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'29 Ford A Roadster Early Drag Racer


Bernard Kron

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Inliner powered Ford ’29 A Roadster from the early days of drag racing, circa 1953.

(More pictures below)

I began collecting parts for this build almost a year and a half ago. I wanted to capture the look and detail of the early drag cars circa 1953 or so, before roll bars and when the paint and design on a nicely turned out machine was closer to other race cars.

The body is an AMT Ford ’29 A Roadster on heavily modified Revell ’32 rails. The louvered rear deck is from the new ’32 Ford 5-window from Revell. The advent of that part is what triggered the actual build. The awesome inline Chevy 6 with the Fisher head from the AMT ’51 Bel Air is courtesy of the generosity of CB. I modified it with injectors off the Revell Tommy Ivo Showboat Buick Nailhead engine and detailed the front accessory drive to accept a Hilborn injector pump. The rear suspension is a resin quick change setup from Early Years Resin. The front suspension is modified Revell ’32 Ford with two leaves removed, the shock mounts deleted and finished in Testors Metallizer Gunmetal. Shocks are so-called “friction†shocks, actually vane type hydraulics from a Revell ’29 Ford RPU, front and rear.

That’s the major stuff – there’s lots of other details from my parts box. Otherwise everything else you see is scratch built including the pitman arm on the steering. That nice bomber seat is resin from ThePartsBox.com, BTW.

Paint on the frame and grill shell is Tamiya Dark Metallic Blue, the body is DupliColor Cherry Metallic with Duplicolor Oxford White panels outlined in gold Pactra Trim tape. The numbers are gold leaf decals from the old Monogram Classics Super Modified Dirt Track Racer/Kurtis Kraft Indy Racer double kit.

This was an intense and challenging build for me. Thanx to everyone who followed along on the W.I.P. Special tip of the Hatlo hat goes out to Dan Helferich for advice on the ’51 Bel Air and of course to CB! I probably wouldn’t have finished it without your collective interest and encouragement. More detailed pics can be found on the workbench pages here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21932

Thanx for lookin’.

B.

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very neat and clean vintage racer. i notice you used a specific steering wheel that i used in an offy powered T roadster, but mine was just in my parts box. can i ask where you sourced yours from, is it in a currently available kit? i need another for another project im doing. i really like the simplistic but realistic look to it.

i like how you drilled that seat too.

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Thanks to all you guys for the generous accolades. :lol: I really am flattered to get such props from so many of my favorite creative builders! Still a long way to go to get to the promised land of the Clean Build but I do think this was some sort milestone - it sure felt like it should have been, in any case!

...i notice you used a specific steering wheel that i used in an offy powered T roadster, but mine was just in my parts box. can i ask where you sourced yours from, is it in a currently available kit? ...i like how you drilled that seat too.

That's the competition steering wheel from the AMT '53 Studebaker Starliner kit. Somebody should cast it. Regarding the seat, I wish I could drill such straight and clean holes as those, but I'm afraid that work isn't mine. That's one of the new resin bomber seats from ThePartsBox.com. Lovely, isn't it? The two vertical middle slots are a nice touch. They also sell the same seat plain without holes and upholstered with simple pleats. The ubiquitous "rat rod" seat from Replicas and Miniatures Co. of Md. has always had holes that were too big for my tastes, so I was delighted to see this one offered. Norm makes bajillions of gorgeous parts that I have bought from him so I don't mind spending some cash with another great resin house.

Edited by gbk1
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Man! this car has a lot going for it. You really made a good decision adapting the louvered trunk lid to the 29. The open grille lends a bit of realism, going with the 6 banger really sets it apart from other roadster, the seat is killer, the side profile is double killer, the red paint is richer than all get out...

Really, really nice looking roadster

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Guest snapper

This is a great build all the way around B. You have a careful approach with great research, and it shows. I really enjoyed following this on the WIP as well. I still like seeing all the different ways that the roadsters can be built, especially from the early eras. Outstanding job again - keep 'em coming...

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hey thanks for the tip on the steering wheel; now i will have to dig around and see if i have one of those stude kits on the shelf somewhere.

>That's one of the new resin bomber seats from ThePartsBox.com. Lovely, isn't it? The two vertical middle slots are a nice

>touch. They also sell the same seat plain without holes and upholstered with simple pleats. The ubiquitous "rat rod" seat

>from Replicas and Miniatures Co. of Md. has always had holes that were too big for my tastes

thanks for the tip, i will have to check out that site; ive never heard of them before. i have some of the RMM seats and like you mention seems to me the holes are too big. they look good, just sort of out of scale. so im glad to see a source for an alternative seat as much as im glad to hear im not the only one having a hard time drilling straight well spaced holes!

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Great to hear from more builders whose work I admire. B) Thanx to all of you for following along on the W.I.P., it really helped a lot when the plastic started biting back... And the compliments are greatly appreciated – this era of modeling cars doesn’t get covered all that much and I wasn’t sure it would actually work out. I wondered whether details like the rear kickup and crossmember and the firewall, while authentic, would “translate†visually. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the results!

Bill, here’s a link to The Parts Box: http://www.thepartsbox.com/. Unfortunately their site has been down for several weeks; apparently they’re doing a major update. Hopefully they’ll be up soon. When it comes to aftermarket parts in the traditional rodding and dragster vein I would rate them second only to Norm Veber’s Replicas and Miniatures Co. Of Md. when it comes to quality and range of offerings. The fact that they list their full catalog on line with pictures and descriptions of absolutely everything is really awesome. And they ship quickly, too!

Edited by gbk1
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You did an awesome job on this. I am an automotive artist and love these hotrods. If I may make a suggestion using the same style you may want to build a circle dirt track roadster too. The inline 6 was used quite a bit more then the flathead because it could be modified a lot more and was not so suceptible to overheating which was a drawback on the flathead. The inline 6 was the king of the hill untill Chevy came out with the 265 ci OHV V8 in '55. So good job on capturing a bit of history.

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This model is super! Very great looking build and that painjob is very shiny and great! Awesome job on the all little details and those tires with those wheels are just perfect to this! Very nice job so keep it going!

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Thanx to all of you for the extremely kind words. I'm glad you all enjoyed this build. It's one of my personal favorites.

....I am an automotive artist and love these hotrods. If I may make a suggestion using the same style you may want to build a circle dirt track roadster too. ...

Thanx Artemis. At some point I will build a circle track roadster, probably very much influenced by one of my all-time fave hot rod artists, the great Gus Maanum. Are you familiar with him? Pen and ink artist from the 1940's specializing in hot rods. He used to sell portfolios of his drawings out at the lakes durng the early post war era. Here's an example from the May 1948 issue of Hot Rod, showing a "Typical Track Roadster". He just nails the vibe perfectly and the roadster istelf has the most wondefrully idealized lines.

Maanum-HotRodPg140A.jpg

Edited by gbk1
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