53 Ford pickup rebuild

[Sixties Sam]

Hey, guys, Here's a model I built as a teen and rebuilt this May. The original was box stock, painted blue with blue window tint. (see inset in first photo). It remained untouched till now. I found a chassis from an old AMT 57 Ford hardtop in my parts boxes, and decided to graft the steerable front end to the 53's frame. It was fairly easy to do with just a bit of hacking to the inner fenders to make it fit. The stock flathead was replaced by a Ford 302 from the Revell 32 Ford roadster kit. I made coil springs from magnet wire. The truck probably would ride better than it did with the stock leaf springs & solid axle!

Please excuse the balsa dust in the 2nd photo. I build R/C planes, too.

The grille is from the 53 kit and I cut down a parts box roll pan for the rear with parts box lights. The wheels came from eBay. The exhaust pipes are from the parts box with brass tube tips. Paint is Krylon spray cans.

For my car show diorama, I found a Kawasaki Ninja diecast among my son's old toys, and painted it to match the Ford. Here's a spectator checking it out.

Thanks for looking. I hope you like it! Oops! 1st photo was wrong. I put the right one in.

Sam

Edited August 10, 2009 by Sixties Sam

[Nick Winter]

Hey, guys, Here's a model I built as a teen and rebuilt this May. The original was box stock, painted blue with blue window tint. (see inset in first photo). It remained untouched till now. I found a chassis from an old AMT 57 Ford hardtop in my parts boxes, and decided to graft the steerable front end to the 53's frame. It was fairly easy to do with just a bit of hacking to the inner fenders to make it fit. The stock flathead was replaced by a Ford 302 from the Revell 32 Ford roadster kit. I made coil springs from magnet wire. The truck probably would ride better than it did with the stock leaf springs & solid axle!

Please excuse the balsa dust in the 2nd photo. I build R/C planes, too.

The grille is from the 53 kit and I cut down a parts box roll pan for the rear with parts box lights. The wheels came from eBay. The exhaust pipes are from the parts box with brass tube tips. Paint is Krylon spray cans.

For my car show diorama, I found a Kawasaki Ninja diecast among my son's old toys, and painted it to match the Ford. Here's a spectator checking it out.

Thanks for looking. I hope you like it!

Sam

I'm a self proclamed model truck nut and that's real nice looking, I really like the engine, paint, and steerable front end. A real beauty. Looks good.

[John Truby]

Nice job on the makeover!!

Good looking effort.

John

[Sixties Sam]

Looking good Sam - I have a WIP now too from that same time period. I'm finding that rebuilds are a completely different ball game than building oob and take quite a bit more time. You have made a few scratch touches too that look good. I like the blue tinted windows the best. I'm glad you kept the original custom grill.

Yes, rebuilding can be tedious, especially correcting my old mistakes and poor craftsmanship. Many of my models are so old that the glue joints are letting go, so disassembly is easy. The 53 came apart easily with only one stubborn glue joint under the cab. I found the custom grille among my old parts and didn't realize it had come with the 53 till I saw it on the old instruction sheet. I saved nearly all the instructions from years ago, and they are handy to have sometimes.

Thanks for all the compliments, guys. I appreciate them.

Sam

[93Z34]

At least you had the courage to tear apart one of your old builds! I have several models that would do good from a rebuild, but am too skiddish to tear them apart.

Your efforts were obviously rewarded with a sweet looking truck!

[diymirage]

that is a very nice looking truck

i build one a few months ago myself

same grille but that is about it

(i keep mine here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21003 )

i really like your paintscheme, those colours look good

also, where did the sidepipes came from ?

(my kit had sidepipes but they looked different then yours)

heres just one pic of mine cos i dont want to crowd your topic

[Sixties Sam]

Eelco, your 53 is a beauty! I like the color combo. The trailer is nice, too. I hope you have enough power to tow that beast! I'm not sure where the pipes on mine came from. I'm thinking they were from an old AMT 32 Ford coupe or maybe 40 Ford kit from the 1960's. They were in my ancient parts box. I'm glad you like my truck. Thanks.

Sam

[RodneyBad]

Good looking truck.

cool 2 tone paint combo.

Nice matching bike too.

[diymirage]

Eelco, your 53 is a beauty! I like the color combo. The trailer is nice, too. I hope you have enough power to tow that beast! I'm not sure where the pipes on mine came from. I'm thinking they were from an old AMT 32 Ford coupe or maybe 40 Ford kit from the 1960's. They were in my ancient parts box. I'm glad you like my truck. Thanks.

Sam

thanks

i took some liberty in building the engine, it is the ford flathead that came with the kit

i modified the intake from a ford 302 mustang (i think) to fit it so i could run a dual carb setup

i just couldnt get myself to install the desoto firedome that was an optional engine in the kit

gottal love those partsbox finds

i find myself using mroe and more of them aswell