AMT's 1929 Ford Woody/Pickup Kit: WIP

[David G.]

Hello Everybody!

Now that my '50 Oldsmobile Club Coupe is finished, it's time to start another build!

 

This is AMT's 1929 Ford Woody/Pickup kit. According to the box it can be built one of four ways. A wagon or a pickup, with custom or stock options for each. I've decided to build the Woody wagon as a mild-custom hot rod. 

 

The first thing I wanted to do was get the right stance and profile. So I assembled the axles and did a mockup with a number of different wheel sets. I did find a good set of wheels and tires in the parts box. They have kind of a Western Smoothie look which is much better than the Keystone Cliche' Classics or stock spokes in the kit. I will of course dress them up a little.

 

Inspired by the box art and some online photos I decided on a sunny yellow for the base color.

 

I painted the wood panel inserts using my woodgrain technique. The wood body framing will be similar to the inside of the panels.

 

The test-fit mockup is looking pretty good.

 

That's it for this round. 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to post any comments, questions or critiques you may wish to share.

David G.

[slusher]

how did you achieve that great looking wood panel?

[NOBLNG]

Terrific job on the wood grain there David!😎

[Ulf]

Impressive wood painting.

I really like the stance of the car, I’m in a non dropped period.

[FoMoCo66]

Man, that wood grain is very, uh... woody! Great job on that and you can never go wrong with baby moons!

[David G.]

19 hours ago, slusher said:

how did you achieve that great looking wood panel?

Hi Carl. For this one I started with a base coat of Tamiya TS-46 Light Sand. Next I lightly drew some random lines on the paint with a brown Sharpie. Then I used an alcohol wash to soften and smear the pen lines. After that I brushed on some very thinned streaks and patches of Tamiya Red-Brown, NATO Brown. Each color thinned to the point of being more of a wash than paint but still opaque enough to provide noticeable coverage. Then came a very dry dry-brush of Flat Earth and Flat Flesh, for just a whisper of highlighting. Finally, some thinned flat black applied here and there with a liner brush to add a little detail. 

When I was satisfied with how it all looked I let it dry for a while then sprayed a light coat of Tamiya PS-43 Translucent Orange followed by a coat of Tamiya Clear.

The lighter panel is Tamiya Light Sand with a thinned random brushing of Flat Flesh followed by Translucent Orange and clear.

To sum it up, I just start with a light colored base. I follow that with washes and dry-brushing building from dark to light then adding darker line details . Then I spray on translucent orange, yellow or red depending on how I want it to look. When I'm happy with that I spray it with either a flat or gloss clear depending on whether I want a varnished or natural look. 

It may sound like a lot of work but it  took me less than an hour to do both panels front and back.

Thanks for asking!

18 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

Terrific job on the wood grain there David!😎

Thank you Greg. I am rather happy with how it turned out.

 

18 hours ago, Ulf said:

Impressive wood painting.

I really like the stance of the car, I’m in a non dropped period.

Thank you Ulf. Ya know, I never really did get into the whole lowered stance trend. Maybe growing up in the Seventies working on gassers and raked street machines has something to do with that.  

 

17 hours ago, FoMoCo66 said:

Man, that wood grain is very, uh... woody! Great job on that and you can never go wrong with baby moons!

Thank you Elliot. I agree, some things just never seem to go out of style.

David G.

[slusher]

David thank you for your wood grain Technique!

[David G.]

37 minutes ago, slusher said:

David thank you for your wood grain Technique!

Always happy to help.

=D-

[James2]

Interesting build, you have my attention.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Good looking wood effect.

Thanks for explaining the way you got there.  

[meechum68]

This is so enjoyable! Love the steelies!

 

[David G.]

23 hours ago, James2 said:

Interesting build, you have my attention.

Thank you James2, I will endeavor not to disappoint.

 

23 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Good looking wood effect.

Thanks for explaining the way you got there.  

Thank you Bill. I've learned so much from this community, it's nice being able to give a little back when I can.

 

14 hours ago, meechum68 said:

This is so enjoyable! Love the steelies!

 

Thank you Michael, always one of my favorites too.

David G.

[Straightliner59]

I would like to add my voice to the chorus singing the praises of your woodwork! Beatifully done, sir!

[David G.]

16 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

I would like to add my voice to the chorus singing the praises of your woodwork! Beatifully done, sir!

Thank you very much Daniel!

David G.

[David G.]

Hello Everybody!

I know it's been a little while since I last posted anything to this build thread but I have been working on it.

After the first coat of yellow I realized that there was a hole in the running board apron that is meant for the stock spare wheel mount. I'm not building stock so it must be filled in.

 

After spraying some yellow on the body, it's time for another test fit mockup.

 

I really want to display this one with the hood off showing a nice beefy classic hot rod motor. I found one that I think may suit the need. It's the unused optional Dodge Red Ram engine from AMT's 1929 Ford Model A Roadster. I built that kit a few years ago and went with the stock version which left the optional engine available. Unfortunately it's a little lacking on detail and this half-assed starter really needs to go.

 

One of the reasons I chose the Dodge engine is because it was about the only parts box motor I had with a manual transmission... that and the blower. The transmission on the Dodge engine turned out to be too short to allow the engine to fit properly to the Woody chassis so I'll be doing what I was hoping to avoid by selecting this engine, swapping the transmission.  

 

After doing a little prep work to get the new engine ready, I decided a test fit was in order. It looks like we have a problem. The starter bump on the transmission bell housing doesn't line up to the mounting location on the engine block! I suppose I could ignore it but I don't think I will. It's time to look for another engine. 

 

It's kind of a shame that I won't be using this engine. Prep work aside, I was really looking forward to using this one. In spite of its shortcomings I think it could have made a good looking engine. Oh well. As they say, back to the drawing board.

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to post any comments or questions you may have.

David G.

[NOBLNG]

The body is looking nice David.👍 Will the starter fit where the bell housing lump is? If so it should be simple to lop off the engine mount and fill the hole in the oil pan. You gotta do that anyway or it’s gonna leak.😬

[stavanzer]

Great Mock Up! The Yellow is a Good Choice. I'd advise doing what you have to do, to use that little Dodge "Red Ram" Hemi. It is a smaller engine and will look great in the Ford.

[David G.]

20 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

The body is looking nice David.👍 Will the starter fit where the bell housing lump is? If so it should be simple to lop off the engine mount and fill the hole in the oil pan. You gotta do that anyway or it’s gonna leak.😬

Thank you Greg. No, where the starter bump is on transmission is too high in relation to the engine block. It would place about 1/4 of the starter inside the cylinder bank. 

19 hours ago, stavanzer said:

Great Mock Up! The Yellow is a Good Choice. I'd advise doing what you have to do, to use that little Dodge "Red Ram" Hemi. It is a smaller engine and will look great in the Ford.

Thank you much Alan, that yellow certainly does seem like a good color for a hot rod.

I really do like the Red Ram but I've moved on from that one. The one I found to use in place of it is the dual carb Max Wedge from AMT's '49 Merc. It has much better casting detail and without the blower it should allow me to put the hood on if I choose. And it feels like more of a daily driver engine than the blown Hemi... it's a little more realistic, I think.

Thanks,

David G.

[LennyB]

Nice choice and progress David, I’ll be keeping an eye on this.   Is the first transmission too short in length? What about adding a spacer, ie adapter plate, to make it a bit longer.   

[NOBLNG]

Or just add a longer tail housing?

[stavanzer]

2 hours ago, David G. said:

I really do like the Red Ram but I've moved on from that one. The one I found to use in place of it is the dual carb Max Wedge from AMT's '49 Merc. It has much better casting detail and without the blower it should allow me to put the hood on if I choose. And it feels like more of a daily driver engine than the blown Hemi... it's a little more realistic, I think.

That sounds good too, and a street driven blower is fun to look at, it can complicate every day driving. Good Choice!

[Ace-Garageguy]

2 hours ago, LennyB said:

Nice choice and progress David, I’ll be keeping an eye on this.   Is the first transmission too short in length? What about adding a spacer, ie adapter plate, to make it a bit longer.   

 

1 hour ago, NOBLNG said:

Or just add a longer tail housing?

Real world solution: custom trans mount and a longer custom driveshaft. Pretty easy on a model too.

Far as the starter goes, real-world solution would be either an aftermarket bellhousing that relocated the starter, common at one time, or machine work and fabrication to accomplish the same thing...also common at one time.

Edited October 6 by Ace-Garageguy

[David G.]

23 hours ago, LennyB said:

Nice choice and progress David, I’ll be keeping an eye on this.   Is the first transmission too short in length? What about adding a spacer, ie adapter plate, to make it a bit longer.   

Thank you Lenny, I'm glad to have you along.

22 hours ago, NOBLNG said:

Or just add a longer tail housing?

Thanks Greg. There are a number of questions and suggestions offered.  I'm going to respond below and try to address them all in one shot. 

21 hours ago, stavanzer said:

That sounds good too, and a street driven blower is fun to look at, it can complicate every day driving. Good Choice!

Thank you Alan, that was my thought too. I plan to make this a surfer wagon and the Max Wedge is a much better choice when it comes to driving to the beach with your buddies every weekend.

21 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

 

Real world solution: custom trans mount and a longer custom driveshaft. Pretty easy on a model too.

Far as the starter goes, real-world solution would be either an aftermarket bellhousing that relocated the starter, common at one time, or machine work and fabrication to accomplish the same thing...also common at one time.

Okay Folks, I appreciate all your questions and suggestions and I hope this response covers them all in one pass.

My first choice for replacement of the less than stellar custom engine option for the '29 Woody was the Thunderbird engine from AMT's '60 Starliner. Unfortunately the automatic transmission prevented it from fitting without cutting and swapping the transmissions. I wanted to avoid doing that so I started looking for a suitable engine with a manual gearbox. The one that filled that bill was the Red Ram from AMT's '29 Model A Roadster.  The transmission on the Red Ram turned out to be too short and I realized that I would end up doing what I wanted to avoid. Cutting and swapping transmissions. I figured that the best option at that point was to keep the Woody's transmission as a central anchor and work around that. I knew that the Woody transmission would fit the Woody chassis and all I had to do was make the engine work with that.

When I discovered that the Red Ram's starter location didn't match the bell housing bump on the transmission, I considered moving the bump on the bell housing, modifying the Red Ram transmission to fit the Woody chassis or just putting the whole thing together and pretend that I didn't notice.    Previous life experience has taught me that adjusting multiple factors at the same time is a recipe for disaster, or at least failure. For example, if your engine is running rough, it's not a good idea to adjust the carburetor, points and timing all at once. Hit 'em each one at a time and get what you can from that and move on to the next activity. Again, I figured it best to stick to keeping the Woody's transmission as the central anchor point and working around that.

Though I did like the blower on the Red Ram, I wasn't happy with its overall lack of detail. Letting go of it was not a difficult choice. So I looked through my kit remnants and found the Max Wedge from AMT's '49 Merc ( I do have kits from other manufacturers, I promise!   ) I did have to cut and swap the transmission but at this point it looks like everything else should work. The casting detail is much better on the Wedge than it is on the Ram so it'll look better without the hood. Though it is a rather wide engine so if I do run with a hood I'll probably have to ditch the side curtains. And I don't like the header-manifolds that Chrysler stuck on this engine so I'm scratching around in my parts box for a set of aftermarket headers. Because... hot rod

And the Thunderbird engine, my original choice is still an option I'm considering.    

Wow! I hope that hits 'em all. Thanks for taking the time to read through all that and thanks for taking the time to offer your comments and suggestions.

David G.

[slusher]

Coming along nicely David!

[FoMoCo66]

Love the yellow! This things gonna be cool. Are you planning on lowering it? I just think it would look great all around if it was lowered so that the wheels had just a tiny gap inbetween the fenders. One way I would do that is a drop front axle (and maybe even a quick change out back to handle the power 😉). Also, have you considered getting some surf boards to stick out the back?

Edited October 8 by FoMoCo66