Patina’d 34 Pick Up

[CabDriver]

22 hours ago, misterNNL said:

Great stuff here. Very readable and inspiring to follow. I am looking for a cab for a vintage tanker truck and hadn't thought about using the '34 Ford. Thanks for sharing your techniques and high res photos with us. The pictures you posted of the real door inner panels are the type of thing that are invaluable to us all for adding accurate and seldom seen details to our models. I'll be following along closely and will mimic many of the details.

Thank you!  A ‘34 tanker is certainly something that existed - that would be a cool build!

Those are all the bigger, longer truck chassis with the larger wheels but the 34 kit is a pretty good starting point I’d think!

9 hours ago, mchook said:

Wow this is cool. I wish I could figure out the salt thing but I never seem to get it right. Great job, I can't wait to see it finished.

Thank you!  This is my third try at one of these patina’d builds and I’m slowly getting a little better.  Small salt grains seem to help but I’ve used other stuff from the kitchen before too - herbs and spices and anything else my wife has in stock ?

7 hours ago, thatz4u said:

How much free time do you have......?   I built this kit when it first came out, looks like I will be building it again sometime soon....

Not as much as I’d like ?.  All this stuff is fairly quick to do, I only get a couple of straight hours at the bench most days...but I’d rather be doing this than sitting on the couch so I try and use my free time as best I can and keep hustling on with this stuff...

 

Speaking of which, a little more today...got the front and rear glass airbrushed, distressed the rear panel just a little and got them in place:

I wanted to add some kind of headliner or something to this build - 34 pickups likely didn’t have a headliner (or at least, I didn’t find a good reference pic of one), instead having a couple of steel braces to stop the roof sagging.  I kinda copied the 1:1 design but with a distressed fabric headliner that would probably smell dusty if it was real, but with some nice new wooden braces that got installed when the other ones in the cab got put in there:

Made a little rear view mirror from a photoetch piece with a pin for a stem, and got it installed.  Turns out it’s pretty hard to photograph...

Whilst I was messing with the cab, brush painted the master cylinders on the firewall with some Vallejo natural steel, and added a little photoetch wiper blade:

And a little vid so you can actually see this junk better than I can photograph it...more soon!

Edited October 19, 2020 by CabDriver

[NOBLNG]

That is looking fantastic!
 

[misterNNL]

Thanks for the tanker photos. A lot of variety and inspirational ideas there.

[Dennis Lacy]

The details you’re putting into this cab are awesome. I love all of the interior structure you’ve created. You’re correct that these trucks didn’t have a headliner originally. The only upholstery was the seat cushions and cowl kick panels. The floor had a beige rubber mat.  Very basic. When riding in them everything echos inside like you’re in a tin can!

[AmericanMuscleFan]

There is no denying that you have a rather agile hand despite the size of your fingers!  An iron fist in a velvet glove... or the opposite !?  Great details my friend, free time well used! ?

[CabDriver]

On 10/19/2020 at 6:55 PM, NOBLNG said:

That is looking fantastic!
 

Thank you!

On 10/19/2020 at 8:51 PM, misterNNL said:

Thanks for the tanker photos. A lot of variety and inspirational ideas there.

I’d like to build one myself now!  Can’t wait to see whatever you end up working on!

On 10/20/2020 at 12:32 AM, Dennis Lacy said:

The details you’re putting into this cab are awesome. I love all of the interior structure you’ve created. You’re correct that these trucks didn’t have a headliner originally. The only upholstery was the seat cushions and cowl kick panels. The floor had a beige rubber mat.  Very basic. When riding in them everything echos inside like you’re in a tin can!

You’ve been a huge help on this project Dennis, thank you!!  The floors are steel, right?  I’ve seen some different variations but I THINK steel is what these came with?

On 10/20/2020 at 10:19 AM, AmericanMuscleFan said:

There is no denying that you have a rather agile hand despite the size of your fingers!  An iron fist in a velvet glove... or the opposite !?  Great details my friend, free time well used! ?

As a far better modeller than me I’m sure you know good tweezers help a lot ??

Had a busy week (I think @thatz4u jinxed me ?) but I’ve been prepping some parts and getting ready for buildathon (rustathon?) this weekend.  Dirtied up a 40 Ford steering wheel and got that installed...

And started doing a little aging to the fenders, frame and bed so I can get on those this weekend.  From the pics I’ve seen the fenders on these trucks don’t seem to end up full of holes too often - pretty common to see them rusty and losing all their paint, but they must’ve been made of decent grade steel back in the day.  Looking forward to messing with some of the bigger parts of this build over the weekend!

More soon!

[1930fordpickup]

Looking great Jim.  

[AmericanMuscleFan]

10 hours ago, CabDriver said:

From the pics I’ve seen the fenders on these trucks don’t seem to end up full of holes too often - pretty common to see them rusty and losing all their paint, but they must’ve been made of decent grade steel back in the day.

You're right Jim!   A friend of mine is an old truck enthusiast (mainly International and Chevrolet) and he restored a few from this era and the front fenders were rusty but still very nice considering their age.   It's hard to imagine all the power it takes to form those fenders with this caliber of steel using just an hydraulic press in this era of the industrial age... real steel monsters!  Great build sir, I love it, I'm going to make room for it in my shelf... ?

[mchook]

11 hours ago, CabDriver said:

From the pics I’ve seen the fenders on these trucks don’t seem to end up full of holes too often - pretty common to see them rusty and losing all their paint, but they must’ve been made of decent grade steel back in the day.

You guys are right, these old trucks were built to last. My father had 4 34 Ford 1 1/2 ton trucks when I was a kid and a school bus full of parts for them. Man I wish we had them today! But I remember most of the old sheet metal was good on them. Here's a pic of an old Chevy he had that took a pretty good hit way back when & still never rotted it just got rusty. Great work on your truck, it's coming along nicely.

Edited October 24, 2020 by mchook

[Dennis Lacy]

@CabDriver

1933/1934 Pickups had a steel subframe structure around the perimeter of the cab, a plywood floor board ahead of the seat frame and the toe board was a stamped steel piece. Under the seat was a stamped steel floor filler panel.

The fenders on these trucks don't so much get rusty as they do dented, mangled and beat to hell. The rear fenders especially. To find them in any kind of decent condition is a miracle. 

[cobraman]

Your cab looks great ! Can't wait to see the rest.

[CabDriver]

15 hours ago, 1930fordpickup said:

Looking great Jim.  

Thank you!

7 hours ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

You're right Jim!   A friend of mine is an old truck enthusiast (mainly International and Chevrolet) and he restored a few from this era and the front fenders were rusty but still very nice considering their age.   It's hard to imagine all the power it takes to form those fenders with this caliber of steel using just an hydraulic press in this era of the industrial age... real steel monsters!  Great build sir, I love it, I'm going to make room for it in my shelf... ?

I agree!  It was certainly a real accomplishment for them to build trucks that turned out to still be around, and in working order, nearly 100 years later...or over 100 years later if you look at how many Ts are still out there in great shape!

Better get a tetanus shot before you put this one up on the shelf though ??

7 hours ago, mchook said:

You guys are right, these old trucks were built to last. My father had 4 34 Ford 1 1/2 ton trucks when I was a kid and a school bus full of parts for them. Man I wish we had them today! But I remember most of the old sheet metal was good on them. Here's a pic of an old Chevy he had that took a pretty good hit way back when & still never rotted it just got rusty. Great work on your truck, it's coming along nicely.

 

That old Chevy is SUPER cool!  I’d love to build a kit of one of those!  
 

4 hours ago, Dennis Lacy said:

@CabDriver

1933/1934 Pickups had a steel subframe structure around the perimeter of the cab, a plywood floor board ahead of the seat frame and the toe board was a stamped steel piece. Under the seat was a stamped steel floor filler panel.

The fenders on these trucks don't so much get rusty as they do dented, mangled and beat to hell. The rear fenders especially. To find them in any kind of decent condition is a miracle. 

That’s super helpful info, as always - thank you again Dennis!  Gives me some informed knowledge to go off when I get to the floor!

And yeah, I found PLENTY of mangled and ruined fenders in my search for research material.  The chance of these parts making it out alive in my fictitious New York shop truck for this long are pretty slim probably, especially in modern day “park by feel” NY ?

3 hours ago, cobraman said:

Your cab looks great ! Can't wait to see the rest.

Thank you sir!

 

Speaking of fenders, those were this morning’s project.  Roughed them up a LITTLE, but in keeping with the ratty-but-loved theme of this truck I didn’t completely ruin them, just a few dings and marks, then shot a base coat of silver:

Next, shot a coat of Vallejo steel and stippled it with a q-tip to make it a little more interesting of a starting point for the layers to come...

Next up, some red oxide primer to imply this thing had been restored at LEAST once in the past, and had probably been at least a couple of different colors:

Most of the reference pics I found showed that the fenders rust and wear more on the tops than the sides, so I’m trying to keep a little of that silver finish on there for me to layer over later and have a little more paint (and thus not rust) everywhere else...

Salted to season again:

And shot some translucent black followed by a light coat of translucent dark blue over the whole thing:

Remove salt, because it’s bad for you anyway...

We can see some hints of this thing’s past now, a little dark blue clinging on there (and tying in to the color of the cab) but much more Henry Black...next up, more rust tones to get the look I’m shooting for.

For this step I used brown and orange watercolor pencils, applied to a wet piece of sponge and built up in dozens of light layers to allow most of the metal and paint tones to show though but give a realistic rust look.  I’ve applied a couple of brown tones here and just started the orange on the rear fenders:

A dozen light layers layer...

Getting to what I had in mind!  Another rusty old part to add to the collection ?

More soon!

Edited October 24, 2020 by CabDriver

[AmericanMuscleFan]

Looks gooooooood!  No... marvellous!  You are an expert in this field my friend!!!   I just called the doctor few minutes ago for my tetanus shot... ?

[CabDriver]

6 hours ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

Looks gooooooood!  No... marvellous!  You are an expert in this field my friend!!!   I just called the doctor few minutes ago for my tetanus shot... ?

Oh man, I’m learning all this stuff as I go - but it’s fun!

 

This weekend’s project - the bed!  In continuing the pieced-together-from-5-different-trucks theme of this build, I’m giving it a slightly different look to the other parts I’ve weathered...same technique tho...base coat of brown, then some salt:

Then some black, and remove salt:

And then a bunch of weathering with watercolor pencils and pastels and we’re getting close to what I had in mind...

I figured the bed would almost certainly be pretty rotten after 86 years, but a resourceful New York speed shop would no doubt have noticed the almost limitless amount of free wood laying around the city...

What better to replace the bed than free material that’s laying around forgotten on about every block in the city?

Cut some strips of styrene, and painted with Tamiya acrylic:

Then added some grain:

Then some salt, and some blue:

Removed the salt and buffed back through the blue in a few spots to make it look like the paint was worn away from endless parts getting dragged across it:

And some tricky masking and airbrushing later we’ve got some serviceable NYPD standard issue barriers ready for installation:

Added some photoetch screws to ‘secure’ them and got them attached to the bed:

Fun little detail I think!!!  Looks cool with the other parts too:

More to do on the bed still, but that’s this weekend’s progress so far...more when I’ve done more!

[espo]

20 hours ago, CabDriver said:

Oh man, I’m learning all this stuff as I go - but it’s fun!

 

This weekend’s project - the bed!  In continuing the pieced-together-from-5-different-trucks theme of this build, I’m giving it a slightly different look to the other parts I’ve weathered...same technique tho...base coat of brown, then some salt:

Then some black, and remove salt:

And then a bunch of weathering with watercolor pencils and pastels and we’re getting close to what I had in mind...

I figured the bed would almost certainly be pretty rotten after 86 years, but a resourceful New York speed shop would no doubt have noticed the almost limitless amount of free wood laying around the city...

What better to replace the bed than free material that’s laying around forgotten on about every block in the city?

Cut some strips of styrene, and painted with Tamiya acrylic:

Then added some grain:

Then some salt, and some blue:

Removed the salt and buffed back through the blue in a few spots to make it look like the paint was worn away from endless parts getting dragged across it:

And some tricky masking and airbrushing later we’ve got some serviceable NYPD standard issue barriers ready for installation:

Added some photoetch screws to ‘secure’ them and got them attached to the bed:

Fun little detail I think!!!  Looks cool with the other parts too:

More to do on the bed still, but that’s this weekend’s progress so far...more when I’ve done more!

The most original idea for bed wood ever. 

[thatz4u]

"The most original idea for bed wood ever." 

just don't drive anywhere near NYC.......?

[Dennis Lacy]

You are absolutely killing it with this model! The bed wood idea is freakin' awesome!!! I can't believe it's actually painted strips of styrene. 

What is the darker color you made the grain lines with?

[landman]

On 10/26/2020 at 1:48 PM, thatz4u said:

"The most original idea for bed wood ever." 

just don't drive anywhere near NYC.......?

Absolutely! Watching and learning here.

[CabDriver]

On 10/26/2020 at 11:44 AM, espo said:

The most original idea for bed wood ever. 

Haha!  I wonder if it’s been done before?  Would be cool if it has!  

I’d have a bunch of those planks as shelves if my wife wasn’t around to keep me out of trouble ??

On 10/26/2020 at 12:48 PM, thatz4u said:

"The most original idea for bed wood ever." 

just don't drive anywhere near NYC.......?

That’s good advice generally, I’d say.  Take the subway, it’s usually faster  ?

23 hours ago, Dennis Lacy said:

You are absolutely killing it with this model! The bed wood idea is freakin' awesome!!! I can't believe it's actually painted strips of styrene. 

What is the darker color you made the grain lines with?

Thanks bud!!!  That means a lot coming from you!

Funny thing with the styrene planks - when I was thinking which glue to use my brain tricked me into thinking I shouldn’t use anything that could potentially soak through the porous wood and ruin the paint on the top surface.  Eventually I remembered it was plastic ?.

Just used some Createx transparent brown for the grain - I probably should’ve gone for a lighter color to make them realistic compared to the actual wood they likely use for those boards, but I’m happy with the effect...might use this trick on a woody build before too long!  

4 hours ago, landman said:

Absolutely! Watching and learning here.

Thanks for watching!  ❤️
 

Had a busy couple of days, but got a little done. Wanted to do some kind of skull design on the little gas can that comes in the kit so I cut a little airbrush mask...

...and just shot some black Createx sealer right over the plastic:

Just a fun little accessory to throw in the bed - once I’ve clear coated it I’ll add a little metal cap...have something not-ruined in the back there for a little contrast:

Next big part to weather was the frame, so here goes again with the Createx brown first...

...then another unhealthy amount of salt:

And some airbrushing, pastel-ing, Rub ‘n’ Buff-ing and watercoloring later:

 

I reasoned there would be at least a couple of spots where the metal is showing through, or in the case of the trans mount in the center there they maybe ground the paint down to bare metal to do some maintainence welding and never quite bothered to repaint it.

Just a little update - more soon, soon as I’ve done more! 

[stitchdup]

Very fine work, the bed floor is a fun detail to have

[Steve H]

Jim, once again you are crushing it!... actually, I guess you’re rusting it. Anyway, your WIP’s are educational, entertaining, and all round fun. I have learned a ton watching these. Definitely going to try out the salt on my next weathered build. One question, do they look at you funny at the local grocery store when you keep coming back to buy more salt?????

seriously though, amazing work.

Cheers, Steve

[slusher]

Jim , you have really creative on this build. Really enjoying all your pictures brother!

[espo]

Great looking frame, I like how you show where it bottomed out on the transmission support.  

[Jonathan]

Man, oh man!  This is the coolest thing I've seen in a while!

[Paul Payne]

This is a really good tutorial- love the way this truck is looking! How about a patch panel or two? Maybe an old license plate?