My AMT 32 Ford collection

[alan barton]

Hi there, fellow housebound modellers around the world

Thought I would post this lot up and maybe other people would just like to put up single shots of their AMT Deuces as well.

First up, let me say that I never particularly liked the AMT '32s.  As a teenage I only ever had the body of one roadster plus a gluebombed Tudor.  One of my first ever kits purchased with my own money was the Monogram Son of Ford and ever since I have wondered why so many people seem to like the AMT.  It's proportion issues have been well documented on these pages many times before.

For the last three years  I have been the columnist for Australian Street Rodding magazine, a column called Scale Rodding.  It has been going for well over 20 years by my estimate.  Sometimes when you don't have something  new and ready to write about you go looking through the collection and the stash to see what content you might have for an interesting article.  Turns out I had more AMT 32 than I realised so I set to to get some very old projects finished off.

I would not call any of these contest models but they were fairly cheap and cheerful fun to build and if you work on the wheel and tyre combos and as a result the stance you can get some half decent results.

Feel free to add your models to this thread but lets keep it easy to view by limiting to one photo per car and not quoting photos if you wish to reply to someone.  After all, the original roadster kit is now 60 years old so there should be a few of them out there!

First up is the roadster.  Almost box stock but I did graft the stock rear spring onto a 32 Vicky axle and added a resin  dropped front axle.  Impala wheelcovers and wide whites are for an early sixties vibe

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by alan barton

[alan barton]

My second roadster was inspired by some of the cool survivor models I have seen on Dave Darby's Facebook page.  It is pretty close to the original instruction sheet for the altered roadster.  I didn't have a scoop so fabricated a replica from two slices of plastic spoons - it works for me!

[alan barton]

The first one AMT Deuce I ever built was this five window.  Mostly stock but uses the rear axle from an Ala Kart and the wheels and tyres from a Monogram Edmunds Supermod. It also runs a Son of Ford headlight bar with Dietz headlights

Edited April 3, 2020 by alan barton

[alan barton]

Next, the phaeton that I posted here last year.  My most ambitious AMT Deuce by far with all the suspension from a Buttera 27 T kit grafted on. Also used the headlights and taillights from a Monogram deuce

Edited April 3, 2020 by alan barton

[alan barton]

This Vicky was passed onto me by my friend Roger after he decided to go back to military modelling. He did a beautiful job and the maroon paint would have been my choice anyway!  Other than massaging the stance and adding some Monogram wire wheels for an eighties resto rod look, she's box stock.  Oh yeah, I made my own headlight bar and used some Revell headlights. In my humble opinion, the AMT Deuces look much better on full fenders - you don't notice the section so much. I have both a phaeton and a Vicky under construction, grafted to Revell Deuce components to avoid some of AMT's awkwardness.  Figure I had to do it because it would seem unlikely that in the present climate, Revell would tackle these subjects themselves

Edited April 3, 2020 by alan barton

[alan barton]

Now this model is what you would call a twenty footer. Looks fine from a distance but the bodywork is really not up to snuff but I am good with it.  This was started at least 35 years ago having been inspired by one of Tim Boyd's Modeller's Corner columns on building a 3 window from a roadster and a Vicky. Hey, there was nothing else around back then!. Then it got damaged by heat while on a public display and then the Revell 3w came along and I was going to scrap it.  Something made me decide to persevere and build a tough little street fighter out of it but I would need more time than I am prepared to give it to get the bodywork squared away - i really struggle with door lines and window moulds! So primer it is.

[alan barton]

This one is a cherished part of my collection because it was passed onto my by the widow of my dear friend Les Hardaker.  Les was the sales rep for the first ever distributor of model cars in Australia and was an enthusiastic builder and collector until his passing a few years ago.  This kit was built on his kitchen table in Sydney Australia circa 1962.  It is box stock except for the fenderwell fender unit from the second issue of the roadster.  It is completely brushpainted but the care and detail he lavished on it has stood the test of time. 

Edited April 3, 2020 by alan barton

[alan barton]

I can't credit the builder of this coupe because it was found in a thrift store here in Perth - how it survived is anyone's guess!  It doesn't have a skeric of paint on it but the plastic is unmarked and there is not a dob of glue to be seen anywhere.  This one will sit on my shelf just as it is, a time capsule from back in the day.

[alan barton]

Also posted here some time ago, this is my custom Tudor body fitted to the Vicky fenders.  Have an original custom Tudor under construction and hopefully finished shortly. It runs fifty Ford hubcaps on red steelies.

[alan barton]

Another model where I can't give deserved credit to the builder because I purchased it from an antique mall in Adelaide South Australia a few years ago.  As best I can tell the original builder cut down an AMT 34 Pickup cab and grafted it to the Deuce fenders. Also appears to have a Model A roadster pickup bed.  I have plans to build a 32 closed cab pickup using the 34 cab with the heavy rear moulding removed but otherwise fitted up to AMT 32 components to continue the collection.

Edited April 3, 2020 by alan barton

[alan barton]

Finally, my three California Jalopy Association style Deuce jalopies.  All feature AMT 40 Ford radiators and roll bars and AMT 36 Ford wide five rims. They also have had the cloth insert removed from the centre of the roof and then a flange of thin evergreen carefully fabricated to give the models the appearance of a genuine steel body. The hoods are rolled up form soda can aluminium.  The Tudor was a sorry mess from my teenage modelling years but suits its new role perfectly.

Hope you enjoyed my collection  - my tribute to sixty years of 1/25th scale AMT 1932 Ford model kits.  Add some of your own - the good, the bad and the ugly!

Edited April 3, 2020 by alan barton

[shoopdog]

Quite the collection of fabulous builds.

[Snake45]

Great post, great thread, thanks for sharing these! 

Just since you invited the rest of us to share....

I especially like your "thrift store time capsule." I have something similar. In 2017, at a flea market, I bought a big box full of "old model car parts" that turned out to be, once I sorted everything out as best I could, the fairly complete remains of 14 cars. One of them was this Vic. The body and all associated parts were off the frame as found. When I'd rounded everything up and put it back together, it looked like this: 

 

Then I took it apart again and rebuilt it. I used all the original parts I had, except the tires, and the left rear fender, since the right one was already missing. I had to add a valve cover from a new kit. I polished the unpainted body, and spent a good deal of time chipping and cutting away various tube glue "boogers" with the tip of an Xacto. Chrome was touched up with Silver Sharpie and Molotow.  I painted the interior, as it looked too unfinished in the black plastic. Here's what I ended up with, my own time capsule from circa 1962:

 

Here it is with the only other '32 Ford I've ever built, a 5-window I did in the early '90s. 

[Tom Geiger]

Great collection Alan, you have many more than most of us! Good to seeing you posting.

This is an old survivor, probably built from the first issue Vicky back in early 1960s.

It’s just classic so I had to have for my old model collection. 

And a very interesting innovation, a working flip top! The original builder glued the wheel wells to the tires so it is hinged by rear axle!   A keeper for sure!

[Koellefornia Kid]

Nice collection, Alan! Really like the red 5-window!

[Tom Geiger]

Here’s a pair for ya! I built the green Vicky as my first contest model some 30 years ago. I bought the sedan delivery on eBay.

I did as many mods as I could back then. I opened and hinged the doors with doll house hinges. The inner door panels are VW Beetle, the window surrounds are window frames cut from a second Vic body used on the opposite sides. I even had working Deora buckets inside. Paint is Pactra RC colors with clear over it.

I even scratch built a baby seat in the back seat. People would smile when they saw it.

I did my first tilt nose and added the working trunk from an Anglia.

And put a full VW chassis under it. I wanted to be trick and different. It wasn’t well received 30 years ago. People didn’t have open minds back then! It never even placed. I remember one contest judge telling me he disqualified it because “that was disrespectful to Ford”.  Times have changed!

[Draggon]

Well, since you invited us ? The last pic is one I picked up on ebay many years ago. It's got such a cool factor I couldn't resist. I've got more, I just have to figure out where Windows 10 has hidden my pictures. 

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, Draggon said:

I just have to figure out where Windows 10 has hidden my pictures. 

All I see is a bunch of code. 

[Draggon]

46 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

All I see is a bunch of code. 

Dang, I can see them.....my pics are from deviantart and google photos. Not sure how to fix that. 

[Muncie]

Alan, Great topic and a lot of cool AMT 1932 Fords.  I like the way you've put them all in a background.  Looking forward to seeing your custom Tudor.

Here's something kind of different - the wheel selection really lets you know when this was built.  It was built on a one month schedule for the local club meeting theme - 1932 Fords.  Fortunately it was one of those odd months with five Sundays.  It is clearly an IMC Lola T-70 with an AMT 1932 Ford roadster.   I was more interested in the shape than detail because detail would take away more than it added.  The interior is also molded and the belly pan is finished and painted same as the top side.   Most of the putty was A+B epoxy which could be shaped with a wet thumb but dried hard as steel,  Green stuff putty was used for some of the finer shaping and this is where I learned greens stuff will shrink.  It is painted with Ditzler automotive acrylic lacquer and the seats are Ditzler sealer.

 

Edited April 3, 2020 by Muncie

[unclescott58]

I love AMT's '32 Fords. Despite what everybody says is wrong with them. I think they look great. And they are a major part of hobby's history. I have several build. And several waiting to be built. As of today, for the first time, I've added AMT's 1/32 scale '32 Ford to my collection. The modern Revell '32s are great too. And I love Monogram's Little Deuce too. MPC's I only "like," because I'm a big '32 Ford fan. I personally have never been unhappy with an AMT '32. 

Now if could just find the Custom '32 Sedan that came with the Willys Coupe years ago. I'd be a very happy man. 

[alan barton]

Snake, I love how sensitively you restored your time capsule. I have one more Vicky body left in my stash and I intend to build one like this but there are other more pressing projects in the queue.

Draggon, no photos here either - would love to see them!

Steve, i don't know how to say this gently but for the first time in my modelling life, I had the Duplicolor silver that I was using craze the plastic through the Tamiya grey primer on that gorgeous body you sent me.  There were tears on my cheek that day, i can tell you!  So from time to time i pick up the body and gently sand a small area with 600 wet and dry.  The window surround are obviously going to be the biggest drama.  I am getting there but it is going to take time because I don't want to risk getting fed up and rushing it.  Slowly slowly catchee monkey.  The crazy thing is , it attacked the blue plastic of your body but not the yellow plastic of the nose.

The Lola Deuce is just stunning!  So far out of left field and yet it works.You did a very delicate job of integrating the too quantomly different bodies into one.

Tom, yeah, I'm always here but to be professional I like to leave a gap between when my articles are published and when the model appears on the net.  Those deadlines come around awful quick so I  have been concentrating on hot rods almost exclusively over the last few years. I have got some other projects on the go that I will post up here shortly.  Love the flip body on the grey Vicky - that is the ingenuity that we were renowned for as teenagers.  Imagine how cool it would have been to show that model to your high school mates and demonstrate the flip top body?  Sooooo cool.

To give you a sneak preview, here is the colour on the custom nose.

 

Keep 'em coming guys!Cheers

Alan

[Phildaupho]

Alan - I have really enjoyed this thread. Thanks for posting. 

[Draggon]

Switched browsers, lets see if this works. 

[Snake45]

Draggon, I see that pic now.