Dennis Lacy

Yes, absolutely!

Hosted on Fotki As Bill already mentioned, the Halibrand "Touring" wheels that came on Avanti's (and also available outright from the Halibrand catalog) were also available in the Revell '31 Sedan / Sedan Delivery kits over the years. They do not have correct center caps as Halibrand provided false push-in knock-off style wingnuts with them. They also don't have any lug nut detail. I'm using them on a current project hot rod and spent some time making them look better by stripping the thick plating off, installing nut detail from Grandt Line and adding the correct early wingnuts from the Halibrand wheels in Revell's Orange Crate. Here's the results! Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki

I can't repeat the expletives that I used when I texted you earlier so I'll just say that I really, really, really love it! The colors, the weathering, the minimal lettering is all perfect. I also still can't get over what a perfect find that dashboard was!

Bringing this one back out? RAD!

Absolutely. It's no secret that these two kits were designed to have their components interchange, those being the wheels and engines. Personally, I think that the blown Chevy and Halibrand style wheels suite the roadster more and the Buick Nailhead and steelie wheels suite the coupe more. It almost makes me want to take one each of the original copies I have and build them straight from the boxes with the exception of swapping engines and wheels (and tweaking the '32 grill from the coupe to fit on the roadster.) One thing's for sure, when the roadster and coupe are back on store shelves I'll be grabbing and handful more of each just for kit-bashing.

I'm just over here gluing a bunch of stuff together...

I think that hood top needs a few rows of louvers added. Making more work for you. You're welcome!

UPDATE! Today I did some more work on the rear axle. Made a new torque tube from 1/8th" Evergreen tube then cut down and fit the radius rods from a Revell '40 Ford rear axle. Now I just need to pick out and mount some shocks. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Turned my attention to setting up the steering. Tweaked a Revell '40 Ford steering box and inserted a .042" pin into the side of it which passes through the frame. On the other side is a pitman arm from Revell's '29 Pickup / '31 Sedan kits. The drag link is made from a piece of .042" rod with ends transplanted onto it from the drag link in the old Monogram '32 Roadster and Beach Boys '32 3-Window. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki A couple of overall chassis shots to show how it's all coming together. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Up front I found a pair of early tube shocks which are in the AMT '29 Roadster base kit. As they come they're pretty rough. Huge parting lines and they're not very round. After a good amount of clean up they look decent. I installed pins into the bottoms that fit into the axles existing mounts. I just need to make some upper mounts now. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki And a couple of overall shots with all of the new parts mocked up. The split front wishbones, the steering linkage and the rear radius rods all hanging below the frame now really help visually fill the "air gap" between the frame and ground. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Any yet, still lots more to do. Comments welcome!

I met my wife just over 10 years ago (I was 27, her 25) and we've been married for 5 years this coming October. A couple of months into dating I told her that hot rodding is my passion and it's what I do and if that was a problem for her there was no point in going further. This was also right as I was finishing the '27 Roadster that I had been building for two years. She had never been around hot rods but once the car was on the road she absolutely loved it and looked forward to every time she got to ride in the car, whether it be a ride down the street or a 4-hour club activity. She's also very supportive of my model building and has attended several NNL shows with me, gets me kits and supplies for birthday & Christmas, etc. We have friends where the guy is always gone shooting in the desert, riding in the desert, etc and it makes her happy that my hobby keeps me around the house with her and the kids. She also is big into the scrap booking hobby and when we bought our house just over 5 years ago I got two new matching workbenches for the garage, one for each of us. She doesn't use hers nearly as much as I do but it's there when she wants to. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki

UPDATE! Did some work out back today. Started by installing a rear spring from an AMT '29 Roadster then added some perch and shackle detail from a Revell '29 Pickup / '31 Sedan front axle. At a glance this will look better than if the spring was just stuck on there and also makes up for the width difference between the spring and axle. Hosted on Fotki I also Z'd the back of the frame 1/8th" to maintain the mock up stance. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki And a mock up with the body installed. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Plenty more to do yet. Comments welcome!

Already part of the plan....

Thanks, David! Guys back then had balls to go 150mph in something like this. Or faster!

Your absolutely right. A race-only car like this would be just fine without front brakes at El Mirage or Bonneville as there's plenty of room to stop. Living in Southern California, I've been out to El Mirage myself. Drove the '27 T Roadster that I built out there to watch the SCTA races multiple times. Hosted on Fotki

Definitely doing a tonneau! And, after being chastised by you I had another look at the Hilborn injection in the Slingster dragster. After comparing to pictures on google, the outer-most intake ports are just inside the outer valve cover bolts. I held up an injector and as it turns out, it's the same on the model parts! So, I have usable injectors. I'll just detail them out a bit. I'll also need to add a valley cover since that area is wide open now. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Thanks for the push. Stupid Stromberg's!

UPDATE! Work continued this afternoon. It was time to set up the front split wishbones but I wasn't thrilled with the initial stance, too high! So before committing I shaved two "leaves" off of the spring to get the front end down a little. I then went ahead and mounted the Revell Model A split bones. I glued the molded brackets to the frame rails then carefully parted the bones from the brackets. After a little clean up I drilled the end of the bones, inserted some .042 pines then drilled the brackets to accept the pins. Hosted on Fotki I set up the front brakes using the Revell Model A plates that go with the axle but I didn't want to use the '57 Buick finned drums because that's too new but the wheels are designed (correctly) to have drums. Hardly any other kits have actual brake drums but one such kit is Revell's Ed Roth Tweedy Pie T so I grabbed all 4 of them and adapted 2 to the front. Hosted on Fotki Now, with the brakes installed the wheels are positioned out where they should be and the car doesn't look like someone with their arms cut off! Hosted on Fotki Out back I got the basic rear axles figured out. The Halibrand quick change center is from all of AMT's '25 T double kits and the axle housings are from Revell's '29 Pickup / '31 Sedan. I cut the D-shaped end flanges off of the 9" axle in the newer Revell Model A kits and grafted them on along with the matching brake plates. Like the front, I tweaked a pair of Tweedy Pie T brake drums to fit. I still need to install a spring, make a new torque tube and make radius rods. Hosted on Fotki With the front stance set and the frame just setting on the rear axle, here is how the car sits now. Much better! I'm going to have to do a mild step in the rear of the frame to get the stance like this. I think the stance is very close to the real car. I also tacked on some AMT '41 Ford hubcaps (which I'll be using) to get a better idea of how this thing is going to look. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Still lots more to do. Comments welcome!

Not worthy of a second look? Are you smokin' crack??? This is freakin' awesome, Ron!!!

You had to do that, didn't you?

Haha, I thought you were that guy Duane from the old TRaK days for a minute there! Thanks for the nice words. Parts picking is a lot of the fun for me, too. That feeling when you hit on just the right combo...

Here's the most recent distraction from finishing existing projects! Back in '54 four brothers, the Williams Bros., wanting to be more competitive at the Bonneville land speed races removed the hopped-up flathead from their '28 Ford Roadster and replaced it with a brand new, over the counter 241 Dodge Red Ram hemi. The engine was heavily set-back and topped off with Hilborn fuel injection, hooked to a Ford 3-speed top loader which then hooked to a Halibrand quick-change axle. When Bonneville was over they walked away with a new B-Roadster class record that would stand for some time. What I love about this car is how straight-forward it is. There's not a lot of bells & whistles and the engineering is solid but not overly fancy. It was built for a purpose and did what it was supposed to do. No more, no less. What is also remarkable is that despite being half torn apart after the '54 racing season and never being put back together, the brothers were careful to keep every part and every nut & bolt with the car. When the Williams family finally let go of the car it was possible to reassemble it to exactly as-raced in '54. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki This is not going to be a replica but it will be heavily influenced by the Williams Bros. roadster. Not that there's anything wrong with a strict replica, I just want the freedom to do my own thing. The foundation is an older issue of AMT's '29 Roadster from the 80's, after the kit had been condensed into a roadster only offering. To get started I decided to get the Dodge Red Ram sorted out. The block / trans, heads and valve covers come from AMT's '29 Roadster. The (slightly shortened) oil pan and upper water manifold are from Revell's '32 5-Window hemi. The front cover / water pump are AMT modern-tool Ala Kart. The pulley / belt drive is from Revell's Ed Roth Beatnik Bandit. The intake manifold and oil filler tube are also from Revell's '32 5-Window. I sanded off the dual 4-barrel carburetor pads, capped it with a piece of .020" sheet and made new carburetor pads for the 3 2-barrels from .040" sheet. The magneto is from AMT's parts pack Chevy engine. The Stromberg carbs from Revell's '29 Roadster. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki In typical old AMT fashion, the engine block is slab sided so I added some core plug and casting rib detail to help it look like something. Hosted on Fotki Here's the tweaked intake. Hosted on Fotki After deciding how far back I wanted to set the engine (about halfway under cowl) I had to decide on a transmission cross member. The '29 kit comes with a custom center cross member to go with the hemi, both of which are left over from the old Ala Kart and Mod Rod double kit days. The cross member loosely represents and cut-down '32 piece which is what the full scale Ala Kart used but it's a little soft on detail. The modern re-tool Ala Kart kit, despite a lot of short comings, does have some nicely done parts, one of them being the center cross member, so I installed it in the frame. That also meant I needed to transplant the tail of the modern tool transmission onto the older trans so that it would mount in the cross member correctly. After the back end was located I was able to position and build the front motor mount brackets which were made from various pieces of Evergreen shapes. I stared at it all and struggled with design for a good bit before figuring out what to do. The Dodge front mount isn't the most user-friendly thing on Earth. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki With the body set on the frame and over the engine, this is how things look. Like the Williams Bros. roadster, the engine is set back far enough that the front corners of the valve covers just clear the hood sides. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki The front axle is the beautiful dropped I-beam from Revell's '29 Roadster and '30 Coupe. Hosted on Fotki Here's a few really rough mock ups with the hood and Revell '32 Ford grill in place. Wheels and tires are from Revell's '29 Roadster / '30 Coupe kits. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Lots more to do. Comments welcome!

The original mock-up looked really good. You got the stance adjusted just right with the shaved spring and flat front cross member. Nice work installing the '48 center X. I put Revell '40 and '48 X's in my model frames all the time because they give the whole chassis a more vintage appearance and they just look bitchin'! This is right up my alley. Will be following along!

Did you turn Aussie?

This model is reaching epic status, Brother! It will, no doubt, be one of the best '34 3-Windows ever built in scale.

I think it looks fantastic sitting on those Boyd Smoothster wheels and tires! Definitely stick with that. Good luck with the project!

Interested in seeing how you guys (and girls?) safely transport your models to and from shows / contests. I'm planning to attend an NNL in a few weeks and need to safely get about 10 models there and back, 2 hours each way.

Next month is the Lower Left Coast NNL in Carlsbad, California on August 12, 2017. More Info: http://www.lowerleftcoastnnl.org/ I have not attended this show in five years but am planning to attend for sure next month and bring some models for display. Who else is going???