29 A roadster - budget hot rod

[Speedster]

Outstanding!!!!!!!!!!!

[Alyn]

Jeffrey, you're apparently a man of few words. I appreciate your interest.

Although I'm trying to move my focus to another car, I managed to move this one forward a bit. It seems like the closer you get to the end, the slower it goes.

I'm sure most of you are on the constant lookout for little things that look like big things. I thought some nails might make some pretty good pedals. These nails (or tacks) are about 1/2" long. I snipped the points off and then chucked the nail up in a Dremel tool. While spinning, I pressed some sandpaper up against the head to give it a machined look. That's pretty simple so the only thing left is to drill some holes in the floor and glue them in. I think this idea is a keeper. I'll be doing it again.

A short chunk of styrene rod turned into a shift knob after another ride in the Dremel. This time with a bit more filing and sanding to get the shape right. This was followed by a couple of coats of matte black applied by brush.

Here's the result so far.

And finally, a couple more little bits. I built a battery box out of some styrene flat stock and angle. The battery is from Revell's 40 Ford. It will be getting some detail painting and battery cables. The carb linkage is also scratch built from a couple of small strips of aluminum and some beading wire. I still have to wind some small diameter wire for the throttle return spring. The fuel lines; miniature clear tubing with 1/32" brass tubes (for fittings) are done, but they didn't quite make it to the photo shoot.

thanks for taking a look.

[Kenny]

Everything looks great! I love the pedals, great idea!

[Alyn]

Thanks, Ken

I wanted to wrap up the pedals, so I scratch built a gas pedal tonight. The pedal itself is made from a scrap of styrene that has some ribs on the surface. I cut a sliver about 3/32" wide, cleaned it up with some 400 grit paper and slightly rounded the top corners. This piece was epoxied to some 26 guage wire, bent to shape and run through a small piece of 3/64" brass tube for a pivot. The brass and copper were dipped in Blacken-It. the pedal is brush painted with Floquil engine black.I'll add some charcoal powder to make the ribs stnad out a bit more. Some more charcoal will be used to get rid of the white ring around the base of the other pedals.

Still have the dash and steering to do before I can finish up the interior. I'm up in the air on the "H" pattern on the shift knob. It's hand painted with titanium white artists oil paint. I'm trying to decide whether to leave it or wipe it off with turpentine.

[Alyn]

This car was set aside for a while to get to some more pressing things. I managed to get back to it the last few nights and made a little progress. I was struggling over how to handle the dash. At one point it was going to be covered in a sheet of .015" aluminum with some round gauges mounted into some 3/32 and 1/8 inch holes. I gave up on that and decided to just go with the gauge cluster included in the kit.

First the chrome plating was stripped off. Then, to get a flat surface for decals, I drilled out a couple of the molded in gauges and replaced them with some round styrene rod. After the glued dried, the part was shot with Dupli-Color chrome. Some miscellaneous decals were rounded up in the appropriate size and layed into place. These were then covered over with some Tamiya X-22 acrylic clear.

The knob i the middle of the cluster was sanded away and replaced with a scratch built knob painted with Testors white enamel.

Here's the cluster in place on the dash panel. You can see that the steering is finished up as well. I don't recall where the four spoke steering wheel came from. The horn button is made from a scrap of .015" aluminum cut into a disk and then formed over a ball bearing into a dished shape similar to a contact lense (same as the hub caps, but smaller). Aluminum tube was used for the steering column. At the last minute, I decided to add a suicide knob, so some styrene rod was mounted in the Dremel and turned down into a small handle. The back side was grooved with a round file to mate up with the steering wheel rim and glued with CA. I left if the raw color of white styrene and painted a thin line of silver around the steering wheel rim to simulate a band of metal.

and one last one. These taillights are made from some brads I found at Hobby Lobby. They were slightly dished, so I was able to fill them with Tamiya clear red for lenses. I like how they look but size wise, they work out to a scale 6" which is a bit larger than I would like. They're epoxied in place so they will lhave to do.

thanks for looking

[Raul_Perez]

Alyn!! You're still alive and building models!!

The gauges look GREAT!!

It looks like you're pretty close to finishing this one...

[Alyn]

Thanks, Raul!

I really like working on this 29, but I had to take some time for a special project to turn this 53 Ford

into a Merc lead sled

and I"m not done with it either...

[Raul_Perez]

Now that's some serious stretching!!

[Alyn]

yep. I spliced on the trunk and back half of the rear quarters from a resin Merc, then added more to the fender caps to create Lincoln taillights. Finally the continental kit was scratch built for even more length.

She's a real land yacht.

[LAone]

hi, i just saw this thread. good thing it was bumped up by your great work. lot's of good scratch building and learning from it as well. im looking forward to some more on this and other builds that you post up.

[Alyn]

Thanks for your very generous comments. glad you like it.!

I'm trying to decide what to do for a radiator and shell. That plus a few engine and chassis details and this one will be done.

[Paul Payne]

Great build, especially as a replica of an original 40's rod. I built a 29 a-v8 a few years back using a junker 29 Ford body and new 32 frame with a flathead v8. Here are a couple of pix:

I tried scratch building a Gordon Schroder steering box like Doane Spenser used in his deuce, but it came out a little large. I used it anyways, too good to junk!

[Alyn]

Your right, Paul, the steering box is a bit large, but that pressure pump next to it is a great touch. That's a great looking rod with tons of neat features. It's the kind of build that the more you look, the more details keep popping up.

Nice heat staining on the headers, and I noticed the exhaust stains on the axle too. The seats are great and the door latches are an especially nice detail. I also like the way you folded down the windshield. I may have to rip off the eight ball shifter. Now that I see yours, I think that would have been a better choice for mine. The cycle fenders are a great choice too.

Thanks for posting the pics. I really like it. Our 29's seem to have quite a few things in common.

[Paul Payne]

They are both 1940's hot rods from the dry lakes era, and it doesn't get any better than that! Race?

[Guest JamesDE]

You are doing some killer work with this Roadster...Im diggin the idea of how you did the aluminum pedals for the interior, and that Leadsled is looking really sharp... Great work there....

[Alyn]

Paul, I'll have to pass on the race. You have a definite advantage with the blower; no contest.

Thanks for checking it out, James. By the way, the pedals are 1/2" steel nails. I'll probably look at this thing on the shelf in a few years and the pedals will be rusty Luckily, on this car that won't matter much.

I figured out what to do for the radiator. Here's the three choices it came down to, the kit 29 shell (chrome would be stripped or peppered with surface rust), the cut down 32 shell I built early on, and another 32 shell cut down more like it would have been back in the day;

The shell on the right wasn't short enough on the first cut, that's why you see two. The 29 radiator fit like a glove after some minor sanding to narrow the sides.

This is a resin piece that I poured. Still getting a few bubbles in some of my casting, but they'll stay to add a little character. Here's the shell in a coat of ruddy brown primer as a base coat for some weathering.

[Alyn]

Now that I know what the radiator will be, the coolant pipes have a place to connect. These pipes are built from 3/32" aluminum rod. I like to use the rod rather than tube as the bends don't collapse. There's a 1/32" hole drilled in each end to insert a section of 1/32" aluminum rod. This helps locate the end so it doesn't move when glued into place.

Here you can see how the engine end of the pipe is filed to a 45 degree angle to mate up with the head which has a 1/32" hole for the locating pin. It's a lot of extra work pinning the ends of the pipe, but it makes installing and gluing easier.

Here's the coolant pipes in place on the engine.If this were a rat rod, I'd like these a lot. But, it's not. It's a period build so these won't do. They are too high and hide the carb stacks. I'm going to build another pair and try to get about an 1/8" or more out of the vertical section rising up from the head. They'll probably end up getting in the way of the fuel lines (not in place yet), but I think that's the lesser of two evils.

[Fuel Coupe]

Not sure how I missed this one, really love what you've done here Alyn....

Blown away by your work...

Edited September 12, 2010 by TxRat

[Alyn]

What a deal, man. I was just posting a comment on your green 32. We must of been typing at the same time...

I appreciate the compliment coming from one of my favorite builders.

Thank you

[Eric Stone]

I'm liking this one. Will be keeping an eye on it... I'd like to build something similar.

[Alyn]

Thanks, 45 72 69 63

I'll be looking forward to your 57 49 50.

41 6c 79 6e

[Dr. Cranky]

Lots of great details. Wonderful build.

[Danno]

Amazing, Alyn, just amazing! Great job.

[Alyn]

Thank you both very much for checking in. I hope you'll like my recent progress as well.

In keeping with the home built theme, The grill was pulled off a 32 Ford at the local wrecking yard. The last of the dark bue is long gone, so matching paint will have to wait for another day. For now, we'll just run her as-is.

Following the ruddy brown primer in a previous step, I dabbed on some water with a drop of liquid detergent, followed by a few pinches of kosher salt. After the water dried, the ruddy brown primer was covered in gray primer. This gives the part a layer of rust followed by what will be considered the actual primer color.

Another drying cycle and then a layer of white, more drying time and then John Deere yellow topped off with a dusting of Krylon satin meringue yellow. This picture shows the John Deere layer.

For the grille, I cut some 1" pieces of silver 24 gauge beaders wire. This wire loss its sheen shortly after I bought it and even began to show signs of corrosion. Not too cool for some of the uses I had planned, but for this car the corrosion was just right.

I cut a groove across a piece of styrene and laid in a horizontal piece of wire to act as a cross brace. This is around 32 gauge beaders wire. I would have liked something slightly thicker, but the groove to accommodate it would have been too deep, causing the plastic to break. 15 pieces of 24 gauge wire were glued in place to form the vertical ribs.

Here's the grill inserted into the shell with another piece of 24 gauge wire surrounding the assembly. The shell has been sanded down to reveal some wear, but some additional painting will follow over the chipping to create some rust. The original layer of ruddy brown didn't hold up well when the salt was removed, so the rust will be hand applied.

[Raul_Perez]

Looking great, Alyn!!

I like the weathering!!

Don't stop now!!

Later,