It’s Boyd Month! Building the full-detail Coddington Alumacoupe

[OldNYJim]

I’m not sure how many people follow the Hot Rods By Boyd social media, but August was Mr Coddington’s birthday month and every year they celebrate and remember him with various cool digs into their archive and podcasts and stuff like that…so I figured this would be a good time to build one of his more iconic builds - the Alumacoupe:

It was somewhat controversial at the time, largely due to its mid-mounted 4cylinder Mitsubishi power, but I think it stood the test of time really well.  It was actually originally intended to be a roadster, or at last have a removable hardtop…

…but I think the lines are just fine with it as a coupe.  I’ll be building this one just as Boyd intended, no tweaks or changes.  

Here’s the kit - the slightly lesser known Full-Detail version by Testor’s…plus I found some original Boyd branded paint that hopefully is still good:

The build sequence is a little weird on this kit - much more like a Tamiya or Fujimi kit than a Revell or AMT build - no frame, suspension and axle mount right to the body, and just the upper portion of the engine.

First up, assembling the body halves, and a little Bondo to get the seam perfect and fix a couple of little sink marks:

I can’t quite figure out (yet) if this car ran a full belly pan - I think it probably did, so I’ll scribe some panel lines in there to suggest that.

Big Testor’s logo and copyright info to fix inside the roof:

Plus some little ejector pin and sink marks inside the hood and deck-lid:

The fit of the roof in particular is REALLY vague so I’ll need to engineer something to aid in final assembly, and the trunk lid fit is a little rough…but we’ll get to that bridge when we get to it.  At least the instructions give you some sage advice to keep you calm and level-headed:

Tomorrow’s project will be getting the body panels to fit together good enough for a mock-up, and then, weirdly, the first thing the kit has you build is the front-trunk inners…

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[TopherMcGinnis]

He was quite the Visionary. I enjoyed his builds.

[Mattilacken]

That has always been a beautiful car. Definitely one of his best work according to me. Will follow your build.

[Quiet Eric]

I loved this ere of hot rodding when I was a kid. I've got a "full detail" Aluma Coupe and CheZoom to build myself.

[Silvercreeker]

Love the statement about patience!

[meechum68]

Cadzilla, all time favorite build of his. Still such a sleek car. 

[mrm]

Thank God chip Foose did not find a way to claim this one as his own too... 

The kit is a rather simple affair that could realistically be built in a weekend. And amazingly enough with great results. 

As far as I know the Aluma Coupe was never intended to be a roadster. I have a really nice book on Hot Rods by Boyd and there is a whole chapter in there dedicated to this car. In it there is actually a picture of the car broken down on the side of the highway, because Boyd insisted to drive it to some show. It had a full belly pan and to get to the engine you had to remove the seat. 

I've built this kit quite few times and don't remember having any fitment issues with any of the panels. I remember this kit having probably the best wheels in an American kit and the disc brakes been designed very clever, not even needing any glue to attach. I still have one built up in my case. 

[magicmustang]

Good start.

I built a version with a removable top.

Edited Friday at 02:27 AM by magicmustang

[bill-e-boy]

I too built it a while ago - just find the pix

But I do have some of the real thing - it is at The Petersen Museum that I visited last year. And it is a superb looking car

[OldNYJim]

Thanks for all the comments everyone - and thanks @bill-e-boy for those additional reference pics!  The color of the interior in particular seems to vary a lot depending on which pics I look at so these are helpful!

This week I’ve been slowly prepping the body for paint, nothing worth showing there particularly, but primarily working on all the stuff under the hood…gas tank, radiator and so on.  Here’s the best pic I found of the 1:1:

And what the kit gives you to work with:

First up, I removed all the molded in detail from the gas tank - I’ll be adding that all back in later, and added back in that brace that runs along the front edge:

I used a little solvent to soften the plastic so I could add some weld-bead detail, then painted dark gray with a little drybrushing to force the effect of light hitting those uneven edges:

Inside the ‘frunk’ there’s a little tinwork on the left and right sides - best match I found for the color in my reference pics was Vallejo steel…these need a couple more coats of clear to get the effect I want:

With my current skill level I can’t improve on the radiator too much, it’s nicely molded, and given it isn’t super visible in any reference pics I could find I shot it flat black, then misted dark gray over top from above…a trick figure painters in particular like to add depth to a piece:

I have some more detailing stuff to do on that still, but we’ll get to that…

I printed some brake fluid reservoirs - I’m still in the process of layering up washes of ink and paint on them to try and get a passable milk-jug-material look to those like real ones have, but they’ll have some separate little caps to stop the fluid spilling out:

And while I was printing stuff I replaced that fuel pump (I think) with a more in-scale version I designed in CAD…you can see why Testor’s made their take on this piece so exaggerated looking…the detail really disappears if it actually is in scale, but hopefully some careful painting and washes will bring it back out:

And that’s the results of my first week’s work…a whole bunch of nothing so far - ha!  Soon as I finish detailing these parts though I’ll be ready to do some assembly, and then I can move onto the dash and interior.

Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[FoMoCo66]

Looking forward to see your spin on this. I like the NY Speed Shop label on your paint stand!