Easy peasy AMT 1966 Mustang bash

[Radretireddad]

I think the body and interior of the ancient AMT 1966 mustang notchback kit still look good but the hopelessly outdated chassis and engine clearly need to go. I fixed just that on mine by swapping in the most logical modern alternative parts from the AMT 1967 mustang. Mods to the 1966 body involve removing the mounting tabs from both the front and rear lower valances and from the front bumper. I did not remove the tabs from the rear bumper because I found they served to perfectly set the depth of the ‘67 chassis in the ‘66 body. Mods to the 67 chassis require carefully cutting out the inner fenders in one piece from the donor ‘67 body, gluing them onto the ‘67 chassis then notching the upper mounting flanges in the four places shown. Next I cut out the trans and driveshaft tunnel. To accommodate the differences in the front overhangs, I shortened the front of the chassis by sawing off everything forward of the strut rod mounts. To do the same on the rear I sawed off everything aft of the fuel tank and leaf spring mounts and that’s pretty much it. As you can see the body and new chassis fit together amazingly well. The only out of place detail I can detect for a ‘66 is the distance between the inner front spring towers is wider on the ‘67 to accommodate the optional 390. I assembled the ‘67 kit suspension OTB and added a set of old MPC solid Polyglas GT’s mounted on the American Racing 5 spokes from IIRC the old 1957 Chevy stepside kit. The same swap should work on the current AMT ‘66 fastback as well seeing as how it uses the same crappy chassis and engine but includes all the correct GT package parts along with a really good decal sheet and tires which I would just love to add to this build. Thanks for checking in.

Edited January 26 by Radretireddad

[lordairgtar]

Love those wheels. My real 83 Mercury Marquis Brougham (fox body) wagon had a similar wheel. Made by a Brazilian company called Mangel. You have a nice project going there.

[Radretireddad]

19 minutes ago, lordairgtar said:

Love those wheels. My real 83 Mercury Marquis Brougham (fox body) wagon had a similar wheel. Made by a Brazilian company called Mangel. You have a nice project going there.

Thanks Gregory. I’m not in the habit of mixing modern wheels with classic bodies but in this application I think they look quite nice together. I haven’t decided on a final color combination yet but for the final build I’m probably going to paint the wheel centers gloss black and leave the rims polished.

[lordairgtar]

Just now, Radretireddad said:

Thanks Gregory. I’m not in the habit of mixing modern wheels with classic bodies but in this application I think they look quite nice together. I haven’t decided on a final color combination yet but for the final build I’m probably going to paint the wheel centers gloss black and leave the rims polished.

That would look good. BTW, the wheels on my Mercury were brushed aluminum, not real shiny.

[LennyB]

Swapping in those 67 inner fenders now gives you room for a big block. 🤣

 

Seriously, the original body had nice proportions. This is a good way to upgrade the 66.

[Carmak]

One issue with the modern AMT 67 Mustang chassis is that the front track is too wide. This issue shows in your pictures as your tires are out past the wheel lip.

I pulled the spindles in a bunch (look at the relationship between unmodified tie rod end and the moved in location of the ball joint.

I also lowered the front ride height to achieve a neutral stance (level).

[beeRS]

Nice work so far. That is a great idea - using the 67 chassis in the old AMT 65 mustang. I’d like to steal this idea from you. 

[BERT100]

 

Good use of the old and new. 

[Radretireddad]

16 hours ago, beeRS said:

Nice work so far. That is a great idea - using the 67 chassis in the old AMT 65 mustang. I’d like to steal this idea from you. 

The reason I post things like this here is to inspire my fellow hobbyists and share in the enjoyment.
Thanks for looking and post pics when you get to it.👊🤠

Edited January 28 by Radretireddad

[Duddly01]

I have purchased a bunch of AMT 1967 Fastback kits just for building any early Mustang. They are a great kit for this. As mentioned, the one issue when body swapping is the front suspension sits out too far and you need to bring in. Btw, it is actually pretty easy to make the front suspension poseable. 

On the 1966 Coupe I did cut out the floor of the tub instead of the floor on the 1967 Kit.

Even converted one into a 1967 Convertible.

 

[Radretireddad]

14 hours ago, Duddly01 said:

I have purchased a bunch of AMT 1967 Fastback kits just for building any early Mustang. They are a great kit for this. As mentioned, the one issue when body swapping is the front suspension sits out too far and you need to bring in. Btw, it is actually pretty easy to make the front suspension poseable. 

On the 1966 Coupe I did cut out the floor of the tub instead of the floor on the 1967 Kit.

Even converted one into a 1967 Convertible.

 

Very nice builds! The problem with the front wheels being out to far is because the front half of the body on the ‘66 is considerably narrower than on the ‘67. This is still only the mock-up stage so I’ll correct it when I finally finish the build which may not be until I can afford to buy two of the current ‘66 GT fastback and another ‘67 kit. One to bash and another for the GT parts for this one.

[Duddly01]

24 minutes ago, Radretireddad said:

Very nice builds! The problem with the front wheels being out to far is because the front half of the body on the ‘66 is considerably narrower than on the ‘67. This is still only the mock-up stage so I’ll correct it when I finally finish the build which may not be until I can afford to buy two of the current ‘66 GT fastback and another ‘67 kit. One to bash and another for the GT parts for this one.

Thank you! Sadly, it sticks out on the 1967 Body as well, as you can see in my 1967 Mustang Convertible build WIP thread. If you decide to do a 1967 Build, there are just couple issues you will need to deal with, this and the headlights are far too small. Otherwise, the 1967 Kit is great.

 

[Radretireddad]

12 hours ago, Duddly01 said:

Thank you! Sadly, it sticks out on the 1967 Body as well, as you can see in my 1967 Mustang Convertible build WIP thread. If you decide to do a 1967 Build, there are just couple issues you will need to deal with, this and the headlights are far too small. Otherwise, the 1967 Kit is great.

 

I have one of my ‘67 kits mocked up OTB with some pretty wide Eagle GSC’s on the front and I don’t really have any issues with the fit. I also noticed the headlight diameter issue and I’ll probably address it by enlarging the headlight openings using the reflectors and lenses from a ‘67 Shelby GT 350 kit I’m using on another bash.