Mr. Metallic

I really want to build a version with that 4 cam motor, or at least put it in something. I have a minty Dream Rod kit that I of course want to build as the DR, but that means I'll have the 4 cam engine left over. I could always throw it in one of the Tiger Shark Toy Fair kits I got cheap at the Ertl store way back when.

Can you tell me which Shapeways store you found those wheels in please? I will say that I've seen a few of the 3d printed SCOT and Ardun parts around and they are nice, but the Replicas and miniatures Co of Md resin parts are still the best IMHO.

Looks like a chromed early Ford rear end. There are quite a few of those out there, but there is one in full chrome dress in the old Revell 29 Ford pickup, 30 Sedan and 30 Woody station wagon kits. You should be able to drill out the front axle without a problem. The Revell front axle is kind of thick, so I'm not sure what it will look like if drilled. But I might try it.

Armed and dangerous. (sorry, couldn't help myself) Now that we have the front and rear axles sorted out we need arms to locate them to the frame. Revell gives you two different sets of arms for the front axle, one for the channeled version, and one for the body-on-frame version. Select the set for the body-on-frame version and put the other set aside. To locate the front axle I'm using the kit supplied arms, slightly modified. The arm pictured at the top has had the head of the pivot bolt sanded off and is ready to have a hole for a pin drilled through it (marked in red). This area can get delicate, so take your time and make sure you keep the drill bit straight. After the hole is drilled all the way though you can carefully sever the mounting bracket from the arm. I use a photoetch saw blade for this because it is thinner than your standard razor saw. After the bracket is removed glue your pin in the hole on the arm. Once you're done with those mods you'll be left with the arm and bracket as pictured on the bottom here. You are now ready to glue the bracket into it's corresponding notch in the frame and the front suspension mods are essentially complete. Since the spring now occupies the former mounting points for the suspension arms, we need to drill a couple holes, just outboard of the spring to receive the pins in the arms. Those holes are highlighted here in red. On to the rear! First off, that's not blood in the pic. We are going to use that second set of arms meant for the channeled version front axle and repurpose them for the rear. Here on the top arm in the picture I have removed one of the tiny tabs that are meant to locate the arm when you use it on the front axle, but because the rear axle is larger that tab gets in the way. In the second pic you can see I also went ahead and removed that plastic pin and replaced it with a metal one, and drilled a corresponding hole for it in the axle. The hole will be just inboard of that step on the outside of the axle where the brake backing plate will eventually rest. Go ahead and cut off the molded in "wishbone" arms from the axle at this time. Here are the arms, I went ahead and performed the same pin procedure I did on the front arms, but instead of severing the bracket I removed it completely. It's now time to mark and drill your pivot points. Place your spring/axle assembly in the crossmember on the frame. Take your arms and touch the pivot pin with a bit of ink, insert the pin on the other end into the axle, and then press the pivot pin against the frame, keeping the arm level with the axle and parallel to the bottom of the frame. The ink mark that is left tells you where to drill your hole to accept the pin. Drill your hole, and then mock up everything together like this. And here is the frame after the front arm brackets have been molded in and the rest of the frame smoothed out. Note the deletion of the notches for the kit supplied rear suspension arms. Now your suspensions are done. Normally I perform a mock up to check that I am happy with the stance and that everything fits together properly, but I forgot to snap a pic. I'll come back and add it in here later. EDIT- MOCKUP TIME (body is shifted back on frame, rushed photo opportunity)

Those louvers aren't meant to bring air in for cooling, like a scoop. In old hot rods they were either meant to let hot air out of an enclosed space (engine compartment) or allow air flow through the body that develops at speed (air under the car getting trapped in the interior/trunk) So in this instance they would be allowing air that's trapped under the truck to escape and alleviate any lift it could cause at speed. That being said, that louvered panel is sick. Glad you got it tp print successfully. Now, if you could print it on a thin enough piece that would allow you to bend it slightly to make a trunk lid or roof side panels. Just had a thought, what if you made another louvered panel for your roof insert?

I also recently saw this picture on the internet and immediately thought of you. That fluted connection from the blower to the intake is particularly intriguing, hope to see your take on that.

This is a cool project. From my experience with Tamiya fillers, they're best used for filling minor imperfections right before final primer due to the fact that they tend to shrink quite a bit. If you're going to do heavier bodywork in the future I would recommend one of the automotive grade 2-part fillers because they don't shrink hardly at all and cure quickly to keep your project moving. I personally use Dolphin Glaze (I know, weird name) that I bought for about $20 on eBay. It will last a long time and tends to stay fresher longer than the fillers that come in cans because this comes in a big pouch, kind of like a tube of toothpaste. Looking forward to seeing your further enhancements to this project

Nicely executed build. Looks like you had fun with it which is the whole point, right? If I was going to ever build this one I'd want to do the Polar Lights with pre-finished body. Good to know that the finish isn't that durable.

Nice conversion work. It helps having firsthand knowledge of the car too. Well done

so very happy to see this one getting attention again!

I recently discovered my build of the 454 that i did when the kit was new. Since I have a mint in box one on the shelf I could be talked out of this builtup. It is no gluebomb and should come apart relatively well for someone that wants to restore it. As it sits right now looks like the engine and wheels/tires are missing, but otherwise looks complete. I think I know where the wheels are, and may even be able to locate the engine if anyone is interested. PM me

Where the rubber meets the road- As most of you know there are three main items that impact the overall presence of a project sitting on the table in our segment of this hobby. Stance, wheels/tire combo and paint color. Since I already handled stance, lets move on to wheels/tires. Some may say that I'm doing this out of order because you need to know your wheels and tires before you can set your stance. That is true to a certain extent, except in this case I knew exactly what tires I was going to use, so I was able to set the stance accordingly. If you happen to follow my project as a template for your own hot rod and don't use the same wheels/tires you may end up having to adjust your stance a little, but that is just another part of building hot rods, both in scale and 1:1. The tires in the venerable Monogram 41 Lincoln kit make great traditional hot rod rear tires because they are just a bit taller than the standard sized tire offerings we get in most other kits, so this allows you to achieve a "rubber rake" by using standard size tires up front. There are other similarly tall tires out there, especially if you look at the classic car kits by MPC, AMT and Johan.(20's to 30's Cadillacs/Lincolns/Chryslers and Mercedes just to name a few). You may think to yourself, that Lincoln kit hasn't been around in a long time, where will I find one? Well they were reissued quite a few times over the last 50 years, and thankfully these wheels and tires were the same in all releases. And you can almost always find on old glue bomb or builtup at swap meets or eBay to steal the wheels/tires and engine from. Just get creative. Now, the tricky part about using the wheels from the Lincoln kit is they don't have any hub/lug nut detail. The center is meant to be covered by the beautiful Lincoln scripted hubcap, but that won't work for most hot rods. Therefor, you have to get a little creative. Over the years a few different methods have been shared to do this same process, most notably by the dynamic duo @Rockin' Rodney Rat and @Kit Karson, and another method by @Dennis Lacy but here's my take on it. This is what you start with, the Lincoln kit tire, wheel (molded in black) and the wheel from a Revell 40 Ford coupe. For those wondering, the front wheel and tire will be pulled directly from the Revell 40 Standard coupe, unmodified. Start by grinding away all the material in that stepped down area that the red arrows are pointing toward. Take care to not intrude into that upper portion because that will form your wheel "hoop". Next take your 40 Ford wheel and using a fine tip marker mark (avoid a Sharpie or other permanent ink pen) and draw a line on the inside and outside of that wheel lip as pictured. This wheel lip would normally be the outer edge on a standard size wheel, but since we're going bigger you need a flat surface to attach the Lincoln wheel "hoop" to. Once marked, carefully remove the lip until it is flush with the outer edge. If you do your sanding correctly the line you drew on the outside will disappear, but the inner line will remain. In the pic below you can see the parts after they have been modified. Be sure to remove the little air nozzle (bottom the hoop in the pic) from the Lincoln wheel as the Ford wheel already has one molded in. Now you should be ready to make your wheel. Check fitment of the two pieces together one more time to be sure you're happy, and then go ahead and glue them together, being sure to keep the Ford wheel centered in the Lincoln hoop. And now you can see that your work has paid off on the left, and the parts that got you there on the right. Scrub the wheels with soap and water before paint to remove your ink marks on the Ford wheel. And lets modify the Lincoln wheel backs to work with the Revell Model A Buick brakes. On the left is the unmodified part. In the center is the piece highlighted where you will remove the center up to, and on the right is the finished piece.

Thank you Tim. It's been a couple years since I've shared an in progress project online, and I felt what I planned to do with this project might help out some other people, especially those that haven't really built many hot rods before. With the triumphant return of the Revell Model A's I figured it was perfect timing.

I definitely need to research that car more because it appears there's more going on than first meets the eye. Thanks Michael for the heads up on the wheels. Those were the first thing that caught my eye when i saw that car. Any idea whose store you found them in?

Chris, Little Eve is definitely of interest to me. In fact, I just saw it for the first time at the GNRS a few weeks ago. As a huge 32 fan I gave it a passing once over when I first saw it. But my wife was the one that fell in love with it and made me look at it closer. Lots of subtle but outstanding mods and touches on that car. I may even build her a replica of it one day, that's how much she loved it.

Well now I just feel silly

Dave, thanks for sharing that stunner. I had seen it around the internet before, but didn't know that Wayne owned it. It begs for deeper inspection because your pic exposed me to the fact it has a truly unique front spring setup that goes OVER (?) the frame. Did Moal have a hand in building this one like he did the gorgeous little speedster Wayne had him build (and was featured on Chasing Classic Cars)?

Front suspension- Out of the box, the Revell Model A front axle puts the stance a bit high for my taste. Even if you spend time altering the front crossmember because the spring is mounted on top of the axle it will always sit high unless you Z the front end. Even though a Z is a pretty straightforward modification, there is a much simpler fix, and this one doesn't require any kitbashing. You can use what's right in the box. I've done this mod before, so I've got the steps down pretty well I think. Like I said in a previous post, I'm a big fan of pinning parts together, and here's another example. Take the kit axle/spring assembly and shave off the upper bolt head of the spring shackle (in the picture they would be exactly where the red marks are. Sorry I didn't get a before pic). After you shave off the bolt head take your drill and drill through the shackle, being sure to maintain the bit at a 90 degree angle to the part to ensure your hole goes straight through the back shackle. Once you have your hole, slide a pin through the hole and glue in place. The red ink makes the pin heads look huge, but they are much smaller in real life, especially when they aren't highlighted in red. Once the glue dries you can then go ahead and sever the tiny connection point that ties the spring to the axle. If you drilled straight holes then your corresponding holes in the axle should land just inside the hole where the suspension arms will attach later. The pin holes are highlighted in red here. Now you are ready to mount the spring behind the axle by simply guiding your pins through the new holes in the axle. If you lined up your holes precisely everything should slide right together. If your holes are off slightly it's ok, just slightly open up the holes in the axle. The pins make your point stronger. At this point you can glue them together, but I will wait until I make my paint decisions. Here's a before and after pic of the modifications. Now that you've successfully lowered the front end you will have to address the shock length. While doing this you can address another issue. Revell gives you a pretty solid assembly for the shock setup in this kit, incorporating the bracket for the shock and headlight mount all in one piece. However, this leaves the mounting bracket chrome, which is not typical in 1:1, so this is an opportunity to make the part more realistic while addressing the shock length issue. The kit piece is on the right, and you can see here where I snipped off the shock. Try to make your cut as close to the bracket as possible to retain as much of the shock length as you can in case you need the length later. Now drill a hole into the bracket to later receive the shock during final assembly. The angle of the hole is not critical, and really can be more of a dimple than a hole. You should then clean up the mold seams on the bracket and remove what's left of the chrome. Then glue the bracket to the corresponding notch in the frame. Down the road a little bit I'll make some alterations to the suspension arms, but for now you are ready to mock up your stance if you already have your wheel/tire choice figured out. I'll show how I created my wheel/tire combo in a later installment. This is where all your work starts to pay off.

@Spex84 I haven't placed my order yet. Enormous heating bill for January (and presumably February) ate my Shapeways budget for the moment. Which is really unfortunate since I planned to feature your QC under the Model A I just started. I will be ordering several eventually. I've always been happy with your designs, so I'm sure these will follow your same high standards.

When did the tire rack disappear? Or is it still there and i just never noticed it?

Thanks for the additional photo inspiration Kit. More coming soon. Just have to put another post together. Another way to skin the "steel wheels for 41 Lincoln tires" cat. ?

The Frame: I have built a few of these Revell model A's already, so I knew where to start. The way the frame was engineered the crossmember, while great for positively location the floor pan (and by extension the interior/body) is also a curse because it holds all of it about 1-2 scale inches above the frame itself. I'm not using that tubular trans crossmember on my build, so that helps. The rear crossmember that accepts the shocks/springs also does the same, but that will get removed as well for this traditional styled build. But don't remove that one yet, you need it to positively locate the floor to the frame for awhile while you perform the next modification. Even after that rear crossmember would be removed you'd note the ribbing on the underside continues to hold the floor away from the frame. Begin by taping the floor to the frame, and marking where the ribs run under the frame (note red marks). Remove the tape and then carefully remove the ribbing that would be under the frame so the floor can sit flush on the frame. Next is the rear crossmember. For a 40's to early 60's hot rod the kit supplied coil spring setup has got to go. You can use whatever buggy sprung style Ford rear or even a quick change rear end if that's your preference. I'll be using the stock Ford rear from a Monogram 30 Woody simply because I had one readily available, but there are lots of other choices out there and the installation process would be very similar. I removed the crossmember from the 30 woody frame with a couple quick snips and then set about to clean up the mold lines (and paint, this was rescued from a builtup) and set it aside. Now you can go ahead and remove the molded in rear spring/shock crossmember. To determine where the new crossmember would sit on the frame you have to get the spring/axle temporarily assembled. The way this setup comes in the kit the spring sits in a notch on top of the axle. That orientation tends to leave the stance a bit high for my taste, so I relocated the spring to mount behind the axle. I use pins for a lot of my assemblies because it provides a strong mounting point and allows for repeated assembly/disassembly for mockups. So I drilled a hole on the bracket on each end of the spring and glued a pin in the hole. After the glue dries trim the pin to length. What I typically do to locate my corresponding hole on the mating part is touch the end of the pin with a marker and then press the parts together, leaving a dot of ink where the mating hole needs to be. Drill your holes in the axle and mock up your new rear end assembly. Now you can determine where the crossmember needs to go. What's handy on this model A kit is that there is a block on the frame where the axle rests. It's up to you whether you remove this down the road in the build because in the real world it would impede the movement of the axle, but in the modeling word it provides a nice solid mounting point for the rear axle. In the meantime, use it to aid your mockup process. Set the axle into those receiver blocks. You may choose to make some notches in the frame now where the spring hits the frame. Make a mark on the frame where the spring lines up on the frame, that where the center of the crossmember needs to land in order to accept the spring. Then flip the frame over and lay it on top of the new crossmember. Center the crossmember on the frame side to side and make marks on the new crossmember on the inside of the frame (black marks). In this instance you will want to "leave the line". That means remove the flange material from the crossmember to allow it to sit flush on top of the frame, but only remove the material up to the line, leaving the line you marked so you get a nice tight fit. The pic illustrates the before on the left and after on the right. Set the fully modified crossmember on top of the frame and do any fine tuning to get the best interface between the parts. Once you're happy, glue the new crossmember to the frame. Once the glue has dried you can trim the excess material off the ends of the crossmember and sand/file it flush with the outside edge of the frame. Note the C notch in the frame to allow clearance for the spring on the upper frame rail

Simple... that's the intention. How many of us start out a project and say to ourselves "going to try to keep this simple"?Well, that's the intent with this project. The bench time I did get last year was mostly dedicated to my series on Monogram hot rods and some restorations. I've loved those, and they've been great to get the creative juices flowing again. But that's the problem, the ever lengthening backlog of project ideas in the old (slowly failing) memory bank. The intent with this project was to get one of those long lingering ideas on the bench, and to get it executed as simply as possible.Enter the Revell 30 A. I want to get something very close to the style and design of the car below, using minimal but purposeful kitbashing/aftermarket parts to show how to turn the new Revell 29 roadster/30 coupe kits into something a little more "traditional". I will try to emulate the project style of one of my favorite influencers of this hobby Mr. Tim Boyd in showing just a few tweaks one can make to a kit to make it something they can call their own. I'll be using the first version of the coupe with the Chevy small block, but most of the ideas and techniques I apply to this build can be used on any of the now 4 versions of this kit series to have been released over the last 6 years (after an agonizingly long break in the middle of those 6 years with no kit on the shelf).I performed most of these modification over about 8 hours at a Build n' Bull I hosted over the weekend. I'll break the different stages of the build into multiple posts so it's a little easier to digest.Here is the inspiration for this project. Yes, it's 32 (and it's channeled), but the stance and flavor is the inspiration here.

If your dehydrator is consistently hotter than you want I would simply drill some holes in the lid to allow more heat to escape

Very slippery smooth little street rod. Great color choices, and of course the Tangelo is classic.