Dennis Lacy

That's a wicked looking frame! Very in keeping with the extreme styling put into some rat rods. Lots of swoop, lots of holes. One critique on the suspension design... The single attachment point of the trailing arms at the axle brackets would not work because as you have it now, there would be nothing to control axle rotation under acceleration or braking. As it is now the axle would flap up and down uncontrollably and break the U-joints / drive shaft in the first 100 feet it was driven. The arms either need double attachment points at the axle housing bracket (either vertically or horizontally) or a second pair of upper arms. That is, if you are concerned about it looking like a prototypical suspension design.

The other point is that while a lot of these kits have been reissued many times over the last 3 decades most of those reissues don't have all of the awesome vintage hot rod and custom parts that the original and recently restored to original issues do. That makes them a very valuable asset to the hobby and worth the cost. Sure, you can buy cheap 80's and 90's issues of the AMT Model A Roadster and '32 Ford kits at model shows or on Ebay and end up with awful looking 70's wheels and equally awful mile-wide hollow vinyl tires, boring engine parts and worthless decal sheets. In those old '32 kits (for example) the neat parts are the incentive, the horribly ill proportioned "sheet metal" sure isn't.

On another note, I just noticed that the channeled version is sporting a set of nice looking, small diameter, bullet-shaped headlights. I also truly wish they would have chosen something more interesting than the same old bell-shaped air filter. Some curved air scoops would have been killer. http://htsmall.macsautoparts.com/assets/macs/images/size/265x265/sku/64-50884.jpg

My opinion, the separation line you're seeing at the lower corner of the windshield post is part of the separate dashboards upper rail. Looking closer down the side of the body there is no doubt (in my mind) that the body is one piece. There is no separation line. The raised molding features look accurate, too. What it definitely looks like (to me) is that this body has raised wheel wells like the roadster which makes sense since it will share the identical chassis save for the small block Chevy.

I hardly think it's fair to condemn them all as rubbish. I don't have a personal interest in every single kit they have re-released but all of the Double T's, Double Dragster, '32 Vicky, '36 Coupe/Roadster, '37 Chevy Coupe and others like them restored back to their original configurations with vintage parts that hadn't been available for decades are treasure troves of hot rod parts for serious kit bashers and fanatics of pre-70's Traditional Hot Rods. The parts count, alone, justifies the price tag and is totally competitive among other US-brand car kits like Revell and Monogram. In some of those cases you get enough parts in the box to assemble two complete vehicles!

What I don't like more than any of that is the modern radial tires. They destroy the look of cars built to, otherwise, look vintage. Especially the weathered/patina look this one has. The Chevy engine wouldn't be so bad if it had more vintage equipment on it like a row of 2 barrel carbs, earlier finned valve covers and a generator.

One of the sleekest track nose A roadsters ever with a history as interesting as the car itself. Really looking forward to watching this come together and seeing how you go about replicating all of the custom bodywork. Of course, you could always forego all of the hard work and do the yellow Tom Branch version, hahaha

Thanks for your comments, Bill. "Makes a statement" is what I'm going for.

It took me a double take to realize the roadster in the illustration is not on a '32 frame. The header covers are trimmed up Model A splash aprons that mimic the shape of the cove in a '32 frame. There's some really neat details going on in that illustration. I dig how the pitman arm is curved to match the shape of the cowl line just behind it. It's also a shame that you can't get those Deluxe Champion Firestone style tires in skinny front 450-18 if one were to build the real car.

This kit is a huge win for us hot rod builders but even with it's many, many strong points the more traditionally minded among us can't help but wish that Revell had designed it with a Halibrand quick change rear axle. It's just one of those parts that screams HOT ROD! Since this car is going to have a dual purpose appearance with the Moon tank, Hilborn injection and Bell steering wheel it only seemed right that it has a Halibrand axle hanging out back. I spent more time going through all of my parts deciding what to use for donors and settling on an approach than it actually took to do all of the work. I started with the extremely well rendered Halibrand QC center section found in Revell's Kurtis Midget kits and the axle tubes from Revell's old 29/31 Model A kits. Hosted on Fotki I cut away the molded partial axle bells from the QC and opened up the inside diameter of the hole so that the alignment flanges on the axle tubes would register inside. At first I thought that just the plating was flawed on the tubes but after sanding the paint away I found the plastic was damaged too so I replaced them with another pair of tubes. Hosted on Fotki I cut away the shock mounts from the kit axle and attached them to the new QC axle tubes. I really don't like the rear coil-overs in this new kit because they're really fat & ugly so I replaced them with the slimmer (and better detailed IMO) coil overs from Revell's '32 kit series. I also had to enlarge the slots in the kit ladder bars to fit the new, thicker axle tubes. Some of you may wonder why I didn't replace the coil overs all together with a Model A spring. I considered that but ultimately decided that I didn't want to alter the floor pan to fit with the necessary Model A rear cross member. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki And a couple of "up skirt" photos showing off the new Halibrand quick change. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki I also thinned down the front spring a little to give the car a very subtle forward rake. Exactly the look I'm going for so at this time the stance is set. Hosted on Fotki

Thanks, B! When done right I'm a really big fan of 28/29 Roadster hiboys on the original A frame but it's not always easy to get them to look right. More often than not, they don't because the builder doesn't pay enough attention to proportion. What I'm doing here is attempting to make it look right and so far I'm happy with how it's looking. You'll understand this but I'm starting to see the car as something that would have been in the L.A. Roadster Club in, say, '64 or '65. Quite a few of the cars in that club at that time were dabbling in running "race" parts on the street (mechanical injection, slicks, etc.) and the cars weren't particularly low or slinky. The L.A.R.C. cars at the time had a signature look and feel. Tom McMullins' infamous '32 Roadster is a perfect example.

This is my first time seeing this project, at all, and I can't wait to see an update. Using the new frame sure is going to save you a bunch of thankless work over that old AMT frame. I really like the overall look of the car.

The rear wheels were adapted in a similar manner. First, plastic rod glued into the existing holes in the ends of the axle. Hosted on Fotki In one of my parts bins I found some wheel mounting sleeves that fit perfectly inside the raised center rings the wheel. I glued them in place then shaved them down a bit. Hosted on Fotki The diameter of the sleeves is a perfect tight fit inside of the 5 molded wheels studs on the brake drum. Hosted on Fotki The brake drum fits down into the inner rim and stops against the short sleeves on the outer wheel.At final assembly the drums will be glued to the sleeve. Hosted on Fotki The brake drum can then be glued to the brake plate and to the rod that passes through it's center hole inside. Hosted on Fotki The early stages of a rolling chassis. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki

Here's some pictures showing the replaced front cross member and frame horns. The '32 cross member is essentially flat where as the Model A kit cross member dips down quite a bit. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki The other thing I realized is that the engine has two pairs of mounting slots in it's sides and the Model A frame (originally the channeled option) mounts the front of the engine lower to help with floor clearance. When using this frame not channeled it's necessary to raise the front of the engine but the molded mounts on the frame won't engage the lower slots on the engine so spacer blocks were added to the upper slots. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki

Oh no, it absolutely made a difference! If I hadn't done that the car would be sitting nose-up in the pictures above. I think it dropped down 3/32". Keep watching, I'm gonna be adding more pictures and descriptions.

It's not just you. The car sits essentially flat at the moment. I'm probably going to thin down the spring 1/16th" or so to give it a little rake. The way the spring is rendered on this new front axle isn't really conducive to getting the front real low.

To adapt the front wheels I started by inserting a section of Evergreen rod into the existing holes in the axle for the kits wheel mounting pins. Hosted on Fotki The rod passes through the existing center holes in the brake plates and brake drums. I also removed the molded wheel studs from the faces of the drums. Hosted on Fotki I cut the raised ridge away from the center of the wheel and sanded away the chrome. The wheel has an existing center hole but it is not quite large enough for the rod to fit into it so I drilled it slightly bigger and a little deeper taking car not to go too deep and poke the drill bit out the other side. The Merc's chrome wheel backs were then sanded down until they were the correct thickness to fit the tire. At final assembly the rod and the face of the brake drum will become glue point for the wheel. Hosted on Fotki The complete assembly shows off the finned brake drums nicely and also mounts the wheel prototypically. That is to mean that on real cars that use these drums the wheels get pushed out and often create undesirable steering geometry in the process. That's the price for looking cool! Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki Grabbed a couple copies of this new kit yesterday and dug into one as soon as I got home with them. Among discussions of this kit over in the review section the question came up as to whether this kit could be built in a 3rd style which is to use the Model A frame that is intended for the channeled option and build the car not channeled. Tim Boyd did some mock ups and discovered that it can easily be done so that's the path I decided to head down with my project. In order to build the car not channeled with the Model A frame the rear wheel wells for the hiboy/'32 frame version need to be trimmed straight across the bottom to accommodate the shape of the frame. I removed 3/32" from each side. Hosted on Fotki Unfortunately, I didn't get the body and frame taped together tight enough for this picture but the fit is nowhere near this sloppy. The angled front part of the cut actually follows the shape of the step in the floor so that is why there is a wedge shaped gap. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki So here is where I'm at after a couple of afternoon's of hackin' & wackin'. I grafted the front cross member and frame horns from a Revell '32 frame in place of the Model A pieces, Partly this was done to lower the front because the '32 cross member is flatter and I also wanted to mount a Moon auxiliary fuel tank from the Revell '32 5-Window. I also permanently attached the shock towers to the frame. The shocks were cut free and holes drilled into the bottoms of the towers to for the shock shafts to fit into. The rear axle was lowered 1/16". A Revell '32 grill shell was sectioned 1/8" and also dropped down another 1/8" so that it lines up with the cowl and the hood top from an AMT '29 Roadster fits right into place. The front tires are from the new kit, the rears are Revell M&H Racemaster's from the Orange Crate and the chrome reverse wheels are from Revell's '49 Custom Merc. The engine is going to be the kit Buick with the optional Hilborn fuel injection to tie in with the Moon tank for a "dual purpose" look. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki

Did you need to lay back and have a smoke after that?

I actually went the other direction and shortened the mounting pins on the cross member. Works either way.

Somewhere among these 3 different threads the question was asked if the roadster could be built a 3rd way, not channeled but on the Model A frame. Tim Boyd said that he did some mock ups and confirmed that it absolutely could be if the bottoms of the hiboy wheels wells were trimmed to accommodate the flat shape of the A frame. I just got my first two copies of this kit today, cleared a spot on the bench and spent the afternoon with one of them. After a bunch of horsing around I decided to get started on a new project and wanted to try building it not channeled but on the A frame. After trimming the bottoms of the hiboy wheel wells everything falls together. I removed 3/32" to fit the step in the frame. (I didn't get the model taped together tight enough for pictures so the fit isn't as bad as it looks.) The front angled edges of the cut actually follow the shape of the step in the floor, not the frame which is why there is a wedge shaped gap. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki And a mock up of where I'm headed with it. The back was lowered 1/16" by using a round file to sand the axle mounts deeper. The front still needs to be reworked to get it about 1/8" down so it sits like the picture below. The '32 grill is from the Revell kits. Front tires are from the new kit with Revell Race Master slicks and chrome reverse wheels from Revell's '49 Custom Mercury. Engine is going to be the kit Nailhead. I'll start a thread in the Work Bench section soon. Hosted on Fotki Playing around some more, I also found that the new kit '32 frame fits the old AMT '29 Roadster body like a glove! Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki

I absolutely agree that there is too much "air" under the car. This is a problem with channeled cars if the chassis doesn't sit low. For comparison, here's the side view of a channeled AMT '29 Roadster that I built some years back. The back of the frame is stepped several times more than the new Revell kit frame and the front axle is from the modern tool Ala Kart with the spring from the '29 Roadster stock front axle glued on top of it. The spring is really flat compared to the new kit spring. Hosted on Fotki Also, what's killing the front ride height of the new kit (both frames) is how far down the center of the front cross member is below the frame rails. Somewhat accurate for a stock '32 frame but not a Model A. It's obvious that the reason Revell did the cross member the way they did was so they could fit a reasonable sized radiator.

I've been very much anticipating seeing this version done. I really like the colors you chose for it and I'm glad you thought enough of my wheel and hubcap suggestion to give it a try. I prefer the hubcap'd side and this picture is my favorite. The rake is perfect and the car just lays-out right. Like a real hot rod I would much rather see a vintage spring under the back because the coil overs look completely out of character with the rest of the way the car is setup. Hosted on Fotki My final thoughts about the channeled version are as follows: - The Model A grill has got to go. It's just too antique-looking for the rest of the car. If this was a pre-War styled 4-banger powered car it would be fine but it's just not in the right flavor for the way the car is setup. It needs a '32 grill chopped about 1/8". - The grill and radiator are also too far forward. The grill should never be past the center line of the wheels because it makes the grill look like it's just slapped on. The huge distance between the grill and cowl is also out of proportion. - The headlights are too high and too big. The smallest lights would have been a better choice but they're still up too high. They're also too far back relative to the grill. - The windshield is too tall, especially for the channeled version. It needs to be 1/8" to 3/16" shorter. Basically, the top bar where the rear view mirror is now. It honestly looks like a well planned hot rod that the builder got in a hurry and just threw a grill and lights on at the end to make it to its first car show. Whenever I get one of these I definitely plan to build the channeled version first and correct those things I have an issue with.

I noticed that with this channeled version you decided to cut the wheel wells away from the interior side panels to install separately. Any reason you chose to do this? Perhaps some builders insight for better results after having built the first one?

The decals are a little funky but I think once the model is fully assembled they will look better. Love your color choices again, Tim! The injector set up looks killer, can't wait to see the engine finished with chrome/red valve covers. Tamiya Racing White is one of my go-to colors. The best off-white there is, IMO. I vote you use it on the wheels since you did black wheels on the hiboy version. And paint the scallops and letters on the hubcaps red to carry out the same theme as the engine!