Dennis Lacy

Made some solid progress today. Started by polishing the dash and then installed the kits option accessory gauge panel which was detailed with gauge decals from Revell’s 32 5-Window. This kit comes with a racing tachometer but it doesn’t have any way to mount it, but, the sister 40 Coupe kit has a column mounted tachometer so I used that with a decal from Revell’s most recent 32 Roadster. Then, I moved onto assembling and detailing the engine. The carb scoops were chromed with a Molotow chrome pen, along with general touch up to the other chrome parts. I just couldn’t resist seeing how the finished engine looks between the fenders. I think that should work!

Today I was able to get the decals installed. Going into it I had no idea what I was gonna do for a layout so I got out about a dozen AMT Retro-Deluxe decal sheets and let them speak to me. I didn’t want to use white because it would clash with the cream white accents throughout the car so I decided to use red to tie in with the windows. The “67” and “A/G” come from the Salt Shaker 37 Chevy Coupe, “Pontiac Powered!” From the 36 Ford Coupe/Roadster and the “ISKY Equipped” from the 49 Ford Coupe. It was very common for these cars to be sponsored or campaigned by a local garage so I used a Sunoco Service decal from the most recent issue of the 34 Pickup.

The last couple of days I was able to get the body in color. First, by spraying the inner fender aprons and grill area with Racing White and then following up with the Light Blue Metallic. Cut it super close, too, with not a drop of blue to spare in the can. Just enough to get 3 even coats. Next step, decals!

Last night I couldn’t help posing the chassis parts, wheels and tires together for a sneak peak. Just need to paint the exhaust system. I also sat the engine block in the frame to see how the Champagne Gold and Racing White look together. Today I thoroughly wet sanded the body pieces with 1000 grit and sprayed on 2 wet coats of primer for a nice, smooth surface. Tomorrow, paint!

Paint continues. Over the weekend I handled the fiddly detailing of the wheel hub centers, lug nuts, starter and oil filter (both molded with the block), steering wheel emblem and trim ring and the springs. I also was able to swipe a Revell 1940 gauge panel decal from their 32 5-Window (which has an optional 40 dash), cut the individual gauges out and apply them to the AMT dash, as well as, add some era appropriate racing decals. Yesterday I sealed all of these pieces with Tamiya gloss clear which adds a nice level of richness to the Light Metallic Blue and Champagne Gold. &nbsp Today I masked off the white areas of the frame and sprayed the rest matte black. Now all that’s left is the tedious task of hand painting the exhaust silver. Can’t wait!

Yesterday I was able to mask the white parts of the interior tub and get the floor, package shelf and outside sprayed flat black. I also masked the blue part of the dash and got the recessed areas sprayed racing white.

Painting continues. At lunchtime I sealed the frame rails with gloss clear and this evening pulled all of the tape. Stage One was a success. Next, mask all the white parts and spray everywhere else flat black then carefully brush paint the exhaust silver. I also hit the “upholstery” with flat clear and pulled all of the tape, too. Just like the frame, mask all the white and spray the floor and package shelf flat black.

Painting continues. I had to decide how to approach the frame. Because of the molded on and glued on exhaust, masking the frame to spray the floor areas would be a massive pain. I decided the best way would be to paint the frame rails and front area the accent color I wanted and after that mask those areas and just spray the entire center flat black. I also masked the floor and rear shelf of the interior tub and the spring areas of the axles. Here’s a Quick Look at how the main blue will look with the off-white accent.

This past Sunday afternoon was spent doing all of the final sanding and clean up to prep everything for paint with an intermission run to Pegasus Hobbies to get said paint. Laid all the bare plastic parts out in a “yard sale” pose. There’s not a lot to these old AMT kits! There were also two final mods. The first being sanding away the poorly rendered speaker grill and glovebox clock/trim. No interest in trying to detail that! The second being filling the outer half-round notches in the bumper brackets (the custom bumper only uses the inner notches) and generally fixing up the shape of the brackets. Yesterday all of the parts made it into primer followed by the body pieces today. Today also saw some parts get color. The same blue will be used on the body & fenders. If the background scenery looks different, that’s my welding table at my shop. I do all my spray painting at work. 😎

Thanks! That pesky lower hose is easy to overlook. Heck, half the time the kits don’t even include it! 🤣

Not a bad suggestion. I have done similar by replacing the metal axle with stubs of plastic rod of the same diameter. I guess it would make sense since I spent the time to fill the big notches in the backing plates. Okay, so to recap: 1) Fill rectangle notches in face of firewall. 2) Replace metal axle with stubs.

Steal away! Looking forward to seeing what you do with yours.

Noted.

It became a popular aesthetic modification in competition cars when folks started using plastic to replace window glass (for weight savings) because it could be had in all different colors. Like many things starting with race cars it bled over into hot rods and shoe rods.

Awesome Sedan! Stance is right, wheel & tire combo is right, great color choice, nice to see the 5 liter engine get used and really cool with the 2x3 intake. I especially love the bobbed tail end. Gives it a really tough look!

Last weekend I was able to wrap up the last of the fabrication starting with getting the radiator fit and then making the upper and lower hoses. I’ve been thinking about what distributor I wanted to use and decided a Spalding Flamethrower dual coil distributor would be appropriate and I drilled it for wires. I then made a pair of basic cylindrical coils and mounted them to the firewall on either side of the distributor. Speaking of the firewall, AMT was notorious for molding on a bunch of extra junk so I scraped and sanded that off leaving just the stamping lines and voltage regulator. I really wanted the carbs to have scoops and I suddenly remembered I had a set of 6 frogmouth scoops from Replicas & Miniatures that my pal Jon had sent in a care package last year so I got them mounted. Much better. This will be the last bare plastic mock up and I couldn’t resist getting a look with the kits optional red glass unit. Also seen in the rear views are the tailpipes I added previously. Time to buy some paint.

Tan is one of my favorite colors on a 40 Ford, especially on one with a traditional look with steelies and a Flathead like this one. The bronze is a good accent color, too! Just a great looking car. Nice work!

Great looking 32 5WC! The mild chop and tucked stance give it excellent proportions. Nice work on the wheels. It’s too bad Revell didn’t make deeper rears as it comes. Looks a ton better. Also nice to see the small block used as most go with the optional Hemi.

This is absolutely bitchin! Love everything about it, excellent detailing throughout and looks awesome from every angle. Considering you changed the axles, would enjoy seeing a look underneath.

@Ace-Garageguy @Zippi @meechum68 @James2 @slusher @sidcharles @DJMar Thanks, guys. I’m having fun with this project! I made some progress earlier today. Even though these old AMT kits have basic chassis’ I still want to paint things nicely but there’s one glaring feature that’s been bothering me, the big open slots on the “brake plates”. So, I went ahead and filled them all with scraps of .040” plastic and there was room in the back to add the custom brake drums found in AMT’s 32 Vicky and Phaeton kits. On the other forum that’s hosting the build off a member asked me how I was going to handle the stock exhaust pipes and muffler being molded to frame and I answered with 2 options. 1) Ignore it and chalk it up to “it is what it is.” 2) Use the add-on left side pipes and muffler from the sister 40 Coupe kit and tie them into the headers. Gas class rules of the early 60’s state that the vehicle must be equipped with full exhaust pipes and mufflers but headers can have caps left open while racing. I sourced the add-on exhaust pieces, cleaned them up and glued them into the headers place. But, that wasn’t good enough. I wanted the car to have visible exhaust tips when sitting on its wheels & tires so I carefully carved away the molded tip and sliced off the add-on tip then spliced in tailpipe sections with hanger brackets from a Revell 40 Ford which also have separate chrome tips. The tips end up perfectly under the edge of the custom bumper. The splices and hanger brackets are reinforced with stainless pins. Up front I made a pair of U-shaped connections from the bottom of the header cones to the front ends of the exhaust pipes. These were made from the front pipes in Revell’s modern 29 Roadster / 30 Coupe kits but had to be shortened in the middle of the humps 1/16” to fit up correctly. Again, pins were used to reinforce the joints. Here are some overall chassis shots with the axles in place. Once everything is paint detailed this should do just fine. Still more to come…

Love it! Do you remember what you used to paint the rear wheels. That’s a very convincing Dow 7 coating look.

Looks really cool in this color combination and great decal choices!

Absolutely LOVE this. Everything from the color, to the stance, to the deleted running boards, to the wheel & tire combo and to the blown 427. Wouldn’t change a thing!

I believe this is the first time I’ve actually seen someone build the Dragstrip Accessories. They look great but the camera is just awesome! And, I remember seeing the rail before but definitely don’t mind seeing it again.

Agree. The new white resin is much sturdier feeling.