Dennis Lacy

Nah, I'm just a model hot rod geek with too much free time.

Nice F-1! Where did the conversion parts come from?

I love stores that have self check-out. Especially when I need to run in somewhere for one item (forgotten dinner ingredient, etc.) and I can check-out in a minute vs. waiting behind a line of over-flowing shopping carts. Plus, I'm pretty anti-social so the less I have to interact with people, the better!

Wow, your C-Cab is so ###### cool! Perfect shape to the cab and the stretched wheelbase / dually combo is really awesome.

Cool project! I've always enjoyed the Monogram '29 roadster pickup kits. And I say good for you, using an old Blue Beetle. There's enough of them built "box art" style. Interestingly I built a very similar RPU about this time last year. Mine was based off of the later "Early Iron" issues. When I channeled mine I simply cut out the interior floor by scribing around its perimeter until my knife broke through. Since the frame is narrow the interior sides slipped down beside the frame rails, I just had to cut out the back to match the cab for the channel. In the end the floor got attached seperately. Here's the finished truck. I robbed the whole chassis and '32 shell from the newest realease of the '30 Woody which has a hopped up Chevy engine. Wheels and tires are from the various Revell hot rod kits. A lot of guys told me to shorten the bed and chop the windshield but I like the funky proportions.

Not sure what else to call it? It's an extra Ala Kart body (which was originally made from a cut down touring body) with an extra '25 T turtle deck hung on the back of it. So I guess that could be a modified... Anyhow, I was sitting there waiting for glue to dry and I started jacking around with some junk in my parts boxes. I had this Lindberg '34 Pickup frame that had its rear cross member harvested for another hot rod, and I had this Ala Kart cab (which comes extra in the last re-issues of the AMT '29 Roadster) along with a stock '29 hood and front shell. A few pieces of tape and some random thoughts later, I had me an idea! So I whipped out one of my modern-tooled Ala Kart kits which I keep around for hot rod donors and decided I could rework the '34 frame to take all of the AK suspension. Not wanting the usual old wire spoke or solid old Ford wheels I mixed and matched until I came up with a combo I liked. Things are just getting started but so far I have managed to graft the AK rear frame cross member to the '34 frame (luckilly I found another cross member that had already been chrome stripped!), Z'd the back of the frame (will saw some angles off later to make it look right) and modified the front of the frame to take the AK front cross member. I'm gonna keep the rear rails outside of the turtle deck but I might extend the bottom of the deck or something to tie it all together a little tighter. All the modern-tool Ala Kart suspension stuff: Rolling stock consisting of Modelhaus T120 & T180 tires, some Halibrand kidney bean spindle mounts (not sure the source) and the front Halibrand Sprint wheels from the Revell '32 Roadster. The front ones are a smaller diameter & a little shallower and are a perfect fit in the rear tires: Engine is going to be a mix & matched hot rodded flathead. Got the block, headers and super cool finned front cover from AMT's '41 Woody and the dual intake & finned heads from AMT's '34 Coupe. Also a couple of carb options and a beehive oil filter - gotta have a hive! As of now all the chrome is getting soaked off. Soon as that happens I can proceed.

This here is a double edged sword for me. Being in the business of building cars too, on one hand helps me with building models because I have a strong mechanical awareness. It also helps me fabricate custom parts that I need and do so in a believable way both in appearance and structure. However, at the same time I admire the people I see build a killer looking model on the surface that might night be exactly functionally correct but it's obvious that they're having fun. I have a build going on right now that was "supposed to be" a simple project. The point was to challenge myself to not get hung up on details and see what I could throw together from my boxes of leftovers, making due with what I have and not giving into raiding another kit for the perfect parts or spending a bunch of time making parts. Well, that plan is out the window... It will be a better model because of my "condition", though.

As far as I'm concearned, as long as the subject is close and looks like what it's supposed to represent, I'm happy. A bigger concern than the actual scale of the vehicle is all of the parts to the vehicle being scaled consistently. A perfect example is the already mentioned modern-tool AMT Ala Kart show rod and it's (very) undersized engine. Someone fell asleep at the switch on that one! I don't see any point in stressing out over finite details because I already have a job, model building is a hobby and a release from reality where I don't have to worry or take things too seriously. I even, dare I say, mix & match 1:24 and 1:25 parts... The Humanity! When I finish a model and can lean back, take a look and get a smile on my face then I'm satisfied. Now, that is only my opinion and I can respect the opinions of others and how they prefer their models. As for the military and aircraft modelers, those people are on a completely different planet. A very dark, distant planet that I am unable to relate to, haha.

This kit is a great foundation for a hot rod. What's cool is that the frame is the same as in Monogram's '30 Touring and '30 Woody so the hot rod parts found in those kits will interchange with the Coupe. Those kits feature a dropped front axle, custom wheels and Chevy engines featuring either 3-carb (Touring) or 6-carb (Woody) intake manifolds. The newest releases of the Touring and Woody also feature newly tooled parts that offer more possibilities. The roof section is a seperate piece because the original issues of this kit go back to the 60's and it could be build as either a Coupe or Cabriolet. At some point the Coupe and Cabriolet were made into seperate kits and all of the optional hot rod parts deleted making them stock-only kits. Of course, a fully customized version of the builders design can be made too and there have been many really cool hot rods made over the years. Below is one of my current projects where I have replaced the stock hood and grill with the shell and louvered hood from Monogram's old tool '32 Roadser and massaged the louvered trunk like from Revell's '32 Ford 5-Window to fit, slammed on chrome-reverse wheels and whitewalls. I also chopped the top

I have always thought that the Mako Shark II was a really cool and aggressive looking show car. Your model is an excellent representation of the real thing. Awesome work!

One of the nicest '40 Deliveries I have seen seen finished. The color and decal scheme really work well together.

Here's an AMT based '34 Coupe I finished a couple of years ago. It has been channeled, '32 grill with custom insert and re-worked hood with '36 Ford louvers. Also has a rear rolled pan created from the gas tank cover portion of the fenders. Painted Testors 1-coat Rootbeer. I was going for an early 60's Rod & Custom Magazine look.

Like you, I work on all of this old junk for a living so I can't help but notice every little detail, I'm programmed to. haha

Excellent work putting together the quick change rear and other necessary mods. All the mixing and matching feels like doing the real thing, doesn't it.... I went back and found mention of where the rear spring came from so I could make a mental note because it is actually a Model T spring and the nicest one in scale I've ever seen!

I've never had an interest in building an Ala Kart, but the modern tool kit is a fantastic parts source for kit-bashing. The front axle is very nice and can easilly have a conventional spring attached to the top of it for a more traditional dropped axle front end. (The spring from the stock axle in AMT's '29 Roadster kit is a great fit.) The wheels and tires are an excellent set of big & little hot rod tires. The wheels look even better stripped, painted and with hubcaps. (The hubcaps in the AMT '53 Ford Pickup fit really well!) The front and rear wheels also have nicely done brake plates. The engine is a bust because of its scale issues but... In the later 70's AMT stripped down their '29 Roadster kit by eliminating the Ala Kart parts (the Ala Kart was actually changed into what they called a Mod-Rod by replacing the nose and hood with a '32 grill and eliminating the truck bed and putting a platform with gas tank on the last couple of issues.) AMT kept the Dodge engine as the alternate "street rod" engine option for the Roadster but replaced the Hilborn injector and front accessories with a race-only super charger setup. By race only this means there was no water pump or generator, just the super charger belt & pulleys. Now, while the engine in the modern Ala Kart may be undersized, it's water pump/front cover, fan belt/pulleys and generator ARE sized pretty well. By using these parts from the modern Ala Kart the Dodge in the '29 Roadster can be nicely converted into a street motor making it a perfect addition to any early hot rod model. The starter motor that is molded to the oilpan on the Dodge engine can also be cut away and the seperate starter motor from the modern Ala Kart engine put in place for better detail. Add a 2x6 carb setup and log manifold from an AMT '36 Ford kit and the over-the-frame headers from AMT's '32 Phantom Vicky and you have a great looking engine. The Hemi in the '53 Pickup kit is a Desoto and while I have never compared it to a real one dimensionally, it seems to be scaled correctly. They are about the same physical size as a Dodge, and the '53 Pickup Desoto is right about the same size as the Dodge in the '29 Roadster / Old Ala Kart kit.

Absolutely cool from front to back, top to bottom. Color is awesome! My favorite part, though, is the combination of tires, wheels and caps you came up with. Those Ford caps are a bit on the large size and they look just right on the Merc wheels. Gonna have to file that for a future project.

This is my favorite "weathered" build by you so far. Not only is the weathering realistic and well done, it's the most restrained theme I've seen you do. I usually don't go for the over-the-top theme stuff and watch parts glued all over the body but this is right up my alley. A straight-up "patina'd" hot rod looking like it was locked away for 40 years, discovered, rinsed off and put right back on the road. Love it!

I remember seeing this as a project some time ago. It has been worth the wait. Very cool hot rod! Love the whole selection of parts and the shade of blue you chose is awesome!

There were some street rods in the 60's that had home made 4-link front suspensions but it wasn't until the latter 70's that it was available in kit form. Like Ace-Garageguy said, Pete & Jakes was most likely the first to offer it. The 4-link most likely trickled down from race car use. It wasn't so much a handling issue with the tube axles as it was the stress placed on them as split wishbones or hairpin radius rods can not fully articulate without binding (because of their single chassis mounting point) which puts a twisting load on the axle. I-beam axles by nature can "give" to compensate for this, tube axles can not. The original tube axles were 1-piece across and bent to shape. The verticle ends were welded to them as were typically the spring hangers. One of the first to offer these was Bell Auto Parts. Later, Super Bell Axle Co. (Of which the proprieter was a former Bell Auto employee) introduced the tube axles we know today (like what is represented in the Revell '32 series) which have a tube center and solid forged ends which are welded to the center tube.

The transmission molded to the flathead engine in the '32 Sedan kit is a Ford C4 Automatic which did not become available until the 1960's and only in the last 20 or so years has it become a mainstream thing to mate one to a flathead with several over-the-counter adaptor kits readilly available for guys too lazy to use their left leg. All of the flathead engine hot rod parts in the Sedan kit were available in the mid-late 1940's in the full-scale world. A 40's or 50's era hot rod would have an engine-driven fan, though, or in some cases not run one at all and hope they didn't get caught in slow-moving traffic, haha.

Or, just maybe, the person who built the box art model simply did not install the vent windows...

The weathering is totally killer, wow! I love that a fully detailed chassis is hiding underneath and those Halibrand wheels look mean as hell.

This is honestly too nice of a car to be considered a ratrod. I'd call it a beater. I really dig the finish on the body, the dirty red chassis and the rodded Chevy 6. Awesome work!

Thanks for the comments, everyone! Thanks and yes, I do need to paint the taillights. I would have but when I went to dip my brush in the red I use for this it didn't seem to want to submerge into the paint. I'll grab a fresh bottle one of these days and touch them up.

This project had been started in the late Summer of last year, worked on periodically then stalled out in February. In the last week and a half I challenged myself to finish it. Not only because I wanted to see it finished, but also because at the end of this week I will be moving and it's unknown what kind of down-time I will have as a result. I started this because it's very rare, practically never in fact, to see a '29 closed cab pickup mounted to a '32 frame. It has been done 100's of times with '29 roadster pickups but for some reason just gets over looked with a closed cab. I also wanted the truck to look useable so it was decided early on to leave the body in primer. I guess one could say that this would be perfect for a "shop truck". Chassis: Revell '32 5-Window, front and rear suspension modified to sit considerably lower. Wheels & Tires: Steel disc wheels / caps / rings from Revell '32 5-Window. Modelhaus T110 & T180 tires. Engine: Chrysler style Hemi from Revell '32 5-Window. Intake modified to use 3 Rochester 2 bbl carbs, flame arrestor air scoops from 70's AMT '34 3-Window, pieced together over the frame headers, Parts By Parks pre-wired distributor, scratch-built coil and fuel log, leftover ignition wire for fuel hoses and fittings from Detail Master. Body: Revell '29 Pickup radiator/shell, cab & bed. Cab chopped 3/16", bed shortened, scratch built bed filler panels with custom rolled pan from '29 pickup kit molded in. Revell '32 series headlights, Monogram '40 Pickup taillights. Interior: Revell '29 Pickup dashboard, gauge panel & stock seat, AMT '41 Woody steering wheel on home made column, front floor panel & shifter from Revell '32 5-Window. Paint: Duplicolor Red-Oxide primer, Duplicolor Semi-Gloss and Gloss Black, Tamiya Racing White.