gwolf Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 (edited) This weekend I started working on another glue bomb 32 Ford roadster, and this one is a real dog. I paid $5 for it at the Mid-Atlantic NNL back in May. Body is cracked, it's filthy, there's possibly bleach spilled on it, there's glue burns; all that good stuff. We know already that this is going to sit low, so we ditch the one piece fenders, cut out the long interior door pieces, then figure out how to give the body a nice wedge over the frame. I cut one inch long pieces of 1/4" round dowels, then sanded two sides of the dowel to make it fit into the recessed area of the frame. This will raise the read end of the body, creating the wedge. Scratch that, I don't like how it looks, they stick out too far in order to work, I don't like that the pieces fall out easy,etc; I just don't like it. Update: It's the combination of lumber and car parts that I just don't like. On an older 32 Ford model I'd bought, the builder had an ingenious way of achieving a deep channel over the body without the "rear end sink" that AMT 32's get when built without the fenders. The builder has inserted these flat backed cylinders in the body, so that they raised the rear when sat onto the frame. Did they come from the kit? Did they come from another kit? Where did they come from? A quick trip to a small, old school hardware store and I was able to acquire these; I forget what they're called, but they were 20 cents each, so I bought enough for a few builds. UPDATE: I think they're just small nylon bushings. I was able to trim these down with a hobby knife to just about the same size as the ones on the red 32 pictured above. An almost perfect fit.I'm so psyched about finding these things. The firewall has to be cut out and lowered and a new drive train passage area created. Above is a untouched AMT 32 Ford firewall, below is my trimmed one. How in the hell did metal get embedded into the lower door area of this car? It looks like some kind of foil, but it will not come off. Whatever, the more beat up and weird, the better the outcome. Now I've got the stance I want. The engine is a donor from an AMT ProShop 32 Ford kit, a four cylinder like the kind that came in a 32 Ford. There wasn't enough room for the engine using the frame that came with this car. I thought maybe they made it different then (this is a an older kit), maybe it's a little shorter? Something doesn't fit right. Turns out the floor piece that has the molded-in gas pedal was (heavily) glued slightly too far forward, so the engine wouldn't fit (make sense, since the finished model didn't have it's original one when I bought it). So now that I know that I may end up using the original frame and removing the floor piece by force if I have to. UPDATE: The floor piece was forcefully removed and broke during the process. The kid must've used a tube of glue just on that. I'll grind all that down and either find a parts box replacement or build my own like the last model I made ( http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/123172-amt-32-ford-roadster-gluebomb/ ). Big and little whitewalls are from the parts box, wire spoke rims are from another donor 32 Ford. The radiator and shroud will be lowered to match the cowl height as I go on. I checked photos of a 1:1 32 with that same engine, and I can just shorten the hose part, as it's just rubber. I'll need to find a donor windscreen at some point. Edited July 10, 2017 by gwolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CabDriver Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 Looks amazing so far! I love seeing these old 'bombs restored! Too cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwolf Posted July 10, 2017 Author Share Posted July 10, 2017 Looks amazing so far! I love seeing these old 'bombs restored! Too cool!Thanks James! I'm excited to get back to my desk and work on it tonight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace-Garageguy Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 Just like pulling an old wreck out of a boneyard to make something cool. The original spirit of hot-rodding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Dedo Posted July 10, 2017 Share Posted July 10, 2017 Thanks for posting another inspiring project of recovery and reuse.Paint on body looks like it was applied with a screwdriver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwolf Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 Thanks for posting another inspiring project of recovery and reuse.Paint on body looks like it was applied with a screwdriver.I've gotten really into these builds. It's almost (but not entirely) taken the fun out of building a perfect new kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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