1940 Ford Sedan Early 60’s Gas

[Dennis Lacy]

I started this project to participate in an AMT Trophy Kit group build on the niche forum, Traditional Rod and Kustom In Scale. The idea is to use an AMT kit that was party of their early Trophy series , either an original issue or subsequent reissues. I’m starting with the most current issue of the 1940 Sedan. 

Modifications to the exterior include:

- Hood and side trim deleted.

- Kit provided solid grill filler. 

- Running boards deleted. 

- Door and trunk handles from Revell 40 Fords. 

- AMT 40 Coupe custom rear bumper, front bumper brackets deleted. 

- Rear fender radii increased to clear slicks. 

- Kit stock front wheels. AMT 49 Ford rear wheels, printed tires and slicks. 

- Kit dropped front axle. 

The engine is the optional Pontiac from AMT’s 36 Ford kits with heads, valve covers and timing cover from AMT’s parts pack Pontiac, Lehman cam-driven water pump from AMT’s 40 Willys, chrome log intake from AMT’s 25 T’s and Revell 40 Ford Stromberg carburetors and filters. 

I’ve began making the plumbing from the water pump to the sides of the block where the forward core plugs would go. Note that in the pics below a water cross-over has been added but will not be staying because its connection points aren’t accurate. More on that later.

The headers are taken from Revell’s most current 32 Ford Roadster and while they are from a Chevy small block, the port alignment is very similar and will pass the first-glance test. They had to be shortened about 3/16” and the inner fenders were trimmed for them to pass through. Disregard the dual 4-barrels and belt drive as those were an earlier idea.

 

The interior is going to be simple. The roll bar comes from the kit and I added separate door and window crank handles. The steering wheel is AMT 49 Ford. I also scribed the door panel lines which were nonexistent. 

That’s where I’m at so far. More to come!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Remarkable what happens when a real live real car builder who understands what all the parts do builds a model.

Lovin' it so far.   

[Zippi]

The ole 40 Ford Sedan is taking shape there Dennis.  

[meechum68]

Following!!

[James2]

Great project!

[slusher]

A great project too follow!    
 

 

[sidcharles]

will the running boards stay gone?

i like it like that.

[DJMar]

Oh, I dig this. It's looking really sweet. 

[Dennis Lacy]

@Ace-Garageguy @Zippi @meechum68 @James2 @slusher @sidcharles @DJMar

Thanks, guys. I’m having fun with this project! 

I made some progress earlier today. Even though these old AMT kits have basic chassis’ I still want to paint things nicely but there’s one glaring feature that’s been bothering me, the big open slots on the “brake plates”. So, I went ahead and filled them all with scraps of .040” plastic and there was room in the back to add the custom brake drums found in AMT’s 32 Vicky and Phaeton kits. 

On the other forum that’s hosting the build off a member asked me how I was going to handle the stock exhaust pipes and muffler being molded to frame and I answered with 2 options. 

1) Ignore it and chalk it up to “it is what it is.”

2) Use the add-on left side pipes and muffler from the sister 40 Coupe kit and tie them into the headers. 

Gas class rules of the early 60’s state that the vehicle must be equipped with full exhaust pipes and mufflers but headers can have caps left open while racing. I sourced the add-on exhaust pieces, cleaned them up and glued them into the headers place. 

 

But, that wasn’t good enough. I wanted the car to have visible exhaust tips when sitting on its wheels & tires so I carefully carved away the molded tip and sliced off the add-on tip then spliced in tailpipe sections with hanger brackets from a Revell 40 Ford which also have separate chrome tips. The tips end up perfectly under the edge of the custom bumper. The splices and hanger brackets are reinforced with stainless pins.

Up front I made a pair of U-shaped connections from the bottom of the header cones to the front ends of the exhaust pipes. These were made from the front pipes in Revell’s modern 29 Roadster / 30 Coupe kits but had to be shortened in the middle of the humps 1/16” to fit up correctly. Again, pins were used to reinforce the joints. 

Here are some overall chassis shots with the axles in place. Once everything is paint detailed this should do just fine. 

Still more to come…

[Straightliner59]

Oh, hell, yeah! I don't know what else to say. That is super freaking cool!

[Zippi]

NIce job on those backing plates Dennis.  Nice progress on the Sedan.  

[stavanzer]

Just Awesome Work, Dennis!

[FoMoCo66]

Amazing! That car looks like it came straight out of the early 60s. Nice work.

[Dennis Lacy]

Last weekend I was able to wrap up the last of the fabrication starting with getting the radiator fit and then making the upper and lower hoses. 

I’ve been thinking about what distributor I wanted to use and decided a Spalding Flamethrower dual coil distributor would be appropriate and I drilled it for wires.

I then made a pair of basic cylindrical coils and mounted them to the firewall on either side of the distributor. Speaking of the firewall, AMT was notorious for molding on a bunch of extra junk so I scraped and sanded that off leaving just the stamping lines and voltage regulator. 

I really wanted the carbs to have scoops and I suddenly remembered I had a set of 6 frogmouth scoops from Replicas & Miniatures that my pal Jon had sent in a care package last year so I got them mounted. Much better.

This will be the last bare plastic mock up and I couldn’t resist getting a look with the kits optional red glass unit. Also seen in the rear views are the tailpipes I added previously. Time to  buy some paint.

[sidcharles]

i've seen tinted glass in a number of Trophy Kits. 

Q: was this a competition modification or part of the show car era?

thx,

s.e.

[Zippi]

Lot of nice work there Dennis.  Great looking mock-up.

[Kit Karson]

8 hours ago, Dennis Lacy said:

Last weekend I was able to wrap up the last of the fabrication starting with getting the radiator fit and then making the upper and lower hoses. 

I’ve been thinking about what distributor I wanted to use and decided a Spalding Flamethrower dual coil distributor would be appropriate and I drilled it for wires.

I then made a pair of basic cylindrical coils and mounted them to the firewall on either side of the distributor. Speaking of the firewall, AMT was notorious for molding on a bunch of extra junk so I scraped and sanded that off leaving just the stamping lines and voltage regulator. 

I really wanted the carbs to have scoops and I suddenly remembered I had a set of 6 frogmouth scoops from Replicas & Miniatures that my pal Jon had sent in a care package last year so I got them mounted. Much better.

This will be the last bare plastic mock up and I couldn’t resist getting a look with the kits optional red glass unit. Also seen in the rear views are the tailpipes I added previously. Time to  buy some paint.

Do me a favor, Brother: Fill in those two rectangles in the firewall! -KK

[Dennis Lacy]

4 hours ago, sidcharles said:

i've seen tinted glass in a number of Trophy Kits. 

Q: was this a competition modification or part of the show car era?

thx,

s.e.

It became a popular aesthetic modification in competition cars when folks started using plastic to replace window glass (for weight savings) because it could be had in all different colors. Like many things starting with race cars it bled over into hot rods and shoe rods. 

[sidcharles]

2 hours ago, Kit Karson said:

Do me a favor, Brother: Fill in those two rectangles in the firewall! -KK

y'know .... if those two itsy bitsy things were trimmed from the front fenders, they would probably

a. improve aerodynamics

b. fill in the firewall

win/ win. and the running boards "off" would probably shave like .3 off e.t.

guess that's win/ win & win

either way, it looking really nice

Edited August 8 by sidcharles

[Dennis Lacy]

3 hours ago, Kit Karson said:

Do me a favor, Brother: Fill in those two rectangles in the firewall! -KK

Noted. 

[DJMar]

Well, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. This whole project has motivated me to grab my "junker" AMT '40 Sedan kit out of the stash. I found it at an estate sale decades ago and it's been sitting on the shelf since (along with a half dozen AMT coupe kits of various vintages). The kit tires are missing and the body had the rain gutters removed on one side, but otherwise it's complete.

I'm not sure I'll actually build it as a drag car, but I'll be definitely stealing some of the details from this project. 

[TarheelRick]

Great looking Gasser, love the '40 front-end doesn't matter the rest of the body. You are doing some mighty fine work on this build. A suggestion I would like to make is to ditch the steel axle in the front-end, if you do not want a roller. What I do is install it as the kit suggests, then I super glue around where the axle comes through the backing plate. Once cured I carefully snip the axle off at each backing plate, I have gone so far as to file the cut end away. Once painted it is not noticeable. Keeping the axle in place will allow the wheels to have the correct stance until the glue is dried.  Just a thought.

[Dennis Lacy]

12 hours ago, DJMar said:

Well, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. This whole project has motivated me to grab my "junker" AMT '40 Sedan kit out of the stash. I found it at an estate sale decades ago and it's been sitting on the shelf since (along with a half dozen AMT coupe kits of various vintages). The kit tires are missing and the body had the rain gutters removed on one side, but otherwise it's complete.

I'm not sure I'll actually build it as a drag car, but I'll be definitely stealing some of the details from this project. 

Steal away! Looking forward to seeing what you do with yours. 

[Dennis Lacy]

10 hours ago, TarheelRick said:

Great looking Gasser, love the '40 front-end doesn't matter the rest of the body. You are doing some mighty fine work on this build. A suggestion I would like to make is to ditch the steel axle in the front-end, if you do not want a roller. What I do is install it as the kit suggests, then I super glue around where the axle comes through the backing plate. Once cured I carefully snip the axle off at each backing plate, I have gone so far as to file the cut end away. Once painted it is not noticeable. Keeping the axle in place will allow the wheels to have the correct stance until the glue is dried.  Just a thought.

Not a bad suggestion. I have done similar by replacing the metal axle with stubs of plastic rod of the same diameter. I guess it would make sense since I spent the time to fill the big notches in the backing plates. 

Okay, so to recap:

1) Fill rectangle notches in face of firewall. 
2) Replace metal axle with stubs.

Edited August 9 by Dennis Lacy

[bytownshaker]

Coming together very nicely