Phonebooth T

[JPL-ACE]

Some of you younger modelers might not know what a phone booth is. But you may have seen it in old movies. Anyway, a tall but tiny box dedicated for use as a public telephone station (a dime a call!). So my model I am working on right now is a tall model T. Actually a modified 1915 (about) Center Door. As it happens, I inherited this mostly as you see it below from my cousin Dale who passed away in a car accident 50 years ago. I have not done much with it over that time. 

Dale was a very creative and quality modeler. I have several other projects I want to finish that he started. This one is very cute. It is also 143:1 or 142:1 as a guess. I will ask the forum if they recognize it. Below are the main parts I have from Dale. The last picture is a preview mock-up of the T. I added some parts from my junkyard that I might use.

[johnyrotten]

Cool little project. 👍

[JPL-ACE]

Thanks Johny.

PS I posted my question on the Question Forum.

Edited February 25 by JPL-ACE

[BIGTRUCK]

Can you tell if that body is a 2 piece split down the middle? From the pictures it looks heavily modified. The closest I could tell Gowland and Gowland had a gift set with a 1915 center door Ford made in 1952, but the hood was attatched to the body, no motors. The 1st and 2nd ictures are from the the net, pic 3 is a 1/32 1915 Ford I built, pic 4 is a 1925 Ford in 1/25 and pic 5 is an MPC version of the Gowland 1/32 kits with a partial motor that went on top of the hood ,motor parts , tires and wheels were 1/25.

[JPL-ACE]

2 hours ago, BIGTRUCK said:

From Ken: "Can you tell if that body is a 2 piece split down the middle? From the pictures it looks heavily modified. The closest I could tell Gowland and Gowland had a gift set with a 1915 center door Ford made in 1952, but the hood was attatched to the body, no motors."

Thank you for the quick response. Good clues. Yes, the body is a split assemmbly, I can see the seam inside. Ypur pic of the drawing of the Gowland and Gowland center door looks like the best match. As you can see in my pic of the unmoded frame, it is 1 piece and no motor. I matched that to the modified frame and they are from the same kit. I can tell by the flashing and details.

I suppose the model is far out of production by now. Still, I have all the major parts I need to finish it. Thanks again Ken.

 

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

Great to see this Tall Tee.

[JPL-ACE]

Thanks, Robert.

[rattle can man]

I am leaning toward it being an Aurora 1:32 scale (Maybe a kit-mingle?). They were all hotrods with different engines and induction systems. But the body has to be modified. None of the various scale and MFG. I looked at on Scalemates have that body, but the fenders sure look to be Aurora to me

[JPL-ACE]

Harry, maybe I did not make it clear, there are only 3 parts I am asking about. The highly modified cab, the unmodified frame, and the highly modified frame. These are all from the same kit (well, 2 identical kits). All else is from other kits. BTW the cab is almost surely a Center Door as I can see the seams on the inside, and no rear trunk.

I think from the answers I am getting it is 1:32 and there are several kits possible. Gowland and Gowland, Aurora, Revell, and maybe more. I have the info I was looking for now. I had some help from the Question Forum too. Thanks for your help.

[JPL-ACE]

Done a little work on the T. Making the rear cross-member (3 pics below). You may just see the spring mounts at the upper corner of the member with 0.030"holes. The fine white plastic rod (leaning on the drill bit) will connect to the spring tips. I had to add a tiny spacer at the corners to separate the frame from the springs mounts (and drill a .030" hole in a cubic 1/16" spacer). See pic 3 for a mockup. Also in pic 3 are the front and rear "bumpers" I am considering. 

Pic 4 shows the drilling rig I use. No extra charge for the black tape holding it together  😉 Pic 5 and 6 are the Hemi with early Vette fuel injection. I had to break off the headers and reglue them a little narrower for the frame rails (TBD). I also replaced the alternator with a smaller one for the same reason. Took a lot of time for not much action, but I learned some things. Had the drill stand for years but could not make it drill straight. Figured it out.

The next step is the frame and front axle (see the first pics above (beginning of thread) for the potential red front axle.

[johnyrotten]

Moving along nicely Gary. Good bit of scratch building you've got going on. I really like this little hotrod. 

[JPL-ACE]

4 hours ago, johnyrotten said:

Moving along nicely Gary. Good bit of scratch building you've got going on. I really like this little hotrod. 

Thanks John, I really think this could be made in 1:1 with a tiny one seat booth and a 53 Hemi looking outsized in front. Kind of fun project.

[JPL-ACE]

OK, next step(s). I showed the rear cross-member but I added a tiny extension to the spring mount and drilled a .030" hole for a pin connector. See it below. I used a .030 rod so I can remove it easily as many alignments need to be figured out (cut & fit). The next picture shows the front frame subassembly. It is made of mostly 1/16" square rod wit h a cut-up piece of square tubing for the front mount. That mount straddles the frame and the front spring. The frame parts will be painted light gray. It also will mount the front radiator, shown there. There is a radiator on the back of the grill.  As a bonus, I include a dash mockup.

[johnyrotten]

19 minutes ago, JPL-ACE said:

OK, next step(s). I showed the rear cross-member but I added a tiny extension to the spring mount and drilled a .030" hole for a pin connector. See it below. I used a .030 rod so I can remove it easily as many alignments need to be figured out (cut & fit). The next picture shows the front frame subassembly. It is made of mostly 1/16" square rod wit h a cut-up piece of square tubing for the front mount. That mount straddles the frame and the front spring. The frame parts will be painted light gray. It also will mount the front radiator, shown there. There is a radiator on the back of the grill.  As a bonus, I include a dash mockup.

Suicide perch for the front axle. Nice little touch,  I did similar on my 34. I really get a kick out of this build.

[JPL-ACE]

49 minutes ago, johnyrotten said:

Suicide perch for the front axle. Nice little touch,  I did similar on my 34. I really get a kick out of this build.

Thanks john. I am thinking about Putting the headlights up where the carriage light go, on the cab top. then I thought instead of a carriage light (I don't have any) how about spotlights like on the old customs back in the day. Or present police cars. But the old ones point down in a folded position and look awkward but not cool. I am hunting my junkyard for some that were squarish and pointing forward. Years since I saw them last. Getting forgetful is not helping. They will still look awkward but maybe cool. Maybe even campy (in honor of my name). One can wish.

[johnyrotten]

2 minutes ago, JPL-ACE said:

Thanks john. I am thinking about Putting the headlights up where the carriage light go, on the cab top. then I thought instead of a carriage light (I don't have any) how about spotlights like on the old customs back in the day. Or present police cars. But the old ones point down in a folded position and look awkward but not cool. I am hunting my junkyard for some that were squarish and pointing forward. Years since I saw them last. Getting forgetful is not helping. They will still look awkward but maybe cool. Maybe even campy (in honor of my name). One can wish.

Spotlights are cool, I run an ancient brass military fireboat spotlight on my motorcycle. It's always a matter of finding that one perfect thing to set your build apart, I know that all too well. As for forgetting things, starting back in the hobby I made my junkyard in one of those divided organizers, time will tell if it works. Im trying to stay disciplined with it.

[JPL-ACE]

23 minutes ago, johnyrotten said:

As for forgetting things, starting back in the hobby I made my junkyard in one of those divided organizers, time will tell if it works. Im trying to stay disciplined with it.

Thanks for the memory tip. I have 3 multi-drawer cabinets, 8 model kit half boxs, 10 plastic trays 6 bags and that is not counting 15 or so new kits. I just located an unused (mostly) big multi-drawer in the garage but no place to put it in the den. Life is tough. But the alternative is not too good either. Still the best suggestion I have had all day.

[JPL-ACE]

Nearly done now. A couple of views of the frame running gear and grill/radiator. You can see the engine plug wires. My first time wiring in a finished car. Sorry about some bluriness. Better views of the dash and grill in the next 2 pics. The Grill and front frame just slide together. Ready to glue the frame in and then glue the front axle to the frame. Top it off with the cab. Oh, and I have to make a short (1/16") extension to the radiator hose to the radiator.

The final picture below is the carriage lights I found in my spare parts. One too-big (actually 1/2 of one) and a pair of too-small ones. I think it would be cool (or at least unusual) to put a light on each side of the cab for "headlites". Or I could put a pair of old time spotlights (I only have one) like in the old custom model kits. Does anybody have any comments (or parts?)? The knife is for size.

[JPL-ACE]

OK, I received some carriage lights from DJ (many thanks, DJ), and they are just what I wanted. See the Wanted forum if interested. Now for the finishing touches. Below are 3 views of the bottom of the T. Note the hand-made exhaust system. The frame subsystems are all glued into the fenders. The front axle is attached to the front frame as well as the radiator. See the separate parts in previous posts above. The rest of the views are finished T. Some things to note: the carriage lights (headlights) are on the roof AND on the radiator (front view). Kind of different. I think the engine wiring came out well, too. My 1st attempt that got finished (several abandoned tries over the year). The Hemi engine with early Corvette fuel injection (1957) is also a little different. I don't like the tail lights, but done is done. 

Mixing scales works for cartoons, so smile with me. Thanks for tolerating the slow pace of this project.

[johnyrotten]

This thing is cool, man 👍👍. It looks like you had serious fun building it,most importantly. Big hemi, little car, odd proportions, it's an Ed Roth cartoon come to life. Nice work. 

[JPL-ACE]

18 minutes ago, johnyrotten said:

This thing is cool, man 👍👍. It looks like you had serious fun building it,most importantly. Big hemi, little car, odd proportions, it's an Ed Roth cartoon come to life. Nice work. 

John, during writing this last post, I was thinking of mentioning Ed and Rat Fink work but thought it too pretentious of me. Thanks for the compliments. I very much enjoyed working on this. It was mostly spare parts or handmade. Good clean fun, curse words and all.

[TECHMAN]

So this is the project,  pretty cool idea!!!!  As was already said, really tends to remind ya of some of the ED ROTH work.......  COOL!!!!   (just need a RAT FINK to stand beside it 😉 )

DJ

[Spex84]

This is a neat little build! Nice detailing, must be difficult working that small. I'm sure Dale would appreciate what you've done with it!

The proportions of the cab have me brainstorming ideas, hmm...