Dry-lakes scratchbashed '29 Ford/Ardun: Front 4-link, etc., Jan. 26

[bisc63]

"First shot here shows the level forward section of the bellypan, and the raked rear portion. Idea is to generate a little downforce on the tail to improve traction at high speeds."

OK, this cracked me up...not because it isn't sensible (it is!), but because earlier on you had decided on a humungous water tank in the back. I don't think downforce on the rear end is going to be a problem; that much water is HEAVY!!

Loving this project, and have a couple of my own in a similar vein that have been on hold for too long as I'm remodeling a place to live! Mine are salt flats racers inspired by the book someone had posted earlier in this thread titled "The Birth of Hot Rodding". If you don't have a copy, you owe it to yourself to pick one up. I got a great deal on mine at Barnes and Noble. It's written by a guy who was a photograper in the military, and a rodder in civilian life, so he knew his photo equipment and cars, and took tons of photos way back when. Best part is the amount of color shots he took, very costly and rare for the time period, and the book is filled with them!

Keep up the good work on this one! Can't wait to see it done, and I'm gleaning all kinds of tips and tricks from your writing!

[horsepower]

I know that I'm late to class on this, I really like your fidelity to the period of time you're going for so I kinda thought it would be a possibility that the four link front radius rods are a little advanced for the time period, and would be more correct if you used hairpin style radius rods instead, other than that it's really looking good. 

Just an idea for future reference, you might invest in a quart of polyester primer, I did for a project long ago and it was the best time saver I ever did, after two wet coats over 36 grit sanding marks it was totally done drying and shrinking overnight and had flowed out to where 600 wet sanding was all that was needed to prepare for finish paint. I figure it probably saved as much in regular lacquer primer and thinner as what the entire quart cost, and by storing it in the refrigerator it's stayed usable for almost eight years, and buying an occasional small bottle of catalyst isn't a big deal, and if I didn't keep misplacing them, or forgetting to put them in a cool place that probably wouldn't have been needed either.

Looking forward to the rest of the Ardun build up.

Edited September 1, 2015 by horsepower

[Earl Marischal]

Looking forward to more progress on this one.

Fascinating stuff.

steve

[The dood]

It never cease to amaze me watching builds like this.  The transformation from globs of plastic that looks like sh*t to a well formed and finished model blows my mind.  Following this one for sure

[Ace-Garageguy]

Once again, a BIG thanks to everyone who's following this thing, and everyone who's commented. 

I know that I'm late to class on this, I really like your fidelity to the period of time you're going for so I kinda thought it would be a possibility that the four link front radius rods are a little advanced for the time period, and would be more correct if you used hairpin style radius rods instead, other than that it's really looking good. 

Just an idea for future reference, you might invest in a quart of polyester primer, I did for a project long ago and it was the best time saver I ever did, after two wet coats over 36 grit sanding marks it was totally done drying and shrinking overnight and had flowed out to where 600 wet sanding was all that was needed to prepare for finish paint. I figure it probably saved as much in regular lacquer primer and thinner as what the entire quart cost, and by storing it in the refrigerator it's stayed usable for almost eight years, and buying an occasional small bottle of catalyst isn't a big deal, and if I didn't keep misplacing them, or forgetting to put them in a cool place that probably wouldn't have been needed either.

Looking forward to the rest of the Ardun build up.

I kinda wondered if someone would call me on the 4-link front-end. 

I did my homework on this a few years back, after seeing a 1949 movie with sprint cars running 4-links on tubular front axles. I did a double-take and ran the scene several times. I even went so far as to make blowups of the movie frames and to verify in other...dated...still shots I've found of period track-cars. Not a lot, but they were out there. Even a Kurtis or two. Honest. I agree, it wasn't 'til much later the setup became ubiquitous on the street, after Pete & Jake's kits hit the market, mid-late '60s I believe.

Far as the polyester primer goes, I use it when I think it's appropriate, and you're absolutely right about it being a big time-saver. I usually have it in stock for doing work on the 1:1 cars anyway. It helped a lot on this one. As you may be able to tell, I'm a little obsessed with lakes cars.    http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/65965-mickey-thompsons-challenger-one-still-alive-feb-8/

 

 

Edited September 1, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[horsepower]

Beautiful job on the Challenger, ever since I saw the first pictures of it under construction when I was much younger I've been fascinated by it, I even built one of the original release kits but someday will build another one that actually looks more like the real car. Hopefully while I can still see what I'm doing good enough to make it through the build without having a total breakdown, my favorite lakes car of all time is Redhead, I am lucky enough to know Roger Whipp, and knew Don Hammon, and live in the town where it resided for years, I remember they displayed it once at the local car show with the parachute fully opened and suspended behind the car, that was when it still had the Chrysler in it and before they put the little Daimler baby hemi in.

[Ace-Garageguy]

...my favorite lakes car of all time is Redhead, I am lucky enough to know Roger Whipp, and knew Don Hammon, and live in the town where it resided for years, I remember they displayed it once at the local car show with the parachute fully opened and suspended behind the car, that was when it still had the Chrysler in it and before they put the little Daimler baby hemi in.

I agree Del, the Redhead is a real beauty. Probably the most sensuous shape ever built as a car, and about the only one I can think of that I'd make the effort to scratch-build. I haven't searched the internet thoroughly, but so far I haven't come across any bare-chassis shots. Do you, by chance, have any reference material on that fabulous car?

For those who don't know what we're talking about, here she is...

       

 

[horsepower]

The top photo is after it had the Daimler installed, because it doesn't have Roger Whipp listed as one of the owners,  just a few years ago it was restored for a showing at Kool April Nites in Redding the year that the original Shasta Roadsters car club was honored. The drag strip in Redding is the oldest continuing operational NHRA strip in the country, and Roger Whipp got into a tiff with Wally Parks in the early days because he was the first promoter to pay tow money to bigger name racers, his reasoning was without that they wouldn't come to an out of the way track like Redding, Jim Dunn was a regular show up at our little track. One of the best races ever seen here was between Ivo's Showboat driven by some new kid named Don Prudhomme against the local CP&E dragster that was powered by a 301 Chevy, with Hilborn injection and a Ford three speed transmission with seven inch slicks, if Champ Houston the driver of the CP&E car hadn't missed the 1- 2 shift he would have won, a lot to be said about not smoking the tires the full quarter mile. And Champ was his given name not a nickname, guess he was supposed to be a racer.

The Redhead was built by Romeo Palimedes from Oakland CA. he later became known as a jet car builder, the reason the car

ended up in Redding was because the original person it was built for backed out and Romeo was wanting some money, I've heard it was a super deal.

Edited September 3, 2015 by horsepower

[Ace-Garageguy]

One step forward, one back. Got the shaping and final fitting of the forward bellypan almost done, but the rear bellypan just wouldn't sit square. It's laminated from sheets of styrene and pieces of old gluebombs, and as the glue dried, it warped. Only solution was to twist it 'til it broke, dig out part of the old joint, re-glue it in the correct position with thickened CA (with the pan taped to the body-shell as a jig, to insure it dried square), then re-bondo the area.

[wayne swayze]

Glad you're back on this one Bill. Many of us just love it!   

[Ace-Garageguy]

I've been wondering what the glooey-mess chassis under this thing started out as. Turns out it's the old MPC Switchers '32 Ford phaeton / sedan. While it actually looks nothing at all like a real '32 Ford chassis, it makes a good basis as a generic rectangular-tube racecar chassis.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Getting very close to paint.

Had a little problem, though. The way I scratchbuilt the front of the thing was so fragile, it was beginning to crack during sanding. It was never intended to be permanent, but rather to last through paint and then be used as a plug for a set of molds. Only solution here was to coat the inside of the nose with a layer of fiberglass, which should impart enough strength to get me through paint, polishing, and mold-making.

Edited February 2, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[1930fordpickup]

[Mr. Metallic]

This is the first I've seen of this build. I love it. As usual your fab work is interesting and unique. I'll be following along now.

[crazyrichard]

awsome work !!

[vintagercr]

Nice work so far

[Earl Marischal]

Any more on this one Bill?

Cheers

steve

[modelfink]

loving this build. I cant wait to see more

[rlwheels]

Having very recently had the opportunity to do some extended model building for the first time in over a year, I wanted to start with something fresh to get the juices flowing. I've got a lot of builds I'll be getting back to shortly, but starting on any of them first seemed more like work than fun.

 

I'm interested in the early years of hot-rodding, and the development of dry-lakes cars in particular. I have a late-pre-war 4-banger close to completed, a flathead-powered streamliner just starting up, a fantasy pre-war build with an Allison aircraft engine in mockup, and Thompson's Challenger One from 1959 about to get re-started...several others in planning.

 

The hot-rod scene was changing fast after WW II ended, and I want to do several models of cars that would be representative of this rapid evolution.

 

In 1949, the overhead-valve Detroit V8 engines were just coming online in production cars (Olds and Cadillac) and hadn't trickled down to the racers yet. Flatheads were still king, and the hottest flathead-based engine of them all was the OHV Ardun head-conversion.

 

The look I'll be going for is something much like this, but Ardun-powered, built mostly from salvaged junk (like a real one would have been) and influenced by the track cars of the time.

 

 

The chassis will be salvaged from this gluebomb '32 Ford (NOT a '32 chassis, but something of unknown origin)...

 

 

and the body will come from this gluey '29 (apparently a refugee from the original AlaKart / '29 Ford double kit, judging from the decals)...

 

 

The chassis is pretty nasty...

 

 

and the first mockup puts us here...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2016 by rlwheels

[rlwheels]

I just noticed you finally identified your chassis. I was aware of the source but unable to reply (months ago) for some reason. It's in more than one Switchers kit.

Edited August 17, 2016 by rlwheels

[Ace-Garageguy]

Finally finished the bodywork and put a black wash in the body lines (more for an experiment, as this is still just the plug for a mold set).

First three coats of Ace Hardware refrigerator white gloss lacquer. A little peel, but nothing difficult to deal with. A few days drying, wet-sanding with 800, and a couple more coats, then final wetsand and polish. The idea is to get a hard, slick surface to mold from. (I'm disappointed that the black wash doesn't show up better in the panel lines. I may not have scribed them deeply enough)

 

 

[blunc]

YAY, Bill painted something!!!!!

Go Bill, go...

[mod3l Lover]

    I just love that look Bill!!  Or maybe it's

lust, I'm not quite sure!?!

   That look of the Indy car nose out front

really set the flow from there on back.

  Been watching this for a while, and I'm

very happy to see it getting here.  As are

you I'm quite sure!?!

 

   David S.

[Earl Marischal]

Bill,

I'm another fan of this build. When you say mould, does that mean you will be making copies and, if so might these be available to Forum members?

Thanks

steve

[alan barton]

Hey Bill, if you ever get to making copies of this little rocket, I would be happy to trade you for a full set of vacformed  components to build a replica of the Niekamp roadster that was in your B&W reference photo. I built one 20 years ago for the Model Car Museum in Salt Lake City and a slightly different version for myself.  Your Kurtis and my Niekamp would make a great couple!

Cheers

Alan