60 Ford shop truck, “The Plowboy way” tribute to honour Roger Hayes

[AmericanMuscleFan]

I'm on board Steve!  Great idea to honor Roger's work, he was certainly one of the most talented builders, all his builds were tasteful and so well executed, a great communicator, generous with his innovations, many of us were able to benefit from his vision of the hobby.  You are a very talented modeler yourself, I have no doubt your project will honor his legacy, the subject chosen could not be more appropriate!   I have a weakness for pickups from this era, I'm hooked! 😊

[chris chabre]

Rogers work always inspired me as well. His baby blue fridge was one of my favorite builds by him. Although, I dont think there was a build of his I didnt like and take something away from.

[Steve H]

On 1/24/2025 at 1:56 PM, AmericanMuscleFan said:

I'm on board Steve!  Great idea to honor Roger's work, he was certainly one of the most talented builders, all his builds were tasteful and so well executed, a great communicator, generous with his innovations, many of us were able to benefit from his vision of the hobby.  You are a very talented modeler yourself, I have no doubt your project will honor his legacy, the subject chosen could not be more appropriate!   I have a weakness for pickups from this era, I'm hooked! 😊

Hi Francis, awesome to have you on board. You hit on a couple of things there, that couldn’t be more true. “Great communicator, and generous with his innovations”,  very well said. One of the things I was hoping this thread would show, is how many of us benefited from his contributions. No surprise it’s quite a few.
Having a model builder/fabricator of your calibre (likely the most talented on this board, no disrespect to others) share the love of his work is a real testament to how good he was. REALLY appreciate you checking in Francis.

 

23 hours ago, chris chabre said:

Rogers work always inspired me as well. His baby blue fridge was one of my favorite builds by him. Although, I dont think there was a build of his I didnt like and take something away from.

Hi Chris! Hope all is well. He had several builds of subjects that normally wouldn’t be my thing, but his sense of style, and colour often influenced me. The 49 Merc. is a perfect example of that. As you said, there was ALWAYS something to take away from his builds. Thanks for checking in, and if you want to share some of your favourites here, please feel free. 

[Cool Hand]

On 1/23/2025 at 12:35 PM, Steve H said:

Ok, some actual progress on the truck! As mentioned it will be a short box/unibody.  I also removed the quarter windows. Partly to be different, but also in an effort to “clean it up a bit”. 
Before…

After…

The Custom Cab script will be removed too. Door handles will be replaced also.

For the box, I removed 9mm from the front, and 9mm from the back. I used a piece of styrene as guide to keep all cuts consistent.

Box is now short, and mated to the cab. I reshaped the top portion of the box front to conform with the back of the cab. I then used quarter round styrene strips to fill the gap along the joint vertically . This strengthened the joint, and also minimized the amount of putty used. 
So here’s where we are now, after one round of putty, prime, sand.👇obviously still more to do, but everything lines up nicely. Most of the grey primer will be sanded off, white primer for the rest. 

Thanks for looking.

 

Of to a great start Steve.

Like how you merged the cab and bed. Its now a ute 😁 

[Steve H]

On 1/27/2025 at 10:06 AM, Cool Hand said:

Of to a great start Steve.

Like how you merged the cab and bed. Its now a ute 😁 

Hi Luke! Awesome to see you back on the board sir. I think it looks pretty good as a “Ute”! Thanks for checking in, hope you will watch this come together. It’s going to be low, (obviously), although I prefer slightly nose down, as opposed to your slightly tail down stance. Still’ low is low right?…. 

[Steve H]

I have been picking away at this, and actually have a fair bit done, just not much to show just yet. However, we have a weather system coming for the next few days, so should have another update soon. 
For now, just a Quick Look at the grill. 
One of the things I’m trying to do on all my builds now, is “open” the grill. I sanded from behind, slowly, and carefully. The vertical bars are extremely thin, and unfortunately, well I’ll let the picture talk.

I thought this might happen, so on to plan B. Remove the verticals, and clean things up a bit.

Then add some new vertical bars. I will prime and tidy up as necessary. 
Hope to have something more meaningful soon.

[Phildaupho]

Nice save.

[NOBLNG]

Looking good Steve! I actually thought it looked pretty good with just the horizontal bars.👍

[BK9300]

The horizontal bars did look 'custom', but no doubt the vertical bars will add back some strength, and look good, too!

[JollySipper]

That's one little detail he would have done, opening the grille........... 

[Steve H]

1 hour ago, Phildaupho said:

Nice save.

Hi Phil. When I started removing material from the back, I knew I MIGHT need a plan B. It worked out well. 

 

10 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

Looking good Steve! I actually thought it looked pretty good with just the horizontal bars.👍

I agree Greg. I really liked just the horizontal bars, but… as mentioned below👇 by Brian, it was quite flimsy. So the verticals were installed.

5 minutes ago, BK9300 said:

The horizontal bars did look 'custom', but no doubt the vertical bars will add back some strength, and look good, too!

Yes sir. Just needed a bit more strength… I did like the custom look, but simply having an “open” grill, especially a black one is an improvement. 
 

Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated.

[Steve H]

2 minutes ago, JollySipper said:

That's one little detail he would have done, opening the grille........... 

Indeed TJ! He did it on both of the 60 Ford trucks I have seen of his. He was definitely a details guy.

[Mattilacken]

Nice project here! And nice to see a tribute build once and a while! 

[James2]

9 hours ago, Steve H said:

I have been picking away at this, and actually have a fair bit done, just not much to show just yet. However, we have a weather system coming for the next few days, so should have another update soon. 
For now, just a Quick Look at the grill. 
One of the things I’m trying to do on all my builds now, is “open” the grill. I sanded from behind, slowly, and carefully. The vertical bars are extremely thin, and unfortunately, well I’ll let the picture talk.

I thought this might happen, so on to plan B. Remove the verticals, and clean things up a bit.

Then add some new vertical bars. I will prime and tidy up as necessary. 
Hope to have something more meaningful soon.

The devil is in the details….

[David G.]

That looks fine Steve. I first thought that "Plan B" was to just go with the horizontal bars as a custom option but you've come up with a nice workable solution.

David G.

[TopherMcGinnis]

I liked the look with just the horizontal bars. But it's not my vision you're building 😁. I saw this truck at the MCACN show in November. Cool unibody.

[espo]

I sort of liked the "tube grill" look. 

[OldNYJim]

On 1/20/2025 at 9:48 PM, Steve H said:

It has been just over 2 years since we lost our friend Plowboy (Roger Hayes). 

I can’t believe it’s two years already.  I was a fan of Roger’s work, and this is a fine tribute!  Really nice idea 

[slusher]

Your horizontal bars looked really good also Steve!  

[James2]

Your tribute will be very nice I'm sure, liking what you are doing so far.

Interestingly enough, I recently heard from Rogers Daughter, Heather aka, BabyGirl1221 

It would be a comfort to know about this project of yours, perhaps you could send her a message, in fact why don't we all say hello! 

[Cool Hand]

Excellent work on the grill Steve.

On 1/31/2025 at 11:23 AM, Steve H said:

Hi Luke! Awesome to see you back on the board sir. I think it looks pretty good as a “Ute”! Thanks for checking in, hope you will watch this come together. It’s going to be low, (obviously), although I prefer slightly nose down, as opposed to your slightly tail down stance. Still’ low is low right?…. 

Yes mate, I will be here to watch and comment.

Its going to be one of those builds that il be looking forward to each and every update, its going to be epic.

I can already picture the end result and know Roger would be smiling and nodding his head with full approval.

[Steve H]

On 1/31/2025 at 12:17 AM, Mattilacken said:

Nice project here! And nice to see a tribute build once in a while! 

Thank you Anton. I find tribute and replicas very rewarding. 
 

 

On 1/31/2025 at 2:30 AM, James2 said:

The devil is in the details….

Yes sir, I totally agree.

On 1/31/2025 at 5:35 AM, David G. said:

That looks fine Steve. I first thought that "Plan B" was to just go with the horizontal bars as a custom option but you've come up with a nice workable solution.

David G.

Hi David, plan A was to NOT have an issue opening it. I didn’t quite succeed there, so plan B was replace vertical bars, plan C (always good to have options 🤔) was just the horizontal bars. I guess I had 2 reasons for adding the vertical bars, to be closer to what Roger had done, and for a little extra strength.  Thanks for commenting.

On 1/31/2025 at 6:10 AM, TopherMcGinnis said:

I liked the look with just the horizontal bars. But it's not my vision you're building 😁. I saw this truck at the MCACN show in November. Cool unibody.

Hi Topher, as mentioned above, I liked the the horizontal look too, but had a couple of reasons to putting them back. That is a seriously cool truck!! Thanks for sharing that.

23 hours ago, espo said:

I sort of liked the "tube grill" look. 

Hi David, I will probably do another one of these one day. Sounds like I should definitely do a tube grill on it!!  Consensus seems to be in favour of it. Thanks for checking in.

13 hours ago, CabDriver said:

I can’t believe it’s two years already.  I was a fan of Roger’s work, and this is a fine tribute!  Really nice idea 

Hi Jim! I know right… time flies. I had intended to do a tribute (or 2) back when he passed. I suppose in a way it’s nice to have waited as this will expose some of the newer members here to his talent. 

13 hours ago, slusher said:

Your horizontal bars looked really good also Steve!  

Thanks Carl. Next time I’m leaving them horizontal!!

6 hours ago, James2 said:

Your tribute will be very nice I'm sure, liking what you are doing so far.

Interestingly enough, I recently heard from Rogers Daughter, Heather aka, BabyGirl1221 

It would be a comfort to know about this project of yours, perhaps you could send her a message, in fact why don't we all say hello! 

Hi Rooster. Thanks for sharing that. I have had a couple of PM’s with Heather. A couple back when she first signed on, and a couple recently. She does really appreciate how much we all enjoyed her dad’s work, and how respected he was here. I believe she will eventually see this. I will probably reach out via PM again sometime soon. 
Nice to have you following along.

[Steve H]

I mentioned in one of the first posts that there were few things that made me smile after my initial planning session, then looking at Roger’s threads. 
When I first sat down at the bench and plunked the hood and grill on it, I thought, “that doesn’t look right”. The hood looked too tall at the front, and didn’t really “fit” the grill. 

When I sat down later and did a deeper dive on Roger’s WIP, turns out he thought the EXACT same thing. I chuckled, and thought I must be on the right track. So some cutting and sanding later…

 

The hood back on after mods…

Still a little bit of fettling to do, but I think it looks wayyyy better.

[Steve H]

The front bumper was next. I wanted to “tuck it in a bit”. Shortened the front of the frame about 2 1/2 scale inches, and trimmed the inside of the fender to fit.

Before…

After…

Chassis plate has been shortened and re-assembled. About 12 scale inches removed from wheelbase, and 10” from behind rear axle. I also ground off the molded exhaust. I will clean this mess up a bit of course. I’m probably going to end up removing the driveshaft too. 

Thanks for having a look.

[Steve H]

31 minutes ago, Cool Hand said:

Excellent work on the grill Steve.

Yes mate, I will be here to watch and comment.

Its going to be one of those builds that il be looking forward to each and every update, its going to be epic.

I can already picture the end result and know Roger would be smiling and nodding his head with full approval.

Awesome! Couple of updates above 👆. And more to come 👇. I appreciate your comment about Roger, I hope he’s up there smiling down on this…