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'32 Chevrolet Cabriolet...The Other Deuce!


Plowboy

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With the overwhelming popularity of the '32 Ford, it's Chevrolet counterpart receives about as much love as an ugly stepchild (no offense to ugly stepkids). They're a pretty rare sight for whatever reason. A rodded Chevy seems to be very rare. Even though I'm a Ford guy, I thought it was time to change that.  

Since I've stalled on no less than five projects this year, I wanted something simple. No details. No major changes. Just something almost box stock. The idea was to build something that someone could've built in their back yard or building back in the day.

The biggest change was the engine. I swapped the anemic six cylinder for the 283 from the Revell '57 Chevy Sedan. I had to modify the belt and pulley setup to get them under the hood. The chrome breather from an AMT '55 Corvette and rocker covers from the parts box finished it off. It was covered with the very last squirt of Tamiya Bright Red. 

On the chassis, I moved two crossmembers to accommodate the engine, lowered the rearend and did an axle over conversion on the frontend. Luckily, I was able to keep the poseable steering. I cut away the bumper brackets front and rear. Then added a spreader bar up front. It was covered with Dupli Color Bright Red. 

On the body, all I did was remove the spare tire wells, filled a couple of holes, deleted the horns on the headlight bars and made new stalks for the stock taillights (my kit was missing one). It was then covered with Tamiya Semi Gloss Black. The interior is straight out of the box with different sheens of black and white. Tires are the old Good Year SCS's with painted whitewalls. Wheels are from two different AMT kits for the different offsets painted with Model Masters Semi Gloss Black.

As usual, I had some trials and tribulations with this build. I'm definitely not a hot rod builder! But, in the end, I captured the look I was after. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Not my best. Not my worst. But, it'll do.

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Thanx for checking it out! Now I just gotta decide on which of my five previous projects to work on next!

 

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Very good looking street rod, Roger - you nailed the look perfectly, with baby moons and WWs. With narrower wheels and tires, it could go for a late 50's rod.

Maybe back in the day, the Ford "B" had the edge over the Chevy because it was a bit more modern looking with its body-colored grille surrounding (the hood/grille combination of the Chevy for me is like kind of "missing link" between Ford A and B model) and of course had the V8 which raised its attractivity.

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Nice work on this old MPC (I presume) kit. I wonder if the mold still exists, I'd love to see it released again. From what I've read, that even though both Ford and Chevy built about a quarter of a million cars in 1932, the reason that Chevys didn't last is that they used a lot of wood in the framing and they became termite homes and/or rotted away and bodies fell apart. Fords, using more metal, held up better in the long term. -RRR

Edited by Rocking Rodney Rat
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