Art Anderson

Well, with 4 and 3/4 million more Model A radiator shells produced than '32 grilles, the supply of gennie originals sure is better!

Not even one year! Ford discontinued production of the Model A at the end of December 1931, but production of the 1932 Model B (4-cyl) and Model 18 (V8) did not start until March of '32. To add insult to injury to the Deuce, production of '32 Fords (in the US) ended in October, with the all-new 1933 Model 40 being unveiled in showrooms around the US in November of '32. Just 7 months, and slightly over 250,000 '32 Fords produced. Art

Of course, The "bows" I mention are behind the headliner, not exposed to view. Art

Over 12 years, several thousand RTV rubber molds, all I used for a mold release (to prevent a second pour of RTV onto previously cured rubber) was ordinary Vaseline heavily diluted with ordinary Testors enamel thinner. In all that time, with all those molds, I NEVER, EVER had two halves of a mold, with that release agent on the mating surface, stick together. Art

The last factory building the Kombi is in Brazil.

It's called MONOKOTE, which is adhesive backed film used for trimming RC model aircraft. Monokote trim comes in sheets, approximately 3' long, 4" wide, with a peel off backing. Just cut to shape, peel away the backing, and stick it down. Like any "Press-Apply" Mylar trim, using a bit of water on the surface of the piece being coated with it allows you to lift the Mylar piece off, re-position it, and press in place again. Once the water evaporates from underneath the Mylar (it does this from around the edges), it's stuck down for the count. Art

ABS is the acronym for Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, which is a polymerized blend of the three plastic compounds in its name. While it contains styrene, it cannot be glued to polystyrene (what our plastic model kits are molded from) with solvent-based plastic cements, as the styrene in ABS is locked up in the polymer, even though ABS can be glued to itself with any liquid cement formulated for use with the stuff, just as styrene can be glued to styrene with the very same solvents--it just doesn't work very well to try using solvent-based glues to join a piece of styrene to a piece of ABS. For gluing ABS to polystyrene model kit parts, the only thing I have found that works well at all is CA glue (Superglue, if you will) but that is a bit problematic where strength is required. Fortunately, ABS doesn't get used much in model car kits, and even the old, original Plastruct ABS shapes of strip, sheet, angle, Tee, and rod or tubing is almost a thing of the past since the rise of styrene shapes from Evergreen, even Plastruct themselves. Art Art

Ditto! Art

Now, here's the kicker! Headliners have been done, of course, since the very beginnings of closed cars. While early cars (through the end of those very squareish, boxy cars up through about 1933-35, headliners tended to be a single piece of cloth, cut to a shape/size roughly approximating the shape and dimensions of the fabric top insert used on the exterior of a coupe or sedan roof. However, as car styling evolved into the very rounded streamlined shapes that were common from about 1936 to perhaps 1954, headliner fabric lost it's natural "corner" points along the sides of the underside of the roof, and were being made from fairly wide bands of fabric sewn together transversely (side-to-side across the underside of the roof), with each seam having a "bias tape" (this is a reinforcing fabric strip used for reinforcing cloth items at seams) that made for a bit of sturdy fabric that "stuck" up on the back side of the segmented cloth headliner) sewn in at each seam between the various segments of the fabric headliner. This made the headliner appear to "sag" ever so slightly between the seams once stretched almost drumhead tight across the underside of the roof, as the bias tape was attached to thin steel ribs across the underneath surface of the roof stamping and then attached to the sides above the window and door opening moldings and at front and back. (My '59 Chevy Biscayne 4dr sedan had this type of headliner, as did my '58 Delray sedan delivery). I'm still trying to figure the best way to replicate this shape myself. As for headliners, while for years they were woven fabric, they started out as a flannel type of cloth, which shows no weave, but later as synthetic fabrics came into use (such as rayon, nylon and dacron polyester) there were various weave patterns visible, but those cloths were very finely and tightly woven, giving a weave pattern that would be almost invisible in 1/25 scale. Later on, as rooflines got flatter, other treatments were used, including molded plastic sheeting that was simply glued in place (even the fabric headliners in more luxurious cars from the 80's onward tended to be glued in place rather than held by clips or other metal fasteners). So, my question is, how best to replicate those headliners made from individual panels of fabric, and hung as I have described? Art

Of course, it helps when the car in question is nearly 7' wide! Art

NOt even close to a Deuce. That is clearly what a 30-31 Model A Ford coupe looks like, and while it has the general, overall shape and proportions of the '32 Coupe, they are different enough that to convert one to the other (either way 31 to 32, or 32 to 31) would be pretty much a waste of a lot of time and work (unless you do it purely as a self-teaching exercise in model car body conversions). Art

Hmmm, my point exactly. After all, what something is selling for from others is one of the ways values of items such as are discussed, are determned. If you think of it, stocks, bonds and other securities are priced at what the market is paying for those instruments. The same with fine artwork, and antiques--even antique cars. Free market system. That doesn't mean I like it, nor does it mean that I have to pay what "the market" price is, though. If I don't like the price asked for whatever, I do have the option of just not buying it, and if you think about it, were enough people to do that, the price will drop--as it always will in a free market. Art

The "Blueprinter" started in the mid-1970's when Ertl (well before they bought the AMT line out of the Lesney bankruptcy) as a quarterly publication aimed at encouraging the builders of Ertl kits such as the IH trucks, the farm tractors in their building efforts, as well as updating farm toy collectors (for decades that was Ertl's largest and "bread & butter" business) as to upcoming new items. IIRC, Blueprinter went away for a few years in the early 1980's, and then came back mostly as a modeler's publication, focused primarily on AMT (and later, MPC) model kits then being produced by Ertl. Art

Bill, it's been that way with literally anything you can think of that has been bought, sold or traded, particularly with anything that is scarce or unlikely to ever be produced again. I got the best piece of advice about that sort of thing: "I'm not angry about what price the other guy asks--he knows what his merchandise is worth." It's called the free market system. In addition, who really knows what a seller has tied up in whatever kit, part, or other collectibles he's trying to sell? Hmmm? Art

Having been in the resin business (1988-2000), I can tell you that for the most part, US automakers have not bothered with licensing of the model car aftermarket, due to the very small size of the individual model car aftermarket manufacturers. In other words, been there, done that, got the tee shirt. Art

Well, on the face of it, I see nothing wrong. After all, that's not much different than a merchant selling individual parts for a real car, be they NOS, take-offs from a disassembled new car, or for that matter, the parts operation of an automotive scrapyard. Of course, the supply of old model kits can still be rather finite--but there probably are guys out there willing to buy a part or parts from someone like this because in their own mind/situation, they want just THAT part and not the whole kit. Art

I only put up a couple of WIP shots of this one, in the "Workbench" section. Those were of the interior, explaining the paint process there that I found to be a perfect success. Art

As a thought here: A V16 engine is, of course, nothing more than two 8-cylinder engines in a common block/crankcase. However, in actual practice, generally a V16 crankshaft is built as if the engine were a pair of STRAIGHT-8 engines, siamesed side to side, as opposed to a pair of V8 engines end-to-end. If one were to set up one as having, in effect, two identical V8 crankshafts, with the same firing order on each one, the cylinder power strokes (power impulses could well be overwhelming to the point of breaking cranks with incredible regularity. The whole idea behind V-16's (and their smaller, "kissin' cousin" V12's) was to smooth out the impulses, originally for luxurious smoothness, but also greater power. This is the firing order of the 2003 Cadillac V16 engine. Note how the firing sequence is spread completely down the crankshaft, and alternated side-to-side. This would be very typical of any V16 in order to protect and preserve the crankshaft: 1-12-8-11-7-14-5-16-4-15-3-10-6-9-2-13. Of all the makes of cars having production V16's (excluding any racecars, or of course, V16 diesel engines--General Motors Electromotive Division built thousands of V16 powered diesel locomotives), only two were built in the US, Marmon, and of course Cadilac (1936-1940). Cadillac used a single 16-cylinder distributor, which worked fine, given that their engines were fairly low-rpm units, probably maxing out at about 4000-4500 rpms, where a racing V16 done from Chrysler Hemi components would likely be called upon to run at significantly higher revs. In this case, a pair of 8-cylinder distributors might make more sense. Art

As others have said, the '32 Ford (either Model B--the 4cyl car or Model 18--powered by the new flathead V8) is a totally different animal than the Model A. The entire range of '32 Ford body styles is completely different from the 1930-31 Model A, even though each one was a carryover in type from Model A in concept and purpose only. A major difference is the wheelbase, as Model A was 103.5", while the '32 was 106", on coupes and roadsters that extra length being in the trunk--behind the coupe roof. In addition, '32 Ford bodies were slightly wider, given the wider, curved frame rails of the '32 chassis where the rails were directly beneath the body sills (on Model A, the frame was tapered from front to rear, with straight frame rails that are inboard several inches from the bottom of the body) As for making a "1931 Model A Coupe", bear in mind that 1931 Ford bodies were very much the same as for 1930, with the exception that a few body styles received an 18-degree slanted windshield in mid-year 1931 (4-door sedans, Victoria, A-400 Convertible Sedan only). A 1930 Coupe is identical to the 1931 Coupe with the single exception of a facelifted radiator shell (painted panels crimped into the top and bottom of the stainless steel shell on the '31) and a very hard to notice one piece running board splash apron on the '31 (the '30 used a two-piece splash apron). Monogram Models introduced a '30 Coupe in 1/24 scale in the middle 1960's which has been reissued several times, most recently twice in the 1990's as a part of their Selected Subjects Projects (SSP) series of limited-run reissues of iconic older kits. While it's 1/24 scale (Revell's 32 Fords are 1/25, the size difference is but slightly under 4%, the 24th scale model being slightly larger. Even given the age (now nearly 50 years!) of the Monogram kit and its tooling, it is a very accurately scaled model, and builds up quite easily. Art

Nothing at all, except perhaps decal sheets and of course, they came in plain white corrugated boxes instead of the usual model car kit box. They were simply "first looks" at reissued model car kits that hadn't been seen for a lot of years--exclusively available to subscribers of the Ertl Blueprinter. Art

To add to what Bill said, this too was airbrushed in Tamiya Gloss Black lacquer, then simply polished out with MicroMesh flannel polishing cloth and their liquid polishing compound, and once the foil trim was done, waxed with carnuba wax: My secret for finishes like this one? SMOOTH surface to begin with, using an airbrush with properly thinned paint, and after a bit of practice over the years, PATIENCE. Art

This is wikepedia's rather incomplete listing of Indiana automobile producers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Motor_vehicle_manufacturers_based_in_Indiana Note that only 79 companies are represented, and several made more than one make of car at some point. Not listed are cars such as Plymouth (Chrysler Corporation--produced in the late 40's and early 50's at Evansville IN); Ford's Model T, which was assembled in Indianapolis from the late 'teens through almost to the end of Model T production; Durant--produced at Marion IN for a few years in the 20's. American Motor Vehicle Company produced the Auto Red Bug in my home town of Lafayette (that's on the list both as manufacturer and marque) but wikipedia omits the other two cars they made: The Greyhound and the Dumore. Also missing is Mier, which was built in Ligonier IN, a very small town SE of South Bend. International Travelall's and Scouts were built at Ft Wayne. Eckhart, forerunner of the Auburn, was produced at Auburn IN. This is a list of Indiana car makers (compiled by the Indiana Historical Society) down through the more than a century of automobile production in the Hoosier state: http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/wallace-spencer-huffman-indiana-automobile-history.pdf As you can see, it's very long, a whole lot of makes of cars in the 117 years since Elwood P. Haynes first tried out his Haynes Automobile on Pumpkinvine Pike east of Kokomo (the automobile component city, NOT the beach!) Art

The total listing of current and former US automakers as it stands right now, is more than 1.500. Art

Very simple reason! When Auburn Automobile Company shut down the Cord 812 assembly line in the summer of 1937, they sold the body stamping dies to a buyer/vendor of used tooling, who then approached both Hupp and Graham Paige about adapting the Cord unibody design and styling to their production systems. Neither Hupp nor Graham-Paige could swallow such an involved project on their own, so they both wound up using the Cord sedan unit body, converted to rear drive (with a new floorboard stamping having a driveshaft tunnel and transmission hump), and a new front subframe to mount the Continental inline 6cyl engines that both companies were using. A common front clip was used by both companies, Graham Paige having chrome plated grilles (three sections) while Hupp, using the same three diecast grille sections, offered the Skylark only with painted grilles. Incidently, you can see the virtually identical cars by Googling both "Graham Paige Hollywood" and "Hupp Skylark". Art

The AOL article is pretty typical of stories giving short accounts of failed automakers, only covering a few primarily former Detroit makes. Consider though, that over the entire history of the automoblie, there have been more than 1,500 makes of cars (in addition to a couple of hundred makes of trucks!) produced just here in the US. For example, since 1896, there have been more than 500 makes of automobiles produced, just here in Indiana (and that includes Subaru, Isuzu, Toyota and Honda, along with the likes of Cole, Premier, Stutz, Duesenberg, Cord, Auburn, National, Haynes, Apperson, Roamer, Elcar, and Studebaker). The list of automobile makes is HUGE, world-wide, but the majority of car makes have been American. Art