I'm starting a '40 Ford pickup modified of course

[dino246gt]

I tweaked the hinges today. might "tweak" again tomorrow. Making progress and having a blast! Cheers!

 

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by dino246gt

[MeatMan]

Awesome scratch work!

[Zippi]

Nice work on tweaking the hinges.  Looking pretty sharp.

[dino246gt]

I don't  want the kit's interior as it is, so I'll remove the door cards and make my own.

A lot of holes need to be drilled, then it's pretty simple.

I added some mounting pieces for my new door cards after paint.

So far I'm liking it!

[dino246gt]

You can barely see it but on the left rear fender there's a bump for the gas filler.

I don't want that!

I added .015X.040 strips around the rear fenders then sanded them down to nothing, creating a wedge spacer so that they don't flare out at the bottom when glued to the bed sides.

[Lunajammer]

Your builds are always an education Dennis. Looking forward to seeing what other tips I can steal from you ?.

[dino246gt]

2 hours ago, Lunajammer said:

Your builds are always an education Dennis. Looking forward to seeing what other tips I can steal from you ?.

Thanks man, no need to steal, I love helping, so it's a great compliment from you to mention education, I love it!

 

[JollySipper]

This is gonna be something cool! The stance in that last pic is spot-on........

[Butter 1]

You are on the way to turning this into a very nice hot rod.  Door hinges and inner door panels are well done. One suggestion. Get rid of the "stake" holes on the box sides. They don't make sense to me.

[James2]

Great work here, I like this kit. I had to narrow the inner door panels to allow them to clear the bench seat. It was a real task since I didn’t notice until final assembly. 

[dino246gt]

Back inside, since I had to modify the firewall I needed to add some plastic on the inside, this is to cover the space where the firewall meets, or almost meets the floor now.

Then I opened up the windshield hole so I can fit the "glass" from outside, and added stops for glue.

Then I made a one-piece surround to cover those.

Notice that the headliner is tuck and roll, NOT diamonds, so that suits me!

 

[dino246gt]

I got a start on the seat.

Once I make the door cards, I'll refine this.

Interior will be red leather, or is it naugahyde?

Edited December 5, 2023 by dino246gt

[Zippi]

Looking really nice.  I like how the air breathers are tucked up against the firewall nice an tight.

[NOBLNG]

3 hours ago, dino246gt said:

I got a start on the seat.

Once I make the door cards, I'll refine this.

Interior will be red leather, or is it naugahyde?

It’s looking mighty fine Dennis!? I’d go with leather if you can afford it.?

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Looking really good to me. 

[dino246gt]

Test fitting the AMT '39 headlights. I like this look more than the stock '40s.

In '40 the sealed beams were a huge improvement over the bulbs of '39, but today we can use halogen or led bulbs in those '39s!

[Zippi]

Now that's got some Additude.  I'm really diggin this build.

[dino246gt]

On 12/3/2023 at 3:57 PM, Butter 1 said:

You are on the way to turning this into a very nice hot rod.  Door hinges and inner door panels are well done. One suggestion. Get rid of the "stake" holes on the box sides. They don't make sense to me.

I didn't really get rid of the "stake" holes but I did smooth out the tops! Thanks for the suggestion!

I smoothed the logo from the center of the tail gate too and started making tail light mounts in the fenders.

I wanted to use '39 car tail lights, but I just don't have a nice pair, so I'm still thinking, but I'm committed to not having them on the box sides as the kit provides!

Maybe sunken bullets! OR???

[NOBLNG]

16 hours ago, dino246gt said:

I wanted to use '39 car tail lights, but I just don't have a nice pair, so I'm still thinking, but I'm committed to not having them on the box sides as the kit provides!

Maybe sunken bullets! OR???

 

It’s coming along nicely Dennis.? I made a set for my ‘39 Chevy from red sprue. The chrome one in the center is what Revell gave us. Bullets would look nice too, and easy to make also.

[dino246gt]

Thanks Greg, I've decided on sunken bullets!

I found these clear red "bullets" in an AMT '57 Ford kit, so I matched them with some styrene tube of the same inside dimension.

Then I opened up the holes in the fenders to the same inside dimension.

I cut a pair of short pieces of the tubing, then shaped each one to fit the fenders and made a pair of end caps with a hole  punch and .015 styrene sheet.

I'll leave those end caps off so I can push the bullets out from behind after paint to make sure that they're even with each other.

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by dino246gt

[Steve H]

Oh boy… love everything going on here Dennis. Beautiful work. Those 39 headlights look wayyyyy better than the kit items, what a difference. The stance, wheel/tire combo are spot on, and the engine looks fantastic. I built one of these in my younger years and have one in the stash that I will do one day. I want to build one similar to this as a mate for my 41 Chev truck. Getting lots of great ideas here. 
 

Cheers, Steve

[dino246gt]

21 hours ago, Steve H said:

Oh boy… love everything going on here Dennis. Beautiful work. Those 39 headlights look wayyyyy better than the kit items, what a difference. The stance, wheel/tire combo are spot on, and the engine looks fantastic. I built one of these in my younger years and have one in the stash that I will do one day. I want to build one similar to this as a mate for my 41 Chev truck. Getting lots of great ideas here. 
 

Cheers, Steve

Thanks Steve, I never built it because it was 1/24th, but now I'm "pretending" it's 1/25th, all the stuff I'm kit bashing IS 1/25th, I'm having fun with it whatever scale it is!  LOL

[dino246gt]

Chassis is as complete as I can get it until the bottom of the body is attached.

It's on bags in the lowered position, that's why the exhaust almost touches the rear axle.

I'm committed to red with the engine and interior but.........

Now that I've got it in black, I'm re-considering going back to grey as it looked so cool in primer!

Battleship grey perhaps! (last pic is in primer)

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by dino246gt

[NOBLNG]

Nice Dennis! I love all the little details and wiring you do.? I like the black better than the primer…it’s got a bit of a sinister look to it. Just my $0.02 ?.

Edited December 11, 2023 by NOBLNG

[dino246gt]

39 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

Nice Dennis! I love all the little details and wiring you do.? I like the black better than the primer…it’s got a bit of a sinister look to it. Just my $0.02 ?.

Too many of my old hot rods are black, although I DO like black!

I've cleared the primer so it looks like battleship grey, nice and a bit different!

Can't wait to get more done to it, but wait I must and the paint is in the dehydrator now!

See you Sunday!