Deuce roadster / tub kit bash

[customline]

🐿  this was posted in the wrong thread. I blame the squirrels. No worries. 🐿

It seems the deuce grille, the very thing that many of us love the most about the old girl, is not well represented in some kits and this is one of them.  There are two weaknesses with this one.  Fortunately, the shape of the shell is good, from what I can determine, which is something I can't say for some others. The grille, however, lacks the cross braces and that's a big one. I can't fix that. The other is a common one and that is the way the grille fits the shell. It goes into the shell too deep.  On other builds, I just shim up the grille till it looks right to me. This kit has an  additional issue that needs to be addressed before I can be happy. The chin is weak. Literally. 

It can be easily broken. First, I added shims to bring the grille out using scraps of .005" sheet. To make me happy, I needed to do it twice for a total of .010" at each point of contact. Then I braced the chin with more junk, bending it carefully into position, and holding with CA and a kick. With all the test fitting I've had to do (another story 😕), I was lucky to get this done before I broke it off.

Moving along, and I know some folks won't like this but I want the hood but I don't like the louvers. Sorry. They had to go.

Why did they have to use this (arrow) for the sprue gate?  Gotta fix that too.

While I was playing with the grille shell this popped up👇😕.  Easy fix, though. A bit of CA on a thin toothpick and done. You didn't need to know this but I wanted to show off a very handy tool that maybe isn't ubiquitous among fellow builders. And it's still wet 😋

Thanks for putting up with my nonsense.🥴

 

Edited Sunday at 01:23 PM by customline

[customline]

Got 'er painted 😛

Two orange, two clear.  Done and done. No rub-out. Nuttin'!  Looks like it's final assembly time. 🙃

[Kanada Kustoms]

Looking great!

[customline]

13 hours ago, Kanada Kustoms said:

Looking great!

Thanks, Jon. 

[espo]

Great looking color and like the stance. 

[customline]

6 hours ago, espo said:

Great looking color and like the stance. 

Thanks, Dave, I was after a little attitude in the rake. I've got mock-up and I need to make a decision about rubbing it out. The paint is dramatic and looks good on the table but it could be much better. I have only two light clear coats. The OP is maybe a coat thick but who knows? I may try my luck but like my sig line says....

To rub or not to rub......that is the question 🤔

Ok...whattayathink about the windshield? It's the "spare" from the Duval kit. It's not quite as low as the tub kit unit and that one looks funny from a repair (not now 😒).  I will get some chrome on it and do a comparison.  We shall see....

Oh... how about this? 👇🥴

Thanks for cruising by 😎

[TopherMcGinnis]

AHH OOOOGGGAAAAAHHHHH no

[TopherMcGinnis]

Now, a Road Runner horn....

[customline]

7 minutes ago, TopherMcGinnis said:

Now, a Road Runner horn....

Meep meep ? 😄

[FoMoCo66]

28 minutes ago, TopherMcGinnis said:

Now, a Road Runner horn....

Where's the ACME dynamite? 💣

[customline]

3 hours ago, FoMoCo66 said:

Where's the ACME dynamite? 💣

If I burn through to the primer we won't need the dynamite. Just my right foot. 😕

[espo]

15 hours ago, customline said:

Thanks, Dave, I was after a little attitude in the rake. I've got mock-up and I need to make a decision about rubbing it out. The paint is dramatic and looks good on the table but it could be much better. I have only two light clear coats. The OP is maybe a coat thick but who knows? I may try my luck but like my sig line says....

To rub or not to rub......that is the question 🤔

Ok...whattayathink about the windshield? It's the "spare" from the Duval kit. It's not quite as low as the tub kit unit and that one looks funny from a repair (not now 😒).  I will get some chrome on it and do a comparison.  We shall see....

Oh... how about this? 👇🥴

Thanks for cruising by 😎

Maybe try a very light color sanding starting with a 3000-grit pad and see just how high and low the finish is. Not enough to get into the color, just the clear and then again maybe another coat of clear. Could be that all you'll need is some light compound depending on how smooth the finish is after the sanding. Kind of like the windshield in the photos. A 1:1 might have a thin rubber type gasket between the bottom of the windshield and the cowl. That might be a consideration.   

[customline]

7 minutes ago, espo said:

Maybe try a very light color sanding starting with a 3000-grit pad and see just how high and low the finish is. Not enough to get into the color, just the clear and then again maybe another coat of clear. Could be that all you'll need is some light compound depending on how smooth the finish is after the sanding. Kind of like the windshield in the photos. A 1:1 might have a thin rubber type gasket between the bottom of the windshield and the cowl. That might be a consideration.   

Yeah, Dave, that's pretty much how I will proceed. You can see in the first picture that the surface is a fairly fine OP. I'm going to try it in a bit and, hopefully, put up more pix tonight. Thanks for weighing in. 

[Speedpro]

The paint looks really nice. Till you took that pic from the side. No rubbing compound is going to fix that. If you feel you just have too fix it, best bet is wet sand using a micro mesh sanding cloth system with a little dish soap. Start with 3600 and sand till 12000 being carefull around sharp edges. Then give it another coat of clear. Repeat till you see the result you want. 98.5 percent of views won't see what your seeing on a table. They will look at it and say "nice paint". Great looking build.

[customline]

4 hours ago, Speedpro said:

The paint looks really nice. Till you took that pic from the side. No rubbing compound is going to fix that. If you feel you just have too fix it, best bet is wet sand using a micro mesh sanding cloth system with a little dish soap. Start with 3600 and sand till 12000 being carefull around sharp edges. Then give it another coat of clear. Repeat till you see the result you want. 98.5 percent of views won't see what your seeing on a table. They will look at it and say "nice paint". Great looking build.

Thanks, Paul.  I got it done tonight. Took a chance with 2 light coats of clear and started with very beat-up 3200 pad segments and followed it through with Scratch-X at the end.  Scuffed it in two spots.  It ain't too bad. 

Oh well.....still some in the can. Or.....or if I just pretend the rub-throughs are reflections 😉.  Nah, I circled 'em fer ya. 🤓

All shined up and no place to go.  Thanks for checking in.

 

 

 

[meechum68]

Beautiful work! That color just pops!

[customline]

12 minutes ago, meechum68 said:

Beautiful work! That color just pops!

Thanks, Michael.  Tamiya lacquer is my rattle-can go-to these days. 

[meechum68]

Nice, and Grey primer, gloss white or flat white? then the Metallic Orange?  

[customline]

47 minutes ago, meechum68 said:

Nice, and Grey primer, gloss white or flat white? then the Metallic Orange?  

The gray primer is Mr. Surfacer 1500. I was careful about spraying light coats of Tamiya white primer over the gray this time. I gave it two light coats over everything according to previous posts on page 3 ( my memory is not helping much.)  Contrary to what I had said, I did not wet sand the white but waited almost a week before the orange, mostly due to weather. I let it rest a couple of days before the rub-out. No issues this time. Just a little touch-up to do now.

I put the interior together. After the lid goes on you can't see much of it. It's not fancy but the dash is interesting to some degree, IMHO. Hanging pedals with aluminum diamond-plate treads - very home-built 😉.

Gotta find the shifter....it's here somewhere......sure am glad the dash isn't glued....

[customline]

The seats are the ones that come in the Duval kit.  You could cut yourself on the top of the backs. I wish I knew why I'm only getting to this now. I did paint them. Well it's time to fix them.

I sanded the paint off the backs. I used 1/16" rod, cold bent and attached to the backs with solvent. I added the same inside to hold the curve.

I covered all that with .020 sheet scrap and after that I filled the edges with Bondo.

There we go...🤓  safety first!

[Alan Barton]

Interesting how you have used the awkward tapered proportions of the tub body ( all AMT Deuces have the same issue) by channeling the front to make the lower edge more or less parallel to the frame.  I might have to try that myself!

 

Cheers

Alan

[customline]

9 hours ago, Alan Barton 2 said:

Interesting how you have used the awkward tapered proportions of the tub body ( all AMT Deuces have the same issue) by channeling the front to make the lower edge more or less parallel to the frame.  I might have to try that myself!

 

Cheers

Alan

If I'm recalling correctly, Alan, it was just making a small adjustment at the firewall to frame and just eyeball engineering.  I didn't plan it with anything like that in mind.  

Edit: 

I checked back and there was clearance issues with the interior tub floor. It was modified to accommodate the transmission and that allowed the the body to sit down on the frame also. The final adjustment was at the firewall.

2nd edit:

....I think. 🤔

 

Edited 23 hours ago by customline

[customline]

 Seats turned out okay. I used black embossing powder for the indoor/outdoor carpeting, poured over Tamiya flat black. It's not cheap but it behaves much better than flock and it may, in fact, be a bit cheaper. There's not a whole lot of colors that are useful to us but you just treat it like flock and mix colors. Anyway, the interior tub is done so there's nothing stopping me from wrapping it up. Except the game.

 

yeah, I know....you want me to drill out the steering wheel, right?  Mmmmmm nah.  I have a better idea.....if I could just remember....🙃.....🤣...................🤔

 

Thank you for your time! 🙃

[TopherMcGinnis]

Looks good 👍