To me, 1965 is one of those years. A year when so much seemed new, seemed changed, and not just in the automotive world. At seven, I was in second grade at school. At Elwood, that put me in the last year before I went over the road to the Big School, so I was one of the Big Kids. A Big Frog in a Little Puddle, you might say.
I had an elderly teacher, whom we thought was 80; nowadays of course I realise she couldn’t have been, but she must have been in her last year before retirement (I am now older than she must have been). She had a 1920s approach to discipline –with me being a sensitive child, this rammed me right back into my shell, and undid the previous teacher’s good work. But I digress.
1965 seemed to be a year of change. Locally we had the larger, American-designed HD Holden replacing the much-loved and now iconic EH;
…the XP Falcon, which to my eyes looked much nicer than the preceding XM,
….and the AP6 Valiant with its fussy grille. No change in the family car, as Dad had replaced the Morris Oxford with a used Falcon in 1963, and it was still new to us.
And wonder of wonders, you could get little snap-together models of these in breakfast cereal – mine got lost long ago.
This was about the time I started to become aware of other countries, and how different some of them were. From children’s stories, I knew our weather was different elsewhere – you guys had this stuff called snow! – and our seasons were out of step. Since the War Australia had gotten a great influx of migrants. We had lots of migrant families in my area, most of them passing through to somewhere better. My best friend was Polish, I had other friends who were English, Irish, Hungarian, and Greek. My parents had German friends, and our downstairs neighbours were French. All I knew about America came from TV shows; it seemed like another universe. But what got me was the cars – to think Dad’s Falcon was a small car to them!
So let’s have a look at some American cars.
The standout is the Riviera. The ’65 is my favourite of the first generation as it cleaned up the lights front and rear, and the bodysides. Guess that’s why I’ve built so many of them! The AMT kit is an easy build and offers plenty of options, including several custom versions.
Another favourite is the big Pontiacs. I still find it amazing that a car so big can look so graceful:
AMT did the Bonneville as an annual kit for 1965, reissued it in the late eighties, then turned it into a faux 2+2 (only changed trim and badges, not the wheelbase or trunk length) in the nineties:
And they had this wonderful colour called Iris Mist:
Our Pontiacs came via Canada, so I guess they were Cheviacs or Pontrolets rather than the Real Thing. Moving on, here’s a smaller Pontiac. Also an AMT kit, it’s the GTO from 1965. Another one of those kits that have been around forever, this one has suffered terribly from being reworked into a Modified Stocker race car (a fate that befell many of their older kits), then returned to a street car in the eighties. Some of the eighties re-engraving was panned at the time, lights, wipers and badges being a bit rough. Still, it was a GTO:
Moving across to Chevrolet, we have the Revell Impala, a great kit from the nineties, when the American manufacturers realized that adults made up a fair slice of their customers, and started giving us more detailed kits:
I always loved the style of these, especially coming after the straight-lined ‘63s and ‘64s. Somehow the added curves seemed to give the length purpose; it wasn’t merely a car size XXXXL:
Even an Aussie kid had heard of the Corvette (above), and had a vague idea of its racing exploits, but only years later did I hear of the Chevelle. It would have been a good size for Australia:
And an American ute, who knew?
On to Ford. AMT has reissued their old 1965 Galaxie kit many times over the years. It has issues; the taillights stick out past the rear bumper, but I’ve built a few of them anyway:
And of course I’d heard of the Mustang. In fact the first kit I was given was one; it hasn’t survived. And I still haven’t built a replacement. But here are a couple of Shelbys, a street GT350, and a racing 350R:
We’ll have to end our visit to 1965 here. Unfortunately, I don’t have any other 1965 cars to show; no Mopars, AMCs or Studebakers – oh, hang on a moment….
As always Peter, your models are very well done.
In fact, you may have been successful in switching my Riviera alliance here as I’ve always been a Boat-tail man… (childhood impressions indeed). Between Aaron65 actually owning one (a ‘63) and these beautiful models (great color choices, BTW), and the rest of you Curbivores who prefer this generation, perhaps “Resistance is Futile” to drop the second Star Trek reference in as many days in my comments, but I digress.
Similarly, I’m warming more to the ‘65 Impala. As I’ve stated here before many times, my preference of this generation has always been the ‘68, and then the ‘66 first, as they were the family cars of my childhood (born in ‘60). But the ‘65 was such a departure from what came before it, I see what you mean here about the model year 1965.
And then of course there’s the Mustang……
Nice selection of cars, 1965 was a special year. / many great cars.
I have unbuilt kits of several of these sitting on my shelf. I specifically haven’t built the AMT 65 Riviera or GTO because I fear the kits are so crude it wouldn’t be worth the effort. What do you think, Peter, are they worth it?
I have built the 65 2+2 mainly because the 65 2+2 is one of my all time favorite cars. I had previously built the Bonneville in high school years. I didn’t realize until after I did the 2+2 that it was the wrong wheelbase. Now it bugs me, but it built into a decent looking car as long as you don’t look too closely at the interior, which is quite crude apart from the dash as is typical of kits of that era. I would LOVE to have a modern 65 Pontiac kit, like the 65 Impala, which is also sitting on my shelf awaiting building. It’s been waiting since the 90s, because my modeling time is sadly so limited.
Thanks for sharing these builds!
Peter, as always, your models are sublime. The green 1965 Bonneville really captures my eye this morning. Fantastic!
Your 1965 was my 1968. There must be something about being 7 that makes it a particularly memorable year. Unlike your 2nd grade teacher experience, mine was the opposite yet equally memorable. My 2nd grade teacher was a freshly-minted teacher who was chock full of newfangled ideas on how to engage and motivate kids. That was great…but equally great was the fact that she was the spitting image of the actor Peggy Lipton (Mod Squad, etc…) and dressed similarly. That was quite something, even to a 2nd grader. Of course, she was about the age then of one of my kids now.
Beyond differences in teachers, there’s much similar. That was the year where I really started keeping strong memories of cars. I began to acquire real friends. I put together small plastic models from Post cereal boxes. I still have one of those (sans wheels and A-pillars, unfortunately).
Great post!
At the risk of sounding like a broken record — I love these posts. Thank you, Mr. W!