Dennis Lacy

Man, this looks bad ass and set on KILL! Awesome work Triple R!!!

UPDATE! Yesterday I successfully sprayed the body, frame and related small parts in Tamiya "Cobalt Green". Tonight I couldn't resist sneaking out to the garage for a quick mock up. To say that I'm happy with the color choice is an extreme understatement! I'm also very pleased with the Champagne Gold accent color I chose. I still need to clear coat and then mask and spray the inside of the body flat black but it feels good to see this LONG project in color.

Very cool! I like the simple flame pattern this time around and the lettering on the deck lid turned out awesome. Can't wait to see it sealed in shiny clear!

Since returning to model car building in 2008 I have built nothing but late 20's and 30's Hot Rods with the exception of a "curbside" 1953 Ford Pickup Custom a couple of years back, I'm in the process of wrapping up a 1927 T Hot Rod currently but I'm stuck on that project until I paint and clear it in the coming week. With that I decided to start a new project this weekend and I also decided I would take a break from the early Ford's and try something out of my comfort zone, a '57 Chevy! I built the classic AMT kit as a teen in the 90's and was given another a couple of years ago from a friend. That first one is long gone so I thought it would be fun to revisit and it's a pretty simple kit so I won't bog myself down on going crazy with the details. In fact, I'm not even going to bother detailing the chassis. Instead I'll focus on the body and interior but it won't be a true curbside as it will have an engine as well. After brainstorming for several days I settled on a plan and with the weekend finally here it was time to get started... The first step was to smooth out the body shell. This meant removing all of the side trim, hood and trunk emblems, the trim from the tops of the tail fins and the molded-in windshield wipers. I also scribed the door and trunk panel lines deeper as in some spots they were barely visible and overall probably would have ended up being very faint after body work, primer and paint. Up front I am using the kit supplied custom headlight housings and front rolled pan/grill surround. Time was spent making sure these pieces dry fit nicely before permanently attaching making the blending easier and minimizing the need for any filler afterwards. I also decided to fill the hood "gunsights" with pieces of the kits parts sprue and blend the filler pieces into the existing hood bumps. The kit also provides a custom rear rolled pan and custom taillight housings but they end up extending the already LONG quarters so I didn't care to use them, not as-is at least. Instead I decided to make use of the existing cavities in the rear of the fins and blend the rolled pan in so that it didn't stick out. To start I cut off the back edge of the fins vertical... I then cut the "pods" off the ends of the rolled pan pieces, trimmed them down and then attached them flush... I then added some material to the ends of the rolled pan and permanently installed it between the two "pods" so that it blends into them. I added some partitions separating the taillight lenses into 4 pieces. That crescent shaped lenses come in the kit and are meant to go in the rolled pan. The triangle shaped lenses are also found in the kit and are remnants from some other custom body options from the original issue that are no longer in the kit. I sanded those red triangles slightly and fit them into the cavities in the ends of the fins. (I still need to fill the little voids above them.) I selected the rolling stock. The shallow & deep chrome wheels are from The Modelhaus while the tires and slicks are AMT Parts Pack items. And finally some crude mock up pics. This is the stance I'm going for. The kit gives you the option of slamming the front like this so I'll just have to lower the rear which is easy. The idea here is a customized '57 with a really healthy 409 (more on that kit-bashed engine next time!) that not only looks good rolling down the road but can also throw down with some whoop-ass when needed. So a cross between a custom and a street machine all in early 60's flavor. That's all for now but plenty more to come. Let me know what you think. I know a lot of you '57 Chevy purists are gonna hate that I cut off the angled fins and that's fine! I like it so that's what matters, LOL!

Glad I could help, LOL! This is coming along nicely. I’ll never understand why they made the engine so undersized in this kit. Everything else about is a huge improvement over the original but then the motor kills it. The most upsetting part is if it had been properly sized think how awesome it would be for kit bashing! Oh well...

@BullysCustomModelParts Pro Street, I freaking love it! I also love the use of the Auto Drag wheels. They were such a staple of the 80’s, people put them on everything. Are you going to fill in the fenders around the upper A arms? I’ve actually seen that done a few times in the full scale world when people would fit Pinto front suspension into an early car.

UPDATE! Still chipping away. This past Sunday I assembled and wired the flathead and permanently assembled the wheels & tires. The red wire is from Parts By Parks while the little dividers are from Model Car Garage. As usual, I couldn't resist a mock up! The body is in its first round of primer and also got its first round of tune up and awaits a new coat to see where its at. When you multiple raw plastic colors going on it's always exciting to finally see a project all in one color and really get a sense of how it looks. I couldn't be happier with the stance and proportions and man am I glad I decided to swap in the V8.

Just following up that my truck is posted in the finished section for trucks. If you haven't ventured over there yet here's a link. Check it out!

I've never had this kit but I keep thinking I should for the wheels, if nothing else. I'm a sucker for 80's and 90's billet wheels! I buy distributor wire by Parts By Parks from a seller on eBay. Detail Master packages it, too, but theirs is ever so slightly smaller gauge. I justify the postage because you get enough to do 3 or 4 engines so I'm really only spending about $1 on postage per model.

@tim boyd It would be absolutely epic to have all of the Modelers Corner columns in one book! My dad still has his entire collection of Street Rodder but it’s not very handy to have to have all those issues on hand. I hope someday that idea pans out...

A couple of years ago I did this AMT '53 as a curbside so no engine or chassis detail. Quite a few external mods though such as moving the front wheel openings forward 4.5 scale inches, molding the front roll pan and bumper delete, smoothing the stock grill and modifying it to take separate headlight reflectors, grafted 6 rows of louvers into the hood, scraped off the molded windshield wipers and installed separate chrome wipers, made a flush fit bed cover, molded in the kits rear rolled pan and grafted 1948 Ford taillights into the rear fenders. Resin tuck & roll interior set from Drag City Casting and a 1950 Ford steering wheel. Wheels and side pipes from AMT's 1936 Ford Coupe/Roadster with their double stripe Parts Pack tires & slicks.

Thanks for all of that, Alan! I couldn't tell you how many times I've thrown these wheels out thinking I'd never use them. It's amazing how much better (crisper) they look with the heavy plating removed. Then you realize they have no lug detail and after that you realize Halibrand supplied them with push-in wing nuts. I'm very happy with how they turned out. I remove kit plating from almost everything I do these days. I find that it's too thick and too toy-like. I also don't generally like full scale hot rods bathed in chrome. There's a lot of nice engraving in a lot of these kits that gets washed out with the plating so uncovering that detail and careful painting goes a long way.

Thanks, Tim! I think the color combo should look pretty good, too. I was looking for something similar to the color the body is molded in.

Looks like you're getting there on the hood sides. Not an easy way to go about it! Then again I don't know that there IS an easy way? I did a hood top very similar not too long back for a '32 5-Window. Next time I do a louvered hood top I'll be setting in individual rows as opposed to one big chunk because if you look close you can see the shape of the piece I grafted in.

Freakin’ RAD! Killer details and perfect stance & proportions.

Killer idea! One of the best versions of the Foose truck I’ve seen yet.

Thanks, Man! I knew what I was doing, you just had to ride it out to the end to see it all come together, LOL!

Thanks, Tim! Glad you like what I did with my spin on the truck. I had an absolute blast creating it (except for the ridiculous amount of masking it took to get 4 different color on various surfaces of the cab alone!) This truck project and quite a few others you did back in the day left a huge impression on me and all these years later I haven't forgotten them. Back then when I would read those articles or the show coverages and see all of the names (many that became staples for years) there was an element of disconnect as I couldn't imagine actually being able to interact with you or any of them. The Internet has a lot of negative aspects with it but certainly one big positive is being able to connect people all over the world with a common hobby passion on forums like this. This won't be the only model I build that takes direct inspiration from your old Column and also don't forget, there's still a Sister RPU sitting on deck!

The McGee roadster is my absolute favorite ‘32 Roadster off all time. Will enjoy watching you build this tribute.

Thanks! I enjoy the process and seeing plain parts come to life.

UPDATE! I've been chipping away at getting paint on this thing. As of today all of the engine, wheels and chassis parts are finish painted, except for the frame which is ready for final color but I'm waiting to spray it at the same time as the body as they'll be the same color. The wheels were finished by first spraying Tamiya Silver Leaf, then brush painting the centers Model Master Jet Exhaust followed by sealing with Tamiya semi-gloss clear. The knock-off's were also sprayed in Silver Leaf but left as-is out of the can. And here's the colors. The accent on the engine, axles and other parts above is Tamiya Champagne Gold while the body and frame are going to be Cobalt Green. Body and interior heading for primer tomorrow!

Bitchin!

Many of you should know the name Tim Boyd by now as he has been a regular contributor to model car magazines for decades. One of his biggest focusses in the hobby is scale Hot Rods and Street Rods and the pages of those magazines have been filled with his how-to projects. He also used to do a monthly column for Street Rodder Magazine called "Modelers Corner". One particular issue, the May 1990, left a huge impression on me and remains one of my favorite scale Street Rod how-to articles of all-time. I was 10 years old when this issue came out and actually didn't discover it until I was 13 (1993) when I spent a summer reading through my Dad's entire back catalog of Street Rodder. I ended up keeping the May 1990 issue aside and over the years read it until the binding came apart. Not only did I love the scale Street Rod that Tim created and the detailed how-to that he provided, I also loved that the Editor saw fit to print the article all in one shot rather than break it up over 2 or 3 issues as Tim has stated was the original plan. Here is the intro to the article. Note that with this being printed in 1990 this means the model was actually created in 1989 using the best Street Rod kit bashing parts available at the time from such kits as Monogram's 1937 Ford Sedan and ZZ Top Eliminator Coupe, Revell's 1926 T Sedan as well as, AMT's controversial 1933 Ford Sedan Street Rod - Not to mention Revell's 1929 Pickup kit as a foundation. I had been wanting to build a '29 Pickup inspired by this article for years and in the Summer of last year (good ol' 2020!) I decided that it was time to make it happen. It was not my intention to build an exact duplicate - and I didn't. Instead I did what Tim's column suggested, I got started on my own version of a scale street rod pickup. That said, there were some key design elements from Tim's truck that I knew mine had to have to keep it recognizable as a tribute such as the wheels, exhaust, basic engine, frame modifications and overall late 1980's "billet/smoothie" theme. I didn't plan it at the beginning but somewhere along the way I got the idea also make it surf shop themed. This model was a true labor of love. I hope you like it @tim boyd !!! - Revell 1929 Pickup frame, fenders, cab, bed, radiator and shell. - Frame Z'd and rebuilt at rear, center "X" bracing made from cut down Monogram 1937 Ford Sedan frame pieces. - Revell 1932 Ford series dropped front axle, tie rod, 4-bar links, shocks and disc brakes. - AMT 1934 Ford 5-Window Corvette independent rear suspension with Revell '32 series disc brakes and AMT Ala Kart shocks. - Monogram 1937 Sedan original issue Boyd Coddington wheels in Revell '32 Roadster HiBoy tires. - AMT '34 5-Window small block Chevy engine with valve covers, belt drive, alternator, A/C compressor and block hugger headers from original issue '37 Sedan. Weiand tunnel ram intake and carbs from AMT '66 Nova Pro Street with air filter from Revell '37 Ford Convertible. Parts By Parks wired distributor, Detail Master street rod wire looms and Detail Master #1 fuel line and fittings. Modified exhaust with Supertrapp mufflers from Revell '67 Malibu Pro Street. - Modified '37 Convertible dashboard with added stereo head unit. Monogram ZZ Top steering column and Revell 1940 Convertible steering wheel. Revell 1926 T Sedan door panels, seats, seat riser, pedals and E-brake handle. Front floor modified from Revell 1932 Dan Fink Speedwagon. AMT '34 5-Window shifter. - Revell 1929 Ford Roadster headlights. Revell '32 Sedan taillight on '29 Pickup bracket. - Revell 1937/38 Ford Pickup surf decals and surfboard. Monogram "Blue Bandito" '29 Pickup SCUBA tanks, swim fins, face mask, utility belt and duffel bag. - Photo reproduced 1929 Hawaii license plate. - Tamiya colors throughout. Polished with Adam's Paint Correcting polish and waxed with Adam's buttery Wax.

UPDATE! Okay, everyone. I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that my truck that started this whole @tim boyd tribute thread is finished! The bad news is that I simply don't have time tonight to post the finished pictures and write the description. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll be able to unveil the finished model...

Wow, Dan, this turned out absolutely killer! It looks like an absolute bad ass ready to kill. I love everything about it. As for the white grill... Everything always looks worse and exaggerated in digital close up pictures. I bet in person where the grill is only an inch tall it looks just fine.