29 Ford Model A, my first build, first WIP

[Jrod]

Hello, 

 I’ve been browsing the forum for awhile and couldn’t help but notice what a chill and supportive environment there is here. After not having built anything since I was a teenager in the 90’s I decided it would be a good time to pick the hobby up again, so grabbed the Revell 29 model a roadster, I would like to share my build progress, even if it’s not up to the level of so many of the builders here, I’m not afraid to get in over my head. So it begins. 
I started painting and mocking things up. Disaster and discouragement struck quickly. My floor plan was terribly warped. This is what it looked like when compared against the channeled “A” frame:

I tried to straighten it by gluing everything together. Haha, that was a terrible idea! I got so frustrated I put the whole thing aside, figuring this kit would become my first “spare parts source” and moved on to a AMT 65 GTO. That kit was also pretty flawed so I came back to the roadster. More to follow.

[Jrod]

Some time passed and I came back to it. First I had to unglue the channeled A frame from the warped floor board. At this point I figured I had nothing to lose and started figuring out how I was gonna chop the frame and customize the little roadster. I z’ed the front rail to get the front end down, did the cut closer to the front axle.

It turned out ok for a first attempt. Next it was time to get the rear end down. I figured I was going to need the chop up the warped floor board to make anything work, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. Rather then also “z” the rear, I came up with the simple idea to just cut straight through the frame at the axle locating “half moon” and slide the whole thing upwards. This allowed the stock shock mounting location to slide upwards as a unit, thereby eliminating any need to modify the shocks themselves. I have limited skills and tools even at this point so simple was better in my mind. Much rather put in a traditional buggy spring arrangement, but I have no parts supply to pull from so just trying to work with what I have amd have fun, not worry about being 100% accurate

Next, I straightened my warped floor board, I will detail it in my next post

[mademan]

What glue are you using? I suggest getting some CA glue with a "kicker" such as Zap-a-gap , or Mercury. You put the glue on and spray it with kicker and it immediately dries. Or you can get 2 second, 5 second, 10 second etc. CA glues that dry fast without the kicker.

 

either way, don't let it discourage you, this kit usually goes together really well, but a part that warped will definitely cause issue.

[Jrod]

Thanks for the encouragement. I grabbed Mr. hobby mr. Cement deluxe for plastic welding and some CA “extreme power” thin, from hobby lobby. I should pick up some excellerator. I’ve been using small amounts of CA to tack parts together, and when happy with fitting, go over it with the thin cement. In reality I’ve made a lot more progress (and mistakes) at this point, but just decided to start posting now

[mademan]

2 minutes ago, Jrod said:

Thanks for the encouragement. I grabbed Mr. hobby mr. Cement deluxe for plastic welding and some CA “extreme power” thin, from hobby lobby. I should pick up some excellerator. I’ve been using small amounts of CA to tack parts together, and when happy with fitting, go over it with the thin cement. In reality I’ve made a lot more progress (and mistakes) at this point, but just decided to start posting now

Trying things and making mistakes are all part of learning.

[Jrod]

After doing some perusing of these boards, I decided to take action and “unwarp” my floor pan. Here’s how it started- from this angle you could see how twisted it was in the back.

and the front was warped also

I hit it with steam from my electric kettle, hot water and finally my wife’s special high temp infrared hair dryer- which worked the best. I have a heat gun but didn’t want to over do it. 
creative use of the utensils at hand and some tape, after a few cycles I got the whole thing pretty straightAfter this I started mocking up my modified frame and I just did not like the result, with the channeled version of this kit it just seemed like there was so much air under the car. No photos of the mock ups unfortunately, but the great thing with this kit is it comes with a whole extra frame, so I switched gears and decided I would go with the deuce frame. I like the extra “bulk” it gave to the side of the car and feel like the proportions were more appealing. I began plotting how I could get my stance down. 

[Jrod]

I wanted to avoid putting a “z” in the front frame rails. I remember seeing online some time ago a technique where where a relief cut is made in the frame and the whole front end is gently swept upward, so that is what I decided to go with. Using my brand new razor saw I made the cuts:

then I swept the front end upward:

I was pretty happy with the look, but disaster struck. I had gone to far with my relief cuts, when gluing it back up the bottom of the frame blew out and now I had 2 pieces.

I wasn’t easily discouraged this time, I quickly decided to fix it. You can see where I drilled the frame rail end and inserted pins so I could make a nice strong repair and keep it more aligned.

here is the finished result, cement is all set and now it’s pretty solid. I still wanted it lower in the front, so I cut out and flipped the front crossmember. That was a bit of a pain but worked out, I’ll have some details on that mod in the future, I’m still working out the radiator shroud arrangement. Next installment will cover my rear suspension setup. Thanks for looking

 

 

[mademan]

I am currently building this kit also. What I did to get the rear lower, Is I cut the back portion of the frame, and added a small square post/block section from the spare frame in the kit, then glued  the back section a  few mm higher. I then had to cut the round mounts off the top of the crossmember that attach to the floor so that it would fit properly. I am going to cut the inner wheel tub off of the interior side panels for mine, but if you wanted to still use them, you would just have to notch them out to clear the axle.

 

I am still working on how to get the front end down, but Ill probably do a Z similar to what you had done originally.  Hope this helps a bit.

[Jrod]

I took a really similar approach in my rear end. Since the insomnia is kicking in I’ll detail it now. 
 The rear of the deuce frame is harder to put a “z” in because the rails are curved I couldn’t figure out how to make the 45 degree cut and stack them. So I made a similar straight cut at the axle mounting “u” and added some styrene bars perpendicular, so that I could slide the rear of my frame directly upwards, kind of a modified “c” notch

moving the whole rear of the frame upward would again allow me to use the stock shocks without modification. I left the added upright particularly long so that I could mock up the ride height I wanted and tack everything together.

the rear frame is unattached at this point. I leveled the car out, applied glue to the ends of my rear frame section and butted into the uprights. I reworked the fender wells to accept the shape of the new frame

Now, I was pretty happy with the way everything fit up. I ended up cutting the rear of the floor pan off to clear the elevated suspension. After all that warpage from earlier the floor board never did sit right in the stock mounting holes so I’m going to end up bypassing that and some strategically located styrene blocks will mount the frame and floorboard together

here is my final mock-up:

im really pleased with the overall look. That catches me up to where I am tonight on this thing. Going to start gluing things up and painting next. There will be some more “fabrication” to get the rest of the suspension pieces sorted, but the stance is dialed in

Edited March 2, 2022 by Jrod
Grammar

[Zippi]

Tuff start back into the hobby Jrod but you're getting things worked out.  Looking good. 

[Mr. Metallic]

First, welcome back to the hobby. We must be similar age because I graduated high school in 95.

The relief cut method for lowering the front end is a classic mod, and one that I love because it retains the elegant sweep of the Deuce frame. Well done.

The way you executed the rear end drop seems to have worked for you. Stance is looking good.

As far as glues go, I'll make a couple suggestions. I only use the "cement" type glues when I want something to have structural strength down the road because it takes awhile to cure, like you've done with your frame mods. I'm a little impatient, so I use super glue whenever possible, but I prefer the "thick" glue from Hobby Lobby in the yellow bottle. The regular and thin stuff runs all over too much for me. The thick stuff isn't actually thick, it's just thicker than the regular.

If you mess with the accelerator (which I only use occasionally because super glue tends to cure quick enough for me) spraying it is too messy for me. Look in the same area at HL for bottles with a needle applicator and put your kicker in there. Much more precision application that way. Put a drop of glue on one part, and a drop of accelerator on the other and then join them. Near instant cure.

If you would like a few more tips on building this kit (I'm building the sister kit, the 30 coupe), check out this thread.

 

Edited March 2, 2022 by Mr. Metallic

[mchook]

For just getting back into the hobby you're off to a great start. Your mods look good and I can't wait to see the finished car. Keep up the great work!

[bobthehobbyguy]

Nice start. Model building is an artistic endeavor and also a course in problem solving.  I'd say you're off to a great start.

[Dennis Lacy]

For being your first project in over 20 years you dove right in! Those last mock up pics with the modified ‘32 frame look great. Stance is right-on. This kit and it’s companion ‘30 Coupe are very good in many ways but the stance and proportions out of the box are wonky. And, we share the same opinion of the channeled version, there’s just too much free air underneath. I always equate a channeled body to go along with a low slung stance. 
 

Next you need to fix the headlight placement which, out of the box, is terrible. They need to come forward and down to eliminate the “frog eye” look. 

[misterNNL]

Just a constructive suggestion for future posts, consider taking your photos against a less cluttered background like a neutral colored sheet of poster board or craft paper. That allows the viewer to see more of your work and less of the stuff around it. Good luck with the '29.

[Jrod]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and critique. 
Mr. Metallic, I’ve been following that build of yours, definitely an inspiration, I graduated in 1999 so all of us 90’s kids are now 40+. I’ll be getting back to work on this soon and keeps the updates rolling 

[Kit Karson]

Yee Haa!!  You're a vision of the future!!!  I digress... most every day I visit another social media platform and one of my biggest enjoyments is whishing fellow modelers Happy Birthday!  What I started noticing are their ages... have to say there are a lot of guys like me over 70.  One of my biggest concerns is this hobby not being passed on to another generation.  Over the last thirty years, gals & guys my age have been enjoying an era where the hobby's acceptance has encircled the globe.  It's so rewarding to meet & greet another fellow brother!  Welcome aboard the welcome wagon will be stopping by to say Hi! -KK

[Jrod]

So it’s been a little slow going at this point, but have managed to make some progress. Here is a more detailed shot of the finished rear frame area:

I focused my efforts this week to working in the front crossmember. I cut out and flipped it, taking the opportunity to also correct the angle, so that it remains roughly 90 degrees to the ground- with the sweep in the frame the whole member was leaning back, the suspension piece looked weird and the radiator shroud was tilted. 
I added a little reinforcement styrene strip in the channel that was now facing upwards, I then filed flat the front part of the crossbeam until I sanded through to the bottom of the notches that locate the radiator. I am using the short radiator for the channeled version to get my shroud back down to level with the cowl.This way I could still use the posts in the bottom of the radiator piece, after some modification, and some pinning. I’m going to end up running pins into the radiator, through the crossmember and down into the top of the spring.I also managed to get the body in primer today, and relocated the mounting tab for 1 of the radius arms, just need to get the second one done and some putty on all the frame hacks. Maybe I can wrap it up by next week.

Thanks for looking

[Jrod]

I got some paint on the body today. This is the testors extreme lacquer “mystic emerald” rattle can, sprayed over a black base. I like the color, but I’m a little disappointed in the level of gloss in this, and it’s got a lot of orange peel. Hopefully will look better after clear.

[Mr. Metallic]

Color looks good.

Those Testors OneCoat paints (now Extreme Lacquer) were designed to be used with a clear coat. The clear needs to be applied within a few minutes of the final color coat, or wait a few days for the paint to cure. 

Here's what it looks like after clear (I sprayed mine color over silver)

Edited March 10, 2022 by Mr. Metallic

[Rick L]

15 hours ago, Jrod said:

I got some paint on the body today. This is the testors extreme lacquer “mystic emerald” rattle can, sprayed over a black base. I like the color, but I’m a little disappointed in the level of gloss in this, and it’s got a lot of orange peel. Hopefully will look better after clear.

Welcome Jarred

to eliminate the orange peel try heating the paint can in hot tap water before spraying. Do three coats. First, a light mist coat. Second, a medium coat and last a wet coat. Be patient between coats. Be sure each coat is dry before spraying the next. I like the stance by the way. 

Edited March 10, 2022 by Rick L
Text

[Jrod]

3 hours ago, Mr. Metallic said:

Color looks good.

Those Testors OneCoat paints (now Extreme Lacquer) were designed to be used with a clear coat. The clear needs to be applied within a few minutes of the final color coat, or wait a few days for the paint to cure. 

Here's what it looks like after clear (I sprayed mine color over silver)

Thanks for the tip, for best results, should the color coat be wet sanded prior to clear?

[Mr. Metallic]

36 minutes ago, Jrod said:

Thanks for the tip, for best results, should the color coat be wet sanded prior to clear?

In general you don't want to sand metallics. It will make a mess of the finish.

 

[Jrod]

1 hour ago, Rick L said:

Welcome Jarred

to eliminate the orange peel try heating the paint can in hot tap water before spraying. Do three coats. First, a light mist coat. Second, a medium coat and last a wet coat. Be patient between coats. Be sure each coat is dry before spraying the next. I like the stance by the way. 

Thanks for the suggestion. That is exactly what I did except for that final wet coat, maybe that would help in the future. It was a little colder here in NC yesterday, right around the 50 degree mark so that may have contributed.

 I don’t think it’s a poor result, I didn’t have any drips, runs or blemishes in the surface so I’m pretty happy about that, it’s just not as glossy as I was hoping. I’m going to get some clear on it in a couple of days and see what happens. 

[Jrod]

Slow going this week haven’t had a lot of free time and weather was too cold for painting in the garage. I did get a little work done on the front wishbones that need to be relocated. I sawed off the stock mounting tabs, drilled for pins and fanned up some new tabs. I also filed new notches in my frame for those tabs to sit flush in. I will mold it all in and get some pictures of the completed work after.