Dennis Lacy

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.

I almost always build my hot rods in a traditional / old school style because that's my kind of style in the full scale world. When a '32 Sedan build-off happened early last year in a Facebook group I used to belong to everybody went old school, too. To shake things up a bit I decided to go against the grain and do mine in a late 80's smoothie / billet style. I got pretty well along with the project then it got shoved aside, as it often happens. For some reason I dug out the project this morning for a look (almost forgetting it was there!) and next thing I know I was working on it again. I went over some of the roughed-in work I had done before then made some good progress. The body is a Revell '32 Sedan which I chopped and converted into a Sedan Delivery by filling the rear window openings and carving in the rear door lines. The soft top insert detail was sanded off, door handles filled, center hinge detail filled on the hood top, popular heat extractor scoops added to the hood sides and the raised trim (a stainless steel band 1:1) removed from the rear edge of the radiator shell. When the fenders are removed from a '32 there is a resulting gap under the hood sides which is largest at the front. Rather than add material to the bottom edges of the hood sides I dropped the cowl down until the hood sides came down to the frame. I then lowered the radiator shell 1/16" to match. The chassis is essentially stock Revell '32 Ford with both front and rear axles modified using the good ol' Tim Boyd Technique to lower the stance.The tires are all from Revell's '32 Roadster and the early Boyd Coddington billet wheels are from the original issue of Monogram's '37 Ford Sedan. Those cool machined aluminum exhaust tips are old S&S Specialties pieces that I've been hanging onto for 20! years. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki The belly button Chevy small block is from Revell's series of '37 Ford street rods and the staple of all 80's rods. Some other S&S Specialties parts that I've been hanging onto for 20 years are the neat "V8" air filter and valve cover overlays and the pulley faces. I made extensions that connect the block hugger headers to the kit exhaust. I also cut the matching front engine mounts out of a '37 frame and installed them into the '32 frame. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki For the interior I'm using the front half of the '32 Sedan floor with the seats from the Revell '32 Speedwagon. The door panels are slightly modified from Revell's '37 Ford Coupe. The dashboard and tilt column are from Revell's '37 Convertible and the wheel is from my parts boxes. I had to add material to the top of the dash then shape it to fit the '32 Sedan cowl. Not a lot is going into the interior in this model and nothing for the cargo area because with the heavy chop the interior is barely visible. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki A few odds 'n ends and this one will be ready for some obnoxious 80's color!

After a chill afternoon out in the garage the engine and chassis are completely assembled. I must have done all of the prep work right because nothing fought me. The colors I chose for this are based on what I already had on-hand. I figured I could put to use several partial spray cans that were collecting dust. The engine and generator are Testors one-coat Fiery Orange. The valve covers, valley cover and intake manifold are aluminum metalizer. The carburetors are Testors Jet Exhaust with black bases and bright silver scoops. The headers are flat black. I decided to keep the extra detail simple with a Detail Master distributor and separators. Hosted on Fotki For the chassis I went with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black but opted to leave the floor in dark gray primer since the body will be left in primer as well. Again, I used the Fiery Orange for the axles and accented the orange with magnesium metalizer and sealed it all in Tamiya Gloss Clear. The exhaust is flat black like the headers. The front wheels were done in more Fiery Orange and the rear mags in magnesium metalizer. The whitewall inserts were shot in some flat white to get rid of the plastic look. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki With the chassis out of the way, now I can get going on the body and interior. More soon!

Seriously, man, these are some of the "nicest" rat rod models ever. You have the eye for the look. Keep 'em coming!

This would definitely make the rat truck / rig rod crowd proud.

You're definitely doing the illustration justice. Looks great so far!

Knowing who you are, your comment means a lot! I remember one of your models that Tim Boyd showed a picture of in his Modelers Corner from the earlier 90's. It was a blue 40's COE tanker truck with an actual plastic nose on the front and the tank said "Daisy" as in "daisy sniffing stance." Does that model still exist?

Old Hemi's just look awesome covered in carburetors, don't they? Doesn't look like you're too far from the end, get on it!

Good God, this is freaking rad! Excellent weathering effect on the body, Nailhead is a killer motor choice and the stance / proportions / rolling stock are perfect. Fantastic work!

Quick update. All of the chassis and engine parts are (for the most part) finish painted, ready for assembly. Hoping the 3-day weekend will afford me enough time to get it all glued together despite having visitors from out of state. Hosted on Fotki

Thanks again guys! I'm real happy to finally have this thing all fabbed out. Should be getting started on paint in a couple of weeks. I'm in the middle of getting my Deuce 3-window (also here on the Workbench) painted and assembled right now.