Revell 32 Ford roadster new release done the hard way!

[bill-e-boy]

This how I got the front end down on one of my 29 Roadster builds. The replacement flat crossmember and some work on filing the spring down to a mono-leaf spring

 

 

[Bullybeef]

5 hours ago, bill-e-boy said:

This how I got the front end down on one of my 29 Roadster builds. The replacement flat crossmember and some work on filing the spring down to a mono-leaf spring

 

 

Thanks for that tip, so far I’m just at the mono leaf stage. I’ll check my height again and if I’m not satisfied I might just go ahead and try your way! 

[Bullybeef]

Remember that jacket that had tricks up the sleeves? Well I dug it out of the closet wiped the dust off the lapels and evicted a family of moths. Let’s back up a little bit before we get to tricks… we now have the ride height and the engine placement set, so we plunk the body on and have a look at the firewall, yup we now have to channel the firewall to match the body going over the frame, but wait that’s not the only problem, we also set the engine back. Ok so the stock firewall as good as it looks will not work. So let’s change where the engine sits. Bingo now we have mm’s of room but now with the engine forward will we have enough room for radiator and fan??? 
Now comes the good bit! 
I dig through the bins as I had a recollection of a custom setback stock firewall from an amt kit that I got bits of way back when. It fits the bill, I can move the engine back under the cowl, still have room for a rad and fan while also still being able to mount headers!! Win win win. 
Here look at some pictures and I’ll get back to work. 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Bullybeef

[tim boyd]

On 10/30/2023 at 8:45 PM, Bullybeef said:

Well folks, after a short hiatus from building I’m happy to say I’ve got a bench again. I have tools paint and supplies and the only kits that are not still in storage are these three vintage Amt kits, first release roadster, first release sedan and a second release roadster that will be getting a sympathetic restore. Also snagged a first release built up roadster and a complete first release Vicky.

But these are not the reason we are here today. After lurking in the shadows with nothing to show I started scheming… and started an idea to build what in my mind is a combination of some of the best parts that Revell has offered to date. To start with will be the 32 frame from the 29 roadster. While the frame in the new release 32 roadster is just as good, I like the underpinnings of the 29 kit. Engine has yet to be decided. I have purchased 2 new kits to start pilfering parts from, the aforementioned 29 roadster and the new release of the 32 roadster. My goal is to maybe finish at least one model this year. 
On to the pictures. 

Bill....been watchin' this Bad Boy from the start, and enjoying not only the project but your narrative to go with it.  

Needless to say, love the "no Chevy in a Ford" statement and your so-inspired choice of an early Olds to power the rod.  I did the same with my '30A Replicas and Miniatures (pix below) build about ten years ago, and at that time I used the J2 Olds from the then-just-introduced Revell '50 Olds Custom kit.  It's a terrifically detailed engine, but I do recall that the oil filter (if I am remembering the details correctly) stuck out from the lower passenger side engine block and hit the frame...it had to be reoriented as the 1/1 boys were doing (Ross Engines), again if I am rememering correctly. 

I can't quite identify which kit your Olds comes from (most alternatives are very good IMHO) but just wanted to pass along a "watch out for" on the oil filer if you run into it.  

As for which engine color, it might be related to your exterior/interior/wheels color scheme.  Any ideas so far on that subject?  

Anyway, very much looking forward to the fun of watching this one come together!  Cheers....TIM 

[Bullybeef]

On 11/5/2023 at 5:09 AM, tim boyd said:

Bill....been watchin' this Bad Boy from the start, and enjoying not only the project but your narrative to go with it.  

Needless to say, love the "no Chevy in a Ford" statement and your so-inspired choice of an early Olds to power the rod.  I did the same with my '30A Replicas and Miniatures (pix below) build about ten years ago, and at that time I used the J2 Olds from the then-just-introduced Revell '50 Olds Custom kit.  It's a terrifically detailed engine, but I do recall that the oil filter (if I am remembering the details correctly) stuck out from the lower passenger side engine block and hit the frame...it had to be reoriented as the 1/1 boys were doing (Ross Engines), again if I am rememering correctly. 

I can't quite identify which kit your Olds comes from (most alternatives are very good IMHO) but just wanted to pass along a "watch out for" on the oil filer if you run into it.  

As for which engine color, it might be related to your exterior/interior/wheels color scheme.  Any ideas so far on that subject?  

Anyway, very much looking forward to the fun of watching this one come together!  Cheers....TIM 

Hiya Mr. Boyd!! ??

welcome aboard, let’s see if I can answer some questions. This particular olds engine came from the last release of Revells beatnik bandit( to be honest I saw the kit contents and went blargg ?(I was never gonna build that hot mess out of the box( my opinion))). I had earmarked the engine for a replica build of a friends 32 five window, but that build stalled heavily( like it was running on a Chevy!) I did some interwebbing after reading your comment about the olds kit( never knew it existed) and that olds rocket looks pretty sweet! Gonna havta keep the ole jeepers creeper where’d ya get those peepers open for one of those! 

Colour… whoa hold your horses there, we have not got this far out of the gate and still in the lets get it running not get it right stage! I have some in mind but nothing solid, there was a possible contender of a replica build but that fizzled like alka seltzer. 
Let’s get back to the matter at hand. I’ve mocked up the engine in the frame and thrown ( or in today’s vernacular yeeted) the possible troublesome accessories on, namely the oil filter housing and starter motor. Those happily will be non issues. Yay! Thanks for the info and tips Tim. 
So In todays episode of what the H E double hockey sticks is Bil gonna do now, we start looking at carbs, parts bin and kits on hand. So we have three contenders. 
1. the carbs from the 29 roadster channeled rod( blobtastic and lack of detail get a nay from the jury. 
2. the little chrome trio possibly from some amt kit, better detail but still lacklustre.

3. these fancy purple red guys, now these scream look at me I’m fancy! I have no idea what kit they came from but judging by the colour of the plastic I’m gonna guess a Tom Daniels monogram. They have undergone a dechroming by our sponser( wait do we have a sponser??) nope no sponser☹️. Well an honourable mention to windex. It’s kinda amazing the details that hide under older kit chrome. 
ok on to the pictures show, gotta get back to work.

Stay tuned, keep commenting, and above all have fun, I sure do! 
edit: added some pics to show the inner workings to get the body channel to stay at the right height during mock up. They will be removed later. And the firewall setback compared to engine. ( might have to do some adjustments to get the carbs on) 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Bullybeef
Added pics

[espo]

Like the Oldsmobile engine idea. In the earlier times the main thought was for cubic inches and horsepower with far less consideration for engine weight. The Olds provided plenty of torque especially in such a light body. Besides that, they look cool. 

[Bullybeef]

2 hours ago, espo said:

Like the Oldsmobile engine idea. In the earlier times the main thought was for cubic inches and horsepower with far less consideration for engine weight. The Olds provided plenty of torque especially in such a light body. Besides that, they look cool. 

I agree 100% with you David, torque is king. 

[Bullybeef]

Took a time out from building for a couple of hours today to take care of some chores. Winterized the ole Burb, Gord don’t let me Downie is his name. I won’t bore you with the details of my chore list. 
Now back at the roadster, spent a couple of minutes with some brain lubricant (tea) to come up with a way to mount the rad and grille shell. Found that the front support has a curve to it and the bottom of the rad is flat (like the earth(just kidding)) but also I need to lower the grille shell to line up with the cowl height, got out the ole eagle eye and starting hackin plastic. Started with the front support and filed a notch/shelf/lip on both sides, you can see them identified with black marks, once those were there I concentrated on marking out the grille shell and rad to get them within working tolerances for the height I want. Some filing/sanding and some more sanding and bam! 
I think most of the prelim fitting is finished now it’s time to come up with some colour ideas…

[Bullybeef]

Well this does not look like much of an update but I have painted an thing! ??

This should not have taken as long as it did but sectioning the rad and getting the grille shell to the exact, and I mean exact height I needed took a lot of eyeballing filing and sanding, placement and more eagle eyeballing. I should really invest in some sort of device that will enable me to get precise…yeah nah! And the sharp eyed among you will see in the background a guest star appearance. @Ace-Garageguy I see your lefty and I raise you a Frank Zappa ?. I’ll yoink a page from your book of scale accuracy and try out a test driver. 
but once ole Frank took a seat he mentioned that the seat is too high and I’ll need to address that issue. And here I thought all the pre paint work was done. ☹️? dangit back to the cutting and filing and all that other great stuff that goes with it. Are ya havin fun yet?? 
 

[Bullybeef]

Websters defines insanity as: : a severely disordered state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder! 
My disorder is drilling holes for spark plug wires… not only did I decide to use a Spalding flamethrower as an ignition source but I realized that requires 2 xtra holes! Now that may not seem like a lot of extra but when you take into account that the heads have 4 each so that makes eight and the spalding has four per side plus two extra for the coils(totalling 18( maths is fun)) you have to stop and ask yourself at some point is this really really really what I want to do? 
Well the answer of course is yes, because when you build a hot rod roadster it will quite possibly end up with out a hood and who wants to look at an engine devoid of an ignition source? I swear that the next 32 I build will not only have a hood it will have hood sides! I’ll build a gosh dang curbside, I will I swear. I only have teo pictures to show my work for tonight and boy was there a bit of work involved. 
firstly opening those old testors bottles can be a chore and these is only one way (in my mind) to open the darn pesky little guys. BRUTE STRENGTH AND IGNORANCE!!  Lucky for them I did not have to break out a bfh! That’s it I’m out enjoy the selective ramblings of a near to mad man and the blurry out of focus pictures. ( they aren’t really(but I think my eyes need a rest after drilling all those tiny holes)).

[Andrew McD]

Love your enthusiasm and creativity and the skills to back it up!  Great to see you back at the bench and I'll be following along with this one.

[Mr. Metallic]

Just a couple helpful tips with regards to the good old Testors bottles.

1- Make sure you wipe any paint off the top of the jar and the threads before closing it up.

2- when you open the jar take the lid and put it on your bench so the interior part with the paint on it is facing down (sorry, couldn't figure out a better way to word that) We naturally put it face up, but doing that allows gravity to spread out the pool of paint so when you put the cap back on it acts like glue to seal the jar which then often requires a wrench to open it again (as you obviously are familiar with.

3- another thing you can do it rip a small piece of aluminum foil and place it on the mouth of the jar before you apply the cap. I always have a roll of cheap aluminum foil at my bench for various purposes, this is one.

Edited November 8, 2023 by Mr. Metallic

[Bullybeef]

3 hours ago, Mr. Metallic said:

Just a couple helpful tips with regards to the good old Testors bottles.

1- Make sure you wipe any paint off the top of the jar and the threads before closing it up.

2- when you open the jar take the lid and put it on your bench so the interior part with the paint on it is facing down (sorry, couldn't figure out a better way to word that) We naturally put it face up, but doing that allows gravity to spread out the pool of paint so when you put the cap back on it acts like glue to seal the jar which then often requires a wrench to open it again (as you obviously are familiar with.

3- another thing you can do it rip a small piece of aluminum foil and place it on the mouth of the jar before you apply the cap. I always have a roll of cheap aluminum foil at my bench for various purposes, this is one.

My comment was mainly about humour and was based on this thread. But I appreciate your tips. Thank you Craig. 

 

[Bullybeef]

4 hours ago, Andrew McD said:

Love your enthusiasm and creativity and the skills to back it up!  Great to see you back at the bench and I'll be following along with this one.

Thank you for the kind comments. 

[NOBLNG]

15 hours ago, Bullybeef said:

 firstly opening those old testors bottles can be a chore and these is only one way (in my mind) to open the darn pesky little guys. BRUTE STRENGTH AND IGNORANCE!!  Lucky for them I did not have to break out a bfh!

At least Testors had the foresight to make the bottles square…can you imagine if they were round!???

[Bullybeef]

Well the team and I did not get as much accomplished as we had hoped to tonight. 

[Bullybeef]

Plugging away at some engine details. And a new first for me fuel lines! Looks a little untidy atm but once I marry the carbs to the manifold I can straighten the lines a little. 

[Bullybeef]

Well today I visited my LHS and stood at the paint rack for way longer than I should have. I was trying to envision a colour for the roadster that would fit into the mid to late 50’s, seeing as how we have a 57 ish mill in the works we need a colour that fits the era. 
I got bubkus… nothing, no vision came to me at all! Then I walked the kit aisle to see if there was any inspiration there, Zilch. 
Back to the paint isle and then it came to me. Hiding in the bottom row was a colour that I had over looked. 
I grabbed that can and held it up to the unnatural light of the fluorescent ceiling. Could it be? I walked the can to the closest window, and bam there it was the colour I had to have. 

Edited November 12, 2023 by Bullybeef

[Ace-Garageguy]

Looking good. Extra points for using a Spalding Flamethrower ignition and wiring it correctly.

Really like that 1:1 Burburban too. Almost bought a 4WD one a while back, but I really don't need 3 trucks.   

[Bullybeef]

15 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Looking good. Extra points for using a Spalding Flamethrower ignition and wiring it correctly.

Really like that 1:1 Burburban too. Almost bought a 4WD one a while back, but I really don't need 3 trucks.   

Thank you Bill, the great thing about havin the ole interwebs is it makes researching so much more helpful. 
The Burb is 4wd, gonna need it up here in the ole snowy north. 

[Bullybeef]

Well today started off as a productive Sunday. Got some parts painted, got some engine work completed. And then my friend whom we shall call the hoarder calls me and asks me to come over to his place as he has some parts for me( he usually does not disappoint(this time he did))! So I head out and pay a visit. He hand me a box of stock model t parts. Well beggars can’t be choosers, but wait there’s more, last year he had me do a commission build for him of a mild strip/street 31 Willy’s which he raved about for a long time, it actually lives in a glass case not just on a shelf gathering dust like the rest of his vast collection( he has a room of nothing but General lees and other movie/tv cars) he digs around on his build table and hands me a 32 3 window resin body. It already been painted a wild purple.

The man knows I love 32 fords( not model t’s) so who better in his mind to build him up a wild one right. So I take my prizes and head home after another short trip to a different LHS.

So needless to say my build day was short on my own project but I plugged ahead and got some parts figured out for the commish. 
Knocked up a supercharger intake for the revell hemi from the 32 3 window kit( I may have a couple of those around) looks pretty good to me so far. Pics, oh yeah pics.

Last years commish, current mish mash of parts for new commish and what I managed for myself. 
Enjoy, comment, critique, laugh! Comments would be good as I feel this is more like a blog. 
gimme some random ideas on where the commission build should take me (gasser/street freak maybe) flames, scallops polka dots…

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by Bullybeef

[Bullybeef]

Well between work, life and all the other stuff we need to do in-order to support our hobby. I managed to find some time to get some subassemblies in paint and actually connected together. Nothing ground breaking or earth shattering but the frame and suspension are mated to the chassis. Last details to add are the front and rear shocks( both slowly dechroming) and the front steering. 
I did manage to try some test shots of the colour I chose and I think even though the temperature is not ideal I should be able to get down some decent enough coats to get a pretty smooth (ish) finish. 
I’m having a hard time trying to decide on a matching/ contrasting colour for the interior upholstery. 
So with the colour being (redacted) my options are white, cream, black …… and possibly grey, I’ll most likely have to try some variation of either to see what best fits the build. It’s not a show car but more of a results dude who wanted a pretty spiffy roadster in the late fifties, his uncle owns the local wrecking yard so getting a pretty low mile J2 was easy and his best friend is apprenticing as a painter at the local body shop so getting the body redone was cheap, the rest our ole boy repurposed and painted in black with a brush. He managed to trade some of his mechanical knowledge with a local garage on weekends to scrape up the extra jinglies in his pocket to have some parts chromed. 
mill keep plugging away on getting this one finished and make some progress on the commission build at the same time.

Captain's log 2023.11 all life forms appear to be mute. 

Drop a comment,  leave a like. 

 

[Rattlecan Dan]

Never saw a street rod painted that outlandish candy grape or purple shlurp or whatever color that is. It looks very expensive. Must be for a show car or big bucks strip entry. Glad you're beatin' your brains out on the creative end. Sounds like you're enjoying what you're doing. And THAT says it all! All ahead warp factor 5 Soolu.

[NOBLNG]

They look good in purple!? I think you’ve seen mine Bil.

[Bullybeef]

Test stance of the grape ape