AMT '67 Mustang Fastback-Completed-05/07

[mustang1989]

13 minutes ago, LSP_K2 said:

I'm very sorry to hear that, Joe, I truly am. Good to see you back at it though.

Thanks bud. I took right at a month off from building as I just got that numb feeling that most of us get when something like that happens. She got such a kick out of my builds and was following this one through my texts to her. Just had to finish it ya know.

[aircommando130]

Very sorry to hear about your mom. That's a tough way to go.

Glad you're back as well. 

 

Cheers...Ron

[mustang1989]

4 minutes ago, aircommando130 said:

Very sorry to hear about your mom. That's a tough way to go.

Glad you're back as well. 

 

Cheers...Ron

 

Thanks Ron. I appreciate that man.

[mustang1989]

Ok gang. This build came to a close after right at 10 months just a couple of days ago. I kind of hate seeing this one end as my mom was following me on this one pretty closely before she passed a little over 3 months ago. With that being said....this one's for you momma. 

 

This whole build started last July after I saw the kit re-released by Round 2. I've had visions in my mind for years of building a 1967 Mustang Fastback model as it would have been if I had one. I've had the pleasure of owning three 67 coupes and always wanted a fastback in real life. My last Mustang was the best of the three because it was built from the first two cars and I had managed to score a 351W from a 69 Mach 1. She also had a 4spd manual transmission and 3.55 gears. 

The first car I had I managed to purchase from my home town. It had a 289 2bbl with an automatic tranny and 2.79 gears. It wasn't fast but it was a good lookin' car. On one of my many trips back to Ft. Hood from my home town in North Texas I hit a deer and destroyed the front end of the car. (going off into the ditch is the WRONG thing to do when dodging animals I found out). The deer was only the beginning of the damage....while dodging the deer I didn't look on the OTHER side of it and dove into a concrete drainage system. This car....was done.

Car #1: Acquired 1989-Decommissioned-1990

I found Car #2 in a wrecking yard and rescued it. Man.....that car was rough looking BUT.....it was a GT and had all the options to include tilt away steering which was a very weird option but definitly good on the cool factor. This car also had a standard transmission from the factory. No engine or tranny was in the car when I bought her for $100 but I quickly took care of that. The 289 was carried over from Car #1 and I got a close ratio 4 speed tranny for this one. Later on I bought the 351W I was talking about earlier and freshened it up and dropped it into this car and drove it for a few more years before somebody pulled out in front of me at Ft Hood. I dodged but not before I hit him with my drivers side door in a side skid. Jeez....

Car #2 before the wreck: Acquired 1990--Decommissioned 1991

and after:

The tilt way column that I was talking about. This was supposed to help with driver ingress and egress. Definitely different:

 

I recently visited the local wrecking yard in my hometown after hearing of Car #1 and Car #2 now residing there. After 31 + years this is their fate BUT.....they're still mostly in one piece and they're right next to each other. Car #2 is in the foreground and #1 is right behind her. I don't know where Car #3 is now.

 

 

This is where Car #3 comes in. Acquired 1991--Sold 2002

I bought her for $600 at Fort Hood and towed her back home. I had two other parts cars now to draw parts from to make this one the best car out of the three and one that I would have for 11 years. Me and my best friend built this car over a course of 5 days from this at day one:

 

to this at Day 3 moving under her own power.

The next two days involved finish up...bumpers, trim, interior and all the cool stuff to make this car driveable.

The end result:

 

Now....all of this is where the inspiration for my build here came from. I wanted to build a fastback with all of the things that I had in this last car with the only difference being that I wanted factory style wheels on this one. And so, I set out on my venture.

I purchased this kit....and went for broke.

I finished her this morning. Color is Acapulco Blue from MCW Finishes, Wet Look covers the clear coat. The pad printed tires in this kit are a God send and thanks to Eric Oberhaufer at AMT the change out from the Firestone Super Stock tires that this kit came with got changed out to the Wide O Oval tires you see in the following pictures. Model Car Garage covered most of the PE items that you'll see on this car with PE kit # MCG-2032. Joel at Iceman Collections provided the Cobra air cleaner, HGW Models provided this 1/48 scale REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT tag hanging from the rearview mirror and the CPC 64F (the same tag that was on Car #3) license plate and plate frame were provided by Thomas at Speedway decals. Throttle linkage, air cleaner wingnut & washer, fuel lines and brake lines were all either fabricated or drawn from PE parts bin. Throttle return spring is an element from an automotive turn signal bulb. Plug wires are from Lex's Scale Modeling and the 650 cfm Holley Double Pumper carburetor was from Shapeways.

The hood scoop is from the AMT GT-350 kit and was graphed onto the stock hood. I also cut out the area of the hood where the scoop was to allow the air cleaner to sit up inside of the scoop from proper hood closure/ seating.

Outside door handles are from Fireball Modelworks, Alclad applied to both and pinned in place.

  A good amount of work had to be done to get the front suspension lowered achieve the stance that I wanted and the front wheels had to be moved in ......significantly... to go inside of the wheel wells where they belonged. The rear suspension had to be raised so a light re-aching of the leaf springs is all that took. 

 This kit is a good kit overall but there are some notable areas that need mentioning. Firts off ...the good. The base engine was well represented with only a carburetor change out needed to spice things up a bit. The interior is also well represented with good detail. The aluminum plating on the dash face is a BEAR to replicate on this one as is the door panels. If anyone's interested in how I pulled that off let me know and I'll be happy to tell you how I managed to get through it. 

80% of this build was pretty straight forward BUT....the fit between the nose piece and the drivers front fender on these kits is very hard to get flush. I spent all KINDS of time trying to fix the issue and STILL ended up with a slight gap. Test fit--sand-test fit--file--test fit and MORE TEST FIT is required to get this part right. The fuel cap sticks out way too far because it's thicker than it needs to be. I took sandpaper and stuck it into the contours of the tail light panel and sanded it down to what I felt like was the proper thickness. The front and rear bumpers had little braces going down on either side of the license plate area and I don't care for those so I cut those off of both bumpers, stripped the chrome from them, cleaned 'em up and worked the Alclad magic on both.

 I'm pretty happy with the turnout overall as it's just the look I wanted to get from the build. Thank you guys for following along, encouraging me and helping me get through this one.

Finishing shots:

Edited May 7, 2022 by mustang1989

[LSP_K2]

Nice! Cool story too, Joe.

[chrish]

Beautiful job on that build! 

sorry about your mom!!

still miss mine after 20 years

[The Madhatter]

Love that blue. Great looking Mustang! Did you use foil for the chrome trim?

[aircommando130]

Great looking mustang. I had a red 66 fastback way back.

Have an 88 GT that looks like a 93 Cobra now. My sister had 

a 68 fastback that was that pretty turquois color. Great job

on that 67 and the story that goes along with it! Car building is fun!

 

Cheers...Ron

[mustang1989]

On 5/7/2022 at 5:14 PM, LSP_K2 said:

Nice! Cool story too, Joe.

 

Thanks Kevin! 

 

On 5/7/2022 at 7:50 PM, chrish said:

Beautiful job on that build! 

sorry about your mom!!

still miss mine after 20 years

Thanks Chris. Yeah ....that one's gonna hang with me for a while.

 

On 5/7/2022 at 8:15 PM, The Madhatter said:

Love that blue. Great looking Mustang! Did you use foil for the chrome trim?

Thanks bud. Acapulco Blue is a nice blue alright and yes sir ....I did use BMF for the chrome trim.

 

On 5/7/2022 at 8:22 PM, aircommando130 said:

Great looking mustang. I had a red 66 fastback way back.

Have an 88 GT that looks like a 93 Cobra now. My sister had 

a 68 fastback that was that pretty turquois color. Great job

on that 67 and the story that goes along with it! Car building is fun!

 

Cheers...Ron

 

Thanks Ron for the comments. Got any pictures of yours? I'd like to see both of them.

[aircommando130]

7 hours ago, mustang1989 said:

 

 

 

 

Thanks Ron for the comments. Got any pictures of yours? I'd like to see both of them.

 

email me direct: aircommando130@comcast.net

[MVTB]

Joe,sincerely sorry for your mom´s,hope we all come together someday in a better place.

 

Oh boy THAT´S a collecting of ponies!!!

 

Love this car.

 

Congratulations on a fine,really fine job!!!

[mustang1989]

On 5/14/2022 at 2:41 PM, aircommando130 said:

 

email me direct: aircommando130@comcast.net

 

Will do. I'll shoot one your way tomorrow.

[mustang1989]

3 hours ago, MVTB said:

Joe,sincerely sorry for your mom´s,hope we all come together someday in a better place.

 

Oh boy THAT´S a collecting of ponies!!!

 

Love this car.

 

Congratulations on a fine,really fine job!!!

Thanks bud. I really appreciate the very kind words and condolences. 

[Rockie Yarwood]

Beautiful model and finish, Joe! As a kid just out of high school in 1976, I owned a '67 Mustang Coupe. Sold it for 500 bucks to a guy who just wanted the engine. Makes me want to cry every time I think about it now, but at the time it was just an old car....

[mustang1989]

23 hours ago, Rockie Yarwood said:

Beautiful model and finish, Joe! As a kid just out of high school in 1976, I owned a '67 Mustang Coupe. Sold it for 500 bucks to a guy who just wanted the engine. Makes me want to cry every time I think about it now, but at the time it was just an old car....

 

I feel your pain Rockie and thanks for the good word man. I sold ol' blue to a good friend of mine and wanted it back later. He sold the car for almost triple what I sold it to him for. I should've known better.