'29 Ford A-V8 Hot Rod Roadster

[Bernard Kron]

Classic ’29 Ford A-V8 Highboy Roadster done up circa 1949.

More pictures below.

Based on the Replica’s & Miniatures Company of Maryland (RMCM) resin kit, I built this to represent the classic A-V8 roadster of the period a few years after WWII, around 1949 or 1950. The motor is the finely detailed 21 stud flathead from the AMT ‘34 Ford Five Window, including the kit’s twin-carb manifold and hop-up finned heads along with headers from the Revell ’32 Ford Sedan Flathead. The rear axle and springs are from the Revell ’29 Ford Pickup kit. I converted the rear of the RMCM supplied chassis, which is based on the Revell ’32 Ford chassis, to take the transverse leaf spring. The rear radius rods are adapted from the Revell ’32 Ford kit and the front hairpins are scratch built. The front suspension is from the Revell ’32 Ford series as are the headlights and taillights. The wheels are from an AMT ’40 Ford and the tires are from RMCM. The grill is a p/e piece from Model Car Garage, along with the tail light trim and the Dzuz fasteners on the hood. The instrument cluster is from RMCM along with the door handles. The steering wheel is from an AMT ’40 Ford and the steering column is scratch built. Pretty much everything else you see is either scratch built or included in the RMCM transkit. The paint is Duplicolor Dark Toreador Red metallic.

Started last fall, you can find the W.I.P. here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.p...696&hl=RMCM

Thanx for lookin’!

Edited February 28, 2009 by gbk1

[george 53]

Real nice build Bern. I think you sure did capture the look you were goin for,I like it! Thats probly what most of 'em looked like back then, varieing on what the owner could afford, no doubt. Looks nice, Yep, I like it!

[CB]

Nice li'l hot rod Bernard. You always makes 'em look 'real', if'n ya know what I means.

Funny thing about different angles---almost hard to believe these two pics are of

the same car

This here looks (sorry) almost cute! And I knows about perspective 'n @,

but I'd never thought it had bigs & littles on it from this here angle

Reduced: 64% of original size [ 800 x 423 ] - Click to view full image

Now this here ..........ooohh, I wouldn't mess with this if'n I pulled up beside it

[Raul_Perez]

Well my friend, the only problem I see with this build is that the license place doesn't say "Raul's 29"!!

This one looks like it really came out nice!! Every feature and detail is right on the money!! You should really be proud of this build!!

See you on Friday!!

Later,

[Dennis Lacy]

Bernard, your '29 turned out awesome! I've looked carefully over every picture and every detail looks period-perfect. I'm very fond of the 21-stud engines (have one in my own 1:1 hotrod) and it's great to see one under your hood. Did the interior panels and seat come with the kit, or did you make them from something? They look very familiar to the pieces in Monogram's '29 RPU.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx guys!

The RMCM transkit is a beautiful piece of work with incredible fit and finish. But it’s strictly a highboy, and I just couldn’t imagine building this kit any other way. You’re supposed to complete it with one of the Revell ’32 kits. This implies you would have build it with the small block Ford, wide tires and modern wheels, that airbag rear end and the modern radius rods front and rear. For me that would be a pretty weird setup for the ’29 which has a lighter, finer look to it than the ’32. Those fat late 90’s parts just don’t cut it. (Even with the new Sedan kit you still have most of these issues.) So you either channel it, in which case you don’t really need the precision fit of the body to the chassis the transkit provides, or you build it Old School, which is what I did. This meant converting the rear suspension and going with steelies, skinny big ‘n’ littles and a classic Old School color (either black, maroon, a darker blue or maybe certain darker shades of green). Once you go Old School this is pretty much what you have to do. The hardest parts are getting the stance right, adapting the flathead to the chassis, and coming up with radius rods that look right, since the Revell ’32 kits are useless in this regard.

I favor the basic ’29 body over the Deuce. I think it’s the narrower, more vertical looking sides and the tucked in cowl, which give it a more graceful and delicate look, especially when it’s lowered or channeled. I plan to do more ’29 roadsters, but future projects will probably use the AMT roadster kit as the basis, since they won’t be classic highboys. I think, however, if you do want to build a highboy with a Deuce grill shell and ’32 rails, the RMCM transkit is the ideal basis, since it eliminates a lot of nightmares adapting the hood and mating the body to the rails. The rear end conversion is surprisingly straightforward.

[CB]

Thanx guys!

The RMCM transkit is a beautiful piece of work with incredible fit and finish.

I favor the basic '29 body over the Deuce. I think it's the narrower, more vertical looking sides and the tucked in cowl, which give it a more graceful and delicate look, especially when it's lowered or channeled....

Pardon my ignorance Bernard, but is this 'transkit' a resin body only? or styrene? and what all comes in the 'transkit'?

And, , pardon my insolence, but is "a more graceful and delicate look" part of the period building? I aint trying to be a PITA (seems I just naturally am ),but I don't usually associate the words 'graceful and delicate' with hot rods. Maybe on occaision with a custom rod, but I'm more used to hot rods 'belching' and 'raw power' 'n @

Thanks for all the info--nice to know the story of the paint.

[Bernard Kron]

Nice li'l hot rod Bernard. You always makes 'em look 'real', if'n ya know what I means.

Funny thing about different angles---almost hard to believe these two pics are of

the same car ...

Thanx CB. I know I've got this reality thing happening. Even when I built the Tube Rat I had a bit of that goin' on... : There's things about that that I like, but there's things about it that I don't... The grass is always greener...

The chameleon thing about highboys and the way they photograph is something I've always noticed. It's especially true of cars with narrow tires where there's little visual cue from front that the tires are different, front to rear. The "bigs" tend to shrink in every aspect when they are distanced from the front. In addition, the exposed chassis rail often blend into the shadows beneath the car and give the body a kind of wedge shape that hides the rake.

This can be a real trap, at least for me, when setting the stance. I will often crouch down to workbench height to look at the car from different angles as if it were a 1:1. The front ¾ view will get that muscular, all lined up and filled in, “cute†look which may or may not be what I’m after. But then when I look at it from the side it might have a more aggressive look, with more air underneath the car and an obvious rake. So, do I open up the space underneath the car in front of the rear wheels when viewed ¾ front by raising the rear end, thereby risking too much rake from the side view, or do I lower the rear end to calm the rake down, and risk the sweetly logical alignment of the rear deck and the rear tire? In this case what helped solve the problem were the front and rear radius rods as seen from the side. It’s why I left them chromed. They added a horizontal visual plane that helped fill in the gap created by the rake.

When you see the old pictures of these early A-V8’s they always look radically tough from the side and all hunkered down and locked in from the front … so I knew I was OK!

Edited March 1, 2009 by gbk1

[Bernard Kron]

Pardon my ignorance Bernard, but is this 'transkit' a resin body only? or styrene? and what all comes in the 'transkit'?

And, , pardon my insolence, but is "a more graceful and delicate look" part of the period building? ... I'm more used to hot rods 'belching' and 'raw power' 'n @

Yikes! Here I am answering one reply and here comes another!

The RMCM transkit is a very complete one as these things go. All parts are white resin of a very high quality, very thin and finely cast. It comes with the following:

• A frame based on the Revell ’32 frame but narrowed and pinched to sit precisely under the A body (part of the work it saves you if you plunk down the sheckles for the transkit). Also included is a separate crossmember.
  
• The model A roadster body, adapted from the AMT body and tweaked to mate perfectly with the frame.
  
• A one piece hood that has been extended and adapted to mate correctly to the ’32 Ford grill shell. Along with the frame this is one of the key labor saving benefits of the transkit.
  
• A ’32 Ford grill shell that has been opened up to accept a p/e grill set if desired. Also included is a radiator that has been engraved on both sides should you go with the p/e grill.
  
• Two sets of windshield frames and blank dashboards, again adapted from the AMT kit. One set comes with the windshield frame and dashboard in one piece, and one set with the two separated in case you want to have the frame sent out to be chromed. The windshield frame itself has been narrowed slightly to more exactly mate to the body than in the AMT kit, and it has been angled slightly to the rear instead of standing straight up at 90 degrees as it does on the original.
  
• A separate floor piece with a raised transmission tunnel to allow installing a the Revell small block Ford.
  
• A tuck and roll 3 piece interior
  
• A revised firewall to allow installation of the Revell Ford engine.
  
• Clear acetate for the windshield.
  
• Instructions and templates.
  

I wrote a review of the kit last year which has detail pics. Here’s the link: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.p...p;hl=Miniatures

I don’t know what to say. I don’t think grace and power are mutually exclusive, although delicacy and belching may be… In any case the comment applies only to a static model, not a 1:1 unleashed!

[Bernard Kron]

See you on Friday!!

Friday? What's going on on Friday? I gave to go to California on Friday....

[CB]

… so I knew I was OK!

Hell, B! we knows you're OK! From the moment you had your first 'period' rigth here on MCM!!

[Bernard Kron]

...I'm very fond of the 21-stud engines (have one in my own 1:1 hotrod) and it's great to see one under your hood. Did the interior panels and seat come with the kit, or did you make them from something? They look very familiar to the pieces in Monogram's '29 RPU.

And what hood might that be that said 21-stud is under, hmmmm?

The interior is very likely based on some other interior. The only version of the Monogram r/p that I could find instructions for was the Blue Beetle, which has bucket seats, but the interior side panels do look very much like those in the transkit. Most aftermarket transkits are based on pre-existing plastic models or promos. Occasionally, however, major pieces are made from scratch. I know that the interiors that Lyle Willits has made for RMCM are quite often built from scratch. Lyle is a wizard at such things. And much of Rik Hoving's work for RMCM is scratch built. He too is a modeling wizard of the first order.

Thanx for the compliment, but as you can see this was a much more straightforward build, thanks to the transkit, than the epic and herculean task you have embarked on with your '29 Roadster. One, incidentally, which will have been well worth it since the result will be several notches above what the RMCM transkit, as excellent as it is, can provide

[Dennis Lacy]

And what hood might that be that said 21-stud is under, hmmmm?

Actually, mine isn't under a hood... (not yet anyhow)

The version of the Monogram 29 RPU I have is from the 80's and it has a bench seat that looks identical to the one in your roadster (minus the shaped corners to fit the roadster cockpit.) However, if it was scratch built then whoever did it did a fine job.

And, just because you used a kit (so-to-speak) is no reason to minimize your efforts because your '29 turned out really sweet with all the right stuff. Obviously the intention of the trans-kit was to adapt a '29 roadster body to a '32 frame using kit pieces as a starting point and the end result wasn't meant to cater to any specific era. I must say you did a great job of washing it of it's dirty street rod hands and to make a terrific traditional hot rod. Looks like it could be right out of a Don Montgomery book!

Edited March 1, 2009 by Dennis Lacy