'32 Ford High-Bolster Roadster - 9-7 Update

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks Misha!

I’m very near to the final assembly stage. The chassis and rear suspension are done, the front suspension fabricated and painted and ready, the motor about half way there (parts painted, block, heads and ignition assembled including wiring), the interior completed and installed in the body. This leaves intake and carbs to do on the motor, the grill, windshield and lights, and putting it all together. The color and the upholstery are definitely already giving it that 40’s vibe. Can’t wait to see how the stance works out and what the Kelsey Hayes wire wheels do to the look…

Here’s a composite showing the Revell ’40 Ford rear suspension, the interior and the finely detailed stock style firewall courtesy of Replicas & Miniatures Co. of Maryland. The rear suspension arms were shortened and relocated to account for the narrowed track and shorter driveshaft. The steering wheel is a Monogram ’37 Ford truck item and the instrument panel is the Revell kit item, cut out, thinned and foiled.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Bernard Kron

[DrKerry]

Koolness

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx Kerry!

It’s a roller! The front suspension is assembled, almost entirely from a Revellogram ‘29/’30 Ford Pickup/Sedan kit. I split the wishbones, stripped the kit chrome and substituted Krylon Chrome paint for a duller, more period look. I really wanted to include the posable steering feature but the layout of the ’32 Ford frame interfered with the tie rod, rendered the whole setup impossibly fragile, and forced me to glue the whole thing solid. Bummer… The wheels & tires are now glued in place so the stance is set. It’s got a subtle rubber rake and sits fairly high despite the dropped front axle – very much like early postwar rods did. And I think those narrow Herb Deeks rear truck tires are just about perfect for this era hot rod. So here’s the chassis with the body mocked up into position. The motor is from a Revell ’40 Ford with the early-style dual intake from an AMT ’34 Ford 5-Window Coupe kit (special thanks to Vince and Paul for helping me out on getting hold of this period –critical part). The fuel log is scratch built but the dual lines aren’t hooked up yet, nor are the air cleaners installed. Now for fettling the hood, grill, and then cleanup and touchup on the body work, lighting, windshield (the stock height windshield is just mocked into place), and final assembly. Next week for completion?

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[misterNNL]

Thanks Misha!

I’m very near to the final assembly stage. The chassis and rear suspension are done, the front suspension fabricated and painted and ready, the motor about half way there (parts painted, block, heads and ignition assembled including wiring), the interior completed and installed in the body. This leaves intake and carbs to do on the motor, the grill, windshield and lights, and putting it all together. The color and the upholstery are definitely already giving it that 40’s vibe. Can’t wait to see how the stance works out and what the Kelsey Hayes wire wheels do to the look…

Here’s a composite showing the Revell ’40 Ford rear suspension, the interior and the finely detailed stock style firewall courtesy of Replicas & Miniatures Co. of Maryland. The rear suspension arms were shortened and relocated to account for the narrowed track and shorter driveshaft. The steering wheel is a Monogram ’37 Ford truck item and the instrument panel is the Revell kit item, cut out, thinned and foiled.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

This is looking so very fine.I agree with all of your choices for colors as well.Will you please share your tech for getting that oh so perfect leather look surface to styrene.I have a couple projects that could surely benefit from that look.Thanks !!

[Bernard Kron]

...Will you please share your tech for getting that ... leather look surface to styrene....

Thank you, Tom.

The technique I use is pretty straightforward. If there's a "secret" it is only about what kind of paint I use and what to do with it as you apply it. I use Testors Acryl acrylic paint. Other acrylic paints will work but the important thing is to make sure it's not too thin and watery. Makes sure it's thoroughly mixed. You want plenty of pigment in it and you want it to thicken as it dries. It should dry fairly quickly, too.

What I do is apply the paint with a moderately broad brush, covering the area I'm working on completely with a medium thickness coat - enough so it covers thoroughly with no low spots but not so thick as to slow the drying time. Now what you want to do is purposely introduce brush strokes into it - exactly the opposite of what you'd do to brush-paint the exterior of a car body. As the paint dries continue brushing it, first cross hatching vertically and horizontally, then at 45 degree angles. Use light surface strokes, just enough to leave brush marks but not enough to dig down into the paint. If you do this for a minute or two the paint will take on an irregular "leathery" texture, but still remain relatively smooth. The longer you do this the rougher the texture you'll create. This is the key. Then, after the paint dries, apply a light, thin dark contrasting wash to emphasize the texture, wiping away virtually all the residue immediately after you apply it. Do this two or three times depending on the effect you want to create. Along with the texture you established in the previous step, the amount of contrast and darkness of the color wash you apply will determine the amount of distress or "dirt" in the :leather". The final touch,  if you want a slightly shiny "leatherette" look, is to apply a light coating of skin oil, such as that found along the side of you nose, with your fingertip. For a more dull look omit this step.

You can use any color acrylic that you want, The color above is Testors Acryl Leather.  Below are a few additional examples. The important part is controlling the texture and the amount of contrasting wash.

Testors Acryl British Crimson to simulate distressed Oxblood Leatherette(lots of texture and black wash):

Testors Acryl Tan for the darker surfaces and Duplicolor Wimbledon White for the lighter ones. No wash was applied and only the tan surfaces were given the "leather" treatment.

Testors Acryl Guards Red  with dark red wash:

Testors Acryl British Crimson, heavily textured with red and black washes and light sand and rust weathering powders:

Edited August 23, 2016 by Bernard Kron

[misterNNL]

wow!Great stuff.It all makes sense now that I see it spelled out in detail.Thanks for sharing your tech with me.It is greatly appreciated.I will defenitly be using this soon.I just finished a 1921 Olds speedster based on a Jimmy Flintstone resin body and am not all that pleased with the black seat I used.I just may repaint that tomorrow with something more harmonious to the yellow body.If you will PM me your email address I will send you some pix of it.

Thanks again for the help!!..........Tom Woodruff

[Bernard Kron]

Trouble has reared its ugly head and I’ve had to make a mid-course correction. For some time now I’ve had a problem with paint not hardening enough to avoid fingerprints while handling the car during assembly. It’s especially difficult because I’m an improvisational builder and tend to make modifications and fabrications as I go along – so I handle the model a lot. Doing fabrication and trial assembly, then doing painting and finishing, followed by final assembly is far more organized and ultimately cleaner and more precise approach. But bad habits are difficult to overcome…

In any case, I think I’ve diagnosed the problem successfully at last, but, alas, this model has already suffered irretrievably and I had to make a change. The problem was that I had begun using a polish that I have used for many years on my 1:1 cars with great success, Meguiar’s Mirror-Glaze #9 Swirl Remover. It really gives you that “show-car” shine, but unfortunately it does it by softening the top coat of paint. On relatively “green” paint on a model car this means that you have to wait many days (I figure at least 10 days+) for it to harden enough once again to avoid fingerprints. The result is a myriad of laws on what has started out as a pretty darn nice paint job.

So what to do? Actually the model looks quite realistically “worn” now so I decided I will touch up the thin spots and then do a very mild weathering job on it, the goal being the kind of look these cars had at the end of a day out at the dry lakes. Like this:

We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime it means no headlights but, as was the common practice on ’32 Ford roadsters in 1947, when you got to the lakes you stripped it down to the minimum, removing fenders (if you had any) and the windshield. One thing that often stayed in place was the pair of stanchions to which the windshield was mounted. So I made a set from a kit Deuce windshield. They’re the little posts you’ll see in the photo at the bottom of this post. The engine compartment is almost finished, needing only the radiator hose, and the grille has still to be installed.

With the conversion to competition duty the  car needed a set of “shoe polish” numbers. Street machines often did double duty, serving as transportation for the multi-hour drive out to the dry lakes, and then as your race car. This could get very elaborate, with some competitors going so far as to swap manifolds, carbs and even heads, then re-installing the street setup for the haul home. But even if this car is largely intact as far as street gear is concerned, one thing any good competitor needed was a set of race numbers. Common practice was numbers painted on using white shoe polish that could easily be hosed off for the ride home (race numbers, cool as they may be, are guaranteed fuzz bait…).

My shoe polish numbers were made by using a brush painted number font, flipping the image horizontally to a mirror image and printing it on the back side (the paper side) of some white decal stock. Using the edges of the number as a guide, I then cut them out as shown in the photo. So, even though my humble inkjet printer won’t print white, I have my white shoe polish numbers!

So here’s where we stand so far. I’m pretty close to done. I just have to clean up some paint flaws, apply the decals and weather the paint, and install items like the grill and door handles and she’ll be done. Won’t be long now…

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[Ace-Garageguy]

As usual, a perfect period look and feel. Very nice.

[mod3l Lover]

   I love, love, love the look of that

interior you have going on!!

 

     David S.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks!

This project has bitten hard all the way through, with paint problems which changed the whole direction of the build, and then, during final assembly, the usual problems with tiny parts lost to the carpet monster and last minute fabrication challenges. But switching to a post-war dry lakes racer from a street machine was a good call and today, as I wrapped things up, the ”look and feel” suddenly all came together. Huge sigh of relief! Here’s a teaser shot before I post the final pics tomorrow Under Glass after I gather my thoughts and sit down for a serious photo session.

Thanx to all for following along,
B.

Edited September 8, 2016 by Bernard Kron