Tom Daniel T’Rantula

[OldNYJim]

I’ve been wanting to do a nice high detail build of SOMETHING to take to NNL East next year; my first time visiting the show.  I build a lot of showrods, and I’ve been trying to think of a good kit to really dig into and do something cool with.  I saw this sad looking thing on eBay a couple of months back, and I think I’m going to take a shot at making something show-worthy out of this old original issue T’rantula:

Now, I might not be THAT smart but I’m smart enough to know it’ll be tough to start with something as low-parts-count as an old 60s Tom Daniel kit and make something incredible out of it...but I really want to try and build something killer to push my skills and see what I can make of it.  I’m thinking a scratchbuilt tube frame, some machined aluminum wheels, all the bells and whistles you’d normally see in a real 1:1 drag car - but packed inside this crazy old showrod body.  Something where, if you glanced at it on the table you’d think “that’s just a T’rantula, pffttt” but then when you look there some cool stuff to spot.  First, after a trip to the freezer, got it broken down far enough to start playing with it:

First job, if I’m going to make a tube frame for it is to do some strategic cuts to the body (which hides almost anywhere that there WOULD be a frame pretty successfully) is to slice the body up enough where I’d be able to assemble it around a scratchbuilt frame at all without building it ship-in-a-bottle style.  First up, I removed a chunk of floor from the ‘cab’ - the kit doesn’t even attempt to show a rear axle and I’d like to show some of that even if just from the underside...

And, whilst I’d like to keep that ‘under tray’ that forms the bottom of the body, I started making some slices to that too to allow it to mount to a frame somehow:

The real trick here is going to be to keep the kit recognisably a T’rantula (easy - it’s already shaped like one ?) but allow enough visibility of the cool mechanical stuff to make it actually interesting if you look closer.  
 

More soon - I’ve been moving mentally between a load of different build ideas for my first NNL for probably 6 months now, so I figure that if I start a thread on here it becomes real and I’ll HAVE to do it! ??‍♂️

[alan barton]

Hi Jim,

This is a fantastic idea and one that has been in my head for a long time.  I always "kinda" liked the T rantula, kinda because I think the design of the rear of the car is sensational while the front always left me going "mehhh".  Here's my thoughts.

Form up a new front clip, maybe starting with one of the Young American or Tommy Ivo kits. Long, smooth and slender and it would also give you a good start on an accurate tube frame.  Keep the elliptical sockets for the headlights but create them from a longitudinal slice of Evergreen round tubing so that they are a lot more discrete than the kinda exaggerated versions on the original.  Not sure about the double bumps in front of the engine - you could graft the T rantula ones on or just leave them off altogether.

Probably the part I like the least in Tom's design is the "beak" or "jaws" (fangs?) sticking out the front.  Just interrupts the flow right at the start as far as I am concerned.  What about if you kept a conventional T/F nose but then created a new front axle airfoil that had canted supports, kinda jawlike, or maybe a fang shape to the airfoil itself?

A braver person than me would grind out the inside of the rear fenders and then open the louvres.  They would look spectacular then.  On the other hand, a trick I stumbled on accidentally is to paint the area flat black and then carefully shoot your colour coats from the front of the louvres (the closed side in this case).  This leaves what would have been the openings in flat black - it looks better than it sounds!

Mechanically, the dropped front axle is beautiful but I reckon I would ditch the cobweb radius rods and incorporate cobwebs into the paint design.  But that's just me.  The biggest change I would make would be to replace those obviously fake double scoops with a full double blower setup.  There is one in the 53 Stude kit and another in the Eldon Bathtub Buggy but it wouldn't be hard to fabricate a simple triangular manifold anyway.  This would add a heap of muscular bulk to the engine bay.  Imagine the additional detailing you could fir in there, machined pulleys, injector linkages, plumbing - yum, yum, yum!!!!

Good luck with your project.  I was fortunate to attend NNL East back in 1996 and Tom Geiger and his crew run a fantastic show - I guarantee you will love every minute of your weekend!

Cheers

Alan

[afx]

Always loved the T’rantula, I'm on board.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Should be interesting. Like a lot of over-the-top cartoony kits, this one has a lot of really good stuff in it, lotsa potential.

[89AKurt]

I'm cheering from the bleachers!

[Safire6]

I'll be watching this, sounds interesting!

[Modelbuilder Mark]

ready to follow along

 

[Sledsel]

Very Very Cool!!! 

Need a parts kit? I have an unbuilt I robbed the engine from.

[Richard Bartrop]

That looks like a need project.  It deserves a properly '60s show car paint job.

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

Did you ever notice that one of the valve covers only has three indents for spark plugs? Weird, isn't it? -RRR

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, Rocking Rodney Rat said:

Did you ever notice that one of the valve covers only has three indents for spark plugs? Weird, isn't it? -RRR

This kit has about the best set of 427 SOHC cam covers ever done in styrene, and they're faithful to the real engines. The smaller recess for the rearmost plug on the passenger side is right where it's supposed to be.

[Russell C]

2 hours ago, Rocking Rodney Rat said:

Did you ever notice that one of the valve covers only has three indents for spark plugs? ...

That's what I thought when I was building my 3-wheeled, directionally challenged "T'error" version (borrowing Gary Kulchuck's photo of it here), and I was just going to drill a hole where I thought the spark plug should be. But while rummaging around in photos of the full size engine, I ultimately spotted where the 4th hard-to-see dimple was, in the extreme top corner of the valve cover. I forget what classic Ford engine this is, but others will probably chime in about it.

[Russell C]

Close up pic:

 

[magicmustang]

6 hours ago, Russell C said:

That's what I thought when I was building my 3-wheeled, directionally challenged "T'error" version (borrowing Gary Kulchuck's photo of it here), and I was just going to drill a hole where I thought the spark plug should be. But while rummaging around in photos of the full size engine, I ultimately spotted where the 4th hard-to-see dimple was, in the extreme top corner of the valve cover. I forget what classic Ford engine this is, but others will probably chime in about it.

Yep, they are such nice correct valve covers I swapped them to my Johan Dyno Don 427 SOHC Pro stock. The Johan ones had a spark plug hole over the front cam cover.

Edited October 29, 2019 by magicmustang

[Tom Geiger]

Great idea!   I like the Tom Daniel cars since they were part of my youth.  Whenever I asked my grandparents for models, this is what they'd buy!

I like your assessment of the T'rantula parts count!  As a kid I only had access to my father's paints in the basement, so mine became dark Christmas green!   I sprayed everything one evening, and was surprised at how easy and quick it was to build.  I finished it in one evening and had a credible model, that was very pleasing to 12 year old me!  Nothing but good memories!

I look forward to watching your progress and seeing your final build at NNL East!

[afx]

1:1 valve covers, note spark plug locations.

 

Edited October 30, 2019 by afx

[Ace-Garageguy]

11 minutes ago, afx said:

Trying to post pictures of Ford SOHC valve covers - keep getting the 404 error!

Yup...that's why I didn't. It's getting real old.

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

17 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

This kit has about the best set of 427 SOHC cam covers ever done in styrene, and they're faithful to the real engines. The smaller recess for the rearmost plug on the passenger side is right where it's supposed to be.

I see it now, I stand corrected....carry on... -RRR

[afx]

 

[OldNYJim]

Wow, that’s a lot of replies considering I didn’t do anything yet ?.  Thanks Alan for your thoughtful ideas - I’m definitely going to use some of them on this.  Sledsel - I think I’m good for now, but thank you so much!  I’ll keep that in mind!  And that info on SOHC engines will definitely be useful for this one too.  I’ll no doubt be asking some dumb questions about those in the not too distant future...

Made a little progress on the frame for this over the weekend - it was a tougher job than it needed to be because I wanted to make sure that, firstly, everything fit as nicely inside the body as I could get it to and secondly to make sure the body would actually fit around the frame nicely so I can assemble the car when it’s done and still have partially disassemble it for display with the body off.  Got a lot of figuring out on how to secure it to the frame, but having a frame was the first step anyway...

I did some research on mid-to-late 60s slingshot chassis to try and keep the design at least semi period correct - the location of the axle in relation to the seat is giving me some headaches because the driver would have to have his legs over the top of the axle to drive it and I’m trying to think of the nicest way to address that.  That’s how it is in the kit, and I could use the kit interior piece to overcome that problem and just hide it all away but I’d like to make it so that the suspension and axle could function properly AND let the driver actually sit in the thing.  
 

More soon, soon as I’ve done more!  Need to raid the parts box now and find a quick change or similar to use and start to think about what kind of rear suspension this thing should have

[drag racer 15]

Just so you know In Front engine slingshots the driver was supposed to sit with his legs over top of the rear axle to reach the pedal so I think you’re axle location is ok also the axles where solid mounted to the frame with no suspension hope this helps

[Ace-Garageguy]

6 hours ago, CabDriver said:

I did some research on mid-to-late 60s slingshot chassis to try and keep the design at least semi period correct - the location of the axle in relation to the seat is giving me some headaches because the driver would have to have his legs over the top of the axle to drive it...

'Sposed to...but it can really ruin your day if you blow a rear-end.

[OldNYJim]

6 minutes ago, drag racer 15 said:

Just so you know In Front engine slingshots the driver was supposed to sit with his legs over top of the rear axle to reach the pedal so I think you’re axle location is ok also the axles where solid mounted to the frame with no suspension hope this helps

That’s really useful, thank you!  I spent a couple of hours looking at pics and doing some research but there’s so many variations and different eras I soon got bogged down.  Thank you!

[OldNYJim]

5 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

'Sposed to...but it can really ruin your day if you blow a rear-end.

The lack of suspension on these old slingshots makes more sense now - I was wondering how to account for the axle moving around when the driver had his legs right over the top of it.

I’d still like to get some suspension in there maybe, but it DOES bring up all these new issues that’d I’d have to figure out.  Hmmmm...

[OldNYJim]

They would at least make a floor or a hoop over the driveshaft right?  ??