mr moto

That's a terrific build! You did such a smooth job with the conversion that I'm afraid a lot of people might look at it and not realize what you did. Those with a good eye will really appreciate it.

Those of you who are regulars to the Under Glass forum may have been noticing this plate on many of my builds for some time now: I wanted to explore the possibilities of the earliest AMT Trophy Series kits - the first six that all came out in 1959 and 1960. They really were the foundation of the hot rod/customizing portion of the model car hobby and introduced the ideas of multiple parts options, engine swaps and the possibility to build a kit almost anywhere along the spectrum from stock to all out race or custom. Of course, they were simple (sometimes even primitive) by today's standards but they were a revolution at the time. These were the first six kits in what I think is the correct order of release: 1932 Ford roadster (1959) 1925 Model T Ford - a double kit, builds two complete cars (1959) 1940 Ford coupe (1959) 1932 Ford coupe (1960) 1939/40 Ford sedan (1960) 1936 Ford coupe/roadster (1960) Looking over that list, I realized that those are the cars that were also the foundation of the real 1:1 hot rod world. The cars you might see being driven by the members of one of the hot rod clubs that flourished at that time. So, a project was born. I present, at last, the seven (remember the '25 T was a double kit) charter members of the Tomkats Kar Klub. And here they are one at a time. '32 Ford roadster (this one's a box art build): '25 Ford roadster: '25 Ford coupe: '40 Ford coupe: '32 Ford coupe: '40 Ford sedan: '36 Ford coupe: There may be future members added but this completes the original concept - time a to do some change of pace builds!

No, I didn't do a build thread but I'll try to dig put some photos from other builds where I used tuck 'n roll and make a little tutorial in the Tips and Tricks section.

This is a compliment that really counts! I hope that one day I can paint like you, John. Until then, it's just beginner's luck sometimes.

Gee! Thanks to everyone for all the great compliments. Maybe I like it better now.

Here's a build of AMT's '32 Coupe, one the earliest of the Trophy Series hot rod kits. It was first released in 1960. I wish I had gone a little wilder with this one but I guess it came out pretty nice for a basic street rod from back in the day.

Don't you love the Dauphine with flames and chromed fender skirts!

Thanks everybody! I was really surprised to see this thread resurface.

A few of them still are. The Hubley Rolls and Triumph TR3 are still readily available in the Academy/MiniCraft re-releases. It makes you wonder what happened to the rest of Hubley's old tooling. They were very short on detail but good starter material for gassers, customs, etc. and most of the subjects were never available from any other company.

Here's an interesting aside about the 390-406-427 look alikes. In his book "Hot Rods by Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth", BDR says that although he was told by Ford that those were 406's when he checked the serial numbers they turned out to be 390's!

I think you answered your own question with the photo in the initial post. There is no standard carburetor color. The gold anodized carbs are a pretty recent thing and in the day when virtually all cars had carbs the "standard" color was just a sort of grungy, dull gray. Having said all that, there's no shortage of colors available to model whatever color of carb is correct for your particular build and era. Google images can be a great help at finding out the right color for any particular vehicle.

That looks terrific! Somebody should have kitted one of those by now but we still get to see one through your excellent work.

WOW! Nothing else to say.

Hey, it was the 60's you know!

Very cool build. There have been more Studes in racing than you might think. BTW, that's actually a '62 Lark.

The trouble is that they were acetate-bodied promos and by now you could never find one that's not warped beyond recognition. If you did it would just be a matter of time. It's a terrible shame but true. Some of them still seem to bring high prices despite the warping!

Just happens that my two most recent builds are AMT '40 Fords. Very impressive kits despite the age of the tooling. They're a totally different kind of kit from modern ones but they build easily and the end result just has the "look".

This box art looks pretty bad ... ... until you see what is actually in the box.

I just built an AMT '40 Ford coupe and a sedan shortly before that and I was very impressed by both. The part count is low but the look, fit, etc. is spot on. Engine detail seems crude but once again the final product comes across as looking just right. Its one of the very earliest AMT Trophy Series kits and definitely was tooled in 1959 or 1960 (1960 I believe).

Let me start by saying that this is another fantastic build. I've been enjoying seeing all Bob's fabulous builds. Now, forgive a hopeless Studebaker geek for correcting the statement on Fador's box - "Predecessor to Studebaker". Studebaker was actually founded in 1852 and after making wagons and carriages for 50 years made their first car (an electric) in 1902. Two years later they made their first gasoline car. In 1911 Studebaker purchased EMF and changed their name from Studebaker Brothers to Studebaker Corp. So EMF figured in the early history but wasn't really a predecessor. We now return to our regular programming... WOW! These builds just blow me away!

This is AMT's venerable '40 coupe (first issued 1960) but built from the recent Round 2 release. It's not much changed from the original. I plan to post some more photos and text later but the short story is that this is my first attempt at doing the "Winfield fade" type paint job. Thanks for all the great comments, guys! As promised, here are some additional photos. The engine is the 389 Pontiac from the AMT '36 Ford with the Latham blower setup from the '25 T kit. I used the Pontiac engine because I liked the side pipes from the "36 Ford and the headers on that engine were made to tie into them. The front fender coves were made by cutting identical pieces out of each front fender and swapping them from one side to the other. Then I used some half round Evergreen plastic to make the beads. The kit came with a nice set of Keystone mags but I decided to use Cragars that were left over from a '40 Ford sedan kit. The interior has '62 T-Bird buckets and the dash is updated with round instruments using a gauge cluster that came in the kit. A dash mounted tach was pretty common back in the day. Thanks again, everybody!

That's crazy amazing! I have an old Hudson kit (of an International IIRC) but it scares me to look in the box and think about actually trying to build it.

Thank you, everyone. I don't know if I ever explained the project that I've embarked on lately. Those who commented about early sixties style are right on the money. The Tomkats Kar Klub is my name for a fictional hot rod club like the ones that were so common in the fifties and early sixties. In this case the "members" of the club will be the first six kits in the AMT Trophy Series. I believe all six of them were issued in 1959 and 1960. It's been a lot of fun and it's easy to see why these kits were so popular in their day even if they lack the modern level of detail. It would be impossible to overstate how important the Trophy Series was to launching the hobby of model car building including the idea that the kit is only a start and you're supposed to give it your own style. There will be seven altogether since the '25 T was a double kit that could build a coupe and/or roadster. They're not being built in order - it's just whichever one I feel like doing next. This is the fifth build and the 1940 Ford coupe and 1932 Ford coupe are still to go. Here's a couple of group photos of all the previous members.

That's terrific work. It has that just right look for a '50s car and all the detailing is very crisp. The seat pattern really adds a lot, too.