Un-sung hero kits .... what about this one?

[tim boyd]

Back...way back in the day when Ertl had bought the AMT tooling bank and brand.....after settling in and getting the existing catalog in shape, they began to introduce newly tooled kits starting around 1985 or so.  One of the new kits was a 1934 Ford Tudor, in both stock/trad hot rod and contemporary mod street rod forms, the latter with a 1933 grille shell and hood sides, too.  The kits were quickly trashed in the model car world, heavily criticized for unrealistic body proportions, and to a lesser extent, also the out of scale front suspension A-arms in the street rod version. 

Roughly ten years later, AMT-Ertl tried again, this time with a much greater degree of success, with their 1934 Ford Five Window Coupe kit.  AMT'-Ertl's product development staff greatly benefitted from the real car of the same vintage and build style sitting in the home garage of one of their top kit development engineers, and the results were much, much better.  But the kit seemed at the time to be - and remains to this day -  under the radar screen of most model car enthusiasts.  Truth be known, the highly mediocre kit box art, so typical of AMT-Ertl back then, certainly did not help, and most reissues to date have just reiterated versions of the same box appearance.  

When the kit came out, I immediately built a couple of versions, including the one here.  This is mostly the street rod version, modified with more aggressive rubber and wheels, and paired with some killer flame decals from (IIRC) one of the street machine kit reissues of Monogram's 1/24th scale 1971 Hemi 'cuda street machine.   And yes, I also ash-canned the oh-so-generic SBC for an SEFI 5.0L Ford from one of the many kit sources of same these days (and back then, too), and added the "Super-Trapp" exhaust pipes and front and rear nerfs from the AMT 1936 Ford kits.  The out of scale A-Arms persisted from the mid 1980's chassis tooling, but other than that, I think this was a very presentable kit that really comes alive with some modest kitbashing modsl.  I'll bet you can find copies of this kit and its reissues available at all the usual old kit sources, for a very reasonable price today.  Just sayin'....and thanks for looking.  TIM  

Edited September 7, 2020 by tim boyd

[OldNYJim]

That’s a clean little street rod Tim!  Never saw this one before!  Another kit to add to my eBay watch-list...

[ozmodeler]

Good call Tim. I have a couple of these great kits and they came as a 2 in 1, so you could build a stock version I think.I would buy more if they re-released them. Nice job on your build.

 

[PappyD340]

Looks great!

 

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Sir!

Great build... I LOVE the FOMOCO switch under the hood. Let's keep a moment of silence for the offended Bow-Tie brigade...

You are right about the massive size of the IFS components. We see the lower arms inner pivot shaft litterally touching the ground. Even at that, 1/1 builders like Bobby Alloway found ways to almost contact the pavement at the front fender side apron level while keeping a safe IFS geometry, mostly by splicing and kicking-up the frame rails ahead of the firewal, à la Cop Shop Coupe if you will.

Those "magazine cover cars" had killer looks, but were cartoonish, and difficult to drive in the real world. I drove an Alloway Speedstar once, and it was a risky proposition...

CT

[Koellefornia Kid]

Beautiful and clean looking Rod, Sir! Love the engine swap! Can't go wrong with black and flames on a ´34 Ford!

P.S.: Though its a 5-window it reminds me of a certain car...

[espo]

Beautiful looking '34 and thankyou for the back ground information on the kit. The problems with the first issue may be the reason I have never tried one since then. I'll have to see if I have any of the later and better done kits in the stash. 

[Tom Geiger]

Great model and thanks for filling in the details. A while back I built a 34 sedan and posted my progress on the boards. I got all the way to having the body painted when someone finally spoke up about the shortcomings of the roof shape. I had no clue!

So I did take a step back and sanded the roof a bit. I’m not sure how well I did but I tried and I do like my model! 

[Classicgas]

Well done sir. 

[gseeds]

Love reading the history of this kit , as I like learning the history of most kits that I’m interested in, even with the said short comings of this kit I still think this would be a great kit to build, yours  looks awesome !!!

[Bills72sj]

Thank you for sharing the pics and info. I really like what you have built.

[Geno]

Wow, that turned out pretty darn nice Tim. I'm diggin' it.

[ChrisR]

COOL!!

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

This is about as close to turning a silk purse from a sow's ear as I've ever seen. Maybe Revell will bring out a '33/'34 series like they've done with the '32 and '28-'31 Fords? Please? -RRR

[slusher]

Looks great!

[Deuces ll]

Sweeeeeeet!..... ??

[tim boyd]

Heh guys...thanks for the comments....and thanks to those of you who posted your similar model projects.  Glad to know I'm not the only one out there in modelcarville who thinks this kit has potential. 

**************

Rodney....I've had the '33/'34 Ford on my hit list for Revell projects ever since the late 1980's when they did the 1/16th scale kits, which I tried very hard - unsuccessfully - to convince them at the time that doing them in 1/16th would be the kiss of death...and it was. 

Also suggested several years later that they use the wood masters for that project and pantograph the design down to 1/24th (or 1/25th)....later on they agreed that would have been a good idea but the wood patterns were history by then.   

Then around 2007 or so, they asked for my top ten kit ideas again, and the '33/'34 Ford was near the top of that list (most of that list has been kitted by now, but some of those kits came from Moebius instead of Revell!)  They always had the '33/'34 on their project list, but it never made it high enough on the list to cut metal.  Not likely at all now given the overseas ownership of the company.   Thus, the focus on the AMT-Ertl 5W as the best full detail alternative....

Thanks again everyone....TIM 

[Mr. Metallic]

On 9/6/2020 at 10:13 PM, CabDriver said:

That’s a clean little street rod Tim!  Never saw this one before!  Another kit to add to my eBay watch-list...

Here are the two versions you should seek out, in my opinion. While the original street rod only version of the 34 5W is decent, these other two issue include cooler parts.

The stock kit, which came out around the same time as the rod-only version has some great wheels and tires. The tires especially can be repurposed onto lots of traditional hot rod projects. the kicker with this version is the very nicely done speed parts for the flatty. It was later re-issued as a black car on the box.

The other one is the 2n1 version. When this one came out many people dismissed it as a straight re-issue of the street rod only kit, but all the stock parts are actually jam packed in here too. So, it's a great source of parts for all types of builds. Jut make sure you see the 2n1 logo on the boxtop. RC2 did itself no favors by re-using this boxart because it was overlooked as a straight reissue and many ended up on the clearance rack.

[Mr. Metallic]

Tim, here is another one of your AMT 34 builds that keeps tugging on my sleeve and whispering "you should build one too" along with your emerald green hot rod featured in the other mag a few years ago. I have a couple on the list, including one using one of Drag City Castings beautiful chopped top bodies, and a sedan-turned-phaeton hot rod. Just too many darn projects piling up on the list. But maybe this one will prod me to finally pull the trigger on at least on of them

Thanks for continuing to provide inspiration after all these years.

[Bullybeef]

I’ve been hankering to put one of these on my build table for a bit. Now that I’m armed with better information about the box contents, I’ll redouble my efforts to find a kit! 

[bbowser]

I built one stock, I thought it was a nice kit.

[Spex84]

I've always thought the 2 in 1 version was a pretty fantastic buy. Stock wheels and tires in addition to a nice set of deep chromed steelies with baby moons, teardrop taillights, and a spare 327 Chevy mill to use somewhere else.

That red box art version is so wonky, no wonder people didn't jump to attention upon its release (or re-release)! It looks nothing like the actual kit contents (thank goodness). It certainly wouldn't catch the attention of modelers previously disappointed by the sedan version's severe shortcomings.

I remember receiving this kit as a gift and thinking "oh well, I guess maybe there will be some good kitbash parts, but the body is trash" only to discover that inside the box was a perfectly acceptable '34!

Determined kitbashers can tweak the front fenders, hood/hood sides, and a few other little areas to get a more accurate version. The kit has tons of potential, and your example is a stylish one Tim!

*edit* and I love that stocker, Bruce.

Edited December 25, 2020 by Spex84