Dennis Lacy

I guess the word filter didn't catch that one!

This is awesome, love it! Ever since that episode of Road Kill with the Jeep rat rod I've had it mind to build one. Too much information...

Looking really good. I've noticed you doing this on other models, I like how you blend the corners of the floor into the firewall to eliminate the void. I also see what you did with the bottom of the cowl. Very clever!

I absolutely love this! It just looks right-on.

This is one of the first models of yours that I discovered on-line all those years ago.

The reason the brackets are on the inside is (as KK correctly surmised) to get the 'bones tucked in a bit so there wouldn't be any interference with the steering link. As it turns out, there's a mile of clearance and the brackets could have been hung on the outside. If you look close at the real car, the mounts are on the outside but the tie rod ends on the 'bones come in from behind to get them tucked in a bit, for the same reason. I ain't buildin' no replica so I ain't gonna be changin' 'em...

No, you have it right. The bones are split. It might be that the hanger brackets are attached to the inside of the frame rails that's throwing you off. Usually the brackets are on the outside or bottom so they're more obvious. I use very little aftermarket parts. Not that there is anything wrong with them (there's some really nice stuff out there!) but I just prefer to re purpose kit parts or scratch build what I need. I build this stuff for a living so re purposing and scratch building comes natural.

UPDATE! Has it really been 5 months?! Today I dug out this project and spent some quality time with it. I scratch built a V'd headlight bar out of Evergreen .042" rod and 3/32" tube which holds up a pair of AMT '36 Ford headlights. I built upper shocks mounts and shocks which was all made out of the kit parts albeit quite modified. I notched the bottom portion of the grill shell so that it sits over the frame cross member like it should. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki I also built the tough-looking shorty header tubes using pieces cut out of 2 pairs of Monogram Slingster dragster Chevy headers. It's absolute luck that they ended up fitting over, around and under the steering box and shaft perfectly. I love it when things just work out like this! Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki And what would an update be without full mock up pics? Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Still a few things left to do but this thing is getting close to fully fabricated! One more solid afternoon might be enough to finish and start getting it paint ready.

UPDATE! Been a while since I've spent any time at the workbench but had an afternoon to get at it on Labor Day. Started out by doing some body tweaks. Out back I fixed the wheel wells by adding the missing strips of material across the bottom (which is made this way to fit the fenders) because real Model A body wells come down even with the bottom of the body. The 3 reinforcement ribs are in the correct place but AMT made them recessed when they should be raised to the outside. Easy fix as I shaped some strips of .042" rod to fit into them which filled them and made them correctly raised at the same time. Hosted on Fotki I added some taillights. Now, a dedicated lakes racer wouldn't require them but the William's Bros. inspiration roadster had them because they flat-towed the car to events. There was actually a long wire harness that would reach from their tow vehicle to the taillights. The lights are from several of Revell's '32 Ford's but as they come they are really thick so I sanded them down to about half their original thickness for a more realistic appearance. Taillight placement varied from roadster to roadster with same cases having the lights mounted to each far edge of the rear body panel so I decided to do it that was despite not being a huge fan of it. Hosted on Fotki I installed the firewall and like the William's Bros. car then removed virtually all of it leaving just the perimeter to locate the hood and radiator support rods. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki A couple of weeks ago I was rummaging through an AMT '53 Ford truck kit for some other reason and found the headers for its optional Desoto Hemi had a great vintage look and would also be a perfect fit for the Red Ram in the roadster so I set them aside and they are now mounted. I really didn't like that there's no lifter valley cover detail on this engine and after some digging I found that the piece from the Oldsmobile engine in the Ed Roth Beatnik Bandit fit nice and while not totally accurate looks a heck of a lot better than nothing. I also mocked up both banks of injectors so I could get a look at the full engine. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Here's how the car looks with the mocked up engine and the firewall band in place. Tight fit but it does clear. Hosted on Fotki Inside I got the basic firewall shape roughed-in and fit. It only took two tries! Still a lot to do in here but making this part and making it fit exact was the hard part. Hosted on Fotki And some full mock ups. Here you can see that I smoothed the parting line on the cowl, filled the door handle holes, cleaned up the hood and carved the parting lines into it to separate the tops from the sides and finally properly fit a new '32 radiator shell as the one before was a butchered mock up piece. Still a lot more to do but I'm happy! Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki

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!!!