Boyd Red ‘32 Ford

[CabDriver]

I’ve been daydreaming about this build for a couple of months now but had a few projects on the bench already...but today I shot the last piece on the 29 Ford I’m working on  and I need to wait for all the paint to set up before polish and assembly so I allowed myself to get working on this one finally.

My (loose) plan is a sectioned Revell 32 Ford with the nice Foose wheels and tires from the F100 truck kit - nice and smooth looking but not FULL streetrod with everything covered up and hidden...just a nice clean modern hotrod.  Oh, and now I’ve managed to find some Boyd Red paint thanks to a member on here it’s gonna be that gorgeous rich red that I really like but have never used before;

First mock-up with the wheels:

I like how they fill the arches - and there’s technically enough space for them to work ok with regards clearance and being functional on an actual car if said car had air suspension and could raise up a few inches and then drop down again to how it sits in these pics.  
 

That always feels like a cop-out to me and that I’m somehow cheating if I use it...but I do want it to have those big wheels AND sit low like it is here when it’s done so I guess I’ll need to get over that issue in my own head if I want to build this thing ?‍♂️?.  Air suspension is actually really trick, and I like the theory of it - I just feel like I’m cheating and have resisted the urge to build such a setup before...

Anyhoo, I haven’t done a sectioned body before but I wanted to take some of the slab-sidedness and ‘weight’ out of the looks of the body and give it a little wedge.

Sliced the sides out:



Marked out a rough 2 inch wedge to remove:

And some cutting and careful sanding so they matched each other perfectly went from this:

...to this:

I like it!  Before reattaching the pieces I added some strips of styrene inside the body to give me a much larger surface to glue to...I won’t want this thing splitting further down the line when I polish it or something:

And a side-by-side before and after:

I realise that I did all this work when I could’ve just used the AMT Deuce body and been done with it - but where’s the fun in that?  ??

Next up, and I’m kinda jumping around this thing at first to get a very loose mock-up of how I imagined this in my head, I removed the rear of the frame and the gas tank to clean up the rear end from this...

To this;

And last but not least for today’s cutting and hacking I sliced the middle out of the kit grill to bring it down in line with the cowl:

More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[Spottedlaurel]

Excellent progress so far, I'm sure it will continue the same way and look great on completion.

You definitely need to get over the suspension thing.....

[slusher]

Great start Jim, I like it already!

[misterNNL]

Very interesting and effective sectioning method. I would never have thought of that. Thanks for sharing your talent with us.

[Jantrix]

Very interesting. Grab a AMT Phantom Vicky and you'll be able to source a modern chassis, suspension and drive train.

[Tom Geiger]

A good start! I like the careful sectioning. 

[Impalow]

oooo... This looks fun Jim!    I would be really tempted to stretch out that front end a quite bit to get that long sleek look.  

Great start and super clean section job!

[bamadon]

I definitely like this project. It's gonna look great with that red paint you've chosen.

[Mr. Metallic]

Wow. let me start off by saying I like the look you've gotten so far. Sleek, yet tough at the same time.

Now, you definitely went a more difficult route with regards to sectioning the body. Your results look great, but I feel you did a lot of extra work. And I'm not talking about just using the pre-sectioned vintage AMT body. Most guys simply raise the rear wheel opening and trim off the bottom of the body. Then add the bottom molding back on. But, you got where you wanted to go, and as long as you're having fun that's all that matters!

I would definitely consider the airbag route. It's not a cop-out. This is exactly why it was invented. To get that low look without bags requires a whole lot of surgery to the chassis, and usually compromises the ride characteristics in the end.

Are you sticking with the 3 window body? Or are you going to whack the roof off?

[dino246gt]

WOW, I'm excited to follow this one, very cool so far so I'm sure it'll be a knockout!

 

[CabDriver]

19 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

You definitely need to get over the suspension thing.....

Haha!  I’m going to SUSPEND those feelings for this one ???.  I’ll try anyway...

12 hours ago, Jantrix said:

Grab a AMT Phantom Vicky and you'll be able to source a modern chassis, suspension and drive train.

Id really like to do one of those too, before too long, yes!  I seem to have accidentally accumulated eight Revell 32 kits, so I thought I should build a few of those and not buy any more Deuces of any description for a couple of weeks at least ?

11 hours ago, Impalow said:

oooo... This looks fun Jim!    I would be really tempted to stretch out that front end a quite bit to get that long sleek look.  

Great start and super clean section job!

Thanks buddy!!  I was just messing with some parts for another of these today, thinking a little stretch would be cool, yes!  I want to keep messing with these Revell Deuces and kinda keep getting further and further from the kit a step at a time - SO MANY ideas of things I wanna try!  

9 hours ago, Mr. Metallic said:

Wow. let me start off by saying I like the look you've gotten so far. Sleek, yet tough at the same time.

Now, you definitely went a more difficult route with regards to sectioning the body. Your results look great, but I feel you did a lot of extra work. And I'm not talking about just using the pre-sectioned vintage AMT body. Most guys simply raise the rear wheel opening and trim off the bottom of the body. Then add the bottom molding back on. But, you got where you wanted to go, and as long as you're having fun that's all that matters!

I would definitely consider the airbag route. It's not a cop-out. This is exactly why it was invented. To get that low look without bags requires a whole lot of surgery to the chassis, and usually compromises the ride characteristics in the end.

Are you sticking with the 3 window body? Or are you going to whack the roof off?

Chopping the bottom off the body never even occurred to me ????.  Never let it be said that my brain ever comes up with the easy way to do things ?.  Yeah, sticking with the 3 window configuration for this one I think - but making a ‘coupster’ out of one of these is on my to-do list here too.

Thanks for all the nice comments everybody!

Somehow, today’s progress is pretty minimal considering I worked on this thing from 10am to 7pm...I guess I must charge hourly rather than for the whole job ?

Scribed out the trunklid:

I’ve been wanting to learn about hinging, so I’m dipping a toe in the water here by just doing the trunk on this one so I can put a fuel cell, battery and air compressor back there for my own amusement - I’m not going to tackle the doors on this one because I’d rather not dig my own grave too soon ?

Added some jambs top and bottom of the opening to support the lid:

And after shimming the lid top and bottom to replace the material I’d removed whilst scribing it out I think I’ve got an ok fit to keep tweaking until I’m happy:

I wanted the hinge at the bottom of the trunk so it opens buggy-seat style, and after 4 hours (!) of making a bunch of hinges I think I’ve got one that will work ok:

And, incredibly that’s how I spent the entire day today ?. Not much progress but didn’t go backwards any at least.

I feel like these steps in a build are like when an artist sketches out the whole scene before bringing out his paint - kinda rough everything in close-enough to get the overall look how you want and refine from there.

More sketching tomorrow! ?

[Koellefornia Kid]

Great project! Can't wait to see it in that Boyd Red!

[Paul Payne]

Any thoughts on an engine? If the hood is going to be longer, how about a V-12? Maybe a lengthened Y-block ?

[Dinky]

Nice progress, looking forward to the next update

[Plowboy]

I like what you've done so far Jim! I actually think the way you did the section is the best way to do it. No trying to scribe in new door lines, raise the wheel arches or adding the molding back to the bottom. Just cut and paste.

I like the Foose wheels. But, the fronts seem a little too big to me for a street rod. Maybe consider using a set of staggered wheels (19s for the front. 23s for the rear) from Pegasus. They make them in a couple different styles. 

[CabDriver]

10 hours ago, Paul Payne said:

Any thoughts on an engine? If the hood is going to be longer, how about a V-12? Maybe a lengthened Y-block ?

Actually, I LOST some space for the engine now that the body sits down a little more at the front - haven’t totally decided on an engine yet but I haven’t got space for any extra cylinders without some MAJOR work - I need to dig through my stash and see what I’ve got!  I do like the idea of a V12 tho, even if not for this project, for another one down the line...
 

7 hours ago, Plowboy said:

I like what you've done so far Jim! I actually think the way you did the section is the best way to do it. No trying to scribe in new door lines, raise the wheel arches or adding the molding back to the bottom. Just cut and paste.

I like the Foose wheels. But, the fronts seem a little too big to me for a street rod. Maybe consider using a set of staggered wheels (19s for the front. 23s for the rear) from Pegasus. They make them in a couple different styles. 

Thanks buddy!  I did look at the Pegasus wheels - I’ve got a few here I think.  These Foose wheels are meant to be 19 in the front and 20 in the rear, although I didn’t measure to check yet...I should do that, because they do seem larger than that.  I’m enjoying the challenge of stuffing all that wheel in there anyway ?

A little more today...made the compressor for the air suspension:

I’ll add some hoses and some more detail once it’s painted.  Then I made a little tub so the trunk would actually have some trunk in it now that I’ve made it openable...

And a mock-up with the body to make sure it fits ok:

Started some work on the rear suspension but got sidetracked learning about airbags so didn’t get very far on that...more soon!  Thanks for all the nice comments!

[slusher]

Nice scratch building on the little compressor, and nice trunk!

[Plowboy]

35 minutes ago, CabDriver said:

These Foose wheels are meant to be 19 in the front and 20 in the rear, although I didn’t measure to check yet...I should do that, because they do seem larger than that.  I’m enjoying the challenge of stuffing all that wheel in there anyway 

 

They're definitely bigger than 19 and 20. I haven't measured them either. They seem more in the range of the California Wheels that Revell makes to me.

[CabDriver]

16 hours ago, slusher said:

Nice scratch building on the little compressor, and nice trunk!

Thanks buddy!

15 hours ago, Plowboy said:

They're definitely bigger than 19 and 20. I haven't measured them either. They seem more in the range of the California Wheels that Revell makes to me.

You’re right!

Fronts are 21:

Rears are 22:

A little work on the rear axle today - ordered some little o-rings to represent airbags, but in the meantime I scratchbuilt some trailing arms, resin cast a Quickchange center section and some other little bits:

And a check with it in the frame:

I need some different colored styrene so this stuff is easier to see ??.  Once I get the o-rings I can make sure it all fits how it oughta and clean these parts up and get them ready for paint.

Need to figure out the front end next - more soon!

Edited July 12, 2020 by CabDriver

[Dinky]

Awesome scratch building and customization.

The wheels do look a little big in the front but I believe the Pegasus wheels are to small in the front, they come with very thin tires.
Should have some, can share the size if you want.

 

[Paul Payne]

Very nice rear suspension and drive train design. BTW, what did you use to cut the curves above rear fenders?

[Matt T.]

Awesome new profile. Love it! 

[CabDriver]

On 7/13/2020 at 2:27 AM, Dinky said:

Awesome scratch building and customization.

The wheels do look a little big in the front but I believe the Pegasus wheels are to small in the front, they come with very thin tires.
Should have some, can share the size if you want.

 

I’d be interested to see what size they are, if that’s not too much trouble - thank you!  Do the wheels match these Foose wheels pretty well so I could mix and match maybe?

On 7/13/2020 at 9:11 AM, Paul Payne said:

Very nice rear suspension and drive train design. BTW, what did you use to cut the curves above rear fenders?

Where I bobbed the back of the rear fenders to put that curve you mean?  Just drew a round edge with a circle template and sanded to that edge to get them even and sanded to the line - nothing too complex!  I’ve got some more ideas for those fenders that I’d like to try still - more on that soon!

On 7/14/2020 at 11:20 AM, Matt T. said:

Awesome new profile. Love it! 

Thanks Matt!

A little more on this in the last couple of days - did some research and found this production air-suspended frame (actually for a Model A, but close enough for what I’m doing):

And used their design as a jumping off point for my own suspension setup.  I made the frame with brass, soldered together:

And added some bracketry and mounts to the stock frame to attach it in such a way that it’s nicely hidden from the side and front - mostly anyway - for a nice clean look:

That’s most of the complex stuff done on the frame for now, aside from some detail work.  Speaking of which, I chopped off the rear fuel tank which left me with this ugly back end on the frame:

I had the idea to have the rear of the frame kick upwards to meet the rear edge of the fender, so I made some little “devil horns” as I’m calling them now like this:

And they’re on the frame now drying ready for some shaping and smoothing tomorrow once the glue sets up;

Finally, went hunting for the smallest headlights in my stash that would work with the sectioned grill I’m using - turns out after 2 hours of measuring and comparing that the smallest I had were the kit ones ?.  I think I’ll mount them something like this:

Oh, and as you can see I slapped a load of Bondo on the edges where I sectioned it just to make sure the join is as clean and flawless as can be before I get to priming...more soon!

Edited July 15, 2020 by CabDriver

[Bernard Kron]

Gorgeous fabrication work - I dig the "devil horns" and the modern bagged setup. A couple of months back I finished a Deuce highboy roadster where I, too, deleted the gas tank, so I'm glad to see the quick-change since this mod always puts the entire rear end on full display. I'm tempted to suggest a mild chop on the top to be more in proportion to the sectioned/smaller grill shell. But regardless, it's lookin' great. Build on!

[Dinky]

Again some very nice progress!!

Some pictures with dimensions in MM

  

How they look under the car.

Also have these, they are Torq Trust II I believe, they look like the wheels on your start picture. With the sleeves you can make bigger and wider wheels with putting a small rim from the left site into the sleeve