ATLANTIS MODELS 55 CHEVY CUSTOM STREET ROD IS A HISTORIC FORMER REVELL KIT WITH PHENOMENAL DETAIL IN 1/25 SCALE.  BUILD YOUR OWN CUSTOMIZING SKILLS WITH THIS AMAZING KIT!

​BY BILL ENGAR

ATLANTIS 1276 -- 1/25 X-PARTS GARAGE '55 CHEVY CUSTOM STREET ROD -- MOLDED IN WHITE, CLEAR AND CHROME-PLATED STYRENE PLASTIC -- PAINT AND GLUE NEEDED FOR ASSEMBLY, NOT INCLUDED -- RECOMMENDED FOR EXPERIENCED BUILDERS AGES 14 AND ABOVE -- 200+ PARTS -- MADE IN USA -- MSRP $US32.99

Atlantis' X-Parts Garage '55 Chevy has all-new box art.  Where were you in '62?

Atlantis' X-Parts Garage '55 Chevy is a former Revell kit first tooled in 1964.  There are a few unique things about this historic kit.  First off, it is highly unusual for a model kit to be made of a passenger car that is nine years old.  By 1964, the Tri-Five Chevys (1955-57) had become a beloved part of American culture.  They were highly popular as inexpensive used cars and it had been discovered that they could easily be "hot rodded."  They made excellent racers and popular street rods.   Their replacement, Chevy's Impala (new in 1958), was the most popular new car at the time and AMT was selling 1/25 "annuals" of this car.

This model has over 200 parts.  It features opening doors and truck.  Two engine options are included, each with an unprecedented level of internal detailing.

In 1964, the model car hobby was still maturing and the kit manufacturers were trying to establish what would make their kits the most popular.  Instead of making the kit modular so it could be changed annually, Revell opened up the body on their 1955 Chevy with separate doors and trunk in addition to the standard opening hood.  Additionally, Revell provided engine parts with detailed internal components, particularly notable being a fully detailed engine block including a crankshaft and piston heads at their correct depths inside the heads.

Here's what greets you upon first opening the box.

Parts are bagged.  The box is stuffed full; there is a lot of plastic there!

Two engines are included, both featuring this detail.  Pick one to put in the car; the blown 409 is probably the most logical (a 409 in a 1950's car would always be a custom-installation since the 409 was new in 1961).  Chevy's 409 was a legendary racing engine from the start and sold in crate-form.  For its first year (1961), the 409 was not available by itself; the only way to get one was to buy Chevy's 1961 Impala SS with the 409 option box checked.  After that (for 1962 and beyond), the 409 could be purchased from GM for installation in a hot rod or racer.

These views show the flip-side of the two large sprues.  The firewall, radiator and chassis-pan have very nice detailing on both sides.

This kit is not for the beginner.  It will challenge the builder.  It definitely shows the era in which it was made.  This kit is old enough to claim Social Security.  It's for those who love to push their skills or particularly those of us who love vintage kits--you really can't get more vintage than this.  Instead of including a wealth of optional parts, Revell pushed the envelope by adding unprecedented detail to some of the kit's standard parts.  As expected, you can expect flash, sinkholes, gaps, and seams.  It may be tricky to get those moving parts (doors, hood, trunk) to open smoothly and close evenly.  Atlantis' own description of their related 1957 Chevy Nomad applies here: "Not an easy build by any means."  We want to make it clear; you're taking on some work here.

The chrome tree on the left is not included in Atlantis' similar 1955 Chevy Bel Air kit.  These are some of the "X-Parts."

This sprue included nicely detailed front door insides.  There are two options for front seats.

Atlantis' very similar H1374 is the '55 Chevy Bel Air, the stock showroom-version of this same car.  It comes with different wheels.  This kit comes with big racing / hot rod tires.  To get them to fit, you'll need to modify the rear body, specifically you'll need to enlarge the rear body wheel openings.  The instructions include templates and suggestions how to do this.  Atlantis recommends using a pin vise, drilling a series of holes (we'd use a rotary tool with a drill bit).  Or, you could use a #11 X-Acto blade or similar in a hobby knife and make a series of light cuts.  Most important, we'd recommend doing all cutting on the inside of the pattern, making the cut piece smaller than the pattern and adjusting it outward gradually until it fits the tire mounted on the chassis perfectly (it's always easier to cut material off than put it back on).

Here's the 283 engine.  Other kit manufacturers never supplied this kind of detail.

The "glass" is crystal-clear.  We particularly like the headlight lenses.

This step is essentially customization.  It is recommended for solidly intermediate or advanced modelers only.  You should be entirely comfortable building glue-kit car models before attempting to build Atlantis' X-Parts 55 Chevy.  The upside with this kit, beyond a lot of work with parts-prep, is that the final rewards will be an extremely detailed model unlike the vast majority of car kits.  Many advanced builders will cut the doors open on a car kit so the viewer can see the car's interior better.  This kit has already done that work for you.  Unusual for the era, this kit has realistically etched clear headlight lenses which cover chromed headlight reflectors.  Chrome trim pieces are separately molded.  You can simply delete them if you wish for a true "hot rod" look without the need to sand them off the body.  Install that 409 in the car and leave the 283 engine outside, opened up so you can enjoy the internal engine block detail.  There is a lot to enjoy from this historic model kit.  With skill, you can produce a realistic, detailed replica of a custom 1955 Chevy as opposed to just building a model.

The zig-zags on those heads (top-center) is a dead giveaway that you're looking at the 409 engine option.  Note the crankshaft in the bottom block piece and piston heads in the two block-top parts.

Once you compare the instruction sheets between this kit (X-Parts Version) and the regular '55 Chevy Bel Air kit (#H1374), you appreciate the difference between the two kits.  This is where the two kits become completely different animals, so to speak.  Thanks to all the detail in this kit, the instruction sheet is divided into no less than 92 steps!!!  It's all modern-style pictograms more akin to contemporary multilingual instruction sheets.

The magic of "X-Parts" is found in the instruction sheet.  Each of the X-Parts is identified here.

All part options that aren't "factory" are prefaced with an "X" in the instructions.  This is where the magic of the X-Parts comes into play with this kit.  The instructions are the virtual X-Parts Garage.  There are a lot of X-tra parts!  Major options include the 409 racing engine with blower, suspension stance option (lift the front axle and leave the rear at "stock" to replicate that great-looking stance for the box-art car), bucket seats and rollbar, bumper-delete valances, Moon-tank, and racing (muffler-delete) exhaust.

Altantis' box sides are always full of enticing information.  Note the photos of the kit; those big tires need that rear body wheel opening widened so they'll fit.

This is a historic kit and we really like what Atlantis has done with it.  Even though its components are largely shared with the 1955 Chevy Bel Air (H1374), the kit has a completely different flavor with an extra chrome sprue, different tires and extensive "X-Parts" instructions showing the many options available to outfit the model as a racer or street rod.

We absolutely love this kit.  I built the Bel Air version in the late 1970's and enjoyed it; this was one of my favorite car models built as a youth.  The 2Modeler Guys give this kit an enthusiastic Four Thumbs up (our highest rating).  It pushes all the right buttons for experienced intermediate and advanced car builders who aren't afraid to do some light customization-work and clean up vintage parts--or want to learn how.  The opening doors and trunk are uncommon bonuses as are the highly detailed internal engine components.  If you're a serious car modeler (or want to be!), this is a must-have kit!

Atlantis Models is an American company.  All its kits are made and packed in the USA!

Check out our Amazon links to Atlantis' Tri-Five Chevys!  These super-detailed kits are all based on the same basic tooling as the X-Parts '55 Chevy.  We're Amazon Affiliates.  If you buy the model after clicking the link, we get a small referral bonus--at no extra cost to you!

BONUS FEATURES 

ATLANTIS MODELS' "TRI-FIVE" MODEL KITS

Atlantis Models owns the tooling to a number of former Revell model kit molds that were favorites of modelers for decades including a number of Tri-Five Chevrolet subjects.  Eventually, we plan on covering all of Atlantis' "Tri-Fives," the 1955-57 Chevrolets.  Check out these webpages for the kits we've reviewed by clicking on the links in the images below:

Mr. Gasser was Atlantis Models' first Ed Roth kit!  He's driving a caricatured, blown '55 Chevy.

The '55 Chevy Bel Air allows you to build a factory-stock '55 Chevy!

The Tri-Five's "middle child" shines in this formerly rare 1956 Chevy kit.

THE TRI-FIVE HOT ROD AND 409 ENGINE IN POP CULTURE:  FROM THE BEACH BOYS TO STAR WARS

In 1961, Chevy's Impala could be purchased with the brand-new 360 hp 409 engine.  It required purchase of the SS package, which included upgraded suspension and brakes. Those SS badges were TINY on the '61.  Is this the ultimate factory "Sleeper Car?"

"She's real fine, my 409."  The Chevy Impala SS had been out a year before the Beach Boys immortalized it in their famous song.

As we referenced above, Atlantis' X-Parts Garage '55 Chevy (with the 409 engine installed) represents a car that would have to be at least seven years old when customized.  Chevy's 409, a pioneering Big Block motor, was first available exclusively as a factory option with the 1961 Impala.  The option pushed the price of an Impala to nearly $4000 and only 162 were ordered that year but in 1962, Chevrolet offered the 409 as a crate motor, ready to drop into any older car in which it could be shoehorned.  If the original Impala SS with the 409 was a hard-sell, over 6,000 409 crate engines were sold the next year.   What made the difference?

The 1955 Chevy in "Two-Lane Blacktop," an iconic 1971 movie.

One of the primer-gray 1955 Chevys used in Two-Lane Blacktop was modified slightly to become Bob Falfa's ride in 1973's American Graffiti.

The 409 engine was immortalized in the Beach Boys' hit, "409" in 1962.  While pricey paired with a new car at the time, it was common to drop the crate version into an older or cheaper car.  In actuality, a 409 does not easily drop into the 55-57 Chevys, but it can be added with some modifications to make it physically fit (Don't worry; the "X-Parts" 409 in your Atlantis '55 Chevy will fit just fine!).  Being smaller and lighter, a Tri-Five Chevy with a 409 would have been faster than the early 1960s Impala SS.  A customizer would likely add some non-factory tweaks to the motor internally and externally to easily push horsepower above that "official" 360-number, leaving the new Impala SS in the dust.

A 1955 Chevy with a modified big-block motor is prominently featured in two 1970's movies.  Two Lane Blacktop was filmed and set in the year 1971.  The primer-gray car in that movie had a big-block Chevy V-8.  Two Lane Blacktop failed at the box office during its first run but gradually gained an audience from midnight film screenings later on and eventually achieved cult status.  American Graffiti on the other hand was an immediate hit and launched the career of Harrison Ford.

Bob Falfa making the jump to hyperspace in American Graffiti.

From American Graffiti, Harrison Ford cemented his status as a Hollywood Star as Han Solo with his hot-rodded Millennium Falcon ("I've made a lot of special modifications myself").

The car used in Two-Lane Blacktop had a contemporary (at the time) Chevy big-block motor.  When George Lucas' American Graffiti was made a couple years later, the Two Lane Blacktop car received a light refresh for its use in that film.  Harrison Ford's Bob Falfa character was a cocky antagonist outsider whose ride has become arguably the most iconic 1955 Chevy in film.  As we all know, Harrison Ford went on to become Han Solo in Star Wars.  His character incorporated the same sort of swagger that made him stand out in American Graffiti and of course he needed a hotrod ride of some sort.  Instead of a 1955 Chevy, George Lucas gave him the Millennium Falcon!

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