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Chopped '34 track-nose 3-W coupe. New nose, finally, July 13


Ace-Garageguy

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I've been stalled on this one for a year and a half, in part waiting for my skills to catch up to my imagination.
This started as a Monogram snapper, now much modified.

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I chopped it more and combined some parts to make a new nose.....

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....made a mold of the result and copied it in fiberglass....

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...scratch built (really) a frame and roll-bar. The rails are copied from AMT '36 Ford, and kicked up in the rear. The x-member is copied from a Revell '40 ford, but narrowed to fit the rails and drilled, and the roll-bar hoop is styrene rod, cold-bent by hand. Suicide front suspension and quarter-elliptic rear with long traction bars...

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Also making up a Hilborn-injected Lincoln 368 Y-block from some other old parts. The front suicide axle-mount is adjustable for height and the firewall is sheet styrene.

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Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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Thanks guys. I really appreciate your interest and comments.

Foxer, I've been watching your '32 build and really like the way you integrated the headlights into the hood sides. Very slick and got me thinking......

Tooltas, that's exactly what I was going for...a street / lakes / drag car that would be state-of-the-art in 1957.

I've been off and on this build for over 2 years and have learned a bunch in that time, and I'm wanting to see this one done soon. There are things I'd do differently if I started it today, and I'd thought about changing them, but I've decided to just finish what's here.

One thing I WILL change, that I just noticed on the top photo, is that the cut angle at the front of the hood would make it very hard to remove and replace without nicking the paint in 1:1. In my continuing anal-retentive quest to get things like this right, I'll make a new set of nose-hood pieces and change the angle of the cut.

I had an elaborate back-story for the car...the engine will be a replica of the one in the '57 Mercury Mermaid (a couple of the Holman-Moody engines COULD have found their way into private hands) etc. etc., and some of it got so involved that the research took considerable time too.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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  • 5 months later...
  • 2 months later...

So, the big deal that stopped me on this one was the cut-line at the nose / hood juncture. A little thing, but it always bothered me. It spoiled the proportions, to me anyway. The new cut-line is shown in marker. It's also vertical to allow the hood to come straight up with the nose still in place.

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A closer look, with the new nose and hood out of the mold, on the left. I have still to trim it to fit the cowl (it's made oversize in order to fit several bodies) and then mark and cut the new line. I'll also scribe the inside of the mold afterwards, so I can find the cut-line easily next time.

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