Dirty Dave Posted May 12, 2015 Posted May 12, 2015 Browsing around Tumblr, I stumbled upon this concept by John Frye: It looked more like a coupe with the roof removed than the standard roadster body, so I sourced a Chopped AMT body, and got to chopping: Wheel/tire assemblies were pilfered from a 1:32 scale Airfix omnibus kit, as were the fenders. An emory board contoured the tires to look more pneumatic. And after I sprayed them black, I removed the paint from the tires to reveal their original light gray color. Powerplant will be a stock-ish Model A banger, though I intend to display this one as a curbside. I teched it up a bit in the front, opting for IFS, just because I wanted it to represent a modern take on a very vintage look. That's not set in stone, though. With the right drop axle, I could build a new frame pretty quickly.
Spex84 Posted May 13, 2015 Posted May 13, 2015 Love it so far. The art is rad too. I was hoping to build something similar last year--a kind of hi-tech rod using stock-appearing T wheels mounted to low profile tires-- but the build morphed into something more contemporary and less retro-traditional. Those wheels are inspired!
misterNNL Posted May 14, 2015 Posted May 14, 2015 (edited) For anyone who has not followed the blue John Frye link at the beginning,be sure you take time to do that.There a some really amazing digital drawings and several more links to folow that are very impressive. Edited May 14, 2015 by misterNNL
Twokidsnosleep Posted May 14, 2015 Posted May 14, 2015 I agree with the cool comments.....keep going!!!!!!
Dirty Dave Posted May 14, 2015 Author Posted May 14, 2015 Thanks, guys. I hope to make some more headway this weekend. Perhaps I'll make an attempt at a folding top. I was thinking about using this vinyl repair tape that's in my stash...
Dirty Dave Posted May 14, 2015 Author Posted May 14, 2015 That is cool. Are you gonna keep the hand crank? I look forward to scratchbuilding that bit.
Hollywood Jim Posted May 16, 2015 Posted May 16, 2015 Oh yes, I love this Dave. By the way, HI Dave !! Jim Hollywood Fernandez here. Been a long time. Great to see you building cool model cars.
Dirty Dave Posted May 16, 2015 Author Posted May 16, 2015 (edited) Oh yes, I love this Dave. By the way, HI Dave !! Jim Hollywood Fernandez here. Been a long time. Great to see you building cool model cars. Long time, no see! Good to know that you're still kicking dust up on this Earth. I hope to have some more progress pics soon... balancing model and custom bicycle building time, along with my regular software development gig. Edited May 16, 2015 by Dirty Dave
Ace-Garageguy Posted May 16, 2015 Posted May 16, 2015 Definitely capital-C cool. Only thing I'd consider changing is to pull the front wheels just a tad forward...put the front-axle centerline even with the grille shell. Neat little machine, either way.
Dirty Dave Posted May 17, 2015 Author Posted May 17, 2015 Definitely capital-C cool. Only thing I'd consider changing is to pull the front wheels just a tad forward...put the front-axle centerline even with the grille shell. Neat little machine, either way. Very cool. Front wheels could come forward somewhat While normally I would agree with you, that just doesn't really work mechanically with this double-wishbone setup; to have a realistically-proportioned radiator at the hoodline height that I'm looking for, it has to sit in front of the crossmember. It's one of the reasons that I was considering building an entirely new frame, and finding a drop axle that will work.
James2 Posted May 17, 2015 Posted May 17, 2015 Inspiration comes from many places and has driven many a modeler into the deep end of our hobby. This is exactly what I love about models! And on a side note: The front wheels do appear to be forward some what, even ahead of the lights.
Dirty Dave Posted May 17, 2015 Author Posted May 17, 2015 I was looking at it, and I think I may be able to squeek the radiator back a scale inch or two with some judicious filing. Failing that, I'll work on building a drop axle, and see how far I get with that.
Spex84 Posted May 17, 2015 Posted May 17, 2015 (edited) Not to hijack or anything--here's the '25 T I'm working on. This is the mockup from a few weeks ago.It has Phantom Vicky IFS, but with the crossmember cut apart and the ends mounted to the '25 frame so that the grille is behind the wheel centerline. Creating a traditionally proportioned front end with IFS is definitely a little fiddly. Edited May 17, 2015 by Spex84
Dirty Dave Posted May 17, 2015 Author Posted May 17, 2015 Yeah, I definitely was trying to avoid the standard drag/track T extended wheelbase look on mine. Yours looks excellent, though. I found a radical drop axle in my stash, and while I may do a spring-behind suspension, the axle will still end up under the radiator. One of the points of Frye's original concept was to retain most of the T's proportions, with a massive ride height reduction.
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