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I don't remember what gave me the idea, but it has been in my head for a while now. As a matter of fact it was already in my head last June in Kanzas, where I did not see Dorothy, but I got me a Boothhill Express showrod in a gallon ziplock bag for something like $10. It was exactly what I had in mind for the project. The other part I needed was the Dan Fink Speedwagon, which I already had a couple of from evilbay. The only setback was, that I found out that the supposedely whole kit of the Boothill express was missing its roof. Well styrene sheet it was.
Since I now had a much longer body, I needed to stretch the frame. I decided to use two separate fromes cut at different places for the job (sometimes it seems like I have an unlimited supplies of '32 parts accumulated over the years before I even gave myself a break from the hobby) Looking at all the issues that would have caused with the cross members etc. I decided to use just the front crossmember and the one at the very back. So basically I had to scratchbuild the frame with some styrene tubing .
I decided to go fullfendered as I have a vision of a hot rodded but elegant hearse. That meant that not only the fenders had to be stretched, but also the running boards now had to be filled to become smooth.
To locate the first crossmember made, on which the rear suspention is going to be, I temporarily glead the rear radius rods to the original kit cross member and to the rear end. This way I had the exact geometry that I needed laid infront of me.
Pretty much the same principal was used for the tranny mounting point and another crossmember further to the front. Then everything was glued together by some design of mine.
This is pretty much what the new stretched chassis looks like as of now. It still needs some more work and attachment brackets and mounts for the suspention.
Thank you for looking and stay tuned.
