Ed's Chopped & Sectioned '40 Ford Coupe - COMPLETED

[Bernard Kron]

Last summer Ed Fluck III (of Drag City Casting fame – www.dragcitycasting.com) started a really nicely chopped and sectioned '40 Ford Coupe that he posted on the TRaK board (http://trakinscale.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=trakinp ). Then he decided to sell it. I jumped at the chance to buy it to "go to school" on how a superb craftsman of Ed's skill approached classic Old School custom bodywork. I was not disappointed.

Here's a picture of what came in the mail (actually it was a complete AMT Coca Cola '40 Ford Coupe kit):

As you can see it's an elegant, conservative chopped and sectioned coupe with nearly perfect proportions. You can't see it in the pictures but there was no putty or filler other than some very fine styrene strips to close up a couple of small gaps. All the cuts were bone straight and were artfully placed so they are largely hidden within the contours of the body. Cleaning this baby up took very little work.

This build is a dry run for a chopped and sectioned '40 Ford Tudor I have in the works. I'm 'rehearsing" some of the techniques I plan to use for it. As you can see from the pictures below, with the Modelhaus T-180C wide whites I'm running, the deleted running boards, etc. this car is dead nuts for the classic Valley Custom look that I'm going after. The chassis is a dummy setup I keep around but the stance is close to what I'm planning and I think I'll leave the rear wheel openings uncovered to show off the tires. In keeping with the period theme I'll probably run a twin carb flathead and do the interior in a conservative tuck and roll. Once I've slammed the chassis and decided on the hubcaps the rest should be pretty straightforward. Color may be gloss black with chrome trim if I have the chops to pull it off. I only hope I do justice to Ed's beautiful chop and section job!

Thanx for lookin',

B.

Edited February 25, 2010 by gbk1

[Sixties Sam]

Whoa! That's gonna be nice! It's amazing how a chop and section job changes the 40's looks, but yet retains its classic lines! Glossy black will look good - kinda sinister looking!

[Modellpularn]

Ohh, slick car! Ed does great work, I bought his '33 Willys pickup, and it's a very nice casting. So I'm not surprised if the bodywork was clean.

[jbwelda]

You do know gloss black is going to show every little body flaw? Seems pretty ambitious but like in real life if you pull it off it will be awesome!

I might personally think about a metallic charcoal or something like that that is a bit distracting to kinda keep the eyeball off the intimate details of the bodywork.

Looks great so far! Where exactly was it sectioned, between the beltline and the door handle? Or below the door handle? Do you have a stock body you could put next to it for a photo? I would like to be able to see where the body got slimmed down. I have been comtemplating a similar project and its hard for me to visualize what a sectioning job will do to the overall appearance of a car.

[CB]

Very nice so far B! Love how you roll 'em outa yer garage for us to see

That's gonna be a looker for sure if'n you can pull off the glossy black....

...as fer me?

I'd paint them steelies red, put some chrome luggers on & call it done-- but that's me

[Eshaver]

I'll second C B' s remarks ! Ed Shaver

[Harold]

The bodywork really emphasizes the 'less is more' approach to chopping and sectioning. This car just looks right.

[Rudy]

I dig it! I got that same coca cola kit over the winter from a guy, and have been contemplating what to do with it........... Wuld be cool to see an aerial picture to see where all the cutting was done, but it looks like you are past that point.

Rudy

[Raul_Perez]

It looks like you're off to a good start, Bernard!!

It's interesting to see how Ed cut the top to achieve the chop while maintaining the original placement of the quarter glass. He obviously used two kits to chop it the way he did...

This will look cool at the NNL West show sitting next to the 40 Ford I plan to have finished by then!!

We'll have to get Curt to build one, too!!

Later,

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx for all the nice words, guys. This is the first time I've ever finished someone else's work. It's pretty daunting when the work done is of this quality! I agree that a gloss black paint job is a little scary. You can be sure that I'll be shooting a test body before I do this one! The pressure's on to come up with some super smooth bodywork...

CB and Ed, I agree that it would look really cool in primer with red wheels. I've decided I'll shoot some red steelies and sequence the build so that is gets assembled in primer so I can takes some pictures before it gets all shiny. Of course, there's always Photoshop (except the wheels came out pink )...

[Bernard Kron]

…Where exactly was it sectioned, between the beltline and the door handle? Or below the door handle? Do you have a stock body you could put next to it for a photo? …

...Would be cool to see an aerial picture to see where all the cutting was ...

Ok, here ya go!

First off the section was done at the base of the body, removing all the material from the bottom up to the lower door hinge. This is possible because this is a slab-sided body. Any curvature and you’d have to find the flattest areas along the sides and cut there.

The chop was done by removing material around the base of the rear window along a curved line going to the corner of the rear quarter window, removing a section of the roof and B pillar in the middle, then fine tuning the line and angle of the rear half of the green house, measuring how much extra length of roof would be needed to fill the gap generated, and cutting a second roof/B pillar section to fill. Ed uses photo-etch saw blades to make his cuts so they are super thin and smooth and he loses very little material beyond what he absolutely wants to remove. He then uses flexi-files to clean up his cuts.

The only filler used on this job was on the B and A pillars where he had misjudged slightly the material he removed. In those areas single slivers of .010 styrene were glued in place. The only .filler I had to use to finish things up was a light skim coat of Bondo over the cuts and a little more filler along the top of the roof to align the roof contour. It was about as easy as I could ever hope for!

Here are some pictures to illustrate things. The yellow/green areas are where the cuts were made. I don’t have an extra AMT ’40 coupe so the “before†picture is of a Revell version which is shaped slightly differently. In the overlay picture I tried to match the wheel openings and wheelbase as closely as possible to show the effect of the section and chop.

[Bernard Kron]

...This will look cool at the NNL West show sitting next to the 40 Ford I plan to have finished by then!!

We'll have to get Curt to build one, too!!...

I may show up with maybe 3 or 4 '39-'40 Fords. There's already the candy orchid Fordor that's done, this one if I don't screw it up, the chopped and sectioned '39 Tudor I just started (if I don't...), and I'm thinking of maybe doing a simple primered Revell Standard with some rake and no hood hot rod style to show off some sort of old-timey traditional mill. I just hope I can build these clean enough to look OK next to your '40 (when are you gonna finish that one?). And one by Curt? Gulp...

Edited October 26, 2009 by gbk1

[Raul_Perez]

I may show up with maybe 3 or 4 '39-'40 Fords. There's already the candy orchid Fordor that's done, this one if I don't screw it up, the chopped and sectioned '39 Tudor I just started (if I don't...), and I'm thinking of maybe doing a simple primered Revell Standard with some rake and no hood hot rod style to show off some sort of old-timey traditional mill. I just hope I can build these clean enough to look OK next to your '40 (when are you gonna finish that one?). And one by Curt? Gulp...

Well...I could finish it by the weekend, that is if I wasn't so busy with all of the other stuff I've got going on at home and at work...

It'll be done before the show. I've got the week of Thanksgiving off from work, then two more weeks over Christmas and New Years to do not much more that work on models...

Then there's the '50 Chevy Z06 pickup and a few dioramas I want to have done for the show...

Later,

[jbwelda]

hey thanks for the explanation and illustrations bernard, it makes it a lot easier for me to see. i dont usually do kustom body mods like that so it all seems like magic to me sometimes.

so the sectioning was just taking off the lower part of the body proper...and then it sits down lower inside the fenders? i notice the body is sitting down further in the fenders in the front but the rear somehow looks the same, judging from how that side trim molding still curves down to the same place on the rear fender. or is it sitting lower in the rear fender area as well?

so do you have to now section the interior sides to match the shortened body sides?

again thanks for your illustrations and explanations; they are very good for seeing whats going on here.

[Alyn]

I thought everyone was doing 29's. You guys have a bunch of 40's on the bench!

Nevermind. Raul's is a 37 Chevy

This summer I went to Salina Kansas for the 2009 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular(and model contest). Over 1,000 rods and customs(1:1) registered for the event. Way cool. Anyway, over the course of the weekend, they had Bill Hines and a crew of body men chop a top on a volunteer car. The chop on your 40 reminds me of this top chop demo. Lot's of cuts and welding seams, but in the final result, it appeared that after grinding down the weld seams, very little filler would be needed. The key seems to be the willingness to make lots of cuts in the right places.

You present an interesting situation. You're in charge of presenting a finished model showcasing your own skills while not hiding or taking away from the skill invested by your friend. In fact your work will be a stage to display his skills. His work will be the foundation on which you apply your skills. Good luck getting the most out of both. So far, I'd say you're right on track.

[Bernard Kron]

Bill, I’m not sure exactly if Ed removed the bottom of the body in a simple cut parallel with the belt line or not. I think he did. The fact that the trim sits virtually identically relative to the rear fender top in both the sectioned and unsectioned bodies is completely coincidental since Ed’s work is on an AMT model and the unsectioned car is from Revell. It’s too late to do a proper comparison of AMT coupes since I don’t have an unmolested AMT example.

Instead I thought I’d use my sectioned AMT ’39 Ford Tudor I’ve just started to explain the other part of the sectioning process you must do. With the body reduced in vertical height you have to remove material to adjust the wheel arches in the main body to accept the fenders. The way I did it (and I’m sure Ed did the same thing) on my Tudor is to make a template of the wheel arch areas (front and rear) on the main bodies before removing the body material I also took a measurement of how much I planned to remove from the body. Then I marked a point upwards from the bottom of the unsectioned body equal to this distance and laid the templates in place with their bottoms aligned to this point to see what material would have to be removed from the wheel arches and get an idea what damage would be done to the body! After removing the sectioning material I used the templates to draw a line as a guide for removing the material (in my case with my Dremel, but anything from a pair of nail clippers to a jeweler’s saw will do for the rough work). Finessing was done trial and error with a roll of 80 grit sandpaper (or a Flexi-File if you have them) until I got the proper fit.

Here are some pics that might make things more clear. The shaded areas represent the templates required. The sectioned body sits at an angle when not mounted on the fenders because I haven’t trimmed the area under the trunk lid yet. In actuality I made my cut parallel with the belt line.

As regards the interior, at a minimum you have to remove material from the vertical height of the interior. The AMT kit uses a bucket for the interior. The Revell version used separate panels to assemble the interior from a floor piece, two sides and a rear panel. If you plan to use a stock appearing interior it’s best to take the time to inspect where to want to remove material so that the final result looks as close to stock as possible. The Revell system also makes doing accurate cuts a good deal easier. In either case noting the amount and shape of the material you sectioned out is critical here. This is really no different than if you channel the body over the frame. If you do both then you must take the total amount and shape of the material “lost†into account. In my case, on both cars, I plan to make my own tuck and roll custom upholstery from plastic stock so my options are pretty wide open. I will probably use some combination of the AMT bucket and scratch built panels. When I get there I’ll try and remember to include some photos of the process.

As you can see, just like in the 1:1 world, once you start cutting into the body the follow-on impact is quite considerable. Preplanning your work after some careful thought can be invaluable. So is, obviously, experience but there's only one way to gain that! Just start cutting... The rewards, in my opinion, are more than worth it!

Edited October 27, 2009 by gbk1

[Bernard Kron]

...This summer I went to Salina Kansas for the 2009 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular(and model contest). ...they had Bill Hines and a crew of body men chop a top on a volunteer car. The chop on your 40 reminds me of this top chop demo. Lot's of cuts and welding seams, but in the final result, it appeared that after grinding down the weld seams, very little filler would be needed. The key seems to be the willingness to make lots of cuts in the right places.

You present an interesting situation. You're in charge of presenting a finished model showcasing your own skills while not hiding or taking away from the skill invested by your friend. In fact your work will be a stage to display his skills. His work will be the foundation on which you apply your skills. Good luck getting the most out of both. So far, I'd say you're right on track.

Thanx Alyn! Yeah, like I said, given the precision and cleanliness of Ed's work It's pretty scary to take on. But this car is too pretty to just study. It's gotta be built. Ed Fluck is an interesting guy. His dad was a resin caster before him. It probably explains his meticulous attention to detail and careful work. He's been very generous with his advice in moving me through this process.

Bill Hines is one of my customizing heroes when it comes to pure technique. It's amazing to think that at his advanced age he's still chomping on that cigar and sharing the secrets of his trade with the younger generations. He must be well into his 80's by now... It musta been way cool to have seen the master at work!

Also interesting to note how very similar scale customzing is to the 1:1 world.

Edited October 27, 2009 by gbk1

[Raul_Perez]

...Nevermind. Raul's is a 37 Chevy ...

Ha ha ha...

Thanks for the chuckle,

[jbwelda]

thanks again bernard! the explanation and your illustrations are again making it clear.

>once you start cutting into the body the follow-on impact is quite considerable.

i think this is the bottom line and its usually my stumbling point in trying to do these sort of projects. im particularly interested because im currently contemplating some serious body work on a large scale model and this is helping a lot or at least getting my courage up.

[CB]

.....CB and Ed, I agree that it would look really cool in primer with red wheels. I've decided I'll shoot some red steelies and sequence the build so that is gets assembled in primer so I can takes some pictures before it gets all shiny. Of course, there's always Photoshop (except the wheels came out pink )...

Thanks B! Yep, that looks a little better !

Did see a lady's 50 Chevy pickem up at a cruise couple years ago that she had the 'rat' look done to it, and her steelies came out just about the same pinkish color.

Thanks for your usual fine postem ups. Best of luck with this, and that shiny black paint

[Ragnar]

Nice 40!

[Bernard Kron]

I’m trying to get this build done in time for the NNL West at the end of February. One of its purposes is to act as a prototype for an AMT ‘39 Tudor Sedan full custom I’m working on. It’s also going to be chopped and sectioned. I really like the Revell ’40 Ford street rod chassis with its separate floor pan and fine detailing. Also it comes pre-lowered with a much nicer stance than the AMT chassis. So I decided to adapt the Revell chassis to the AMT fenders and body. The Revell fenders are quite differently shaped than the AMT fenders with the front pair on the Revell ’40 coupe being molded into the main body shell. So I knew in the case of the Tudor I would have to use the AMT fenders. Since Ed had already trimmed the main body of the AMT coupe to AMT fenders this was the perfect opportunity to prototype this conversion. It turns out that although the Revell frame basically works with the AMT fenders there’s a lot of cutting and fitting involved.

Here’s the completed Revell chassis, finished in Testors Metallizer Buffable Magnesium with susupension and details does in Metallizer Buffable Plate Aluminum, Metallizer Aluminum, Metallizer Steel and in flat black acrylic. I’ve adapted Revell ’32 Ford Basic Builder drum backing plates to the front suspension and I’m running AMT ’40 Ford wheels with Modelhaus wide whites. The front track on the Revell chassis is a bit wide for the AMT fenders so you need to trim material off the ends of the axles and off the axle posts on the AMT wheels to bring them in.

The wheelbase on the Revell chassis is essentially the same as the AMT but the Revell piece has an extension at the front which doesn’t fit easily inside the AMT front pan and needs to be trimmed. In addition the floor pan needs to have its rear fender liners and the piece that sits behind the gas tank trimmed off. The red highlighted areas in the pics below are the parts that need to be removed.

And lastly the AMT fenders need to have the pieces that sit on top of the chassis rails and the cross bracing area at the front of the rear fenders cut away in order to allow room for the Revell floor pan. Also the front cross brace behind the grill needs to be removed. For this reason, if you’re using a ’39 style (or ’40 Ford Standard) grill like I am, it’s best to temporarily glue a grill into the opening while working on it since this area becomes extremely weak without it. FYI the Revell ’40 Ford Standard style grill fits perfectly into the AMT fenders and is much more nicely detailed. It will also be necessary to fabricate rear fender liners because the Revell chassis will leave a gap where the AMT fenders are cut away. I haven’t done that yet. The white AMT fenders are a sacrificial set I have going to work all this out. I’ll do a final on another set of fenders for this actual build.

Here’s the result. As you can see the Revell chassis moves those big Modelhaus wide whites way up into the fenders. In fact in these pictures the car sits just a little more nose up than it actually will because I didn’t want to stress the frame too much snugging it up against the front fenders during the mockup phase. During final assembly I’ll glue the tops of the Revell chassis rails to the AMT fender liners which should bring the nose down a little more. Also, the ends of the Revell frame sit slightly wider than the AMT ones so if you want to run bumpers you’ll have to cut new slots for the bumper brackets into the fenders and fill the old ones. I’m not running bumpers so I’ll just fill the old slots.

One final note, the Revell chassis sits just slightly above the tops of the chassis rail covers on the AMT fenders, effectively channeling the chassis slightly relative to the fenders. So, even if you don’t section the body sides as has been done on this coupe, using a Revell chassis on AMT fenders will require sectioning the interior bucket about 1/8th of an inch and removing a similar amount of material from the bottoms of the AMT firewall. Like I said, this conversion really requires a great deal of cutting and fitting. But if you want to build a Tudor over the Revell chassis there is no other choice!

Thanx for lookin’!

B.

Edited January 15, 2010 by gbk1

[Raul_Perez]

See what happens...I go away for a few days and evryone else gets busy building!!

It looks like you've got a pretty good handle on this one, Bernard!!

This will look really cool sitting next to the '40 Ford I just finished; showing two completely different approaches to modifying the 40 Ford!!

Later,

[Raul_Perez]

Any progress on this one???

[Bernard Kron]

Any progress on this one???

Unfortunately some emergencies on the homefront have slowed progress to a crawl on this one. Hopefully I can give it some time this weekend. Thanx for askin'!

Edited February 1, 2010 by gbk1