AMT '40 Coupe - Hemi powered street & strip car! *UPDATED 5-24-09*

[Dennis Lacy]

The inspiration for this build comes from an AMT ‘40 Ford Coupe my father built as a teen in the 1960’s. I was about 9 or 10 years old when he brought out a box where this model (and several others) had been packed away for years. I had been building models for a couple years by this time and they were very typical of a kids abilities so when I saw my Dad’s builds and what seemed like, at the time, extensive modifications I was blown away. It opened up a whole new way of thinking when it came to my building and many, many kits would be sacrificed to failed experimental modifications!

His ‘40 has a lot of fun features, most notably in the body work. The rear fenders radius’s have been enlarged to clear the large race slicks, the running boards are deleted, all of the trim detail is shaved smooth and the whole thing is finished in bright orange. The chassis uses kit parts including the optional “dropped†axle. The engine is the supercharged Chrysler Hemi from AMT’s ‘32 Ford Roadster kit and to make it fit in the engine bay the bottom half of the firewall was simply removed and the inner fenders trimmed to accommodate the over-the-frame headers that connect to a pieced together, dual purpose exhaust system. The interior is straight from the box and finished in black.

It has been on my mind for many years to do a build based on my Dad’s ‘40 that will share many of the same design features but not be an exact replica. Rather, my version will be a tribute with some of my own personal touches. With two pretty involved builds going on right now I hadn’t intended to start anything else, but we all know how that goes!

So after several hours work spread out over last Saturday and Sunday here is where my ‘40 Coupe is at: The chassis is set up with the optional dropped front axle and kit rear axle. The front wheels and tires are also from the ‘40 kit and the chrome-reverse rear wheels and Goodyear drag slicks are from AMT’s ‘57 Chevy. The supercharged Chrysler Hemi from AMT’s ‘32 Roadster has been fitted to the frame which required short spacers under the front mounts so that the oil pan and fuel pump would clear the front cross member. The bottom of the oil pan needed to be modified with a round file to clear the kits metal axle. I also had to bore a hole in the end of the transmission for the locater pin on the end of the torque tube.

The rear fender radius’s have been enlarged to accommodate the tall slicks and the running boards are history. (The modified fender unit is on top with an unmodified unit on the bottom for reference.)

Rather than simply cut off the bottom of the firewall to gain the needed engine clearance I decided to build a recessed firewall which was accomplished by leaving the stock center recess and building either side from sections of the recessed firewall found in all of Revell’s ‘32 kits. The front edge of the interior needed to be trimmed to fit the new firewall. I also smoothed off all the detail from the remaining portions of the stock firewall. (The modified firewall is on the right with an unmodified firewall on the left for reference.)

More to come...

Edited May 24, 2009 by Dennis Lacy

[Dennis Lacy]

And here’s the whole works in it’s first rolling mockup!

More to come soon!

[CB]

Very cool project Dennis! Boy, do them pics of yer Dad's 40 bring back memories. Did he spray the orange on, or brush it on? I remember challenging/scaring myself when I got a Revell 41 Willy's coz it had 'operating' steering ---boy was that cool when I was able to get it to work! I brush painted it orange and that's all I remember now .

Just something about the 'lines' of them late 30s & early 40s cars. Love the stance on this!

Looking forward to your version, but I'm kinda preferring your Dad's, fer sentimental reasons I guess

That scoop on yours sure seems low profile , guess that's another sign of my age--remembering/thinking that this style scoop on top of blowers are taller, more open than the one you got.

Great work on a great project--keep it up

[E St. Kruiser50]

Nice to see an old build here of your dad's, and gettin' to watch you replicate your own take on it .

Very nice start.

Must be pretty cool, havin a dad that did what you now enjoy. Pretty nice connection .

I'll keep watchin' your progress - dave

[noname]

I'm glad to see that once again it appears that you are doing a period correct build. The 50's and 60's, hot rods, drag cars and salt flat racers really catch my interest.

[Raul_Perez]

Dennis,

That is just too cool to even still have one of your father's models, let alone being able to make your interpretation of it now!!

Since my boys really aren't into model building, at least not yet, (and they're in their early 20s), I occasionally wonder what will happen to my collection when I'm gone. I suspect that it'll get put up on eBay...

Thanks for sharing,

[Dennis Lacy]

Thanks for all the nice words guys! It is amazing that his cars lasted so long and so intact. They're a trip to look at, like going back in time. In the "general" forum I started a thread not too long ago that showed and talked about most of them. I'm too lazy to come up with a link right now but if you search my posts it's there.

CB: The body is brush painted. My Dad informed me that when he was a kid spray paint was a luxury item. And I get what you're saying. Just like in the 1:1 world, an old build that's survived the decades has a soul that a new build just doesn't.

[Dennis Lacy]

UPDATE!

Got some more work done on my tribute ‘40 Ford Coupe. In keeping with my father’s original, I needed to come up with some over-the-frame headers with pipes that extend out from under the rear of the front fenders. The headers on his car were made from several pieces but I had these nice chrome headers from AMT’s ‘25 Ford Roadster kit that have the correct port arrangement and have long, tapered pipes extending back so I wanted to make them work. The problem lies in that the exhaust-side of the hemi heads point nearly straight down and the headers weren’t made to mount that way. I had to come up with some solution and I didn’t want to modify the headers because the chrome would get messed up. After staring at the engine for quite a while I decided that since it really wouldn’t show I would fudge things to work the way I needed. I took a strip of scrap plastic and some header flanges from the parts bin and made some adaptors so that the headers could mount from the side. A little goofy, but it’ll get the job done.

The next two shots show the left side header loosely mocked into place (it kinda stayed put) and how it drapes over the top of the frame and then how it will exit under the back of the front fender. This will be very similar to my Dad’s car, the only difference being mine will only have the race headers and not the secondary “street†exhaust like his does.

To clear the over-the-frame headers the inner fender panels needed to be relieved.

I also finished the rough bodywork by removing the side and hood trim. I left the center hood trim but sanded it down to leave a peak down the middle of the hood to give it some character. I also cut the necessary hole for the injector scoop to stick thru.

That’s it for now. More to come soon…

[noname]

It looks good sitting there. I love steelies as they always help with the period look. Keep up the good worlk.

[CB]

Coming along nicely Dennis! Like what you did with them exhaust manifolds. Nice work

[Dennis Lacy]

UPDATE 5-24-09

Well, I finally have an update for my Tribute ‘40. I turned the screws on this project in the last week and a half and got the chassis done. Did up the frame in Tamiya Bright Silver then went back and hand painted the floor areas flat black (what a PITA!). Also sprayed the front and rear axles in silver then hand painted the springs and brake plates flat black. Since I didn’t have any old Parts Pack wheels and tires at my disposal like my Dad used, I deviated on my version with the chrome reverse rear wheels and Goodyear slicks from AMT’s ‘57 Belair. Up front I used the ‘40 kits stock wheels, tires, trim rings, hubcaps and painted the wheels black for the tough look. In keeping with the original, the body is going to be orange so to add some contrast I flowed a 50/50 mix of Testors orange and thinner into the “Ford Deluxe†letters on the hubcaps.

The Chrysler is from AMT’s ‘32 roadster. It’s painted with Model Master Blue-Gray Metallic. I detailed the supercharger and valve covers with some flat black and used the injector scoop from the ‘40 kits Buick engine. The headers come from AMT’s ‘25 roadster and with some creative tweaking I managed to get them mated up to the Chrysler. Like my Dad’s, they have long, tapered tubes which will stick out from under the fenders although mine are aimed more towards the ground. If you look back in the thread you can see how I was originally going to adapt the headers to the engine but the more I looked at it the more it looked hokey, so I figured out how to get them to attach directly to the heads.

I have a little more body work to finish up but I’m hoping to get the orange laid down by the end of the week as well as get the interior painted so after some drying time I can get this project under wraps.

[roadhawg]

If you look up "perfect stance" in the dictionary, it should have a picture of that next to it! Thats really looking great!