Ford COE cabs:'37-'47, '48-'52, '53-'55(or 6)

Ace-Garageguy · February 18, 2018

Ford COE cabs:'37-'47, '48-'52, '53-'55(or 6)...Who makes 'em, which are the best, which are poor (or not-so-hot)?

Edited February 18, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

Jim B · February 18, 2018

Here's a 41-47 from Star Models: http://www.resinrealm.net/Star/STAR Models/41_to_47_COE_Trk.html It looks pretty good.

Aaronw · February 18, 2018

1938 was the first year for a factory Ford COE, but there were conversions done of earlier trucks.

RMR offers many COEs from that period including Ford. Most include a cab interior.

http://www.rmrmodels.com/

Mill City covers '38 to '47. Contact and other information is in this thread.

Large portions of the sheet metal are shared between conventional and COE cabs of this time so it is possible to convert existing plastic kits into a COE. Revell's '41 Chevy and '50 ford with their separate fenders work fairly well for this. The '37 Ford is also made this way, but the conversion would be a little more difficult. I'm not going to say it is an easy conversion, but well within the abilities of someone who is willing to chop, channel and make other alterations to custom cars and hotrods.

I started this '41 Chevy in 2008, it sits in more or less the same state now due to a a failure of time and motivation coming together at the same time...

To my knowledge nobody does a '41-46 Chevy COE so this is the only way I will have one. There are more options for Ford.

Edited February 18, 2018 by Aaronw

Ace-Garageguy · February 18, 2018

12 hours ago, Aaronw said:

...Large portions of the sheet metal are shared between conventional and COE cabs of this time so it is possible to convert existing plastic kits into a COE. Revell's '41 Chevy and '50 ford with their separate fenders work fairly well for this. The '37 Ford is also made this way, but the conversion would be a little more difficult. I'm not going to say it is an easy conversion, but well within the abilities of someone who is willing to chop, channel and make other alterations to custom cars and hotrods...

Thanks to both you guys for the info so far.

I was aware of that other thread, and that the cabs could be built up from non-COE parts, but having recently realized I may not in fact live forever, I was hoping to find well-modeled sources for these cabs, so that I might finish a couple of this style truck in my lifetime.

I've seen a few resin units that have poorly defined details, and are not symmetrical and unnecessarily thick. I'm hoping to avoid buying anything that needs more work to correct than to scratch-build.

Aaronw · February 19, 2018

The RMR cabs aren't bad. They are typical of older resin castings and can be a little on the thick side, but they are reasonably priced and quite capable of being turned into a nice model by anyone with average skills or better. No worse than working with an older kit or common diecast.

I'm 90% sure that this is an RMR casting. It is in my stash with other stuff I know is his, but is unmarked.

Chariots of Fire · February 23, 2018

Mill City Replicas does the 38-39 Ford COE.

Only problem is with the grill which was real bad. So I made a new one out of brass for the cab at right. To the left is a similar one with the grill partially made so you can see how it was done. The headlights on the finished cab came from a Yat Ming '38 Ford open cab fire truck.