Turning AMT's Disparaged Modern-Tool Ala Kart Into Something Acceptable UPDATED: 4/10/16

[Greg Pugh]

YES YES YES!!! Keep going!

[Skip]

Two things I saw in your first post that now I see the DuVal windshield frame might make an interesting tweak to the roadster shell.  

First, lose the ribbed upholstered look back.  

Second, the Vee between the two seats, might look interesting if it were carried through to the body itself.  If it were Vee'd a raised bead could follow out of the Vee terminating somewhere before the radius where the back turns to the sides.  Like a wing effect.  If you were to use a top, it could run along the body line into the Vee cutout.

I love what you've done so far, I always follow along with your stuff, your overall build quality is by far some of the most amazing that I've seen on this forum!  Turning that nose upside down is pure genius, I've always hated that part of the Ala Kart.  So much so that I've never even bought one in all the years I've been modeling, that might change though after seeing a few of its goodies.

Just my two cents!  

 

Clarifying raised bead, (wasn't so wide awake this morning after working all night).  

Praised bead could be done with Evergreen half round stock, dipping into the Vee, flowing upward to create a winged Vee effect.

Edited January 5, 2016 by Skip
Clarification

[Danno]

the headlight pods on the model are too big which throws off a few other part placements.

Indeed.

[Dave Ambrose]

This car really looks sharp. There is so much about it that's just right. Gonna be watching this one for sure.

[Dennis Lacy]

Looks like it's been almost 3 months since I updated this project! 

I actually haven't done a whole lot of modeling these past months (other priorities!) I did sit down one day about a month ago and do some chassis work, just didn't get around to taking pictures and sharing. 

A Month Ago

I figures out the front shocks. I added some brackets to the inside of the split wishbones cut from some .020" plastic sheet then fit up the shocks / upper brackets from Revell's '40 Ford street rods. The top brackets fit to the frame with .040" pins.

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki

Out back I'm using a modified Revell '37 Pickup axle and the radius rods were converted into trailing arms with shock mounting pins off of their ends. The shocks are from the new-tool Ala Kart. I still need to build upper shock mounts off of the tube cross member.

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki

I also built the drive shaft using the ends cut off of the new '29 Roadster kit piece with the shaft made from 3/32" tubing because it's actually round and has no ugly seams.

Hosted on Fotki

Today

I got inspired to work on the interior. I don't really like the Ala Kart interior unit and also felt like with all the other custom work I'm doing to this model that using the kit interior would be a cop-out. I modified all of the pieces from the Revell '32 Rat Roaster. After shortening the side and rear panels in both height and length I ran a bead of .040" half-round rod around the bottom and end edges for a more finished appearance. The Rat Roaster floor was also trimmed to fit and the bucket seats had to be moved towards the center a little to fit the slightly narrower cab. 

Hosted on Fotki

Not stopping there, I cut off the Ala Kart dash (which is part of the windshield) and narrowed a Revell '48 Ford dash to fit by removing 5/16" from its center (the width of the speaker grill on the chrome insert) bringing the two gauge pods close together. 

Hosted on Fotki

The frame from Revell's new '29 Roadster kit is designed to have the floor pan raised up rather than right on top of the rails so I installed some 1/16" thick subrails into the bottom of the body for the trimmed floor to sit on. 

Hosted on Fotki

As this photo shows, the trailing arm mounts stick up above the frame rails and the raised floor clears them, like with the new '29 kit. 

Hosted on Fotki

The Ala Kart firewall got the chrome stripped off and was permanently mounted in the cowl.

Hosted on Fotki

That's it for now. Hope to get some more done in the near future.

 

 

[exesivefire]

Really good outline of a lot of well thought out work. I love this stage of the build, the part that unfortunately no one notices unless you do it wrong. Looks like you are hitting the nail on the head to me!

[bobthehobbyguy]

Very nice work. Using the rat roaster interior was a great idea. Chassis looks great.

[carnut]

Dennis,

is there any update on this build? I was looking for frame and suspension ideas for my Revell 29 build and this thread came up. I searched for Ala-Kart suspension.