Chopped '32 Ford Tudor Street Rod

[Bernard Kron]

Chopped 1932 Ford Tudor HiBoy

This is a project I started over 6 years ago when Revell first introduced their ’32 Ford Tudor Street Rod kit. My plan was to make a “lowboy” Hiboy hot rod with a 3” chop out of the top and a 4” z’d frame at the rear and a deep drop front axle. I was about 3 years into my return to car modeling and the chop job went badly on me, ending with me losing bits of the A-pillar so that it became impossible to proceed. I had started the chassis and completed the 4” z-job but that was about as far as I got.

As the years passed by this kit was robbed of virtually all of its major parts except for the chassis, the butchered body and the inevitable small block Ford OHV V-8. In the meantime I had gotten another copy of the kit and last month I decided I would attempt to pick up where I had left .off, taking advantage of what I hoped were significantly improved skills.

I started with the chop, 3” all around as on the first attempt. My idea was to do a glossy jet black street machine in the style of the resto-rods out of Southern California in the mid 60’s. I was also inspired by the recent Goodguys PPG Nationals winning Deuce Tudor built by Johnson’s Hot Rods for George Poteet. So, to make sure the paint came out right I did it first before doing anything else. Not the brightest idea since it meant being super careful when handling the body during the rest of the construction. Fortunately I still had the original butchered body shell for test fits which minimized handling issues.

I decided to do a more interesting V8 than the ever-present Revell item, so I ordered a ’65 Mustang Cobra Hi-Po Tri-Power setup from B-N-L resins, which, along with a set of Cobra valve covers and oil pan taken from a Revell Buttera ’34 Ford coupe, adds a little spice under the hood.

Speaking of the hood, I spent the better part of a week of bench time carefully cutting open the hood side louvers. It came out OK but is a complete waste of time, especially on a black car. The 3D effect is totally invisible!

The suspension is based on the kit setup with rear coil-overs adapted to the original deep 4’ z-job. At the front, bring the nose absolutely in-the-weeds I swapped out the kit axle for the deep 4” dropped I-beam axle from a Revell ’40 Ford street rod kit, paired with the kit front spring shaved down to a single mono-leaf. The rest of the drive train is straight from the Revell kit. The chassis horns at the front were reworked so that they are the stock-style open channel rather than the solid filled ones in the kit.

The interior is based on the kit pieces, with the rear seat removed and a raised floor fabricated from styrene grooved sheet (Plastruct corrugated roof material) and styrene semi-circular rod for the skid rails. It’s finished in gloss black with foiled rails. The tank is the kit tank halves glued together and flipped bottom side up, finished in Testors Aluminum Plate Metalizer. The seats are really nice basic old school racing buckets courtesy of Big Donkey Resins. The Insignia Red finish is Testors Acryl.

The rolling stock is based on some super-sweet 50’s era Halibrand mags I got from Model Builder’s Warehouse. They’re made by Historic Racing Miniatures and the detail and finish is superb with gorgeous finely detailed knockoffs that come as separate pieces. The wheels are finished in Testors Magnesium Metalizer with the rims and knockoffs picked out in Molotow chrome. The rear tires are my current favorite hot rod rear tires, skinny bias-ply truck tires from Herb Deeks. The front tires are the ribbed pieces found in various Revellogram ’37 Ford pickup and van kits. Combined with the almost dead-flat stance of the suspension the result is a subtle rubber rake that complements the severe conservative look of the bodywork.

The headlights are the big stock items from the Revell kit, but mounted low down by drilling a hole at the back of the light and inserting it over the mounting pin on the shock mounts. The cross bar is from my parts box, but I think it’s an AMT ’32 Ford piece. The taillights were fabricated from the spot lights out of an AMT '50 Ford Convertible. I filled the buckets with clear red tinted epoxy. They’re mounted to the kit rear crossbar which is mounted to fabricated tabs which drop the bar below the bottom of the body lip.

Paint is 3 coats of Duplicolor Black Lacquer over hot rod grey primer, with 3 coats of clear, color sanded between each coat of black and clear and then rubbed out using Tamiya Polishing compounds.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

Edited December 4, 2017 by Bernard Kron

[Earl Marischal]

Fine work.

steve

[1930fordpickup]

Very nice. 

 

[vintagercr]

Bernard, looks awesome!

[Bernard Kron]

Thank you everyone. I'm glad you all like it!

Looking at the photos again after a few days away I was bothered by some problems with hood fit and minor photo funkiness, so I re-jiggered the hood fit and re-shot some of the pictures, mainly front 3/4 views. I've replaced the relevant pictures in the initial post.

Edited December 4, 2017 by Bernard Kron

[Sixties Sam]

Good looking hot rod! I like the black & red color scheme - looks mean! Nice work on the chop!

Sam

[carrucha]

Cool build.  The wheels and body color go well together.

[Phildaupho]

This is a very tough looking Deuce Sedan. I have seen a couple of 1/1's built in this style and have really been attracted to them. You have really captured that look. I am very impressed with how low you managed to get your Sedan.

[donb]

21 hours ago, Sixties Sam said:

Good looking hot rod! I like the black & red color scheme - looks mean! Nice work on the chop!

Sam

Agree!  Sharp build!

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks again , everyone! Trying to keep it clean and "sharp" was my goal. This style of hot rod doesn't make sense any other way. Black on black with very little in the way of contrasting colors and detail (even the wheels are relatively dark) was hard to photograph. As it is the pictures look more like b&w than color. But in my mind's eye these mid-60's California rods were so often shiny dark colors like black, root beer or deep burgundy. So black it was!

On 12/5/2017 at 4:08 PM, Phildaupho said:

This is a very tough looking Deuce Sedan. I have seen a couple of 1/1's built in this style and have really been attracted to them. You have really captured that look. I am very impressed with how low you managed to get your Sedan.

Thank you, Phil. As a fellow Deuce-o-holic I'm delighted you dig it. The "low HiBoy" style, an in-the-weeds rod with the body on top of the rails and with a relatively flat rake, has been a goal of mine for quite some time. The original project was all about that, but I messed up the body pretty bad so it sat for all these years until now. I'm far more pleased with the outcome than I thought I'd be. Usually I'm pretty downbeat about the result by the time I finish a project because I can see all the flaws and problems that occurred during the build. But this time, flaws and all, the look is so much the one that I was after that I feel surprisingly sanguine about the whole thing. Black on black may be a bit subtle but I like the aggressively sinister classiness of the whole thing.

The "low HiBoy" look is something I'll revisit. The classic McGee roadster has a deep Z in the back, something many people aren't aware of because the car has the stock gas tank in the classic position. But it's the reason the car looks the way it does, so "tight" and put together looking. I plan on doing  a Deuce, either a roadster or a chopped 3-window with that look - and not black next time!

[geewhiz]

Gorgeous sedan, you've captured "the look" to a tee with this one and it's gorgeous in black!!!?????????

[Kit Karson]

All Hot Rod, Buddy! -KK

[bobthehobbyguy]

Great job. Has a great look. Nice job on the paint.

[Bernard Kron]

On 12/11/2017 at 6:36 AM, Kit Karson said:

All Hot Rod, Buddy! -KK

Thanx Wes... That's the point of the exercise, is it not. LOL...

Thanks to you all for the kind words!

[geetee66]

Very Cool, Bernard!

if I had a 1:1 '32, it'd look a lot like this

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks Guy. Yeah, if I had a Deuce this is probably how I'd want to do it...

[Snake45]

Not a Tudor fan, but I gotta admit, that's pretty cool/badass looking! 

[KWT]

Very nicely done!

[crazyjim]

Fantastic look and a sweet build.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks once again, everyone. This is one of those models where I maintained control over the proceedings long enough and well enough to actually come out the other side with the result I had originally intended. Which in itself is quite surprising since it was a save of an old project that had failed 6-7 years ago.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who has commented on this car and its w.i.p. and here's to wishing us all a Happy New Year!

Edited January 1, 2018 by Bernard Kron