29 Ford Highboy showcar

[CabDriver]

I built a couple of Revell 29 kits last year and really enjoyed them - I did one of each variation, the Highboy on the Deuce frame and the channeled version over the stock Model A frame.  

I wanted to do a box stock (ish) version of each before getting too crazy and changing everything around too much...but now I’ve done that I think I’d like to change everything around too much and build something more interesting ?

Swap the engine out, add a bunch of detail, make it a Highboy but use the Model A’s frame instead of the more commonly used 32 frame - I’ve got a bunch of ideas.  A bunch of old traditional parts, some crazy paint scheme with flames and sparkles and glitter and fades and airbrushing...I wanna build something FUN!  60s showcar style with all the bells and whistles - a real eye-catcher.

It doesn’t hurt that over Christmas I read every build thread on the site by @John Teresi and @Impalow (two of my favorite builders) so I’m feeling pretty inspired...not that I’m going to hit the levels those guys reach, but it gave me some brain-fuel anyway.

Quick mock-up with some parts I pulled out of my stash:

I like the idea of running a Flathead, and getting this thing nice and low, but making it look like it’s still running a stock Model A frame without the body being channeled.  That’ll require some trickery to get it decently low - I don’t mind the rear being zeed but I wanted those rails to look standard and un-modified in the front through to the rear arches at least.  They WILL be modified, but I’m going to try and hide that as best I can.

First up, the rear - kit frame front and what I think is an older Revell Model A frame rear in the pic below.  To get the back down lower, and because I wanted to, I’ll be swapping out the rear end for something with a buggy spring...and likely some kind of Quickchange but we’ll get to that when we get to it:

Some cutting and glueing later - this will help a LOT with getting the back down further.

Then, on the front, rather than zee at the cowl like I would normally like to do I made the cut as far forward as possible - I’m hoping once the wheels and suspension and grill are on there this thing will sit a bunch lower but it won’t be quite so obvious HOW I got it that low:

Next up, went parts-digging and dug this out of my stash - I guess it’s an AMT Flathead...in fact @Dennis Lacy and a few others on my Instagram gave me some pointers as to exactly what year it represents which will help with detailing it but mostly I liked what Indian Larry called the “gizmology” of it - Flatheads look so good and I love how this one looks in front of this Revell body:

Plenty of work to do before I can even get a real mock-up together, but it’s a start - thanks for looking!

[slusher]

I like your projects Jim, so I will be following along..

[Dave72]

Looks great so far! I will also be following along with your build. Gives me ideas for my own 32’s

[Bullybeef]

I dig flatheads too, I’ll be following this build as inspiration for my unbuilt kit, have a backlog of 32’s to finish first.

but I like your starting point with the frame 

[CabDriver]

Thanks fellas!  Always appreciate the nice replies!  I’ve got a really clear idea in my head of how this one’s gonna look - just gotta actually make the parts arrange in the right way to match what’s in my head ??.  
 

Been wanting to machine some parts for this build once my lathe came and I’ve spent a week or so starting to learn how it works and make some bits.  Cast a resin Quickchange center section and then machined the rest to fit a pair of Boothill Express wheels and tires that I’d picked out for this one:

That rear cover on the axle didn’t cast very well - my resin’s getting old and gloopy but it’s good enough for now anyway...I’ll convert those slicks to Cheaters before we’re done too, I think.  Going with a buggy spring on the rear as I mentioned before - need to drill out the make mounts for the spring and figure out the linkages still

Seeing as I’ll likely be hacking some off the bottom of the grillshell I cast a resin copy so I could save the kit part for something else, and modified the front wheels (from an AMT something I think?) to fit the kit axle:

Next job will be engine mounts and then figure out the floor so I can do a real mock-up.  Not sure what to do for headlamps for this one...maybe something fairly small and tucked in close to the grill?

Not a great deal of progress I know, but I’ve been messing with this thing for 2 weeks and wanted to post an update...oh, and I picked up some candy paint; I want to go full-ridiculous on the colorscheme, do something really eye catching and cool. Flames, fades, lettering, pearls - all the fun paint stuff!  More soon!

[NOBLNG]

Looking real nice! I’m almost done my ‘29 and wish I had cast some of the parts. This build of your should be very interesting to watch.?

 

[James2]

Interesting build, you have my attention...

[modelfink]

cool project!!  Your modifications are looking great.

Another way to lower the front is to make relief cuts in the top and bottom of the rails and "sweep" the front of the frame in a gradual way to achieve the same result. Also, the Revell 32 frame sits much lower in the front when compared side by side to the Revell 29 frames. 

Edited January 22, 2021 by modelfink

[SpeedShift]

Lookin good so far.

[CabDriver]

Thanks for all the replies fellas!  Got some time to get back on this one this weekend...I’d been excited to make some progress!

First up, I imagined this thing having a trans tunnel, or some kind of center console type deal so I made one of those, and a couple of bomber seats:

Should look something like this when it’s done:

I’ll add some fabric portions to those seats - haven’t found quite the right pattern just yet but I’ll find some Plastruct or styrene sheet to make some simple cushions like these:

Next up, the beginnings of the dash I had in mind - I want a big center gauge kinda popping out of it like an eyeball 👁 - and whilst I was at it I pulled out these steering wheel that has been in my parts box waiting for a home and machined a simple column for it.  Doesn’t need to be too fancy, you won’t really be able to see any of it anyway once it’s installed:

It’s a start!

Speaking of metal parts, turned a little gas tank that I’d like to mount up front somewhere if I can figure out a cool bracket or something for it that doesn’t look too bulky and ugly:

I really want to use the Flathead motor in this build to practice machining some parts, so whilst I had a few minutes before bed I made an air cleaner too:

 

I’m kinda flitting around from part to part a lot here - just trying to get far enough along with the major changes and then start working thru the details from there.  Got a pretty wild paintjob in mind for this that I’m excited to get going on too...more soon!

[Paul Payne]

You have my attention! Love your interior ideas.

[SpeedShift]

Yeah baby!

[CabDriver]

Thanks guys!

A little more work on this one - trying to get the front down as low as I’d like it to be.  Was trying not to mess with the kit frame TOO much, but I’ve already chopped the back off, zee’d the front and cut off the engine mounts and made a new center crossmember so I guess we’re past that point now 🤪😂.  
 

As such, sliced out the front crossmember too, and flipped it to get another 2 or 3 scale inches of ride height:

I wanted to machine some kind of steering setup so I made a little ribbed ‘box’ with a matching output and then sliced up the kit linkage and made that metal too:

Didn’t base the parts on anything in particular from real life - just what I had in my head.  

Here’s that poor hacked-up frame as it sits now:

I don’t really care for how the front suspension linkages mount to the frame in the kit - they fit into a couple of slots in the inside of the frame which makes it pretty easy to assemble but doesn’t look great in my humble opinion.  The arms themselves look good to me, but I wanted to mount them to the outside of the frame for this one so I sliced the tabs off, pinned them and added some little eyelets:

I’ll figure out mounting them to the frame next and then redo the engine mounts that I HAD finished until I moved that front crossmember up and forwards a little which gave me some extra room for the engine.

More soon!

[alan barton]

Yeah, that happens sometimes.  Doing a custom right now that I didn't chop or section to reduce bodywork - and that has now been ongoing for nearly every night for the last two weeks - may as well have chopped the thing!

Love the radius rods - I need to do that on a project soon!

Cheers

Alan

[slusher]

On 1/31/2021 at 10:29 PM, CabDriver said:

Thanks for all the replies fellas!  Got some time to get back on this one this weekend...I’d been excited to make some progress!

First up, I imagined this thing having a trans tunnel, or some kind of center console type deal so I made one of those, and a couple of bomber seats:

Should look something like this when it’s done:

I’ll add some fabric portions to those seats - haven’t found quite the right pattern just yet but I’ll find some Plastruct or styrene sheet to make some simple cushions like these:

Next up, the beginnings of the dash I had in mind - I want a big center gauge kinda popping out of it like an eyeball 👁 - and whilst I was at it I pulled out these steering wheel that has been in my parts box waiting for a home and machined a simple column for it.  Doesn’t need to be too fancy, you won’t really be able to see any of it anyway once it’s installed:

It’s a start!

Speaking of metal parts, turned a little gas tank that I’d like to mount up front somewhere if I can figure out a cool bracket or something for it that doesn’t look too bulky and ugly:

I really want to use the Flathead motor in this build to practice machining some parts, so whilst I had a few minutes before bed I made an air cleaner too:

 

I’m kinda flitting around from part to part a lot here - just trying to get far enough along with the major changes and then start working thru the details from there.  Got a pretty wild paintjob in mind for this that I’m excited to get going on too...more soon!

Really nice idea, Jim..

[Kit Karson]

Nice project! -KK

[CabDriver]

Thanks for looking guys!  Appreciate all the nice comments!  

A little more progress today - you ever notice what seems to be the simple part of a build ends up taking forever?  Spent 3 hours mounting front wheels tonight 😫😂.  

I’d found these wheels that matched the rears that I’m using nicely - not 100% sure what they’re from:

I needed some wheel backs for them, and after a BUNCH of digging for something that would work I found some from the Revell 32 kit.  They had too much offset on the lip to work how I wanted, but otherwise they’d be perfect - so a couple of minutes each on the lathe and they’ll work great (before on the right, modified on the left):

I wasn’t going to use the kit brake drums - I figured I’d change them out for something different but couldn’t find anything much that I liked better so I lathed the center hole out so they’d play nice with the new wheel backs:

Need to mess with the kit’s metal pins to get them to mount nicely to the axle, but this’ll work!

A bunch of effort and messing around to barely achieve anything - but it beats a snowball I guess!

More soon!

[slusher]

Jim, where do you source your break drums friend?

[CabDriver]

2 hours ago, slusher said:

Jim, where do you source your break drums friend?

Hey Carl!  Those are just the ones that come in the Revell 29 Roadster kit - they actually have really nice moulded-in bolt detail on the outer faces too, although that big new hole I put in them made that go bye-byes.  There's a bunch of nice parts in this kit that are great for kitbashing!

[Dennis Lacy]

Roadster is looking good so far! I can’t help but think that poor stock flathead needs some hot rod equipment on it, though. 

[CabDriver]

51 minutes ago, Dennis Lacy said:

Roadster is looking good so far! I can’t help but think that poor stock flathead needs some hot rod equipment on it, though. 

Have you seen the price of vintage hot rod parts nowadays tho?!  Oh, of course you have 😂😂😂.

If I had any vintage speed parts for this engine I’d probably be tempted to include them, but I don’t - any cool stuff I could scratchbuilt to hot it up a little maybe?  I’m open to ideas!

A little more progress tonight (I’m trying to post every night so that I actually finish whatever the evening’s project is)...today’s attention was to getting the grill and lights figured out somewhat.  Used a copy of the stock grill, but made a cover for the mesh - I’ll space it out just enough that you can see some of the mesh and air could get in there, but have it look somewhat like a vintage drag car where they’d do this:

Haven’t left myself a tonne of options to mount that tank, but I’ll figure it out.  I like the look tho!

I usually like a big old pair of headlamps on a hot rod, so I went with the smallest ones I could find for this build, just to mix things up.  Used the stock mounts, minus the shocks and reshaped so I can blend them into the frame:

And that’s the sum total of my accomplishments for today - more soon!  

 

[Kit Karson]

16 hours ago, CabDriver said:

Have you seen the price of vintage hot rod parts nowadays tho?!  Oh, of course you have 😂😂😂.

If I had any vintage speed parts for this engine I’d probably be tempted to include them, but I don’t - any cool stuff I could scratchbuilt to hot it up a little maybe?  I’m open to ideas!

A little more progress tonight (I’m trying to post every night so that I actually finish whatever the evening’s project is)...today’s attention was to getting the grill and lights figured out somewhat.  Used a copy of the stock grill, but made a cover for the mesh - I’ll space it out just enough that you can see some of the mesh and air could get in there, but have it look somewhat like a vintage drag car where they’d do this:

Haven’t left myself a tonne of options to mount that tank, but I’ll figure it out.  I like the look tho!

I usually like a big old pair of headlamps on a hot rod, so I went with the smallest ones I could find for this build, just to mix things up.  Used the stock mounts, minus the shocks and reshaped so I can blend them into the frame:

And that’s the sum total of my accomplishments for today - more soon!  

 

Jim,

I have just the perfect hot rod flat head equipment you'll ever want! PM me with an address & I'll put it in the mail!

FRENZEL SUPERCHARGER FLATHEAD FORD

A close friend of mine, Pico Elgin created a 3D Frenzel Blower

All you'll have to add are the carbs.

 

@CabDriver let me know, OK? -KK

[Dennis Lacy]

@CabDriver @Kit Karson

That’s one hell of a nice offer. I’d take him up on it if I were you!

[CabDriver]

@Kit Karson - thank you so much!  PM sent!

@Dennis Lacy - car people are the BEST!  Actually, I’ll happily buy a set if Kit will let me know where to order from, but car people are awesome 👏🏻 

 

A little more of the boring mechanical stuff today - first up, figuring out a driveshaft (used the Revell 29 ends and machined a center section) and linkages for the rear end:

Im always nervous doing this kind of work, even for what would primarily be a showcar - I can’t see why the geometry here WOULDN’T work, but I’ve not fabricated anything in 1:1 like this either so maybe it wouldn’t.  I figure if I got the front linkages level with the front of the driveshaft the geometry would be better - but I didn’t like them there 🤪😂. 

The stock Flathead from this year had a 3 port into 1 manifold, the manifold portion of which is moulded into the block on this AMT engine so I fabricated some headers to match what I had in mind - kinda spindly and vintage looking:

I turned those little trumpets on the lathe too - they need some more cleanup before they’re acceptable but they matched what I imagined in my head pretty close.  Not based on any real part (I don’t think?) - I just liked the idea of them.

Onto the body - I wanted the engine to disappear into the firewall a little rather than having a big gap, and I figured I’d need to modify the kit part some to get it to work, but actually it fit pretty good right off the bat!  Who knew that measuring stuff would work out! 📏😂

Finally for today, I thinned down the kit inner-arches for the rear of the body and got them glued in place - I didn’t need them inset as much as Revell has them so removing some of that offset helped improve the look.  Getting closer to the paint stage, after a little more bodywork and figuring out the windshield!

More soon! 

[CabDriver]

A little more progress on this one yesterday and today... got the frame smoothed out ready for primer:

Then primed and shot with Createx pure white ready for tangerine candy:

Couple of coats of the color on - this is going to be the main color for the body too, albeit with a couple of other colors in the mix too:

The orange color wasn’t QUITE as yellow as I wanted - it’s nice but I wanted a little more flip and brightness to it, so I mixed up some yellow and gold Pearl Ex in some Future and laid some of that down too to bring the tone up a little:

Much better!  I need to be able to match this color when I get to the other components so I mixed plenty of topcoat so I don’t have to try and figure it out a second time further down the road. 

Onto the body - everyone knows if you want a nice bright color you need a nice light base, so here I am starting off with black primer:

I’m doing one of my reverse-masked flame jobs, and I wanted to do some purple to blue flip-flop flames, so I needed the black as a starting point.  Next up, Testor’s color changing paint:

I figure rather than doing a fade paint-job for the flames I can use this paint and have the curves of the body and the way light falls on it to give me the same effect but in a more interesting way.  I saw some Indian Larry choppers last year at his shop in Brooklyn, and I liked how they were using a mix of traditional parts - engines, frames and tanks and so on but with some pretty out-there paint jobs and details.  Totally going for that kind of vibe on this one...

Finished up tonight by shooting over this flip flop layer with some more Future as a barrier coat and tomorrow I can cut some masks and start the REALLY fun part!  More soon!

Edited February 9, 2021 by CabDriver