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Dry-lakes scratchbashed '29 Ford/Ardun: Front 4-link, etc., Jan. 26


Ace-Garageguy

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Having very recently had the opportunity to do some extended model building for the first time in over a year, I wanted to start with something fresh to get the juices flowing. I've got a lot of builds I'll be getting back to shortly, but starting on any of them first seemed more like work than fun.

 

I'm interested in the early years of hot-rodding, and the development of dry-lakes cars in particular. I have a late-pre-war 4-banger close to completed, a flathead-powered streamliner just starting up, a fantasy pre-war build with an Allison aircraft engine in mockup, and Thompson's Challenger One from 1959 about to get re-started...several others in planning.

 

The hot-rod scene was changing fast after WW II ended, and I want to do several models of cars that would be representative of this rapid evolution.

 

In 1949, the overhead-valve Detroit V8 engines were just coming online in production cars (Olds and Cadillac) and hadn't trickled down to the racers yet. Flatheads were still king, and the hottest flathead-based engine of them all was the OHV Ardun head-conversion.

 

The look I'll be going for is something much like this, but Ardun-powered, built mostly from salvaged junk (like a real one would have been) and influenced by the track cars of the period.

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The chassis will be salvaged from this gluebomb '32 Ford (NOT a '32 chassis, but something of unknown origin)...

 

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and the body will come from this gluey '29 (apparently a refugee from the original AlaKart / '29 Ford double kit, judging from the decals)...

 

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The chassis is pretty nasty...

 

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and the first mockup puts us here...

 

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Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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that looks like that be a fun build so far moc up looks cool

Thank you, sir. So far, it's the most fun I've had in a long time, and it's moving along pretty quickly.

I've zeed the frame at this point (prior to stripping the paint) and have been able to remove the body shell from the fenders with minimal damage.

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Some fitting let me determine about where the rear axle height will have to be relative to the body shell...

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...and allowed me to tack the nose in place to match the first mockup.

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I'll be adapting a LaSalle gearbox to the Ardun, using an adapter salvaged from this glue-coated mess from a SWC Willys kit.

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This is the mocked-up Ardun / LaSalle combo that I'll need to get the engine bay sized correctly.

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This old Fiat Topolino g-bomb is giving up it's center bellypan for the project...

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...and an original Ala Kart bomb will supply the louvered sections for the forward pans.

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Because the white '29 shell is damaged, I'm fitting the center bellypan to a relatively clean and intact '29 shell. That way, the repops of the pan will fit un-damaged bodies.

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The mocked-up Ardun and the semi-fitted center pan allowed me to fit the engine in the chassis, and make sure Lefty could actually drive the thing. Lefty keeps my hot-rod and race-car builds honest. He's an old 1/24 figure, so he would be a pretty big guy in 1/25. If he can fit in the car, most regular humans could.

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With that much figured out, I can see how much of a chunk of the louvered sections I'll need to do the forward pans.

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Though I have a straight axle in the mockup, I'll be using a dropped tube unit from a Revell '32 Ford. Dropped tube axles were in use on track cars of the period, though not yet commonly seen on street rods. 4-links were also in use on more advanced track cars (I had thought I'd seen a 4-link front setup on track car in a 1957 movie, and my research turned up photos as far back as '47) but again, they weren't common on the street (until Pete and Jake's). Some careful measuring gave me the amount of drop I'd need on the suicide-style front-axle mount (above the top of the frame rails).

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The zeed frame, stripped, some of the klugely crossmember stuff removed, and new rough-cut outside rails to reinforce old breaks, the zee, and just to clean it up some...

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Fitting the Ardun also let me verify that the nose (from a 1/24 Monogram Indy Kurtis) would be just the right width to allow the sides of the hood to cover the heads without blisters. The hood will be continued from the nose section all the way to the rear of the original cowl. It's mocked up here with strip styrene, and will be glassed, filled and used as a plug for a final mold of the part.

The lower front louvered section of the bellypan is also almost completely fitted here (as to length), and the frame sides have been trimmed, matched, had more cleanup done. New tubular crossmembers have been fitted, nice and square, to replace the originals.

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EXTREMELY interested in your build, as this is a time period that has my attention lately. The dry lakes cars from this time is truly a fascinating story leading to the "hot rod" style of the 50's that I love. I currently am building a '29 roadster that would have evolved from this era. I will be watching your progress with great interest!

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I really like post war hot rods and early salt flat cars. I also really enjoy your builds Bill. I guess I would describe them as legitimate.

I have a few reference books about this era. This is my favorite. I need to learn a lot more about how they where constructed before I attempt one so please keep teaching us.

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I really like to follow your projects as I enjoy saving old Glue Bombs as well. Great job taking parts from different Glue Bombs and making them fit together perfectly... That mock up is looking really good, period correct just like the real thing too. I'll be definitely keeping a close eye on this one.

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Thank you ALL very much for your interest and comments. Looks like I'll be able to get a few hours in on her this PM. I have a pretty clear idea of where I'm headed on this one, most of the research is done, and I'm really going to try to actually finish it before I get spinning off on another project.

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You are a brave man my friend.It is really refreshing to see someone reserecting junked kits to recreate a period racer instead of wanting someone to cast it in resin before attempting a project like this.After all ALL model kits are bacically raw material anyway unless you are going to build an exact replica of the box art.This will be fun to follow.

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Thanks again for all your interest. I really enjoy building models from junk more than from new kits. Weird.

Dave, I've got a late pre-war (circa 1941) Riley 4-port-powered lakes car in the works too. The Riley heads that are available in kits are not the hottest version, and Denis Lacy was kind enough to send me a bunch of photos of the one I want. I'm still working on the engine mods, but this is the overall look. Un-channeled '28 body on '32 rails, '37 Ford V8-60 front axle on quarter-elliptics, and a Miller grille shell, plus a '40 Ford 2-speed Columbia rear end.

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Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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Though I'm using a pretty heavily dropped tubular front axle on this build, a very prevalent axle in use at the time on track cars was the lightweight unit from the V8-60 powered '37 Ford. The little "60" flathead was considerably lighter than its big brother, so Ford fitted a lighter front axle too. Many of the track cars of the period also used axles with a similar amount of drop, but tougher, stronger versions on the same theme. This axle is hollow, unlike the common I-beam Ford axles.

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The reason I'm using a front axle with considerably more drop than what would have been pretty common is because I'm using a junk frame of unknown origin, and to get the ride height I want with minimal frame mods, I'll need a lot of axle drop. Same rationale for using particular parts in a real junkyard build...whatever works to solve the problem. An axle with a lot of drop on the ends is honestly not a great idea for an asphalt-track or street car, as braking puts kinda horrific twisting loads into the axle ends. But it's pretty much a non-issue for a lakes car that goes in a straight line mostly, and like this model, has no front brakes. Bell Auto Parts, in Bell California, began building "tubular" dropped front axles for hot-rods in the late '40s, using a tubular center section and cast or forged ends.(research still incomplete). Something like that, or something that could have been made up from scrap or surplus, is what the heavily dropped front axle in this model represents.

To mount the axle to the frame, I'll be using a "suicide" style perch. Here I've started making it up from 2 sections of styrene channel. I left the forward leg long to get a good idea of the alignment of the perch with the frame rails. I like things that are square and symmetrical.

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In this shot, the perch has been trimmed to its final configuration. The mount pad is 1.7mm higher than the tops of the frame rails, which is what that earlier figuring told me I'd need.

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Here, the axle has been tacked to the mount, and the 4-link bars set in place to mark their bracket locations on the frame rails. This shot also shows that the last of the horrible gluey mess between the rear rails has been removed cleanly.

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With the suspension tacked to the frame, the frame is re-installed, the belly-pans re-tacked in place, and the locations of the 4-link brackets are marked on the louvered sections for cutting.

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