Bonneville Refresh

[Alyn]

I've been entering my 32 Bonneville roadster in quite a few local (Midwest) contests this summer. Recently, the Kustom Kemps of America held their Lead Sled Spectacular in Sallina, Kansas and included a model car contest. "Spectacular" is a very good description of this event. Last year there were over 800 rods and customs entered (full size 1:1). This year upped the anti with over 1,000. This is rod and custom heaven as I would imagine it. But, that's another story.

The event is strickly focused around 50's and 60's style rods and customs, so in order to make my Bonneville roadster fit in, I decided to Rat it out a bit with a new body. The chosen victum is the Switchers 32 Ford sedan/phaeton kit. I chopped the top about 4" in scale. It could have gone lower, especially considering the purpose, but this body may end up as part of a different project in the future, therefore the moderate chop. The B and C pillars lined up great with the A pillar being the only one out of alignment. A slight cut on the upper inside corner of the door frames allowed for enough tilt in the pillar to line it up. After a wedge of styrene was inserted into the cut and then trimmed, only one round of putty was needed on each of the pillars to finish it up. Of course there were a few rounds of gray primer and sanding, but for minimal effort, it turned out pretty good.

[Scott Colmer]

I spotted that in a Salinas folder. Recognized it right away! Great idea!- but you were busted cold.

Scott

[Alyn]

After some underlying coats of black and gray primer, I shot the whole body in red oxide primer. It fit the chassis like a glove; like it came as a kit.

[Alyn]

I spotted that in a Salinas folder. Recognized it right away! Great idea!- but you were busted cold.

You should of been there man. I think I took over 500 pictures of the 1:1 cars; could've spent several days looking at them all. But, I wasn't trying to enter my car incognito, just trying to be in tune with the theme of the show.

[Alyn]

very cool! what is the frame you've got under there? looks like the Mooneyes dragster frame

Thanks, Dave. The frame is from the AMT Boyd Coddington American HotRod kit. I have nothing good to say about this kit, including the frame. I was surprised to find the exact same frame in the Switchers 32 Ford sedan/roadster kit as well.

I extended the rails just behind the front cross member by about a scale foot and added all the roll cage structure from scratch. In retrospect, I should have used the next smaller diameter of plastic rod for the tubes. It's for Bonneville, though, where weight is a good thing.

[Alyn]

Here's some shots of work done on the inside of the body shell. I wanted to add some structure, so some square styrene was cut and fitted in place along with a couple of flat panels.

[charlzrocks]

Wow, nice chop! Looks great!!

[James W]

The interior work is very nice and the roll cage structure is well executed even if you think it's heavy.

The next smaller size would have been a little too light in my opinion.

[pstreet]

The inner structure looks great, especially those panels.

[noname]

Alyn, I built an Altered sedan not long ago in which I used styrene to make some "inner structure" as well. Yours is way better than mine. You must have some really good reference photos to work from. If so where did you find them? I had very little to work from.

[Alyn]

Thanks, guys. Matt, picture reference on the interior structure was sparse. I googled for 30's roadsters adding terms like "structure", "restore", "body panel", etc., but found very few usable pictures. HAMB/Jalopy Journal is probably the best resource I can think of for this type of info. I saw some bare inner structure on some of the numerous rat rods at the Salina, Ks Kustom Kemps event, but that was after this body had been completed. I used my "minds eye" for the most part, sprinkled with some editorial design license. In other words. they're "kinda like this"

Here's a couple more, the first of which shows the finished inside including roof bows. They're real wood, but I forget what type I used (usually basswood). The black/gray primer as mentioned previously, is in prep for a bit of weathering; my first attempt.

thanks fur yur eyeballs and comments!

[Alyn]

Here's how the outside turned out. I used various sizes of dry transfer letters to create the door panel and class designation on the window(B/gas comp coupe). Then the body was painted with the red oxide primer. Afterwards the lettering was sanded to bring back the image. I purposely sanded through the door and roof edge to uncover the underlying black and gray. This is my first attempt at any sort of weathering. I'll take on some more complex techniques next time.

"Rocky's Speed Shop" by the way, was named after one of my favorite cousins just for fun. He along with his dad and some brothers have been involved in the Salt Lake City racing scene for years.

[Raul_Perez]

...picture reference on the interior structure was sparse. I googled for 30's roadsters adding terms like "structure", "restore", "body panel", etc., but found very few usable pictures...

Alyn,

The best place I know of to find reference pics for old cars is eBay. I also look there for dash panels to get photo reduced, accurate gages.

Here are a few pics I got for a '32 Ford:

I hope this helps!

Later,

[Flatout]

Another winner Alyn! The sedan looks great chopped and it really fits the roadster's chassis perfectly. I really like the detailing inside the body, matches the rest of the build. Got more pictures? ALoha...Pete

[noname]

Thanks guys, I have found pics for my 32 sedan on ebay but they were just good enough to get a general idea. Thanks for the pics Paul, those are quite clear. I guess it would make sense to go on ebay motors once in a while as things are always changing. I will have to do some searching on HAMB the next time too.

Alyn, your sedan is looking great. Love the primer and weathering. Old salt lake racers are my favorite next to drag cars. Are you putting salt on it too?

[Alyn]

Looks like I need to pay more attention to ebay!

Here's the final pics on the sedan body. The taillights are hand formed from some clear red sprue and meant to resemble mid 50's Caddy or 56 Chevy lights. They are mounted in polished aluminum tube for bezels. Front nose and headlights are from the Switchers kit. The radiator shell has been extended to cover most of the oversize LSR style radiator. The cross bar on the traditional 32 headlight assembly was cut down and used as stems for each light to mount into the side of the shell.

The center section of the roof, both inside and out is masking tape painted matte black. I don't know how long this body will remain as part of this car. It already has the roadster body and I originally had some different ideas for a 32 Sedan, so sometime down the road she may get stripped, modified and repainted again.

Thanks for all the comments.

[noname]

Thats a very cool looking machine. Well done.

[pstreet]

Fantastic looking build Alyn. The grill shell looks great, as do the tail lights.

Just hope the driver doesn't die from carbon monoxide poisoning from those headers

[Raul_Perez]

Very cool, Alyn!!

The whole build looks right!!

Later,

[RodneyBad]

WOW!!

That's some Incredible workmanship.

The inner framing looks great.

Motor looks great.

Body too.

Nice work.

[Alyn]

Thank you, my friends. I kinda wish I would've gone with the sedan body from the start.

I know some have seen the WIP for the rest of this car on another site, but many haven't, so I'll post a condensed version. The engine block is from the AMT Boyd Coddington 32 kit, but everything else is scratch build. The valve covers and intake manifold base are made from various sizes of square and flat styrene stock and sprue. The ribs on the manifold are .010" square. That's only 1/4" in scale. The injector stacks are hand flared aluminum tube and the 180 degree headers are aluminum rod with aluminum tube collectors. The magneto is also scratched built from various sizes of aluminum tube and styrene rod with 30g wrap wire used for plug wires.

[Alyn]

Here's a couple more of the engine. The aluminum rod used for the headers before paint. The individual tubes intertwine, so assembly was like doing a brain teaser puzzle. The aluminum tube collectors were forced over a center punch and then the end squared off to allow the four individual tubes to slip in. In the completed motor pic, everything in the picture except the block and oil pan are scratch built. This view show the scratch built ribbed timing cover. The original timing cover and water pump were sliced off the front of the block with a razor saw. In the completed car, the front mounted fuel pump is covered by other parts so you don't notice it much.

[Alyn]

This is the the start of an oil tank and fire extinquisher. The oil tank is styrene tube with several layers of flat stock on top that were sanded to a half round shape while chucked up in my cordless drill.

The fuel tank needed to be an odd shape to fit in the space available. It's made up of individual pieces of flat styrene with the outlet cover made of brass. The brass piece will get additional detail later.

My attempt at making an optima battery. This was painted gray and yellow with zipper teeth used for battery cable clamps.

[Raul_Perez]

Alyn,

All of the scratch built bits are looking GREAT!!

Yeah, that is a strangely shaped gas tank...how about a picture of where it fits??

Later,

[Alyn]

Raul, I've been trying to load 2 different pictures showing the rear of the chassis, but so far, no luck. Ever since I started posting here on MCM, I've had problems. If I keep the .jpg's to around 50k or less, things seem to work better. I store my files on Microsoft's Skydrive and wonder if that might be part of the problem(versus using Fotki). Sometime a picture will load when I try a day later, so I'll keep at it.

Anyway, here's some more pics. For strength, the front axle is made from brass and soldered together. I factored in king pin inclination and caster into the angle of the upright tubes on each side. Obviously, the radius arms are styrene, but brass would have been a good choice here as well. To simulate the adjustment threads of adjustable shocks, countersunk flat head screws were used as a foundation. The end of each screw was filed flat and drilled for a mounting point. The center of the head was drilled to insert steel rods for the shock shafts. The springs are hand would wire with the insulation left on instead of using paint since wire is easily found in any common coil spring color. GrandtLine nuts were added later as required.

Edited August 10, 2009 by Alyn