Revell '29 Ford A roadster questions

[unclescott58]

I'm slowly building my '29 roadster. Overall I really like the kit. But, I have some questions and observations about the kit that I don't believe others have brought up here. I'd like to hear others opinions. I know about the wrong information given in the instructions, and this has nothing to with those issues.

I'm building the chanelled version of the kit. I was surprised when I went to attach the interior floor on to the chassis. I thought the floor would sit flush with the frame rails. They do not. The parts look correct, yet the floor pan sits just slightly above the flame rails. Test fitting everything in to the body she still looks correct. Is this the way it should be? Or did I goof up and glue in the wrong center frame member? I suspect I used the right one because how the two pieces come together in the rear mounts too. The molded in rear mounts also make it impossible to mount the floor pan flush with the frame rails.

Second is mounting the engine. Looking at the engine, it looks like there are two indentations in the side of the block for mounting the engine into the frame. With channeled frame the engine sits very nicely in the lower of the two notches. At that point she sits pretty level in the frame. So are the second, upper set of notches for the highboy version?

The instructions are not clear on either issue. Am I doing things right? Or am I messing them up?

On last thing. The one thing I didn't like with the kit right from the start. The molding of the rear wheel wells with interior side panels. So I took a razor saw cut them off where they meet. I then glued the wheel wells in to their positions and painted them with the rest of the body. I painted the interior panels separating. Installing them later. This worked out great. I was very pleased with the results. I question why Revell didn't set up the parts themselves to work that way? The way they set it up make no sense to me.

 

[Muncie]

Quote - I'm building the chanelled version of the kit. I was surprised when I went to attach the interior floor on to the chassis. I thought the floor would sit flush with the frame rails. They do not. The parts look correct, yet the floor pan sits just slightly above the flame rails. Test fitting everything in to the body she still looks correct. Is this the way it should be? Or did I goof up and glue in the wrong center frame member? I suspect I used the right one because how the two pieces come together in the rear mounts too. The molded in rear mounts also make it impossible to mount the floor pan flush with the frame rails.

R Scott,

Yes,, that's the way the kit builds with the floor spaced above the frame rails...to me, the interior also looks a little shallow because the floorpan is too high in the body

in my project on the bench, I cut the tops off the ladder bar mounts on the transmission crossmember flush with the top of the frame so the floor pan would sit on the frame.  I added a small square of sheet plastic to box in the top of the ladder bar mounts and give the ladder bars something to attach to.  The same modification could be made on the rear mounts but I just enlarged the hole in the floorpan so it fit over the pins on the chassis. These are one way to do it and "don't look too close" Engineering fixes. Now I will add a strip of material to the bottom of the interior panels.  Once everything is flush with the top of the frame, it opens up possibilities for other Model A bodies...

In the real world, the floorpan sits on the top of the frame rails with a piece webbing or strips of leather to separate the fame and body for noise isolation.  It gets trickier because the model A floorpan is flat and the top of a '32 frame has a slight curve.  Several solutions - one, cut a wood spacer, flat on top, curved on the bottom tapering to zero thickness on the ends. two, use the '32 floorpan in the Model A body.  three, Brookville (and probably others) make a fabricated '32 hot rod frame with a flat top for the model A floorpan - or you can get your Brookville body with a '32 floorpan already installed.

Hope this helps, S/P

 

 

 

 

Edited September 11, 2016 by Muncie

[unclescott58]

Good to hear that I haven't screwed something up along the way. I think the mounting of the floor pan to the chassis a little odd, but it seems to work.

 

[horsepower]

I know you probably have seen this in here before, but you do know that the channeled and deuce versions both use the same floor piece, the only difference is the side panels. The other floor is not for the roadster.

[Tom Geiger]

 

On last thing. The one thing I didn't like with the kit right from the start. The molding of the rear wheel wells with interior side panels. So I took a razor saw cut them off where they meet. I then glued the wheel wells in to their positions and painted them with the rest of the body. I painted the interior panels separating. Installing them later. This worked out great. I was very pleased with the results. I question why Revell didn't set up the parts themselves to work that way? The way they set it up make no sense to me.

I built it leaving the part as one.  It was easy to paint, just masking up each side and painting the other.   The entire interior just snaps together very positively, so this remaining one part helps with that fit.

The one issue I want to make people aware of, is that the  fit tabs for the interior side panels are visible from the bottom on the finished model. For the next one, I'll make a fake rib to cover them.   See the four tabs right next to the frame rail.  RM probably intended for those to be covered by frame rail.