alan barton
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25 Oldsmobile Roadster - finished ( or nearly!)
alan barton replied to alan barton's topic in Model Cars
Thanks everyone. I took a bit of a risk on this one so it is nice to see so many people appreciate it. When I get the improvements done I will be sure to post an update. Cheers Alan -
You did a great job of hiding your issues, John. I have never looked twice at this as the box art doesn't do a lot for me but seeing a professionally finished version like yours has changed my mind. And not onyl does it make a great show rod, it would be an excellent start for one of those low slung T buckets that Greg was showing over in the General pages. Quite the parts n=mine this one. Thanks for going to the trouble of sharing this one with us all - it's been quite the education. Cheers Alan
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I've always loved the early Cougars so I can't wait to see your results here. I would definitely look at some alternative quarter window treatments, just to separate the visual cues from the Mustang. Good luck in your endeavors. Cheers Alan
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I appreciate your thoughts Patrick. I'd had the colour in the Testor's one shot lacquer range for a few years and it really spoke to me for this model. By the same token, a more subdued colour with the round headlights could work as well. If I find another Beverley Hillbillies truck I will be grabbing it because there are so many possibilities. Cheers Alan
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So here she is. Obviously I didn't built it in five days but I get sidetracked on projects sometimes so I thought I would wait til it was nearly done before posting build photos. Overall, I am quite happy with the finished project. It matches the picture in my head and I think it reflects the era, even if it has a more contemporary colour scheme. I think it would look right at home at Pleasanton. I enjoyed the fact that I used nearly all of the original kit parts (not counting the oddball Beverley Hillbillies bits.) Since taking the photos there are a few things I need to go back and fix. Originally I planned to use the stock Olds windshield but it just stuck up way too high. It is a beautiful piece, however, so rather than cut it down I am going to save it for a future T bucket project. Instead, I cut down an AMT 32 roadster windshield frame. This is an ugly piece that you would never use on a Deuce but with a bit of work it seems to suit the Olds. As the photos show however, the fit isn't as precise as I first thought so I need to go back and fix that. Finally, I chose to leave the wire wheels in the plastic they were molded in but as I still have a spare one, I think I will experiment with some washes to see if I can get rid of the plastic look. I've also noticed that a front tyre has popped askew on its rim. Need to fix that, as well as a plug lead that has popped off. Hey, new rods always have teething problems, right?
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I took most of these photos a while ago so after this post I will switch across to Under Glass for the final project. By the way, I found Googled a photo of the original Barris Mail Truck and the 1:1 Woodlites looked exactly like the photo in Mr NNL's post. Looks like MPC wasn't too fussy back in the day. Not sure what they measured because they sure look different to the real thing! While on a recent trip to the USA I visited Hobby Lobby and picked up a bunch of colours of embossing powder. I read it about it here for ages so here is my first attempt. For flock or powder, I am a big fan of a thick wet coat of gloss enamel to sprinkle onto, rather than glues or adhesives. You can usually shake it off straight away and it seems to hold better in the future. I also added some very basic plug leads to the little four banger. They're a bit fat but I liked the colour of the insulation so went with it.
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In keeping with the roaring twenties theme for my roadster, I chose to use the Olds running gear. I adapted two side draft carbs off the Revell Offy midget kit by cutting the updraft carb off the original manifold first. I also made a three pipe header out of K&S tubing. I cut the brake rods off the rear axle and mounted the front axle on top of the spring instead of under it. Eventually I had to do a fair bit of trimming on the rear springs to get them to work with the shortened frame.
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Thanks guys. I've no idea if this kit is still in the RC2 catalogue but the kit number is 31753. The copyright notice says 2004 so it was a while ago. The Jolly Roger has a lot of the good bits also but if I remember correctly it doesn't have the stock running gear. You can cut the rear sailing ship half off and graft other bodies on - other conversions that might work would be the Revell 27 T Tudor and Phaeton bodies. With those conversions you wouldn't need the fully finished bucket body contained in the Beverley Hills version. Here's what I did a few years ago by combining the Monogram Paddy Wagon sides and roof with the Jolly Roger. I never took any construction photos but it was a pretty cruisy conversion. Bodywork consisted of narrowing the Paddy Wagon roof about 2mm, cutting open the screen sides and framing them with Evergreen half round, cutting out rear wheel arches and outlining the doors with Evergreen after sanding off all the woodwork from the sailing ship. Most of the rest of it came out of the box. Cheers Alan
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I could imagine Tom Daniel looking at that suspension and thinking "Why didn't I think of that?" Your work is certainly psycho, and I say that in the nicest possible way. It is always refreshing to see someone step so far out of the box they can't even see it from here. Cheers Alan
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For wheels, I decided to use the plastic ones from an Eastwood Collectibles (perhaps Spec Cast was the manufacturer) diecast Posie's 30 Model A delivery. The original Posies delivery ran V8 wires so I had adapted some AMT 32 Ford wires for the job Spec Cast also do a Model A cabriolet with the same wheels. Now straight up, the detail isn't the greatest, especially on the backside, but the look is exactly what I was going for and, well, I had them! I also found that Monogram 30 Model A tyres would fit and were slightly smaller than the Eastwood tyres so I got a smidgeon of rubber rake without getting too carried away. The next problem was, they are mounted on childhood proof knurled metal axles and no amount of gentlly increased pressure would free the plastic hubs from the metal. Well, not without ripping the entire centre out of the spokes. After carefully easing off the rear half of the rim, I finally resorted to using a sharp X-acto to make numerous vertical cuts through the hub around the axle, finally releasing the interference fit enough for me to get the wheels off without damaging them. Very nerve wracking but we lived to tell the tale.
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Good point Craig. I'm going to go with badly molded, because, after all, the lens can only fit into the cavity that has been made available for it. I might have to do some Googling - maybe there were other models to the one in your photo? Ellen, the Olds would make a great little roadster, it could have the Monogram 29 Pickup bed grafted on for a neat little farm truck and I wouldn't think it would be too hard to graft an AMT 25 T coupe body onto the Olds cowl, similar to what landman is doing with his Dodge project. The stock mechanicals are surprisingly detailed for a kit from the showrod era. There's heaps of potential here. And espo, the engine won't be what you expect! Cheers Alan
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and the four most exciting words in dirt track racing???? "Security to the pits!"
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Unfortunately, that simply wasn't going to work. Love the headlights, just hate the look for this project. That sent me digging deep into my parts box to uncover a very obscure part that I can't say I have ever seen used before on a model. These are the Woodlights from the MPC George Barris Mail Truck. The bar in the middle was very ugly so I replaced it with a short length of polished K&S aluminium tubing. The chrome had faded from years of rattling around in my headlight box so I restored that with my Molotow pen, the greatest thing to come along in decades!!! Finally, I went digging in my lens box and much to my surprise found the original clear lenses for them - it would be over 45 years since I bought this kit so that was just short of miraculous. Never, ever, throw anything out! With a bit more trial and error I had them mounted and they looked waaaaaaaay better.
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I decided I wanted to try something a little funky in the way of headlights. A couple of years ago I bought a pair of E & J headlights from thepartsbox.com and I thought they would be perfect. I used some thin pieces of Everegreen rod to make some simple mounts and then drilled holes in the leading edge of the fender flange to accept them.
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Because George Barris carved the hood full of holes for those gawd awful Mercedes SSK or Cord style flex exhausts that he seemed to love, there was quite a bit of work needed on these parts. I must have filled that hood three times before it cracked yet again so I ended up laminating a very thin sheet of styrene underneath and that seemed to sort it out. Filling the holes in the hood sides without damaging the louvers or the belts was not a fun time either!
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1/18th scale VS 1/20th scale
alan barton replied to Greg Myers's topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
Greg, I can think of three options, none perfect but heading in the right direction. Hubley did a series of 1/20th 32 Chevies. The wire wheels in those models are different to a 32 but they are a lot closer than the very spindly Model A wheels. I've attached a photo below. Ertl did a 1/18th 34 Ford pickup towtruck, a direct copy of the AMT/Lindberg 1/25th kit. The wire wheels in it could work, especially as I seem to remember they were slightly undersized. Someone did a 1/18th 32 roadster that seemed to be copied from the Monogram 32 roadster EXCEPT that it had 3 window style suicide doors. Very odd. My version is blue with flames. The wire wheels in that kit are more like Skylarks but maybe with a V8 hubcap you might be able to fake it. Hope that helps. Cheers Alan
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Nah, she won't be a TROG car and she will be shiny. I'm just taking my inspiration from that era and mindset. Thanks for looking and for the positive comments!.
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So here we are at first mockup stage. So far so good - it has the low slung stance I was aiming for and the body is looking fairly factory like - I have no idea what an Olds roadster really looks like but, hey, it's a hot rod - it can be any shape it wants to be!
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There really was no interior to speak of in the original kit so I started by making some templates out of old business cards to see what would fit. These were then transformed to sheet plastic, with some details added with Evergreen strip. While I was at it I carved up a swoopy dash, right hand drive of course! I used some slivers of K&S aluminium tubing to make instrument trim rings.
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At this stage I was pretty happy with where the body was going but man, that frame was long enough for a truck. That would never do. I sawed a significant chunk out of it just in front of the rear kickup and spent quite a bit of trial and error time getting it to a more roadster like length. After all that, I mocked up a simple metal axle across the rear frame only to find that the fuel tank was going to clash with any size or brand or rear end that I might want to install. There was nothing for it but to sever the fuel tank crossmember and slide the assembly rearwards to ensure plenty of room.
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The bucket style body was a good start for what I wanted to do. For a turtle deck, I used a vacformed component that I made many years ago for a 27 T project that I never did get finished. The size was about right so it just took some careful mating up with the Oldsmobile body. There were a few gaps where the body met the fenders so additional sections of plastic were added to blend this together. I also used some half round Evergreen strip to add some swage lines to the body to add a factory look to it. For rear fenders, I chose a pair from the rear of Revell's 27 T series (Tudor, Delivery or Phaeton). The swage lines and pressings on the T fenders bore a striking resemblance to the Oldsmobile items up front.
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Some years ago I picked up the MPC Jolly Roger show rod and built a screen side delivery from it. I was very impressed by the accuracy and proportions of the Oldsmobile components that harked back to its Beverley Hillbillies origins. When the BH truck was eventually re-issued, I grabbed one, not knowing what I would do with it other than knowing that it wasn't going to be a TV car anymore! Anyhow, as the whole vintage rod and TROG thing started to grow, I started thinking about doing a very early gow job using the Olds as a base. There is a picture that often turns up in discussions of early hot rodding, either in magazines or the internet, of a low slung roadster in front of a shack with the inscription "World's first speed shop". You may know the one I mean. That low slung roadster was the inspiration for my project.
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Looking at the instructions and the built model at Showrods.com, I'm now inclined to think Gary did use the original wheels and tyres on his model. Thanks for the info about the Horse Hide Hauler, Paul. I was not aware of that model prior to this thread. I never saw Gary display surfboards with this model so there is a good chance it is the Horse Hide Hauler. Does anyone know if one had red tinted rear windows and the other had orange tint? Cheers Alan
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Look what I got! This model was built my my late great mate, Gary Ritchie, I would guess at least thirty years ago, probably more. He loved show rods and had most of them in his collection. He would have built this in the South Island of New Zealand before he moved to Western Australia in the nineties. Just over twelve months ago his widow contacted me and asked me to arrange the dispersal of his models - he had nearly 200 built kits. It took over twelve months to find them all homes but I wanted to be sure that they went into collections where they belonged. He was a prolific builder and built pretty much anything with two or four wheels so it was a case of getting the Mustangs to the Mustang guy, the Porsches to the Porsche guy, the Corvettes to the Corvette guy, and a lot of the rods to me (which will be a constant memory of his friendship). I guess about twenty guys around Perth ended up with a part of his life time collection Anyhow, here is his surf van. I suspect he changed out the wheels and tyres and he definitely moulded the body halves together, dispensing with the flip up body idea. It has two buckets inside for seats. I have no idea if the oval rear windows were originally tinted or if Gary tinted them himself. It is a real survivor and I hope it will answer some of your questions. And might I say, another reason not to get rid of old threads! Cheers Alan
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Soapy Sales Challenger Box Build
alan barton replied to Plashdaddy's topic in WIP: Drag Racing Models
Hi Peter, I don't think I've seen this model built before. Did you know that there is an Aussie connection to Larry Huff? I believe he and another drag racer started off Golden Products in Australia. Golden products are the "soap" referred to in Soapy Sales. Their marketing scheme was known as pyramid selling and it was eventually made illegal after a lot of Aussies lost their shirt. If you can find some early seventies copies of Australian Hot Rod, Australian Hot Rodding Review or Rodsports, you will find photos of various Soapy Sales cars when they came out to run our summer drag racing season. I cant be certain if your model was one of the cars that came out here. Just a hint on your plug leads, which are very neatly fitted, try gently pushing down on the middle of each loom with your finger so that they have a more natural droop to them. Google up some photos of Top Fuel engines and you will see what I mean.You will be onto fuel lines before you know it! Alan
