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Me Boo-Booed - 1934 Ford Coupe


Deuce Coupe

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Hello Everyone, I truly am as stupid as I appear so let's get that out of the way right off the bat.

I'm currently working on a 1:32 scale Lindberg 1934 Ford 3-Window Coupe.  I bought 5 of these kits at $5.11 each, so I have plenty of room to learn. :D

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Ok, here's my first problem.  I thought I was being smart painting the parts whilst they were still on the sprue trees.  But this has turned out to not be so hot for this particular model. The body is in 3 pieces, plus the fender/chassis.  But the problem is that this body is not going to go together easily, especially after having been painted.  You can see how the firewall isn't even close to lining up.  So I'm going to need to glue that together first and then set the lower part of the body into the chassis as shown in the picture below.  Right now I don't have anything glued:  But you can see how the firewall is very far from being lined up.  So I'll have to glue that first along with some reinforcement and then "spring" the two halves of the sides of the body into their proper place.

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Then I'll have to fit the top part of the body onto the lower parts and glue it to the bottom half.  I'll probably have to do this using the chassis as a guide/holder to be sure that everything will line up.  I should probably glue one side panel to the top at a time right?  Then I should end up with something like shown below on hopefully far better lined up. The only problem is that I'll probably ruin the paint job by the time I do all this gluing and aligning.

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Notice in the above photo I'm also thinking about trying to "bash" a 1:32 scale T Street Rod engine into this kit.   But this is going to be one extremely tight fit.  I think it might make it, but it's going to be close.  I'll have to cut out the floorboards or tranny to get it to fit, and probably even remove the distributor entirely.  I'm not sure if this engine can be made to fit or not.  It's going to be really close if it can be done.  In any case, I'll probably ruin the body paint by the time I'm done trying to glue the body all together.  I don't think I should have painted the body first.   But not to fear, I have five of these kits!

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As you can see above I have a second chance to learn how to do this right.  I think on this second model I'll glue the three body pieces all together first before any paint has been applied.  Get that all lined up and squared away and then paint the body as a single piece.  The only question here is whether I'll be able to install the glass in the upper part of the body afterward?  The instructions state to install the glass before gluing the top piece to the bottom panels.  But I don't want to have the glass in it when I paint it, that would require masking off the windows which would be a real pain.

Anyway, I warned you that I'm stupid, so all suggestions are welcome. :D

I took this last photo just to show the three body panels clearly.

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Like I say, I have five of these kits to play with.  So this is all a learning experience.  I might even buy more if I can get this construction down to a science.  I was even thinking of toying with trying to cut open the doors on one of these.  But I won't try that until I get a few of them built.  I would imagine that the body would need to be constructed as a single piece with some seriously good structure before I moved forward to cutting doors open.  Or do you think it would be better to cut the door out of the bottom section and top section separately and then glue those two pieces back together?  That would seem to me to be far more likely to end up with bad alignment.

So anyway I have five chances to build a good body here.  So all suggestions are welcome.  I haven't glued anything yet, but I have painted the first body as you've already seen.  I think that was my first mistake. :(

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If I were attempting this, I would probably use a squared-off piece of 2X4 to hold the sides parallel while gluing the top to them.  And I would use CA glue and sprinkle baking soda on it for a very strong join because there will likely be some force applied later.  I would probably cut off the firewall and either reshape it or replace it.  Good luck however you try to do it.

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wow, I had no idea they were selling those kits with such deformed parts.

all if the 1/32 "lindberg" style kits I have are vintage Pyro or Life Like brands with few exceptions.

the firewall on the '34 coupe should not be angled like your photos show.

when I built my '34 Ford coupe, I assembled the body totally while occasionally checking the fitment on the fender/chassis piece.

don't remember if I used the kit interior pan but I think the seat got cut up to make a rumble seat.

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I suggest attaching the body sides to the top piece, making sure the body lines/features align with the top section.

as long as your glue joints are strong, you should be able to spread the body enough to get it to fit onto the fender piece.

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If I were attempting this, I would probably use a squared-off piece of 2X4 to hold the sides parallel while gluing the top to them.  And I would use CA glue and sprinkle baking soda on it for a very strong join because there will likely be some force applied later.  I would probably cut off the firewall and either reshape it or replace it.  Good luck however you try to do it.

First I have heard of this application....what does the baking soda do ?

James ... I always try to glue all body parts together before painting.   making sure I can get the interior and chassis installed.... looks like your gluing the windows in after painting the body should'nt be a problem.... good luck with your further progress....

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Time for a little update. :D

There are no alignment pins or tabs or even an overlap for these body sides.  It's just a butt joint.  So I made my own overlapping alignment guides that will also serve as great support for the front firewall of the body.   You can see below where I glued a couple of pieces of scrap plastic onto the inside of the firewall on each body half.  This will help to align them and provide a very strong glue joint to hold the firewall together.

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In the next photo I've actually glued the two pieces together.  I have them clipped together with sawed-off clothes pins.  This win in sure a prefect alignment as they dry. 

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In the next photo I'm just showing that I'm doing this to five bodies.  I have five to build so I'll probably do the other two whilst I'm at it.  I'm confident that this is going to work pretty well.

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Finally the glued and dried lower body half mounted temporarily on the chassis in the photo below.  It's like a spring now since the body halves naturally want to spring outward.  But that's cool, it actually fits very snugly into the chassis.  So next step will be to glue the body top on to this lower section.  I think I'll just glue on one side at a time.  There seems to be enough play in the plastic to allow that.  That will make it easier since I can wait until the first side is totally dry before trying to align the other side.

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Things are coming along!  :D  I've got three lower bodies glued together and well-aligned.

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As a second more ambitious project I'm just starting to cut out the rumble seat door on the black body.  This will be my FIRST door panel cut-out project.  So we'll see how this goes.  I painted the body with flat black paint just so I can more easily see the panel lines I'm scraping out.

Close up of the rumble seat panel lines:

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I did a boo boo on the left side,  But I think I can fix that up with a little primer and sanding.  What happened was I accidentally turned the Exacto knife around to the sharp cutting edge down and it went off the panel groove.  So live and learn!  Never use the sharp edge of the Exacto blade when scraping out a panel groove.  I knew better too, I just wasn't paying attention.

I think I'm getting too carried away with model building cutting out door panels already. This hobby can be addictive!  Somebody needs to STOP me if I start getting bogged down in too much detailing.   But hey one working rumble seat out of 5 coupes?  That's not too much of an addiction is it?

 

Body (2).JPG

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I built one back in the mid 70s while on vacation,chopped the top a little but kept the stock tires but when i got hone changed the wheels and adapted a Triumph Tr3? front suspension. Shortly after that I robbed the wheels off of it so it sat wheel less for over 35 years and was almost going to get tossed in the trash but found some wheels and tires and saved it,

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