On-Line Tutorial - Hot Rod Hints #2 now available for your viewing

[tim boyd]

Hot Rod Hints #2: Converting to a Flathead Ford V8

Most of the scale hot rod kits you can buy include OHV V-8’s from the postwar to early 1960’s era. Alternatively, in the 1/1 scale word many hot rods employ hopped-up versions of the venerable 1932-1953 Ford Flathead V8.

Swapping a Flathead V8 into 1/25th scale 1920’s and 1930’s hot rod models is not as hard as you might expect  This tutorial has 11 images and captions for each photo - use the "roll view" feature to quickly review each step. Here's the link....

We are blessed with some really premier scale hot rod builders on this Forum.    If that's you, I doubt you'll learn anything new here....but for the rest of you who are either less experienced model hot rod builders, haven't done much kitbashing, or just prefer simpler model projects, this one's for you.  

Enjoy, and be watching for Hot Rod Hints #3 and #4, which will be available for viewing in early and mid March, respectively.  

TIM  

 

[oldnslow]

Nice

[Jon Haigwood]

Thanks great info. Years ago I attempted to put a Flattie in Tweedy Pie as build it the way it was originally built. I didn't do any mock ups and when I tried to put the engine in it was a bit longer than I had room for. Is there any other situations where the length of the flathead is longer than the  OHV V8? 

[dragstk]

Thanks Tim. Great tutorial. I have a few of these cars in my stash, so I'll be coming back to this

Thanks again

[tim boyd]

  On 2/3/2017 at 4:45 PM, Jon Haigwood said:

Thanks great info. Years ago I attempted to put a Flattie in Tweedy Pie as build it the way it was originally built. I didn't do any mock ups and when I tried to put the engine in it was a bit longer than I had room for. Is there any other situations where the length of the flathead is longer than the  OHV V8? 

John....I have not done this direct comparison but any Flathead Ford should fit in a '32 Ford frame (after all, the original frame was designed for that engine).  As for more specialized comparisons like the one you attempted, I can't say with any degree of precision.  

I thought the Tweedy Pie kit was based on a shortened '32 Ford frame (saying this without digging the actual kit out of storage, so take this with a very big grain of salt), so in theory the Flathead should have fit there.  However, as many have noted on this forum, things that work together in 1/1 scale don't always transform to models; in particular, some engines seem to be scaled slightly bigger (or in a few cases, smaller) that 1/25th scale.  

I realize that you probably already know all of the above  Sorry I can't provide a more definitive answer......TIM 

[tim boyd]

  On 2/3/2017 at 11:26 PM, dragstk said:

Thanks Tim. Great tutorial. I have a few of these cars in my stash, so I'll be coming back to this

Thanks again

Robert and Jeff....thanks for the feedback; much appreciated...TIM 

[Jon Haigwood]

  On 2/5/2017 at 12:24 PM, tim boyd said:

John....I have not done this direct comparison but any Flathead Ford should fit in a '32 Ford frame (after all, the original frame was designed for that engine).  As for more specialized comparisons like the one you attempted, I can't say with any degree of precision.  

I thought the Tweedy Pie kit was based on a shortened '32 Ford frame (saying this without digging the actual kit out of storage, so take this with a very big grain of salt), so in theory the Flathead should have fit there.  However, as many have noted on this forum, things that work together in 1/1 scale don't always transform to models; in particular, some engines seem to be scaled slightly bigger (or in a few cases, smaller) that 1/25th scale.  

I realize that you probably already know all of the above  Sorry I can't provide a more definitive answer......TIM 

When this happened I got so frustrated packed everything up and stopped building for many years. What I learned from it was  to mock up everything before final paint and assembly.Thanks looking forward to future Hot Rod Hints