alan barton Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 (edited) Hi all, this is my build post for my recently completed Revell Model A coupe. I wanted this one to be a circa 62-63 East Coast style showcar. Yeas, it would have been more period correct if it had a stock height roof but I wanted to steer clear of overcomplicationitis on this one. Speaking of roofs, if you have been wondering, here is how the Monogram stock height roof compares to the Revell chopped roof. Can you swap them over - sorta. Should you swap them over, nah, it would be a lot simpler to just chop a Monogram model and you are on your own if you want to unchop the Revell. The chopped roof is so different in every dimension to the Monogram body that it would be a nightmare to fix. If you were to fit the Monogram roof to the Revell body, you might get away with it IF you painted it a dark colour and IF you weren't fussy about door lines lining up. If I had countless spare Revell coupes I might try it just for giggles but I have two and they are both under construction so it won't happen. Oh yeah, the Revell body wont match up to the monogram fender unit either. My recipe for this car is as follows. Revell 30 Chopped coupe on the channelled Model A frame Pleated interior from the unchannelled version Nailhead Buick from the 29 roadster kit Rear end spring and radius rods form the AMT 25 T Pegasus front wheels and tyres AMT Parts Pack white wall slicks with deep chromies that I THINK were from the AMT 57 Chevy but I can't be sure. 32 Grille and radiator First step was to convert the channelled height firewall to RHD. A little trick I used to minimise glue squeezing through the roof seam was to use about four small drops of tube glue to locate the roof on the body and as I brought the two pieces together, starting on one side, I used Revell Professional in the blue bottle with the needle to wick between the two parts as they came together. I did get a tiny bit of glue damage on the right hand door but the seam is completely filled and the second one I did came out near perfect. Edited July 6, 2020 by alan barton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted July 6, 2020 Author Share Posted July 6, 2020 I think everyone should fess up to their mistakes and honestly, I could just about have built two cars with the results of mine. First of all, I initially painted the stock height firewall instead of the channelled on. Had a forehead slapping moment but then realised that the firewall would look better white than pink anyway. So I grabbed my second one and sprayed it white. With the body painted, I inserted the painted stock height interior into the body and glued it with superglue to avoid any risk of glue melting through to the outside surface of the body - learnt that trick years ago! I then offered up the painted floor only to realise I had a grabbed a roadster one instead of a coupe and they are not the same, trust me! But wait , there's more. Having solidly attached the full height interior to a channelled body, I found out that the rear of the chassis doesn't clear the channelled wheel wells. I can't believe I was making so many rookie mistakes but fortunately, having five roadsters and two coupes I had lots of spares so it wasn't too bad - just made me focus a bit more from now on! Realising that I was now going to have to modify the frame rather than dismantle what I had already done, I decided that I may as well swap out the coil sprung nine inch and add something more period correct. Just like Bill, Ace Garage Guy, I am loath to chop up good frames BUT as I had already used the rear kickup of the another channelled frame, it was a natural to use this abbreviated job to custom fit it to the body A hunt though my stash lead me to the AMT 25 T kit. It has a very early style Halibrand quick change with a transverse spring. It also has cool long radius rods that would fit the bill. Rather than chop up the T frame, I fabricated a Model A style crossmember from very thin styrene sheet. It was easy and quick to do and looses the chunkiness of typical kit crossmembers. I extended the previously cut frame with Evergreen rectangular section styrene, carefully aligning it to make it a neat fit between the wheel arches. I have a jig made of a flat piece of 2mm steel scribed with in a 10 mm grid. I use magnets from a pack I got at the big green shed (a well known "big box" Aussie hardware store) This makes it a lot easier to keep this sort of construction true and square. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted July 6, 2020 Author Share Posted July 6, 2020 (edited) Just got the dreaded 200 error so I had to drop a few pictures from the last post. This was the very overcomplicationitis I was trying to avoid but it only took a few nights to fix and was definitely worthwhile. A bit of filing and sanding, almost no filler and I had a snug fitting frame ready for a period correct rear axle assembly. Edited July 6, 2020 by alan barton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted July 6, 2020 Author Share Posted July 6, 2020 I trimmed the rear radius rod mounts because they weren't being used anymore but I didn't want to re-invent the body mounts. After mocking up the rear end assembly I was able to make some very simple radius rod mounts, just behind the locations for the kits front radius rod brackets. The other thing I thought about in advance, for once, was the floor. It has some notches in it designed to join to the lower edge of the of the interior panels but I had already filed them off. This would leave some ugly rectangular gaps along the edge of the floor. I cut some little filler pieces, superglued them in place , slightly proud, and then filed everything smooth. Easy peasy and the work was invisible when painted. In the last shots you may have noticed I had already drilled and filed through the top of the front crossmember to make sure I could get the front down far enough - it is pretty much a given in any early Ford hot rod. Having built two roadsters already I also learned that it pays to use a small drill in clean out the inside of the holes in the front axle to ensure I get a solid joint when I attach the radius rods. While I was at it, I filed down the top edges of the spring - every millimetre counts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted July 6, 2020 Author Share Posted July 6, 2020 So the last bit of construction I need to show you affects the seat installation. Because of using the tall interior, the floor could not be glued to the frame first. Instead it had to be pushed up through the bottom of the body at an angle and then gently lowered back into its original location. This precluded gluing the seat in place because it would prevent you from tilting the floor to get it in. Initially I was going to trim down the bench seat from the coupe but then I realised I would be better off using the channelled roadster seat. You can see here where I glued a few blocks of plastic to the floor to give a precise location. I also glued a small tab under the rear edge of the roof so that the seat wouldn't fall away spreading glue all over the place. You can also see how I used white embossing powder for carpet and tried different base coats underneath to get a very subtle pink shade. So that's about it for the construction phase of this model. After the cut and shuts were complete, it was simply a matter of painting and assembly, which is just plain fun on a model of this quality. Kudos, Revell, this is a great model I hope you sell a zillion of them when they come out again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spottedlaurel Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 A lot of work there, and great to read through your progress on it, both good and bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spex84 Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 Looks good so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing more! Lots of good tips and tricks (and things to avoid!) mentioned in your posts above. I tend to use epoxy to install interiors, but had never thought about the possibility of glue damaging the exterior paint finish...I guess I just got lucky, and will continue using epoxy!! Nice work getting the frame in shape. Nailing the stance on a channeled car with all the conflict between frame, driveline, and suspension parts can be tricky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky1943 Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 Alan, wonderful job and I am really eager to see this model progress! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted July 6, 2020 Author Share Posted July 6, 2020 Thanks for the kind comments guys, unfortunately I omitted to take photos of the rolling chassis before completion. Just heading off to work so I will post Under Glass later today. Cheers Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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