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Picked this AMT A up for SUPER cheap last weekend on eBay - I’ve been enjoying building some hotrods lately and this fit the bill for what I had in mind for a project: I figured for what I paid for it if the body was decent (it isn’t) I’d have a good starting point and anything else that’s usable is a bonus. I’ve been wanting to do a nice low traditional looking hot rod - something real simple but with some nice detail, maybe with a tracknose if I can find one without buying a whole kit to get one. When the kit arrived I couldn’t decide if it was good or bad...TONNES of crispy looking glue and some damage to the body but I was hoping I could maybe salvage the frame and body anyway...the engine had so much glue and paint on I could barely tell what it was. One night in the freezer later... The body came away MOSTLY cleanly, although there was a couple of splits...and there was a TONNE of glue on the inside, even where you wouldn’t need to apply glue. Took an hour of grinding and prying to get the interior tub out and the inside of the body even remotely usable. The frame was a different story - for how long it would’ve taken to grind out what was actually there (the original builder for some reason chopped the front half off and replaced it with a drinking straw) I figured I’ll just make a new one. I scanned the new Revell Model A frame and used it as a start to design my own version - nothing revolutionary but a 3-inch Z front and rear compared to stock (new design in the middle, Revell frame top and bottom): A little work on the cutter later and I’ve got some rails to laminate together: Im still figuring out exactly what parts I’ll use for this, so more on the frame later - but here’s a quick mock-up as an idea of what I’m thinking: Oh, and that blob of paint and glue pretending to be an engine? Might actually be usable...anyone know what kit this was from originally? More soon!

The weather is starting to get warmer in Northern Virginia and I'm getting the fever to build again. I figured I'd start out with a bang by bringing this old AMT Trophy Series 32 Ford Roadster back to life. It's an older kit, and some might gasp at the thought of chopping it up, but that's what they're here for. I paid $11 for the box, which included this stripped down roadster and another, almost pristine stock version. As the seller told me, "The roadster is rough.." and rough it is. It looks like it was put together with a hot glue gun or clear caulking. Certain adhesives interact poorly with styrene, so this has some "dents" in it, which is ok with me. The rumble seat that normally fold ups and down on this kit has been glued shut and a wide gap is left at the bottom (don't you love this?). There is no floorboard beyond the bench seat which has been glued to the body with what could be a liberal dousing of JB Weld. That's ok though, a little balsa wood or a flattened out piece of a Coke can will do the trick. The frame is mostly ok and whatever hot glue or caulking was used on this kit to put it together is mostly forgiving (the areas with Crazy Glue however, are not). The front axle is broken in two places, but the broken part is there, so I could be difficult and not use a replacement from he parts bin. In case you're wondering, the axle is broken because the builder didn't have a second metal rod that came with the AMT kits, so he glued the rims straight to the axle. The engine didn't come from his kit and is the kind that has a short transmission area that matchs up with the molded in transmission similar to some of the older Jo-Han kits. In order to make this engine fit, pieces of sprue were cut and glued onto the frame. The nubs for the radiator shroud are still there, so that won't be an issue. The tires are interesting, I can't tell if the whitewalls were painted or if they came that way. I usually replace the tires on glue bombs like this with the nice AMT whitewall Firestones available recently, but I kinda like these. The Cragar style rims definitely did not come with this kit, and even though I do kind of like how they look, they might be replaced with parts box steelies. Appropriately this guy will be turned into a black primer-ed rat rod, maybe with a little rust thrown in. So there's going to be a lot of work; lots of filing, scraping, sanding. I'm looking forward to it.

Got this off ebay and will be making the best with what ive got.