'32 Ford Fordor Jalopy Racer - Larned, KS.circa 1958

[Bernard Kron]

’32 Ford Fordor Jalopy Racer – Larned, KS. 1958

Several years ago a fine modeler named Dave Zinn gave me a Hendrix resin ’32 Ford Fordor body as a bonus gift during a parts exchange. I always intended to do a jalopy build with it and now I’ve finally gotten around to it. The project was inspired by this terrific web site chronicling the JayCee Speedway in Larned, Kansas, a 1/4 mile track that was active in the 1950's: winfield.50megs.com/tripod/Larned/Larned_Speedway.htm .

The body is designed to fit the AMT Deuces so I used an AMT ’32 Ford Phaeton kit as the basis. The hood, chassis and drivetrain are all from that kit with only minor modifications. The frame rails were painted Testors Acryl Gloss Green. The front and rear crash bars were fabricated from styrene rod and sheet, as was the interior roll cage. The interior body structure was also fabricated from styrene strip and sheet. The front wheels and tires are from an AMT ’40 Ford Tudor kit, and the rear tires and wheels are from a Revell ’40 Ford Standard kit with the whitewalls blacked out. The Revell ’40 Ford also provided the radiator.

The paint is Duplicolor Wimbledon White on the upper half, the interior and the crash bars and wheels. The lower half of the body is Testors Daytona Yellow lacquer. The numbers and the green molding stripe are decals colored to match the frame rails. The sponsor names are also home-made decals and are fictitious businesses based on the region around Larned.

This was great fun to do. I especially enjoyed the research involved and working in a subject that is relatively new to me.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

Edited July 16, 2017 by Bernard Kron

[Miatatom]

I liked this idea from the get-go and you pulled it off! I trolled some of the sites you mentioned in your original posts with pics of jalopies and started a reference file of photos. I'm going to do a coupe, probably a 32 5 window like the ones that ran at Greenville-Pickens Speedway back in the mid 50s. My Uncle Roy took me to my first race there.

[Sixties Sam]

Very nice build! Good scratch building work, and it's something really different. Great work on this!

Sam

[ChrisR]

NICE!!

[DrKerry]

Great build Bernard!!!!!!!!

[GTC]

Looks great. Going to put one on my list of future builds. 

[DumpyDan]

Very nice, looks great

[bbowser]

Well done!  I like this a lot.

[Phildaupho]

This is a very neat model and brings back a lot of memories. The first cars I ever saw racing were classed as  jalopies. I liked them so much I built a model as a kid I think based on the 41 Plymouth kit. There is a very active group of old time circle track racers locally who compete regularly at Western Speedway in cars that look a lot like your model although I think most are powered by inline sixes.

Edited January 10, 2017 by Phildaupho

[FordRodnKustom]

Very cool Bernard. Authentic period details and the inner body structure you fabricated for it is brilliant. Well done!

[Earl Marischal]

Like it.

steve

[James2]

Man I use to build a lot of race cars like this, love them short tracks. 

You build is done up just right and has all the right details. Great job!

[D. Battista]

Well done!  I like this a lot.

I agree...!

[slusher]

Super nice..

 

[vintagercr]

Neat!

[6bblbird]

Great job Bernard! Brings me back to my younger days watching the jalopies at Freeport Stadium!

[Janne Herajärvi]

Interesting

[Bernard Kron]

Thank you everybody! I'm stoked that you all dig it. These cars have bags of character and the fun in doing them is capturing their style. When it's a subject you're not that familiar with then there's the pleasure (for me, anyway) of doing the research, as well. So I really enjoyed doing this project. It's my second circle track build and they've both been very satisfying, if a little bit daunting because it's a less familiar world for me. After this one I'm even more sure there'll be more in the future.

Thanks again for all the nice comments,
B.

[FordRodnKustom]

Thank you everybody! I'm stoked that you all dig it. These cars have bags of character and the fun in doing them is capturing their style. When it's a subject you're not that familiar with then there's the pleasure (for me, anyway) of doing the research, as well. So I really enjoyed doing this project. It's my second circle track build and they've both been very satisfying, if a little bit daunting because it's a less familiar world for me. After this one I'm even more sure there'll be more in the future.

Thanks again for all the nice comments,
B.

Great to step out the comfort zone ain't it B? I actually built a Chevy once!

[bobthehobbyguy]

Cool. Great subject. Don't see this style race car often.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks Bob!

Broken Photobucket links repaired. For now I'm only updating completed model pics. Updating w.i.p. links is just too huge a task! I'll update them on request...