who designs these kits. Shouldn't they have an expert making these decisions?  Sorry, there I go again...?

Jim, next kit that comes out we'll leave the decisions to you. How does that sound.? 

[customline]

2 hours ago, LennyB said:

Why go to the trouble of eliminating the mirrors. What's it save them???? Pennies per thousand.  I liked it better when they put whitewalls on one side and red-lines on the other.

 

These tires look wider then the ones from the earlier kit. Could that be part of the offset problem?

Jim, next kit that comes out we'll leave the decisions to you. How does that sound.? 

Sounds good to me! Let's see....where shall I start?  ?....oh.... I know....a choice of two V8s and a six in every kit...and....and four...no, five wheel choices including steelies with doggies and side glass...yeah, side glass in every kit and no more freaking Coca Cola BS....?....oh, and pad printed white walls and raised white letter tires too.....?......and....and....oh, this is so easy....no more metal axles ever.....?.....no holes in the oil pans.....or big fat fans....yeah...

[LennyB]

7 minutes ago, customline said:

Sounds good to me! Let's see....where shall I start?  ?....oh.... I know....a choice of two V8s and a six in every kit...and....and four...no, five wheel choices including steelies with doggies and side glass...yeah, side glass in every kit and no more freaking Coca Cola BS....?....oh, and pad printed white walls and raised white letter tires too.....?......and....and....oh, this is so easy....no more metal axles ever.....?.....no holes in the oil pans.....or big fat fans....yeah...

That's a start...but you can think bigger then that.??

[customline]

I will say this about the kit...it looks like they got the engine right. It looks like you did a real nice job on it too, John, as well as all the rest of it. ?