Dennis Lacy

I feel that if Revell were to create an accurate 1933 or 1934 3-Window kit along the same lines as their 1932 3-Window kit that it would be a huge success. What makes the '32 so good is that it is a solid middle ground that looks good built out of the box and can also be easily backdated into a traditional hot rod or into a very modern street rod. And, like the '32 kits, a whole bunch of future '33 or '34 variations would be possible. I'd pee down my leg over a good '34 Roadster kit! At this point there has yet to be a truly good '33 or '34 kit so it's easy to understand some peoples apprehension but if that were to change, so would a lot of peoples attitudes.

It is refreshing to see this kit built into a hot rod. Good parts selection and clean workmanship too. I dig it!

Thank you, everyone, for your generous comments and compliments. I'm very pleased with how this car turned out. Definitely my favorite, and possibly my best workmanship-wise. I have seen a couple examples of this kit built into cool traditional hot rods over the years so I knew it was possible. I've had the general idea in my head for quite a while, just had to wait for the right time to where my abilities would give me half a chance at doing the project some justice. It came together surprisingly fast too. Under a month start to finish. I must have been in "The Zone." Thanks, again!

You completely missed the point, Harry. I wasn't implying that kits didn't cost $2 in the 60's. I know that they absolutely did. i wasn't calling BS on the price of model kits. I was calling BS on the people that constantly compare (and complain) about kit prices now vs. 50 years ago because it's all a wash. Today, your average kid who's saved his allowance money for a month will go to the hobby shop and purchase one new kit at a time. It was no different 50 years ago in 1964. Yeah, kits were $2. And it would probably take a kid a month or so to save up $2 for one in 1964, just like $25 for one in 2014.

Absolutely, if one wanted to shorten the frame that is also a possibility. I just wanted to be clear for the benefit of others reading this (who may be intimidated by that) that it's not a must. I agree that Bernard left an "appropriate" gap between the engine and firewall. A little bit of room to run a wrench back there in the pits between races. I plan to get another body as soon as this Parts Pack is in-stock at my LHS and do a version 2.0 with corrected proportions. The frame is a perfect rectangle so I'll probably just make one and cobble up some axles, suspension and engine since I don't have any more Fiat's on-hand. i wouldn't want a duplicate, anyway.

Thank you everyone for your nice comments, everybody! Here's a few more views of the flathead. I think the cream-white turned out pretty good.

Fresh off of the bench is this 1934 Ford Cabriolet. Built using parts 1950 or older and representing a classy finished hot rod in Southern California back in the early 50's. Particulars: Revell-O-Gram “Thom Taylor” '34 Cabriolet body, top and frame. AMT '34 Coupe grill. 36 Ford headlights. '37 Ford taillights. Revell '32 Ford 5-Window front cross member and axle/suspension. Disc brakes replaced with early Ford brake plates from Revell '40/'48 Ford's. Steering linkage converted to side steer and modified '40 Ford box. Complete rear axle and brakes from Revell '48 Ford's. AMT '34 Coupe wheels and front tires. Rear wheels made .040” deeper and wrapped in .010” sheet. Monogram '41 Lincoln rear tires. Revell '50 Pickup engine block/trans, oil pan, front cover/water pumps, belt drive and fan. Edelbrock finned heads, generator, starter and exhaust headers from Revell '40 Ford's. Dual intake and Stromberg carburetors from Revell '37 Pickup. Model Car Garage carburetor risers. Carburetor scoops made from exhaust tips. Detail Master pre-wired distributor and wire separators. Modified Revell '32 Ford radiator. Hildebrant oil filter from Revell Orange Crate with stock Ford filter lid. Revell '50 Pickup dash board. '40 Ford steering wheel. Modified Revell '32 3-Window floor, seat and door/side panels. Body, frame, wheel color: Tamiya Maroon. Engine color: Tamiya Racing White. Suspension color: Tamiya Mica Silver.

Absolutely, 100% agree. There is not a better summation than what you wrote, Dr. Cranky. And, it applies to anything in life. Your either willing to do what it takes to make something happen or you're not. If not, then it must not be as important to you as you thought.

Every time I see the argument about how model kits were 2 dollars 50 years ago, I have to call BS. It's not like kids in the 60's were walking into hobby shops with fist fulls of $20's and walking out with arm fulls of $2 model kits. My Dad, who was a kid and teen in the 60's, has told me on multiple occasions that he would have to save his allowance for weeks, find "extra" jobs to do around the neighborhood, etc. so that he could buy a new AMT kit plus needed supplies like glue, paint, brushes, etc. Apparently the fancy metallic spray paints were a major luxury. On top of that, he was also into Lionel trains so he had make room in his tight budget for two hobbies. He has also told me that when he was a teenager with his first car, gas was 20 or 30-some cents a gallon. That's great but he also only usually had a few dollars on him at any given time so it's not like he had a full tank everyday. For the people who can't swallow current prices for new model kits, there are multiple second hand market alternatives that are more cost friendly. The best deals I have found are vendors at model shows/contests.

JB, No frame modifications would be necessary. The fix would be to move the engine back in the frame until it is just in front of the firewall. That would be very simple since the frame rails are parallel and the engine mounts simply sit on top of the frame rails. The drive shaft (actually, in this case torque tube) would need to be shortened the amount the engine was moved rearward. Then, the radiator shell would mount between the front of the engine and the platform that the Moon fuel tank sits on. If you look at Bernard's yellow and red version above, that is how his is setup.

Here is this same Parts Pack roadster body kit on top of the Fiat Altered chassis from the Double Dragster set. Don't make the same mistake I did! I built the chassis straight from the box. The roadster body kit IS a direct fit but as this picture illustrates, considerably shorter than the Fiat body leaving a huge gap between the engine and cowl. I didn't do any extensive test fitting because I was under the impression that there was no alteration required to the Fiat chassis. Wrong! So if anyone is going to use this body on the Fiat chassis, the engine needs to be moved back and the drive line shortened accordingly. Compare my model with Bernard's above. His is right, mine is wrong. A few more. The engine placement isn't as horrible from 3/4 shots...

To help illustrate how much narrower a '26/'27 roadster body is than a '32 frame, here is a photo from my project very early on. This might be the day that I received the body and set it on my original '32 frame to see what was what. The '32 frame rail top and bottom flanges are 2" wide and the body just fits on the edges of them. At minimum, the frame must be narrowed about 3" to make it work. If I'm remembering correctly, I narrowed my frame 3 1/2".

That is certainly an interesting exercise in proportion.

That photo clearly illustrates why it's necessary to chop and narrow the cab. Left unmodified, it's just a bloated mass!

The wheels, caps and rear tires are all from a Monogram '41 Lincoln. The front tires are from the stock version of an AMT '34 5-Window Coupe. They make a great set of big & little whitewalls don't they?

That's what frame notches are for.

Did some more work on this today. Modified the droopy front frame rails so they are flat and removed the massive front cross member/motor mounts. Narrowed the bed 1/4" and added a modified rolled pan from the Revell '29 Pickup. The tailgate originally had three raised panels but with strategic cutting I made it so it now has 1 continuous raised panel. Decided to ditch the hood idea because it was making the front too long and the shape wasn't jiving very well with the front shell. Decided to use the DEEP dropped axle from the AMT '55 Chevy Stepside. Will add a conventional cross spring and hairpin radius rods. On to some new pictures...

Thanks. Haven't specifically decided which lights I'll use. They will be typical free-standing hot rod headlights. Possibly bullet-shaped like '36 Ford or '39 Chevy. Perhaps some bullet-shaped taillights from a '37 Ford to match.

I wasn't originally planning for this to have a hood but I got to wondering what it would look like with the kit hood re-worked to fit. Made some pie cuts and got it narrowed to match the cowl. Just need to add some material to the rear edge so it fits the contour of the cowl and tune up the fit at the grill. I think I'm gonna go with it.

Did some more work on this the other day. Did all the rough body work. All of the seems blended really nice except for one cab corner that will need a tune up. Made and installed a firewall from .040" sheet. Filled in the voids and fender mounting notches in the bed sides. Made a nose using the grill and pieces of the front fenders and hood. Also, started messing with the Caddy engine. Thinking of tweaking a Revell parts pack Pontiac intake and blower to fit. If I do, it'll lose the injector for a row of 2-barrel carbs. Here's a few lazy mock up pics.

Thank you for the responses, they're all appreciated!

Here's the beginnings of my newest hack & whack job. I've seen a number of people attempt to make these trucks fender-less over the years and have had it in my mind for a while now to take a stab at it. Only time will tell of it works out or not. So far I removed all of the extra junk hanging off of the frame rails, Z'd the frame just behind the cab while at the same time losing 1/2" out of the wheelbase to bring the rear wheels forward. The cab lost about 1/8" off it's lower edge, 1/4" right out of the middle, 3/16" out of the height of the roof and 1/4" channel the full thickness of the frame. The bed lost 1/2" out of the middle. Wheels and rear tires are '41 Lincoln and the planned motor is the Caddy out of the Revell '49 Merc.

I've been wanting to dig into this kit since I got one back in January. Got a few other projects out of the way so it was finally time. I did make some basic changes to give the kit a personal touch. - Rear wheels, M&H slicks and fuel tank from Tony Nancy 22JR - Blower, drive belt, 4-port injector and scoop from KS Pitman Willys - Fuel pump, magneto, rear axle shield and decals from AMT Double Dragster - Ignition wires and fuel hose - Testors 1-coat Deja Blue on the body panels, Tamiya Light Gunmetal on the frame

That's a neat part and it's from AMT's '41 Woody street rod. It has a molded-on HEI style distributor cap which I cut off and carefully drilled the tube to take a pre-wired distributor. The engine, finned heads and headers are also from the '41 Woody. The induction it comes with is a funky rear-facing twin throttle body fuel injection with cone filters and what looks like port injectors. I believe it is based off of a real setup that Posies made for one of their creations/abortions years ago. The intake is a Model Car Garage resin Offy with some parts box carbs and scoops. The fan and pulley setup is from the flathead in AMT's '53 Pickup with a parts box alternator.

Hot off the bench is this little '34 Pickup I've been working on, off and on, for over a year. Chopped the top, shortened the bed and raised the floor, shortened and Z'd the frame, Ala Kart suspension/wheels/tires all around, cobbled together hot flathead and exhaust, '50 truck dash, '37 truck wheel, pleated buckets. Paint is Tamiya TS55 Dark Blue with semi-gloss clear.