Another 29/30? Hot Rod

[mrm]

Hi, everyone. I had the opportunity to start on a new position with a new company, which almost doubled my previous pay. However it came with a little caveat. My first assignment was about six hours drive from home, which meant that I spent the last 5 months away from home, except on weekends (or rather every other weekend). This essentially put all my hobbies on hold, but I'm back home now and was itchy to do something involving plastic, glue and paint. I have a few projects at quite an advanced stage from before that I need to finish, but I needed something fresh and somewhat easy to get my head back in the game. The reissues of the '29 and '30 Fords from Revell are perfect for this. So I popped one of the '29 roardsters I had laying around in the garage and decided to start proper from the frame. 

First on the agenda was dropping the front end. First step was to remove the '29 front cross member.

 

And replace it with the cross member from the Revell '32 Roadster frame. 

 

Next I finally ventured into what Ive been wanting to do for a long time. Drop the I-beam axle from the '29 Roadster. For the purpose two of them were cut up.

 

And then reglued again, adding quite a bit of "drop". I don't measure things, as I am more concerned with how it looks to the eye, but this now looks a lot like 6 inch dropped I beam. It needs to be cleaned up, sanded, smoothed, dechromed and perhaps have the spring separated. Then I will mold it and the plan is to try casting it in metal. Most likely it will not be used on this model, but still fun to mess with....

 

Then I remembered that I ordered a small fortune worth of 3D printed parts from Maple Leaf Modelworks, including some quickchange rears with leaf springs and crossmembers. I am going to remove the little tabs on the frame for the rear axle, so why not raise a little the rear cross member? A piece of styrene strip was glued on after the location of the cross member was determined. 

 

And then the center section of it was cut off. This killed two birds with one stone, as it created positive mounting tabs while in the same time raising the position of the new cross member.

 

Some CA glue and we have a proper vintage rear. 

 

Looking good all together. 

 

Now I have some long list of decisions to make. Mainly what body is going to sit on this frame. The '30 Coupe, '29 Roadster, some resin pickup bodies I have, a sedan? No idea yet. Then what will power this hot rod. An Olds Rocket, Y-block, Flathead, a Hemi? Pretty much I want anything but the engines that come in the kits. Wheels and tires will most likely be from the kits. 

Thanks for looking and stay tuned. 

[Kit Karson]

Make it so!  Solid start for a hot rod hi-boy!! -KK

[mrm]

Quick question guys. What is the best source for a good Y-block Ford motor?

[Ace-Garageguy]

5 minutes ago, mrm said:

Quick question guys. What is the best source for a good Y-block Ford motor?

Revell '57 Fords.

[Bernard Kron]

Very nice work so far. The recent Revell '29 roadster isn't my preferred choice for doing a V8 highboy hot rod, mainly because of the high rear wheel arches and the very high kit stance. A recent A-V8 I completed was done using the AMT body and the Revell Deuce chassis. But I did do an all-Revell highboy roadster a couple of years ago that, addressing the stance issues came out just fine. I used a Revell Olds motor with a Caddy air cleaner. But as a parts source for virtually everything else it may very well be one of the very best parts sources.

Your backdating of the rear end and the front end lowering is elegantly and cleanly done and should result in addressing the stance deficiency very nicely indeed. I'm looking forward to seeing some paint on the Maple Leaf Modelworks rear end conversion. It should look great.

Build On!

[mrm]

5 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Revell '57 Fords.

Thank you. I have one or two of those laying around the garage somewhere.

3 hours ago, Bernard Kron said:

Very nice work so far. The recent Revell '29 roadster isn't my preferred choice for doing a V8 highboy hot rod, mainly because of the high rear wheel arches and the very high kit stance. A recent A-V8 I completed was done using the AMT body and the Revell Deuce chassis. But I did do an all-Revell highboy roadster a couple of years ago that, addressing the stance issues came out just fine. I used a Revell Olds motor with a Caddy air cleaner. But as a parts source for virtually everything else it may very well be one of the very best parts sources.

Your backdating of the rear end and the front end lowering is elegantly and cleanly done and should result in addressing the stance deficiency very nicely indeed. I'm looking forward to seeing some paint on the Maple Leaf Modelworks rear end conversion. It should look great.

Build On!

Oh, I am well aware and completely agree with everything you say. I just have somewhat a vision in my head already. It is going to be plain Jane black, as a true classic Hot Rod and it will have a red flathead motor with steelies. While looking for something else I discovered that I had already made this conversion on another frame with the same 3D printed rear, that I had completely forgotten about.

 

The Y-block I was asking about is for another build. 

[mrm]

So, as I said, I was looking for something and I opened a box in which I found a second frame with the Maple Leaf rear end already grafted, altho not lowered and with the front cross member still intact. Maybe it will receive a '30 coupe of its own, but for now I'll concentrate on making a very traditional all black '29 Roadster with steelies and red accents. For the engine I decided to go with the flathead from the Revell '32 Sedan. I do have a bunch of resin heads for it and maybe even some intakes, but I'll have to dig them up. Overall, I would like to keep it pretty straight forward and simple. No fancy hoods, superchargers or interiors. 

[Bernard Kron]

15 minutes ago, mrm said:

...I ... have somewhat a vision in my head already. It is going to be plain Jane black, as a true classic Hot Rod and it will have a red flathead motor with steelies.

That's what I landed up doing with the all-Revell highboy I referred to above - black with red steelies and a red and white interior. It would even had gotten a Flattie except I had already done an all-Revell channeled version that had gotten one, so I went the vintage OHV route (stock valve covers, etc.) instead. Lowering the rear end a bit also helped fill the wheel wells. (If you're interested here are links to the highboy project: Revell '29 Ford Roadster HiBoy W.I.P. ; Revell '29 Ford Roadster HiBoy Under Glass )

I'm looking forward to seeing this project take shape.

[mrm]

These are some of the bodies I have on hand to chose from for the second chassis. for the first one I'm sticking to the '29 Roadster.

 

[mrm]

I am apparently going to have few days off work, so I went to work on my Simple A V8. I'm happy with the progress so far.

The frame got all sanded, the siinkholes were filled with putty and where the '32 front crossmember now sits, the frame was C-notched. 

It's a good looking foundation.

 

The front axle got its spring removed and a new monoleaf spring was made from a strip of styrene, which should help lower the front.

 

The fantastic Maple Leaf Modelworks quickchange rear end was cleaned up and primered together with the rear spring.

 

All these parts together make for a very nice traditional chassis.

 

And the Revell's flathead looks perfect between the Deuce rails.

Edited May 11, 2023 by mrm

[mrm]

The body got all it's panel lines scribed (I like to do that on all my models) and then received its first coat of primer. Only to realize that I have not filled the locator holes for the rear lights. I have not decided what kind of taillights I will be using, but I thought it would be nice not to have to worry if they will cover those craters. 

 

Some CA glue and Tamiya putty and a couple hours later, the rear is ready for more primer. The dash and the firewall are all going to be body color, so they were glued to the body as well, prior to any painting. 

 

The interior panels and seat are not going to be modified in any way, so I saw no reason not to paint them at this stage. 

 

The floor was slightly modified in the simplest of ways in order to clear the curve of the crossmember housing the rear spring. Meaning it was cut short of the crossmember and then the remaining part was just raised to go above it. It is all going to be black any way. So the modified floor piece was sprayed flat black on both sides. The interior floor portion will receive flocking later on. 

 

Time for the first quick mock up.

 

[Bernard Kron]

Lookin' good!

[Tuffy's Garage]

Nice work like where this is going

[mrm]

12 hours ago, Bernard Kron said:

Lookin' good!

 

3 hours ago, Tuffy's Garage said:

Nice work like where this is going

Thank you guys. I've been wanting to build this kit exactly this way for a long time. And every time I end up with something else. This is also going to be only my second flathead build ever. 

[mrm]

Some small update...

The body received its first coat of Tamiya Black.

 

The engine received a coat of PPG Rosso Corsa (Ferrari Red) which was topped by Tamiya clear. Its glossy, but not to the level of what what 2K clear would do. Perfect for an engine.

 

The wheels received same treatment as the engine and were fitted in the tires. No white walls on this one, but it will have beauty rings and center caps. I don't like how the beauty rings are moulded as they are almost impossible to properly clean without destroying the chrome. The frame and the rear end also received their black coat and I started figuring out the rear radius rods. I am not sure what to do here and I am open to advice. Sould the rear axles be black with chrome quickchange, black with aluminum quickchange or should the entire rear end be chrome? There is going to be bright chrome on the front suspension, engine, wheels and exhaust, so I don't know what to do with the rear end. Help!

 

Thanks for looking.

[bobthehobbyguy]

Coming together nicely.

[customline]

 I am here to help! (Well, you asked for it 🥴) an all chromed rear axle housing, even back in the day, is a fairly expensive proposition.  Unless we will be entering this roadster to compete for the AMBR, the axle housing should probably be painted with a nice neat aluminum quick-change attached. Just my opinion 🤷 

[mrm]

On 5/12/2023 at 9:07 PM, bobthehobbyguy said:

Coming together nicely.

Thank you Bob.

 

On 5/13/2023 at 9:44 AM, customline said:

 I am here to help! (Well, you asked for it 🥴) an all chromed rear axle housing, even back in the day, is a fairly expensive proposition.  Unless we will be entering this roadster to compete for the AMBR, the axle housing should probably be painted with a nice neat aluminum quick-change attached. Just my opinion 🤷 

Thank you Jim.

I decided on black axle hales with chrome-ish quickchange center. One of the reasons for this was integrating the ladder bars into the axles. 

 

I just clear coated the body and frame today and I am waiting on them to cure. 2K clear should be good to touch by tomorrow, altho not 100% cured. I messed up the engine, so started a new one and it is also drying. 

Edited May 28, 2023 by mrm