'40 Tudor on Revell chassis

[LennyB]

On 3/10/2025 at 6:57 PM, customline said:

Not yet. 🙃

BTW....you wouldn't happen to have a glue-bomb '37 Chevy coupe in your junkyard, would you? It just needs to be sound from the belt line up. 😏 I only need the roof, nothing else. 

Closest I came up with is a Monogram 39 Chevy. I could swear I had an AMT 37 but it's eluding me right now, must be the Dawn of the Squirrels again. I'll keep looking.

[customline]

2 hours ago, LennyB said:

Closest I came up with is a Monogram 39 Chevy. I could swear I had an AMT 37 but it's eluding me right now, must be the Dawn of the Squirrels again. I'll keep looking.

Don't go crazy looking, Len. I don't want to take you off your game.....on the other hand, you may find that solenoid 😅

[bobss396]

I built ONE Revell '40 Ford, it did win some trophies at any show I took it to.

Late in the build I found a poor fit between the body and chassis, that was totally on me. In the end, the front end appeared to be too high.

The rear fenders slanted in at the bottom. They should be square with the ground.

There was no real way to fix it up front, it had to be done on the car after the fenders on. I took the razor saw to them, sliced them open, spread the cuts and I spliced in styrene wedges. Much better! 

I have seen lots of them at contests, nobody did what I did.

I agree on the running board swap. The newer AMT kits, some of that fine detail is not there any more.

[customline]

5 hours ago, bobss396 said:

I built ONE Revell '40 Ford, it did win some trophies at any show I took it to.

Late in the build I found a poor fit between the body and chassis, that was totally on me. In the end, the front end appeared to be too high.

The rear fenders slanted in at the bottom. They should be square with the ground.

There was no real way to fix it up front, it had to be done on the car after the fenders on. I took the razor saw to them, sliced them open, spread the cuts and I spliced in styrene wedges. Much better! 

I have seen lots of them at contests, nobody did what I did.

I agree on the running board swap. The newer AMT kits, some of that fine detail is not there any more.

The Revell has pins that fit in holes at the frame/floor interface. It's easy to not engage them upon final assembly. Is that what happened?

The Revell boards have support bracket detail where the AMT boards do not. That bothers me. The current issue of the AMT coupe shows its age everywhere although the chrome trees are somewhat respectable. I got the one I'm using at Ollie's for 13 bucks - that's gotta tell you something.  Cool greenish glass and nice decal sheet, though.....if you like Coca Cola. 😉 

My Revell coupe. A squirrel took the right side handle and has yet to return it. I should have shaved that ugly-a$$ trunk handle.

Edited March 12 by customline

[bobss396]

My problem was the pins not reaching the holes. I wasn't test fitting as I went along, possibly did not do a 100% fit check with all the key pieces like the interior.

[LennyB]

That trunk handle reminds me of Dumbo's nose, I guess it works well for drinking Coca Cola.

[customline]

6 hours ago, bobss396 said:

My problem was the pins not reaching the holes. I wasn't test fitting as I went along, possibly did not do a 100% fit check with all the key pieces like the interior.

Yeah I'm guilty of that too. I miss important stuff when I'm focused on some particular thing.  I'm sure we all do that to some degree. In fact, 😩 I did it today! 

[customline]

Lenny's pink elephant 👇

🤣😉😅🤪😂😊😄😁

[bobss396]

11 hours ago, customline said:

Yeah I'm guilty of that too. I miss important stuff when I'm focused on some particular thing.  I'm sure we all do that to some degree. In fact, 😩 I did it today! 

This happens to me often when I dig out a BACK IN THE BOX! special and start working on it again.

Now I leave cryptic notes in the box when I pause during a build.

Sometimes months later they make sense. 

[customline]

34 minutes ago, bobss396 said:

This happens to me often when I dig out a BACK IN THE BOX! special and start working on it again.

Now I leave cryptic notes in the box when I pause during a build.

Sometimes months later they make sense. 

Yeah... it's like "gee, I don't remember doing this" 🤔.....😅

[bobss396]

2 hours ago, customline said:

Yeah... it's like "gee, I don't remember doing this" 🤔.....😅

It does look like my cave scribbling...

[NOBLNG]

3 hours ago, customline said:

Yeah... it's like "gee, I don't remember doing this" 🤔.....😅

I’ve found notes I left to myself that I have no idea what I meant.😳

[LennyB]

1 hour ago, NOBLNG said:

I’ve found notes I left to myself that I have no idea what I meant.😳

Guilty as well🙄

[customline]

3 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

I’ve found notes I left to myself that I have no idea what I meant.😳

 

2 hours ago, LennyB said:

Guilty as well🙄

 

It's nice to know I'm not alone in my memory loss. This is why they don't let me drink. 🥴

[Bullybeef]

I’ve never thought to leave myself notes, but my memory isn’t fading yet!😜

[customline]

4 hours ago, Bullybeef said:

I’ve never thought to leave myself notes, but my memory isn’t fading yet!😜

Be patient, Bil. You're still young. Maybe you could find some way to kill brain cells like I have. 🤪

In other news....

The modified floor

My method of assuring a true-ish axle alignment. Then I remove the middle and apply reinforcing CA. Those ugly slots were filled with scrap styrene. The knee shock actuators were removed and tube shocks will be adapted

These flatheads were glue-bomb acquisitions. Spent the better part of a day struggling with getting one acceptable.  Still have a way to go on that.

I think of these two as "the girls". Found 'em hiding in my "small chrome engine stuff cache"

The new Offy heads, resin pre-drilled distributor,  and custom aluminum radiator. The stock radiator is too wide to fit in a farther forward location. 

Here's the girls "in situ."  The hood closes, I checked. 😌 That's a custom cast aluminum high rise manifold from "Jimbo's Hot Rod Engineering Works". Whomever glued that generator in place used so much glue that it melted the bottom of it. Less is more, children. Today I should work on a hood hinge. Maybe. But those holes have got to be closed up. 😖

[Bullybeef]

I like “Jimbos hot rod high rise manifold”! 

Edited March 14 by Bullybeef

[LennyB]

Those are some well endowed girls, hope they don't make the car nose heavy.

 

Looks like we have nice balance flow on the intake risers, Jimbo must have measured twice.  The front stance looks good the way the wheels are tucked in the fenders. Is the track narrower then on the Revell chassis?

[customline]

2 hours ago, Bullybeef said:

I like “Jimbos hit rod high rise manifold”! 

Yeah, I should apply for a patent 😉

1 hour ago, LennyB said:

Those are some well endowed girls, hope they don't make the car nose heavy.

 

Looks like we have nice balance flow on the intake risers, Jimbo must have measured twice.  The front stance looks good the way the wheels are tucked in the fenders. Is the track narrower then on the Revell chassis?

Oh, no, they are Amazon delivery drivers carrying boxes in front of them and balancing packages on their heads. 

Nope again, Len.  I just shoot from the hip on stuff like this but I might add some cooling fins like the Eddie Meyer unit

I suppose I could have bought some 3D resin thing but in the end who really cares? It will probably end up in a land-fill in New Jersey in a few years.

Edited March 14 by customline

[LennyB]

15 minutes ago, customline said:

Yeah, I should apply for a patent 😉

Oh, no, they are Amazon delivery drivers carrying boxes in front of them and balancing packages on their heads. 

Nope again, Len.  I just shoot from the hip on stuff like this but I might add some cooling fins like the Eddie Meyer unit

I suppose I could have bought some 3D resin thing but in the end who really cares? It will probably end up in a land-fill in New Jersey in a few years.

Cooling fins, that looks like a VW cylinder head.

[customline]

 

58 minutes ago, LennyB said:

Cooling fins, that looks like a VW cylinder head.

Hey. Who knows? Looks like a good thing. I can't do it, it's just too small.

[customline]

3 hours ago, LennyB said:

  The front stance looks good the way the wheels are tucked in the fenders. Is the track narrower then on the Revell chassis?

I was just adjusting that track and I remembered that I had not answered that question. The answer is I don't know. I did not compare them but I find almost all kits seem to have that issue to some degree.  For this bash, I have cut the sockets down on the front wheels to get them in more and I'm still not happy with it so I'll try to bring them in a bit more. More on this later, Len.

[Keef]

On 3/13/2025 at 4:05 PM, customline said:

 

 

It's nice to know I'm not alone in my memory loss. This is why they don't let me drink. 🥴

They say the memory is the second thing to go, I forget what the first thing is 🥴

[customline]

1 hour ago, Keef said:

They say the memory is the second thing to go, I forget what the first thing is 🥴

Yeah, me too. 🤔

[customline]

Today I thought I would try my hand at carb linkage but it's not finished so....you'll have to wait on that.

Anyway, I decided to go bumperless.  I filled the bracket slots with styrene and shaped.  I also figured I should install door solenoids. 😉

And I trimmed the front wheels a bit more to get the tires a little more clearance. And then I couldn't resist another mock-up. 

Shown is the modified "big fat AMT axle" in place. You can see the added cross member necessary to mount the "custom" radiator in its new location.

This swap necessitated quite a lot of mods to make it work... but it does work.  I'm glad I didn't just box it all up. I'm having fun with it. 🙂 

This is as much clearance as I dare. If I cut the axle sockets any shorter, the wheels will fall off during subsequent mock-ups and we don't want that 🤨.  The '39 Deluxe and '40 Standard Fords look much better, I'm my humble opinion, without a bumper in the front, especially with a nice nose dive.  

I drilled small holes to mark locations of tail lights and the gas cap. The door hinges are a hindrance to sanding and polishing and I am considering their removal. Some customizers convert to hidden hinges so I can point to that to justify my elimination of those awful things. WDYT?