Tamiya 1936 Toyoda Model AA

[Art Anderson]

Taking a bit of a break from a very intense Duesenberg project, I latched onto the newly released Tamiya kit of the 1936 Toyoda Model AA.  This is not the tiny scrunched up Toyota's of the postwar era--it's as big a car as a '36 Ford or Chevrolet--powered by a 3.2 liter OHV inline 6-cylinder engine (195 cid--not that much smaller than the Chevrolet 6 of that year).

The kit, for a curbside (rather unusual for Tamiya) is so very precise, once the body is set on the fender/running board unit, and the grille shell set in place--is so cleanly fit, you really have to look twice to see the seam around the front fenders.

The paint is a home-brew:  Testors #1141 Wood Tan, with 8 drops of #1140 Brown, and 5 drops of #1114 Yellow added, to get close to the color of a real, restored AA I found online.

Edited September 5, 2016 by Art Anderson

[Ace-Garageguy]

Very interesting project. It looks to have a lot of Chrysler Airflow influence. 

                                      I've been wondering if the kit was curbside or full-detail. Thanks for putting this one up.

[Harry P.]

Looks to have a lot of Airflow "influence?"

Looks to me like they directly copied the Airflow.

[ChrisBcritter]

If you wanted to take it beyond curbside, here's the engine to use: MPC '32 Chevy six-banger.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AMT-1-25-1932-CHEVROLET-CABRIOLET-STOCK-ENGINE-AND-RELATED-PARTS-/302062055442?hash=item46544d3012:g:Lt0AAOSw9IpXzJIN

[ChrisR]

Art the 1:1 car you have seen is a recreation. There is no known original 1936 Toyoda in existence.

[Harry P.]

According to Wikipedia, there is one original AA in existence. It was found in derelict condition in Russia in 2008, and is now in a museum in the Netherlands, unrestored. So like you said, any "restored" AA is in fact a recreation and not a real AA.

[Tom Geiger]

 

Here's the story of the only original in existence, it was found after Toyota recreated one.

https://www.toyota-europe.com/world-of-toyota/articles-news-events/where-it-all-began-toyoda-aa

When I get a copy of this kit, you know what car I'm going to build!

Edited September 6, 2016 by Tom Geiger

[Foxer]

I've wanted to do this one since it came out, but there's just too many on my plate now ... thankfully I get to see one built here! 

[Art Anderson]

Looks to have a lot of Airflow "influence?"

Looks to me like they directly copied the Airflow.

Close, but no cigar, Harry!  While the Toyoda AA sure shows a lot of Chrysler Airflow influence, it is NOWHERE nearly as big as any Airflow, either Chrysler or DeSoto.  As I believe I pointed out, it's much more the size of a '36 Ford or Chevrolet, and at that it's decidedly narrower.  If you meant to imply that somehow the Model AA was little more than a Japanese copy--well consider that almost all the way back to the beginnings of the automobile, engineers and designers studied what was already out there, and  often borrowed what they thought might work (sell) from preceding products--and went forward from there. The list of such "copying", if you want to call it that, is virtually endless.

Art

[Art Anderson]

Art the 1:1 car you have seen is a recreation. There is no known original 1936 Toyoda in existence.

I know that, but I am not at all concerned.   A massive company such as Toyota is entitled to recreate the car from their beginnings, just as Ford Motor Company had every right to exactly recreate their 1914 Model T for the Centennial of the Model T back in the early 2000's.

[Art Anderson]

Very interesting project. It looks to have a lot of Chrysler Airflow influence. 

                                      I've been wondering if the kit was curbside or full-detail. Thanks for putting this one up.

Bill, the kit is simply amazing, even if curbside.  The parts fit of the bodywork is simply beyond reproach.  It would not take a ton of work to make it full detail, and perhaps that '32 Chevy Cast Iron Wonder engine done by MPC would work--but that's a project for another day, another time, and ANOTHER builder.

Art

[Harry P.]

If you meant to imply that somehow the Model AA was little more than a Japanese copy...

Art

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Before the production model AA, they built three prototypes called A1, none of which survive. To build the A1s, Toyoda bought an Airflow and disassembled it to study it (and to copy it's basic design). The AA engine was copied from a Chevrolet engine, and the chassis and electrics were copied from Ford.

[Harry P.]

More tidbits I found while looking into this car...

For Toyota's 50th Anniversary, it was discovered that no original AA could be found anywhere, so Toyota decided to build a replica for the anniversary. However, complete plans and/or mechanical drawings also did not exist, so all existing AA replicas are based on "guesstimates" of the original car in many instances.

[Art Anderson]

More tidbits I found while looking into this car...

For Toyota's 50th Anniversary, it was discovered that no original AA could be found anywhere, so Toyota decided to build a replica for the anniversary. However, complete plans and/or mechanical drawings also did not exist, so all existing AA replicas are based on "guesstimates" of the original car in many instances.

Not at all surprising, considering the destruction of Japanese industry in WW-II.

[Art Anderson]

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Before the production model AA, they built three prototypes called A1, none of which survive. To build the A1s, Toyoda bought an Airflow and disassembled it to study it (and to copy it's basic design). The AA engine was copied from a Chevrolet engine, and the chassis and electrics were copied from Ford.

Interesting about the chassis, given that the AA has parallel leaf springs front and rear, quite unlike any Ford V8 car through 1948.  As for directly copying the Airflow, is a MUCH larger car than anything Toyoda would have even considered.  But, there definitely are styling similarities, and by 1936, virtually every US automaker was using frames having a substantial X-member.

[GT4494]

The Japanese and the Russians are famous for "reverse engineering" almost everything they made.  I can't remember which one but one country copied an airplane down to the repair panels that the maintenance crews used to keep it flying.

[Ace-Garageguy]

The Japanese and the Russians are famous for "reverse engineering" almost everything they made.  I can't remember which one but one country copied an airplane down to the repair panels that the maintenance crews used to keep it flying.

Early and post-WW II Japanese cars were frequently made up of reverse-engineered parts of other vehicles. In some cases, parts would actually interchange with the originals, the only difference being that the Japanese blueprints were dimensioned in metric units.

The outstanding Datsun 240Z engine was heavily based on a Mercedes design.

And the Russian Tupolev Tu-4 was an almost exact copy of an American B-29 bomber. 850 were built.   http://b-29s-over-korea.com/shortstories/russianclone.htm

PS. Sorry for the digression. I'll gladly remove it.   

Edited September 7, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Harry P.]

Well, Art... in any case, an interesting modeling subject, and we look forward to your progress on this.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Interesting about the chassis, given that the AA has parallel leaf springs front and rear, quite unlike any Ford V8 car through 1948.  As for directly copying the Airflow, is a MUCH larger car than anything Toyoda would have even considered.  But, there definitely are styling similarities, and by 1936, virtually every US automaker was using frames having a substantial X-member.

The Airflow also has parallel leaf-springs front and rear, though I'm fairly certain the Airflow lacked a heavy X-member in the frame (common on other Chrysler products of the time), most likely because the advanced body construction added sufficient rigidity without it.

[Art Anderson]

The Airflow also has parallel leaf-springs front and rear, though I'm fairly certain the Airflow lacked a heavy X-member in the frame (common on other Chrysler products of the time), most likely because the advanced body construction added sufficient rigidity without it.

Yes, considering that the Airflow had what we would think of today as very much like a NASCAR roll cage built into the body.

Art

[om617]

Will look good in this color.

[ChrisR]

I know that, but I am not at all concerned.   A massive company such as Toyota is entitled to recreate the car from their beginnings, just as Ford Motor Company had every right to exactly recreate their 1914 Model T for the Centennial of the Model T back in the early 2000's.

I fully agree, yet cars that were produced in smaller numbers did survive.

[Art Anderson]

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Before the production model AA, they built three prototypes called A1, none of which survive. To build the A1s, Toyoda bought an Airflow and disassembled it to study it (and to copy it's basic design). The AA engine was copied from a Chevrolet engine, and the chassis and electrics were copied from Ford.

Harry, while this might be belaboring the point, The Toyoda AA is NOT a direct copy of any car whatsoever.   The differences between it and a Chrysler Airflow begin with dimensions:  For starters, the wheelbase of the AA is fully a foot shorter than that of the basic Chrysler Airflow.  Second, the AA has a heavy X-member in the middle of its frame, for stiffening, which is a sure indicator that Toyoda did not use the system of heavier tubular steel body reinforcement (A, B, and C pillars, all connected by a tubular "halo" which was very predictive of the basid roll cage of any Nascar stock car from the late 60's onward.  Along these lines, I rather doubt that Toyoda used the "down bars" between the A-pillars and the front of the frame rails (again, something characteristic of just about EVERY tubular framed race car since the the 1950's (Indy, Dirt Track, Sprint Cars, Midgets and even Nascar since the late 1960's).

In addition, the Toyoda AA is not nearly as wide as the Airflow,  and as noted above, dramatically shorter as well.  All that said, the fledgling Toyoda company, just as with most every other automaker on the planet, saw the advantages of moving an engine dramatically forward, OVER the centerline of the front wheels, which allowed the body to be moved forward, to the point that rear seat passengers no longer sat directly over the rear axle, as had been standard practice with 5-6 passenger cars from the beginnings of the automobile.  While the Airflow was a sales disaster for Chrysler (people dissed it, saying they would not ride in "a lump going down the road", Airflow did have a lasting effect on the entire auto industry--even down to some of its shapes, much of which turned up in styling from just about every automaker on the planet, over the next decade or so.

Art

Edited September 11, 2016 by Art Anderson

[Art Anderson]

Now, for an update!   One of the problems to overcome with painting a model car is "how do I paint those little parts?  In the case of the Toyoda, this meant the bumper brackets, and the painted headlight "buckets".  Kudo's to Tamiya for the way they put these on their sprues.  As you can see from the pic, the sprue attachment points are at two points on the brackets, and on the tips of the mounting pins for the headlight units.  What you do not see, as I clipped them away, were the Tee-shaped sprues that came up from the middle of each sprue secton, with an injection point to the brackets from each end of this bit of sprue, and an injection point under the forward edge of each headlight bucket.  Tamiya was very thoughtful with those headlights, as the sprue attachment points mentioned will be on the underside of the headlight once assembled to the fenders, and will NOT be visible due to the very tight clearance there above the fender (just a little bit of shaving with a #11 blade there took care of any visible issue).  This left the main bits of sprue available to hold the parts for spraying.  While as you can see, the bumper bracket sprues allowed room for a bit of masking tape to secure the entire sprue with bracket in place to the cap of a paint bottle.  With the headlight sprue, tape was not an option, but Bondic UV-cured glue was--so that is what I used.  (Bondic works great, but it is fairly easy to pop the glued-on part off of the paint cap once the paint is dry!)  All that will be necessary now, is to clip these parts from their sprues, trim carefully with a #11 blade, and touch that up with the same paint.

 

[Art Anderson]

I fully agree, yet cars that were produced in smaller numbers did survive.

Nearly every original Toyoda AA was destroyed during WW-II, many in the field as staff officer's cars.  One example was found in Manchuria, much the worse for wear and quite rusted out, and what examples remained in Japan after the surrender on September 2, 1945 seem to have disappeared.