Dennis Lacy

1929 FORD ROADSTER: BARE NECESSITIES This roadster is inspired by a 1:1 version that is very similar save for finished paint and flathead V8 vs. Dodge Hemi. However, the concept is the same: A hot rod roadster in every sense of the word with an absolute bare minimum of components. A body, seats, 4 wheels and an engine. Chassis: AMT ‘29 frame Z’d at rear with custom tubular reverse k-member. Ala-Kart front suspension modified to traditional leaf spring and lever shocks. AMT ‘25 T quick change rear axle with flattened ‘29 spring, custom drilled trailing arms and tubular shocks on custom mounts. Ala Kart wheels and tires, whitewalls painted black and turned inside, wheels stripped and painted, AMT ‘53 Ford Pickup hubcaps. Cowl steering with Revell Model A pitman arm and Ala Kart draglink. Engine: AMT ‘29 optional early Dodge Hemi with Ala Kart water pump, front mount, pulleys & belt, generator, starter and radiator. Modified AMT ‘36 Ford Pontiac intake manifold and Rochester-style carburetors topped with flame-arrestor air filters from AMT ‘34 3-Window (70’s one-time-only). AMT ‘25 T headers. Painted Tamiya Gold with various metallizers. Body: AMT ‘29 roadster with windshield removed and doors smoothed over. Sectioned Revell ‘37 Ford truck grill. Custom made flat firewall from Evergreen .040” sheet. AMT ‘25 T headlights. Ala Kart taillights. Painted Tamiya Mica Silver with Tamiya Gloss Clear. Interior: Custom made floor pan from Evergreen .040” sheet. AMT ‘25 T bucket seats and shift handle. AMT ‘40 Ford steering wheel on custom column. Modified gas tank from Revell ‘37 Ford frame mounted in trunk area. AMT ‘29 dashboard and gauge panel.

Thank you for all of the nice comments, everyone. It's a pretty simple build but it was a lot of fun and I'm enjoying seeing it in my display cabinet.

Finally, after many months of not much building I took advantage of the holiday weekend, sat down and put my ‘32 Roadster project to bed. I started this car sometime last year. Here’s the story: This roadster is supposed to represent a driving work in progress. Basically, as if the fellow building it got the chassis and running gear done then ran low on funds when it came to final paint and upholstery. Curious if he could paint a car himself, he tried a few of the smaller sheet metal parts like the radiator shell, gas tank, firewall and dashboard only to realize he would rather leave painting to a painter. Rather than have the car sit while more funds were saved to do finish paint, he blew black primer on the hood and body so at least the car would be sort of black like he intends when finished. To keep the project look alive in the interior I fabricated some inner door and body structure and primered the inside a different color. The roadster is largely out of the Revellogram box with the following changes: - Complete Flathead V8 from ‘32 Sedan - Engine chrome stripped and detailed with metallizers - Engine block painted Tamiya “Mica Red†over dark primer for a red/brown look. - Custom fabricated flat firewall - Beehive oil filter from Revell ‘32 Sedan - Voltage regulator from Revell ‘40 Coupe - Armstrong bias-ply front tires from Lindberg ‘34 Pickup - AMT Goodyear slicks out back - Custom tube front/rear frame spreader bars and front license mount - Revell ‘40 Coupe dashboard, steering column and bench seat - Monogram ‘32 Roadster 3-spoke steering wheel - Kit windshield chopped 1/8†for more aggressive/sleeker look

This is the best Phantom Vicky I've ever seen, absolutely brilliant! Love the gun metal paint and all of the gray and black tones you used to contrast it, they all work perfect. I also think the top looks goofy on the fender-less version but it looks awesome with fenders. Again, awesome work!

I hate to sound un-original and like I'm repeating what everyone else has already said, but the first word that comes to mind is beautiful and that is exactly what your Midget Racer is! Definately should be a "box stock" contender! Awesome work!

Yes, definately add a clear top coat or it will look pretty dull. Another option to make it POP would be to use a couple thin coats of Mica Silver as a base. I was just experimenting with this color myself.

If this kit makes it to shelves and the body and other details are done correctly then I will buy at least a half dozen. It's going to sell like a MOFO if it has a nice assortment of currently popular drag race parts and engine performance parts too! With as popular as the 1:1 5.0 LX Notchback has been, especially '85+ models, I can not understand why it was never offered as a model kit. The Notchback is arguably the most popular and saught after FOX body style and my modified '88 has been my daily driver for 3 months shy of 12 years now. I would absolutely LOVE to be able to build a model replica of it. (Looks like I need to get on eBay and get ahold of a Tamiya '95 Cobra R kit so I can have the wheels in-stock and ready to go.) Also, I bet if a talented person had a correctly proportioned body shell to start with they could backdate the side trim and make the bumper covers to replicate an '85-'86. Of course, the interior is another story.

I had actually never heard of AMT’s vintage Double Dragster kit until all the buzz started happening about its re-issue about a year ago and a few people dug out their vintage parts and built a few examples. I was very intrigued and purchased a tin box right as they hit the shelf. I’ve been waiting patiently until I finished several other projects so that I could get started. Preliminary clean-up and sub assembly began in mid-August then I got distracted. A couple weeks ago I decided I had put it off long enough and focused on finishing the twin small block rail. Initially I planned to use the dual front mount blowers but every twin engine rail I have seen built so far was using them too. So, I opted to be different and went with the more basic fuel injectors. The build is entirely box-stock. All of the chrome parts were stripped as I wasn’t very happy with the inconsistent condition of the chrome tree. The body was finished in Tamiya Chrome Yellow. The engines, front and rear mount plates are Tamiya Light Gunmetal with the small parts in various shades of Metalizer’s. The wheels are finished in Model Master “Jet Exhaust†with Tamiya Semi-Gloss Clear to replicate the Dow-7 coating used on 60’s magnesium wheels. The chassis is finished in Tamiya Gloss Black with a few bits detailed with Metalizer’s. This was a really simple and, more importantly, FUN project!

Well, if a guy was to weld a sprocket or gear onto the internal driveshaft, cut a window in the torque tube, make a new sprocket or gear to go in place of the generator pulley and run a chain to drive it, it could work! Not that anyone would ever do such a thing. Thank you very much for your nice comments, Jauris!

Thank you for the nice comments about my T, guys! The generator trick is a bit of fantasy I came up with to get it off the engine, yet still keep all the components necessary for a street car. To my knowledge, no one has ever done such a thing. There are modern-day kits available for street rods that mount an alternator on the chassis and drive it by belt either from the tailshaft in the transmission or the pinion shaft in the rear axle. Naturally, the alternator will only charge when the vehicle is in motion. As far as keeping track of kits, all I can say is that remembering all this junk is sometimes a blessing and others a curse. I honestly don't know how I retain it all but I could tell you the source of a kit-bashed part on a model I built 15 years ago. It's a sickness!!!

Wow, talk about a super clean build! What shade of Tamiya blue is that, its just beautiful! Awesome work, that's about the nicest model Cobra I've ever seen.

After about 3 months of off and on work I’m happy to announce that my ‘25 T Coupe on ‘32 rails is finished. I have to say that I feel that this latest creation is my best work to date when it comes to fit & finish and since it’s the newest it should be, right? The body is from AMT’s current Double T release. From there I dissected a Revell ‘32 frame for it’s side rails and created the rear frame section and cross members from Evergreen and pieces of a Revell ‘40 Ford center X member. The suspension is a combination of many kit-sourced pieces such as a Revell ‘32 front axle and steering linkage, AMT ‘41 Woody hairpins, Lindberg ‘34 Pickup rear axle and Revell ‘40 Ford brake plates. The front wheels are from a Revell ‘50 Pickup and the rear wheels, tires and all 4 hubcaps from Revell’s ‘40 Standard Coupe. Front tires are piecrust skinnies from an older issue SWC Willys. The ARDUN flathead is from Revell’s latest ‘50 Pickup and has been modified with AMT ‘32 Phantom Vicky headers and a custom vertical magneto drive. The generator is mounted to the rear axle torque tube and gear driven off of the driveshaft. A chopped Revell ‘32 grill, shell and headlights are mounted up front. Inside, a Revell ‘37 Sedan dash was narrowed with a custom steering shaft and AMT ‘40 Ford wheel. The seat is a narrowed Revell ‘32 Roadster part. The body and frame are finished in Tamiya Olive Drab 2 with the bodies soft top painted flat black. The suspension and wheels are a combination of gloss black and Mica silver. The engine is Antique Ford Engine Green (available from restoration suppliers) with the intake, carbs and valve covers a combination of metalizer shades. Hope you guys like it!

Very cool project. The cowl vent and rear door mods turned out perfect. Are the rear windows going to be left open or will panels be added to make it a full sedan delivery conversion? I think it's awesome that you got your Dad back into the hobbey. My father built model hot rods in the 60's when he was a teen and made some really cool stuff, some of which he still has. He got me into models when I was 10 or so and now I'm 30 and still building every week. My Dad, on the other hand, has no interest and seems to think I should do something else with my time. (He has no hobbies so he's one to talk!) Only recently has he shown some (barely) positive, enthusiastic interest in a few of my rod projects. So consider yourself lucky!

The bed wood looks really good. The contact paper is a great idea, looks like it's nice and thin too. Where might a person find that material? Looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks for the nice words, guys! Dave: I had actually considered putting a heater box on the firewall and now I'm thinking about it even more. I just may do that. It would definately add to the nostalgic flavor. And likewise, I always enjoy your projects too!

With my T-Coupe project on hold all week ‘cause I can’t paint in the rain I though it would be a good time to get some work done on another project. Only thing is my other two projects, like the T, are heavy fabrication jobs and I wasn’t feeling in the mood so I thought a light-duty project would be therapeutic.While I’ve stolen countless parts from them I’ve never actually built a Revell ’32 Roadster kit so I figured I’d see what kind of fun I could have with one! The chassis is set up right out of the box with the exception of trimming the mounting tab on the front spring to get the front end a little lower. The wheels and Goodyear front tires are from another ‘32 in this series, the 3 Window. Out back some AMT Goodyear slicks got their centers bored out so that the wheels will fit. (I thought it was cool to have all Goodyear tires!) What worked out great here is that with the taller slicks there is a uniform gap all around the wheel well. The roadster kits multi-row louvered hood sides were replaced with stock versions, again, from the 3 Window. The front and rear spreader tubes were stripped of chrome and a license plate bracket added to the front. Under the hood, the kits 5.0 small block & AOD trans were replaced by the Flathead & C4 trans from yet another ‘32 in this series, the Sedan, making installation a direct fit. The only issue I found was that the transmission sits really low so a .060†thick shim was added to the frame cross member to lift the trans up leaving just enough clearance with the floor and making the engine much more level under the hood. The heavily recessed firewall in this ‘32 series, while necessary for the 5.0 engine, is completely unnecessary (and dumb) with the Flathead. A new flat firewall was made from .040†Evergreen sheet using the kit firewall as a guide although the shape at the bottom was changed in favor of a half-circle cut-out for the engine. To the firewall I mounted the beehive oil filter (also from the ‘32 Sedan) and a voltage regulator from a Revell ‘40 Coupe. Inside the roadster body is where most of the modifications occurred. The kit seat and side panels had been harvested for my T-Coupe so it was time to come up with an alternative. The kit floor pan / rear bulkhead was used. A Revell ‘40 Ford dashboard was trimmed to fit the cowl and the ‘40 column-shift will be used as well with a custom steering wheel. Keeping with the ‘40 theme, a stock bench seat had ¼†shaved off the bottom and fits perfect in the roadster. I want the car to appear as a “work in progress†when finished so I created inner door panels and body structure to serve in place of a finished interior. The pieces are loosely based on a 1:1 original body but I used artistic license to simply things so it didn’t take forever / get carried away. As it sit’s the fabrication process is complete (I think) so the next step is some primer and paint!

I really dig the first roadster, I think it has a lot of style! As for the new build, if you compare the straight-on side view of your model with the same view of your 1:1 inspiration, it appears as though your model is slightly higher in the front, and slightly lower in back (even taking into account the rear tires on your model would scale out to a larger diameter than those on the 1:1.) If you study the 1:1 it becomes very obvious that the hood is quite a bit longer than stock and the radiator shell is way out ahead of the axle. The 1:1 undoubtably has a stepped frame at the very front to get it super low, but it's hard to know exactly how it was done since there appear to be some custom fairings covering the front of the frame rails. The radiator and shell were probably mounted out ahead of the frame and suspension so that they could get as much radiator height as possible. Probably if you Z'd the very front of the frame the height of itself it would get your ride height where the 1:1 is. You may also consider using a Revell '40 Ford front dropped axle assembly since the spring is down in front of the axle instead of above it. (This was a fairly common practice back in the day.) Just cut the stock wishbones off behind the axle and fab up some long hairpins. (The ones on the 1:1 look like a safety nightmare by the way! ) Refer to my build thread on TRaK of my chopped '32 Sedan for how to easilly make some up that would be long enough to emulate the real ones. I'm watching with a lot of interest, B!

I built one of these '37 pickup kits this time last year and I think it's an excellent kit. It's really cool to see you doing this one completely stock. The blue you chose is very nice, especially against the black fenders. Keep it up, you've got a good start!

This is a very ambitious project! You're doing a lot of cool work, though. Typically, 1940's era customs were all looks and no go, most of them having stock or nearly stock engines. The Pierson Bros. '36 was probably only one of a handfull that would give a typical street roadster a run for it's money back then. That being said, I dig your "best of both worlds" approach! I also give you props for taking a blade to that rare body shell, I wouldn't have! I'm looking forward to seeing you progress on this project so please keep with it and keep us posted.

I'm not into jalopies but I REALLY like this. Some of my favorite things are the paint scheme, the grill / radiator support and the well-built Flathead. Way cool!!!

Raul: This is one of just two old, surviving builds. I had more but it through several moves and stuff it seems one goes down for the count every so often. I finally have a display case so this one will stay safe. Terry: Don't ask me how I remember but the gray paint is Testors "Flat Gull Gray" which looks like everyday gray primer. I am not sure if the new build will be the same color, that may be a 3rd thing that will be changed. I've had thoughts about doing the fenders in black primer with the hood, cab and bed in dark gray primer.

This latest project is one I’ve been wanting to do for a while, so I figured why not get started tonight? I built the Monogram “Early Iron†‘29 Roadster PU below about 15 years ago during my teenage years. At the time I was really happy with it and myself but looking at it now there’s things that bother me such as the bed being too short, the rear fender tails being way too long and the void under the end of the pickup bed. I also think it needs bigger diameter rear tires to fill up those huge fenders. Taking what I know now, I’ve decided to do a current-day tribute build as a way to correct everything about the first one while still keeping with the ideas applied to the original. However, it is not going to be a complete clone featuring different wheels & tires and a different engine. The wheels are big & little vintage Halibrand’s courtesy of Ed Fluck @ Drag City Casting. The tires are from Revell’s modern tool ‘32 Roadster and while a bit on the modern side, the tread will be mostly hidden in the fenders. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do for an engine yet but I’m thinking a hopped-up Flathead. The bed on the new version was shortened ¼†(the original was a ½â€) so that it continues past the rear fenders and a filler panel is molded in below the back of the bed to fill the “void†as well as provide a mounting area for taillights and a license plate. The fenders on the original were not modified but on the new version the tails have been bobbed 3/16†for a sleeker look. The top has been chopped 3/16†(the original was ¼â€) and like the first version, the window will be re-centered. On the original the frame was lengthened at the rear (using a 2nd frame) so that the cross member was behind the axle rather than above it. The rear axle and spring from Monogram’s ‘32 Roadster were used and this arrangement allowed for the rear of the truck to sit nice and low. The new version features the same frame modification as well as the same Monogram ‘32 Roadster axle and spring. The entire front suspension from the ‘32 Roadster was used on the original version and the same will be used on the current one so aside from the engine and wheels, the chassis will be built the same. That’s all I have for now, more soon!

Since this thread isnt on the 10th page already, here are my two hobby cars: 1927 Ford T Roadster on a narrowed & Z'd 1932 frame. Dropped front axle with split wishbones and Lincoln Zephyr brakes, 1935 Flathead V8 with Thickstun intake / Stromberg 81 carburetors / headers with Smithy glasspacks, 1934 3-speed trans built from all NOS components, 1933-34 rear axle with Model T spring, 16x4" 1940 Ford wheels with big & little Firestones, 1934 Chevy dashboard with 1950's vintage Stewart Warner gauges / 1940 Ford "Deluxe" wheel. Except for the custom-built Walker radiator and SW gauges, no other components on this car are newer than 1948. It was built as a hot rod roadster would have been / could have been just after WWII. This car was built largely by myself with help from my Dad and a few car friends. It took 2 years to "complete" and has been on the road for 3 1/2 years. (The 1934 Ford Roadster behind it is my Dad's and is built to the same era.) 1932 Ford Pickup was given to me by my Dad 28 years ago when I was just 2 years old. It is mostly original with its few modifications being a dropped front axle, de-arched rear spring, 1946-48 Ford Hydraulic brakes, 16x4" Kelsey-Hayes "bent spoke" wire wheels (an aftermarket accessory wheel in the 1930's), big & little Firestones and a lowered headlight mounting bar. The drivetrain is the stock, numbers-matching 50hp Flathead 4-cylinder engine, 3-speed trans, and rear axle. Interior is also completely original.

Nice save! I also think it's really cool that you modified it, I don't think I've seen one that wasn't restored to box-art status. It looks really sweet with the built Flatty and Quickie out back. I can't wait for the re-issue to come out!

I've wanted to do the same thing a few times, classic! Your Double T is looking good and I like your idea to be able to change the bodies around. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. The yellow looks good on the roadster, what color is planned for the coupe?