Ace-Garageguy

As I've said many times before, if I did my own work that way...just got it out and did corrections later if the griping was loud enough, I'd be laughed out of the real hot-rod building business...and the structural-composites end of the general aviation business before that...and I'd probably be working at Maaco (or whatever other cut-rate body-shop gets away with that kind of approach to 'quality'). I sure as hell DON'T know everything, but I sure as hell DO have to get my own work right BEFORE the client sees it. And I'm sure I don't get paid as much as these "kit developer" wizards. Suggesting that "real modelers" will just correct the mistakes is simply not acceptable, especially from someone as respected as Tim Boyd. Maybe we CAN give a goofy looking blower, that doesn't have any analog in reality, a pass. But it's supposed to be a '30 Ford kit, so it might be nice if it actually looked like a '30 Ford with a '30 ford firewall.

Yeah, it's a Monogram '33-'34, but it's a '40 Ford hood immediately to the right.

Here's the gold car in progress. Guess we coulda left it that way and called it done. Nah.

Yeah...if you build it with the frame upside down.

Umm...great looking car, but it's a '32. All the rest are '30-'31 model-A bodies. No wonder so many people seem to be happy with glaring errors on models.

But that would require them to have been paying attention to something other than the Kardashians and texting a lot about absolutely nothing. Never happen.

Right. Which is why almost all of the 4-doors in my sphere of influence are kept as drivers, and the money is only put into more desirable body styles. It's always a mistake to think you're going to make money on a restoration though, unless you have something like a Ferrari Testarossa you got for $200. Even to restore a Pinto to true Pebble Beach concourse condition could easily top $100K. Filling a car with bondo, shooting a crapp paint job on it, and fiberglassing the rotten floors is NOT restoring...though I know a lot of folks who seem to think it is. So if you can't do it right...don't. Restore a car for the same best reason you build models...to enjoy something YOU particularly love. Then, whatever time and money you put in it will be worth it.

Great looking engine, Roger. That's one kit I don't have yet. Gotta get one now.

Best of all possible answers.

The megaphone / lakes pipe headers have caps under the turnouts (which don't look right in the photo), and the street exhaust system runs down from the megs and out the back. Click on the youtube video link directly under the photo in post #14 for a better look.

It wasn't finished in that shot. It now has a snap-down tonneau-style removable top insert. The video under the photo I posted does a walkaround of the finished car.

The A-V8 was (and is) a very popular real-world combination, and almost always refers to a flathead-powered car (among old farts, anyway). You DO usually have to clearance the firewall to do any A-V8 swap, by the way. I've done several rods based on the Monogram A, mixing and matching scales as necessary. Any of the available flathead engines out there would look fine in the engine bay of the Monogram A, except the V8-60, as you mention, which is a very small engine indeed. All of the 1/25 flatheads are scaled fairly well, so just pick one you like. The most common transmission in reality on a period-correct car will be a '39 or so top-shift Ford box. The Revell '32 kit that includes a flathead ought to fix you right up with something that looks about right, or if not, try the Revell '48 Ford woody engine (I think it has a fairly correct gearbox). It was also very common on the real period A-V8 swaps to remove the old crossmember and weld in a trimmed '34 X-member, to get the right grearbox mounts, and to stiffen the chassis somewhat...really needed on an A V8. The desired Ford "top shift" transmission looks like this, and is loosely represented in the AMT '36 and '40 Fords, plus some of the Revell kits...the '37 Ford truck too, I believe. This one of mine has a 1/25 OHV engine in it, an engine that is larger than a flathead, and it fits fine.

D.None of the above I like this one. Built by the shop I work with. https://youtu.be/qSnPO1Q-MoM

Yup...so why not just take a couple of hours and get it right BEFORE the molds are made? That's the part I just can't understand...never will. I wouldn't be employed for long if things I made had to be corrected and re-made several times over...or if I had the attitude that "Well. it's already made, so it's just too late to do anything about it. Take it or leave it. I can't be bothered correcting my mistakes, and I couldn't be bothered doing the work right in the first place. And by the way, I expect to be paid in full for half-assed work".

But please, don't scramble the O-rings for the next guy to have to sort through. Someone always does at my local Ace store, and I think it should be a hanging offence.

OK. I measured a REAL original '32 Ford roadster today. At the cowl, from the underside of the character line to the bottom of the body sill, it measures 23.75". So does an original Tudor sedan, and a cabriolet. Revell '32 roadster: .951", or about 23.77 scale inches. Pretty darn close. MPC Coddington, phaeton and sedan delivery: .873", or about 21.82 scale inches. About 2 scale inches short, right? AMT '32 Fords: .798", or about 19.95 scale inches. Almost 4 scale inches too short at the cowl, accounting for the "sectioned" look. PLEASE NOTE: The MPC kits are "sectioned" about 2 scale inches also.

That is correct. i just looked in the '58 Bird to verify it is in fact an FE. One reason for starting with the '56 bird engine is that it's 1/24, so it should be a bit larger than the Y-blocks in the various 1/25 '56 and '57 Ford kits...better to represent the larger Lincoln engine. The '60 Starliner has an FE, I believe, but I don't have time to look right now...though the FE was brought in as of '58, so it's reasonable to assume it's in a '60.

I'm not too sure that came out right...

I have no idea what it is, never saw one...though it does have a few interesting things going on. If it's as fast as it looks, I could probably overlook the tortured styling.

The shop where I do the vast majority of my work got a new roof. 3.5" of urethane foam, overlaid with a white waterproof membrane. The old roof was black composite-flat-roof, with NO insulation, over wood decking. The building had been converted into offices and shops several years back, after being originally a loading facility for an old Coke plant. No roof insulation was done during the last re-model, but the office spaces got suspended ceilings with a little insulation. It's been kinda like working in a solar pizza-oven. We've gone from being 10deg hotter inside than out during the hottest part of a summer day, to being about 5deg cooler inside than out. The owner is so happy about the improvement, he even mentioned actually having heat this coming winter.

We had a '55 88 convertible when I was a kid, and my folks replaced it with a '63 Dynamic 88 convert I ended up driving for a while in HS. After my mother died, the '63 got away and wound up in Texas. I tracked it down and got it back. It's in pretty rough shape now, having been left outside after the engine developed some problems, but it's 3rd or 4th on the list to get running. Same as this, but sand beige, with a black top and dark red interior.

Well, no actually. It's a mashup sortof engine, with valve covers for a Y-block. The double T kits have even exhaust port spacing, completely incorrect for a Lincoln Y. An actual Lincoln Y-block has port-spacing similar to a smallblock Chebby, or a 1st-gen OHV Rocket Olds, like this... The valve covers in the double-T kits are very distinctive, and came on the '56 -'57 Continental Mk. II. The T kit has the valve covers right for a Y, but the engines themselves are wrong. The original release looks like an FE derived engine, judging from the exhaust port configuration and location, but the distributor is in the rear, like a Y-block engine. If you look at the kit engines, you'll see the problems. The 368 Y-block Lincoln has the plugs located below the headers, and the wires come in from the bottom, even on the production motors. The exhaust ports should be spaced like a Chebby, not like the FE and MEL, and centered relative to the valve covers. I've been semi-scratchbuilding heads for a correct Lincoln.Y-block for these reasons. The easiest way to get a Lincoln Y that looks about right is to start with the 1/24 Ford Y-block in the old Monogram T-birds. I think Tim Boyd did an in-depth conversion of one, years ago.