AMT Model A Ford rebuild

[OldNYJim]

Picked this AMT A up for SUPER cheap last weekend on eBay - I’ve been enjoying building some hotrods lately and this fit the bill for what I had in mind for a project:

I figured for what I paid for it if the body was decent (it isn’t) I’d have a good starting point and anything else that’s usable is a bonus.

I’ve been wanting to do a nice low traditional looking hot rod - something real simple but with some nice detail, maybe with a tracknose if I can find one without buying a whole kit to get one.

When the kit arrived I couldn’t decide if it was good or bad...TONNES of crispy looking glue and some damage to the body but I was hoping I could maybe salvage the frame and body anyway...the engine had so much glue and paint on I could barely tell what it was.

One night in the freezer later...

 

The body came away MOSTLY cleanly, although there was a couple of splits...and there was a TONNE of glue on the inside, even where you wouldn’t need to apply glue.  Took an hour of grinding and prying to get the interior tub out and the inside of the body even remotely usable.  
 

The frame was a different story - for how long it would’ve taken to grind out what was actually there (the original builder for some reason chopped the front half off and replaced it with a drinking straw) I figured I’ll just make a new one.

I scanned the new Revell Model A frame and used it as a start to design my own version - nothing revolutionary but a 3-inch Z front and rear compared to stock (new design in the middle, Revell frame top and bottom):

A little work on the cutter later and I’ve got some rails to laminate together:

Im still figuring out exactly what parts I’ll use for this, so more on the frame later - but here’s a quick mock-up as an idea of what I’m thinking:

Oh, and that blob of paint and glue pretending to be an engine?  Might actually be usable...anyone know what kit this was from originally?

More soon!

[keyser]

Looks like a AMT 40 Ford 5w or sedan delivery Buick Nailhead. Manifold and magneto too gluey to tell. Maybe tri-carb. None of mine to hand at moment. 

Glad it's fun, looks like neat start. AMT 29 A's are dead common and dirt cheap unbuilt. you've prob got the same money in this as a complete kit. Parts bin projects are cool, but this would've hit trash not parts bin. Good luck. 

[OldNYJim]

5 minutes ago, keyser said:

Looks like a AMT 40 Ford 5w or sedan delivery Buick Nailhead. Manifold and magneto too gluey to tell. Maybe tri-carb. None of mine to hand at moment. 

Glad it's fun, looks like neat start. AMT 29 A's are dead common and dirt cheap unbuilt. you've prob got the same money in this as a complete kit. Parts bin projects are cool, but this would've hit trash not parts bin. Good luck. 

I wondered if it might be from one of the AMT kits - that gives me a starting point to do some research and see what I’ve got and what I’m missing here.  Thanks!

And you’re right, there’s no shortage of AMT Model As on eBay, but I had $7 burning a hole in my Paypal and I’m pretty sure the seller lost money on shipping for that price ??.  Of course, I’ll end up paying the extra in labor costs here ?

[Paul Payne]

Cabdriver, looks like quite the salvage project- is this the one you will use the track nose on and paint black? Old plastic never dies,sometimes it just looks that way!

[OldNYJim]

2 hours ago, Paul Payne said:

Cabdriver, looks like quite the salvage project- is this the one you will use the track nose on and paint black? Old plastic never dies,sometimes it just looks that way!

Yes sir!  I’ve been wanting to do a gloss black build with a tracknose for a while...I can’t think of a WORSE body to start with to try and get a perfectly perfect black paint job, but I’ll try my best! ?

[OldNYJim]

Did a little work on the frame today - just enough so I could get an idea of what parts are going to work right and get an idea of stance etc.

The tricky thing with this frame is that the rails are parallel at the back, then pinch inwards a little under the interior floor then straighten back out  again once they’re past the firewall, so it took some fettling to get them just right without making a jig (which I might do so I can make similar ones a little more easily in future).

Quick mock-up of it with a front axle I had in my spares box:

To help get the angles right I made the rear trunk-floor section first and got the rails perfectly straight off of that, then made that little center piece to bring the rails inwards under the interior floor section between the zees, and that spreader bar on the front is temporarily keeping them parallel for the front half.  I’ll try and think of something nice to do with that once I’ve made a crossmember for the front end to mount to.  

 

As you can see, I Bondo’d the frame rails a little to smooth them out - my cutter does a really nice job but it has enough tolerance where the identical pieces I laminated together to make the frame were plus or minus a fraction of a mm.  Can’t complain too much about a quarter of a mil tolerance from a machine that costs under $150 though, so...

And a quick mock-up with the body in place to make sure I didn’t screw up catastrophically anywhere here:

It won’t be sitting anywhere near this low when it’s done but everything fit ok after I notched some slots in the firewall for the purposes of trying it all out.  Should sit fairly nicely though hopefully - probably 3-4 scale inches lower than the Revell 29s I would think.

More scratchbuilding fun tomorrow, folks - same bat-time, same bat-channel!

[slusher]

Have you decided on an engine?

[Paul Payne]

This is really looking good! I like the stance just the way it is- a good east coast look. I like the way you made the frame rails- I've tried something like that, but could never keep the alignment well enough for things to be identical (or close enough). Tips? Secrets? Magic?

[mustang1989]

Man I LIKE this!!! 

[OldNYJim]

2 hours ago, slusher said:

Have you decided on an engine?

If I can save that old Nailhead that was in it originally think I’d like to use that if I can...but then would the stock 32 Ford rear axle that this build originally had be able to handle the power of a blown Nailhead?  I did some research on the HAMB and there were people guesstimating that a 32 rear end can handle 100hp ok and as high as 200 if you don’t abuse it...but I think I’ll need to think about something more sensible for a rear end if I want this to be a feasible combination.

1 hour ago, Paul Payne said:

This is really looking good! I like the stance just the way it is- a good east coast look. I like the way you made the frame rails- I've tried something like that, but could never keep the alignment well enough for things to be identical (or close enough). Tips? Secrets? Magic?

Having an extra frame helps a LOT!  Once I had the rear part square i clamped the rails with clothes pins to a Revell 29 kit frame to get them in line with THAT and had it hold  those angles when I added the center section.  Then, when I’ve made the front crossmember (which will help get the final angles right for the front of the frame where the rails run parallel) I’ll do the same thing and make sure everything is where it should be.

Another way would be to make a jig of some kind but until I’m happy with the design and sure I won’t end up messing with a load of stuff I’ll save that for another day.  I’d really like to have my own design Model A frame that is versatile when it comes to swapping out parts but where I can almost just press ‘print’ on my cutter and just score it out of sheet and assemble it as a basis for future builds.  Something where I can run different suspension setups, different bodies and different engines but not have to completely start from scratch every time.  We’ll see how that works out! ??

Meanwhile, as I’m replying anyway, today’s adventure is going to be that aforementioned crossmember - just laying the design I had in mind and then we’ll cut some and see how it works! 

 

More soon!

Edited May 19, 2020 by CabDriver

[OldNYJim]

I wasn’t going to post another update just yet, but got a lot done on the frame today so here goes...

First up, front crossbrace, doubling as a mount for the front axle:

Then the center brace where the first zee in the frame happens:

And finally this one for the back of the interior section where it meets the second zee:

Those square holes won’t be open in the finished product, but leaving them open now allows me the option to use a different material behind there to add some visual interest to the frame, or at least paint it more easily if I decide on a different color or finish or something.

Ive got more design and detail work to add to this frame still, but I’m far enough along where I can start adding some major components...soon as I decide exactly what they are ??

More soon!

 

[Paul Payne]

That frame design is really interesting- looks sturdy. The cut outs add a lot of interest but also look well engineered- were they your own design or copied from an existing car?

[iBorg]

What kind of cutter?

[OldNYJim]

On 5/19/2020 at 10:01 PM, Paul Payne said:

That frame design is really interesting- looks sturdy. The cut outs add a lot of interest but also look well engineered- were they your own design or copied from an existing car?

Thank you!  No particular 1:1 design, just what I’d maybe do if I was doing this for real (and had the skills and tools ??)

On 5/19/2020 at 10:12 PM, iBorg said:

What kind of cutter?

Silhouette Portrait - their little $150 basic model ??

Slow progress on this because I’m doing a lot of looking at it and research and trying to figure out what I want to do - in future I’ll be able to make duplicates of this frame and use it for different combinations of parts so I’m trying to build and design it in such a way that it’ll easily take different engines and front and rear ends as I see fit.  
 

I decided the stock 32 Ford axle probably wouldn’t last too long behind a blown ANYTHING so I cast a resin center section of a Quickchange that I can scratchbuild some other parts around - and whilst I had the RTV and resin out I made some duplicates of some disk brakes that I had a couple of in my spares box - not sure what they’re from, but I figured if I was doing this build for real I’d go with disks over drums, even if it is a more traditional-styled build in terms of some of the parts:

 

Oh, and that little skull will be my shift knob - there’s a particular Hot Wheels that has skull headlamps so I made a mould so I can make more of those in future.

Back to the chassis, did some work today on an engine mount.  I decided the easiest way would be a couple of blocks of square or round bar coming off the frame to meet the mounts on the AMT block...but a cooler way would be something a little more visually interesting.  This is probably WAY over engineered compared to what you’d need for anything short of a full blown drag car probably, but it’s what I imagined would be a cool way of doing it...

I’ll add some more realistic mounts to that dirty old block (once I’ve got around to cleaning it all up properly) and then I’ll use some little rubber mounts on top of the mount and hold it all together with a scale bolt or pin of some sort.

Thanks for looking - more soon!

Edited May 24, 2020 by CabDriver

[Tom Geiger]

A question- what’s the graphic interface you are drawing your parts into? Are you working 1:1 at full size and printing at 1/25 scale, or working actual size ?

[OldNYJim]

15 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

A question- what’s the graphic interface you are drawing your parts into? Are you working 1:1 at full size and printing at 1/25 scale, or working actual size ?

Good question Tom!  I’m just using the software that came with my cutter, which is called Silhouette Studio.  It’s actually really capable for design work like this - I just work in the actual size of the part and try and make everything semi-feasible for what could work for a 1:1.

I figure, for example, if a part has lightening holes drilled in it a real builder would have a 2 inch hole saw bit to use, but he probably wouldn’t have a 1.37282792 inch bit - so making holes 2mm makes ‘sense’.  That said, if I was doing this for real I could always use a water jet or computerized mill or whatever and MAKE a 1.37282792 inch hole if I really wanted, but I try and keep some things semi-logical, even if there’s no real need to ?‍♂️?

I never tried it, but a friend who has experience with a water jet machine that he makes 1:1 racecar parts with told me the file format that my cutter uses is the same as his Flojet (spelling?) machine...so in theory I could scale these parts up 25x and he could cut them and make exact replicas in real life!  If I ever have enough disposable income it’s cool to think I could make a big version of one of the little versions!  

[OldNYJim]

All that said, if something looks cool but would be unlikely in 1:1 (eg: would take too much effort, or cost, or is WAY over-engineered to to the job required) I’m not above doing it in scale anyway ?‍♂️???