Dennis Lacy

With the addition of the West Coast / Pismo event I'm very much trying to get my Dad to enter his 40's period perfect '34 Roadster. It's not particularly fast compared to the light weight earlier cars with really built flatheads but the experience would be killer. Problem is he's 70 and grumpier than ever. Hosted on Fotki

That's the beauty of doing the A-pillar cuts this way. It allows the two narrow pieces of pillar to be manipulated enough (with finger pressure) to realign without additional cuts or messing with the length of the roof. I did think about scribing "pop out" light doors but where I put the hood scoops doesn't leave a good place to do that (IMO.) I'll give some more thought to rectangular lights, though. There must be a good way...

That looks really nice, so far! Deserves to be finished...

Duplicolor Gray Sandable Primer Comes in white, black and brown, too.

As luck would have it, I used the top chop on this body as a how-to for another forum. Ask and ye shall receive! In no way am I implying this is the only way, it's just how I do it. Hopefully this can answer some questions for those contemplating a roof whack on a '32 Ford. So follow along then get your own Sawzall out and start cuttin'! 1. Decide how much choppin' you want to do and mark your cut lines. I use a fine tip Sharpie. For this model I chose 3/16 inch which is about like 4.5 inches on a full scale '32. As you can see, the cut lines at the rear of the body will have a step between the side windows and the rear window. (The vertical lines just inside of the body corner are drawn along existing mold seams.) This is necessary because drawing two continuous horizontal lines will not bisect both the side windows and the rear windows at their optimal location. The side windows must be done such that when the roof comes down the rear edges of the window opening line up correctly. Hosted on Fotki 2. For the A-pillar (windshield post) another staggered cut will be required. The door opening panel line will serve as a dividing line. Put a pen mark from the door line-rearward just under the raised drip molding. Measure down double the amount you're chopping (in this case 3/16" x 2 or 3/8" total) and mark another line from the door line-forward. Lastly, measure and mark a center line between the upper and lower lines and draw it completely across the A pillar. Once the lines are correctly layed out, use the back edge of a sharp #11 blade and scribe along the door line the distance between the upper and lower lines until you make a complete vertical cut. Hosted on Fotki 3. Using the back of your #11 blade again, scribe along the two vertical lines on the back of the body until they are both cut through spanning the distance of the upper most and lower most cut lines. Hold a steel straight edge along the lines to guide the blade at first. Once the lines start to get a little depth you can remove the straight edge and the blade will follow the lines. Hosted on Fotki 4. Using your razor saw of choice, now cut out the two sections of material at the back of the body. I cut on the lines. Hosted on Fotki 5. At the A pillar, cut completely through the pillar on the center line. Then remove the two remaining sections of material, one above the center line, the other below. Hosted on Fotki 6. Remove the remaining sections of material on the B (center pillars.) Clean up any flash along the cut edges while being careful not to remove any additional material from the faces of the cuts. Taking care to line up all of the sections as best as possible, glue the roof back down using your favorite glue. I use Zap-A-Gap. Hosted on Fotki 7. If any gaps occur where the two body halves join (like the lower most rear cut lines and the vertical #11 blade cut lines in the following photo) simply fill those areas with scrap pieces of plastic trimmed to the appropriate size and shape. DO NOT leave gaps like this to fill with putty later. You want to do as much work in plastic as possible so that a year after you paint the model the seams don't reappear when the putty shrinks. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki 8. Once the glue has been given thorough time to gestate (I give Zap-A-Gap an our or two) you can now start sanding the seams smooth. Use a small, pointed hobby file to carefully smooth the seams in the window openings and other stepped reveal lines. use the back of a #11 blade to scribe the glue build up out of the door panel lines, making them continuous again. If care was taken to line up the two body halves the seams should become seamless and require very little putty filler during paint prep. Hosted on Fotki Take a look at this side view. Notice that no additional material has been added to stretch the roof to make the A pillars line up! This is the whole reason for the staggered A pillar cuts. The staggered cuts allow the two thin A pillar halves to be manipulated into lining up with light pressure and cohersion. There are several benefits to not stretching the roof. One is that the molded soft insert detail is not disturbed if you would like to leave it intact. Second, it's a heck of a lot less work without having to clean up more seams than necessary. Third is that the staggered joint at the A pillar is WAY stronger than a simple straight butt joint would be because your are gluing along more surface area. Fourth, any load placed on the pillar while handling or sanding is spread out over a greater area greatly reducing the risk of breaking the seam. (The same goes for the staggered rear seam.) Hosted on Fotki

Oh man, if I only had some!

This past weekend I spent just a short time at the bench. Being it was the Wife's birthday I felt it politically correct not to hole up in the garage for hours. I'm not that stupid! I've been thinking a lot of what else I wanted to do to this thing. One of the other mods that got really popular with this era of car was the removal of the front and rear frame horns (and therefor the gas tank, too.) I sat there with my razor saw in one hand and the frame in the other for about 5 minutes. I reasoned that if I was that unsure about circumcising the frame then it was probably the right move to make. Following that I found some neat little shock brackets in my parts that I think might be from AMT's '41 Woody street rod. Before running out of time I managed to half scratch build one of the shocks. I wasn't gonna take pictures until they were both made but I was out in the g'rage taking pictures of my 3-Window project already so I snapped a couple just for the heck of it. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Whether I like it or not, too late now! Opinions???

Took a break from painting last week, now I'm back on it. Got the body pieces and interior pieces in primer. Couldn't resist setting the primer body onto the chassis. Just getting some color on things, any kind of color other than white plastic, really helps you "see" the car. Got some expected flaws where I changed the trunk lid and some ghost etching where those awful mold seems were at the rear of the roof. Wet sand, prime, repeat! Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki

Yeah, I don't get it either. I see the Oldsmobile covers on SBC's all the time now at shows and gatherings. The first time I saw this my thoughts were "Haha, that's funny." The rest of the times my thought was "Why?". It's kind of like all the young greasers and pin up girls that show up to events in their Honda Civic's. I think the correct definition is Poser. But, to each their own. That being said, I can't wait for this kit to hit the shelves soon!!!

This! When I got back into building in '08 after a near 10 year hiatus I went to the hobby shop and bought handfuls of paint jars in all kinds of colors. I have yet to open most them and now they're all petrified trash. Don't buy over priced little sheets or films of sand paper from the hobby shop. Go to a hardware store, buy giant sheets and cut them down. They'll last you for years! I'm just now getting down to the point where I'll have to buy more after 5-6 years. If you use the Zap brand CA glues don't buy the big ones. Get the smallest size they offer. They go bad after being open for about six months and you won't go through a small one in that amount of time. The one thing I do splurge on is Tamiya spray paint because it's actually worth $6 a can.

I think this is the first time I've actually seen one of these built. Pretty neat! I like the colors you used and the workmanship and detail are pretty dang clean. I also love the Wayne sign boards!

If it's bringing back memories now just wait until the obnoxious color scheme hits it!

You guys are ridiculous. It might be a good thing nobody builds 'em like me!

Regardless of how long it took you to get it done, it was worth the wait. This a friggin' rad hot rod, Chris! I love everything about it. Nailed it from every angle. Toothpaste caps turned finned brake drums? Ingenious!

See, those are for guys who feel guilty about putting a Chevy in their Ford. I feel no guilt. At all. Just this morning on my way to work a guy sitting next to me at a red light complimented my truck and asked what it had in it. I proudly told him a Chevy small block.

The overhead conversion in the '31 Woody is a Riley 2-Port. The 2-port was considered more of a street performance head but would work fine in a vintage retro dragster. The head featured intake valves only and still used the in-block exhaust valves and ports. Riley also made a 4-Port which had 4 large intake ports, bigger valves and placed the intake manifold on the drivers side. It also still used the in-block exhaust valves and ports. The below picture shows clearly where the spark plugs are located and how the wires are ran. The head used the original distributor and included an extension shaft to raise it up clear of the rocker arm covers. The distributor in the model kit is representative of a factory distributor with a conventional tower-type cap. Hosted on Fotki In the below picture you can see that there is a steel line running from the lower / center of the engine block up to the center of the cylinder head. This is an oil supply line for the rocker arms under the two covers. Where the fitting attaches at the engine block is a factory threaded and plugged hole which is used as a "test port" for checking the oil pressure. This particular engine also has an "updraft" intake manifold and uses two Model A style carburetors instead of the more traditional "downdraft" intake that points upward with Stromberg carburetors on top (like what is in the model kit.) in this picture you can also see the distributor riser right between the two rocker arm covers. Hosted on Fotki That's pretty much all the external detail there is to this head. Pretty simple stuff.

Maybe he was interested in models as a kid then his dad foolishly intervened and exposed him to the hobby of catastrophic appliance self destruction and it permanently redirected his passion in life? And here the poor guy was just trying to spend quality time with his boy...

This is just about the best "bare metal" model I've ever seen. The weathering effects on the entire car are awesome realistic and the use of the parts pack Pontiac is totally sweet. Being heavily involved in full scale hot rodding, I've seen quite a few rods being driven around in a state just like this.

I exposed my 12 year old step-son to the model hobby and bought him a few Revell snap kits over the last couple of years to test the waters, then sat down and built them with him. Despite my love of the hobby it has not happened for him and that is fine. I do not expect him to like anything I do but as a parent it is my obligation to take an active roll in my children's lives by trying to broaden their horizons. It was more about the time we spent together as a father and son so when he's grown at least he can look back and know that I cared. Especially considering his worthless piece of BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH biological dad has been no better than a sperm donor. And, even though he has not expressed the desire to build more models he acts like he treasures the ones that we did build. To him, they represent much more than plastic cars.

I think that's an excellent idea!

Thank you for calling attention to this, Bill. The rule book for Gasser class stipulated the nose could not be higher than the tail. This Willys has the perfect Gasser stance.

Tim, I gotta know. Does the pink '29 Pickup that was featured as a complete How To in the May '90 issue still exist? I've scoured your Fotki hoping see current-day pictures. All-time favorite Modelers Corner! (hint, hint )

Those are the ones! Now that I see them again I think I can make these work and they will tie in nicely with the obnoxious color scheme I have in mind. My billet bubble gum street rod and I are very appreciative!

Thanks for looking into the graphic decals, Chris. Those aren't quite the obnoxious graphics I'm looking for. The ZR1 sheet comes closest, though. I'm gonna keep looking. There's gotta be something perfect out there. The mid-late 90's issue of AMT's '40 Coupe (stock gray car on box) has some good pink & gray graphics and I thought I had a couple of those sheets but came up empty.

I'm really leaning towards Aqua. I have nothing for proper street rod decals so I need to hunt some down. Any suggestions??? Being born in '79, I grew up with this style of street rod, too. Liked 'em as a little kid, came into the traditional cars hard in my earliest teens and then hated the billet cars for years. Now, I actually get a little nostalgic looking at them when they're a period-perfect 80's car. They were all the rage with modelers, too. Some of my fondest childhood modeling memories are contemporary street rod how-to's by Tim Boyd in his Modeler's Corner column in Street Rodder Magazine. I've got a tribute to him and one of those in the near future. Just gotta get some of these lingering projects in the display case before starting, yet another model. So this aint gonna be the only billet car you'll see from me.