Slightly Altered WagonRod

[Raul_Perez]

Yeah...I know...I haven't posted any builds in quite a while. I won't bore you with the details, but I've been busy with a lot of other "stuff".

Anyway, here are a few shots of the WagonRod that I'm building.

I really wanted to build this one right from the box, but I don't like the way the headlights look like two limp, (...well, you know...), sticking out lethargically from the fenders.

Other than the headlights, this kit has some really cool Corvette ZR1 parts in it like the engine, tranny, suspension and much of the interior. It's a lot like some of the Vette inspired trucks I've built over the years.

In this pic I've removed the original headlights from the WagonRod with my Dremel, then shaped and glued on a set of stock headlight housings from a Monogram '39 Chevy. At this point, the hood sides have also been glued to the cowl. This one will have a side opening hood that's attached to the right side panel. You can also see that I've removed the molded-in wipers.

This pic shows the stock 6 spoke wheels from the WagonRod that I'll use. I may also add about '.06" of styrene to the tops of the running boards, or maybe delete them all together...I haven't decided yet...

Well, back to the build...

Later,

Edited July 4, 2010 by Raul_Perez

[charlzrocks]

Raul, I say to lose them there runnin boards! Maybe put in a few chromed tubes where they are now so as ta see some daylight there. This build looks like it's gonna be very cool looking!

[Bernard Kron]

It strikes me that personalizing an already heavily customized car is always a big challenge. But I do agree that moving the headlights up is a huge improvement. It'll be interesting to see where this takes you.

[george 53]

Like the headlight treatment Raul. i did the same thing. It seemed to me them rascals were TOO low! Gonna change the wheels too, they look TOO cluncky and truckish to me. I think they'd look nicer on a heavy truck, rather than this particular ride. But I'm anxious to see what else ya do to it. Whatever ya do, It'll be cool, as usual!

[whale392]

I have always thought of this kit as ugly, ill-looking, and in general a good donor for the drivetrain/interior. I am interested to see this sows ear become a silk purse.

[Raul_Perez]

Raul, I say to lose them there runnin boards! Maybe put in a few chromed tubes where they are now so as ta see some daylight there. This build looks like it's gonna be very cool looking!

Yeah...I'll model it in the computer without running boards to see if I like it or not...

It strikes me that personalizing an already heavily customized car is always a big challenge. But I do agree that moving the headlights up is a huge improvement. It'll be interesting to see where this takes you.

I'm trying not to modify it too much...I wanted this one to be as close to an out-of-the-box build as possible...

[Raul_Perez]

Like the headlight treatment Raul. i did the same thing. It seemed to me them rascals were TOO low! Gonna change the wheels too, they look TOO cluncky and truckish to me. I think they'd look nicer on a heavy truck, rather than this particular ride. But I'm anxious to see what else ya do to it. Whatever ya do, It'll be cool, as usual!

How about a picture, George!!

Yeah...the wheels are a bit clunky...I may swap them out for a set of late-model Vette Z06 wheels.

I have always thought of this kit as ugly, ill-looking, and in general a good donor for the drivetrain/interior. I am interested to see this sows ear become a silk purse.

I agree that this is generally an ugly kit...but I think that a lot of that comes from the malformed headlight housings. I've seen one of these built with the headlight housings modified like I did mine and I thought that it looked pretty good.

Later,

[MikeMc]

I know you will make it purdy.....but this I gotta see!!!!!!

[Ken]

I have always thought of this kit as ugly, ill-looking, and in general a good donor for the drivetrain/interior. I am interested to see this sows ear become a silk purse.

I am the same way. I have 5 or 6 of these in the stash, but they only seem to get robbed for parts. Yours looks like a good start. Didn't somebody use one of these to make a Cord-esque wagon? Like others said, yours should be great!

[Joe Handley]

Gonna change the wheels too, they look TOO cluncky and truckish to me. I think they'd look nicer on a heavy truck, rather than this particular ride. But I'm anxious to see what else ya do to it.

I never understood the reasoning for those wheels on this kit either, they don't really look all that good to begin with, then when ramped up in diameter, they look even worse.

[whale392]

To me, it also looks like it could use a slight pie-sectioning to bring the hood side profile in line with the new headlight position. Also, if you are retaining the woodside look, bring it up to start at the front fender/door meeting line, versus halfway back on the body. It always looked like a half-azzed attempt at a Woody to me with that styling.

[Raul_Perez]

I never understood the reasoning for those wheels on this kit either, they don't really look all that good to begin with, then when ramped up in diameter, they look even worse.

Yeah...the wheels aren't favorites of mine, either. I may change them later.

To me, it also looks like it could use a slight pie-sectioning to bring the hood side profile in line with the new headlight position. Also, if you are retaining the woodside look, bring it up to start at the front fender/door meeting line, versus halfway back on the body. It always looked like a half-azzed attempt at a Woody to me with that styling.

I thought of pie-cutting the hood...and I still might...but I really don't want to put that much work into this one...

I've actually seen one of these built and I thought that it looked pretty good. From what I could tell, all the builder changed was the headlight housings. It was painted a dark burgundy with dark and light accents on the woodgrained panels.

It's interesting how many people really don't like the kit as it's meant to be built from the box, but see a lot of value in it as a donor for something else...

Later,

[Ken]

Raul, don't worry about us 'haters' Yours will be superb as always. The chassis alone is worth the price of the kit. It is a close replica, if not an exact replica of an Art Morrison chassis if my recall is still good. It also has a great set of airbags in it as well. I usually replace the wheels with the ones from the Phantom Vicky kit from AMT. I would almost think that if you laid the grill back a bit it would help trememdously as well. That grill just seems way to straight in comparison to the front fenders. I think your modifications to the headlights should help as well.

[whale392]

It is funny just how astetics can either make or break a kit. The chassis is a great piece, along with the engine....I just can't get over how mis-shapen and fugly the overall look of the kit has. Swapping wheels helps, and color selection can do some; but the headlights, the fact that it looks like it is outrunning it's woodgrain paneling, and the chunkiness of the wheels just kill it for me. Seeing the headlights fixed on this build gives hope to a poor kit, and by swapping wheels, I think it has a shot at looking good. Keep us posted, I am eager to see if the kit I have stashed away just might have a shot at being built, or if it will suffer the fate a few of its' brothers did.

[Raul_Perez]

Raul, don't worry about us 'haters' Yours will be superb as always. The chassis alone is worth the price of the kit. It is a close replica, if not an exact replica of an Art Morrison chassis if my recall is still good. It also has a great set of airbags in it as well. I usually replace the wheels with the ones from the Phantom Vicky kit from AMT. I would almost think that if you laid the grill back a bit it would help trememdously as well. That grill just seems way to straight in comparison to the front fenders. I think your modifications to the headlights should help as well.

Yeah...the chassis in this kit is really nice. I've got most of it cleaned up, assembled and ready to paint.

Thanks for the idea of using the wheels from the Phantom Vicky. I just picked one up at the NNL West last week, so I'll see how those wheels look on this model. For me, the 32 Phantom is nothing more than a parts car!! (More so than the WagonRod...)

Laying the grill back a bit sounds like a good idea, but if you look at the profile lines of the grill bars with respect to the parallel line of the running board, it's already tipped back enough to see that that bars are starting to point upwards, so without rebuilding the grill, that's not an option that I want to try for this build.

It is funny just how astetics can either make or break a kit. The chassis is a great piece, along with the engine....I just can't get over how mis-shapen and fugly the overall look of the kit has. Swapping wheels helps, and color selection can do some; but the headlights, the fact that it looks like it is outrunning it's woodgrain paneling, and the chunkiness of the wheels just kill it for me. Seeing the headlights fixed on this build gives hope to a poor kit, and by swapping wheels, I think it has a shot at looking good. Keep us posted, I am eager to see if the kit I have stashed away just might have a shot at being built, or if it will suffer the fate a few of its' brothers did.

I agree...the over look of the kit is pretty fugly, (so much so that I almost didn't buy it), but I think that the headlight housings are the major contributor in that regard.

I'll post a few pics this weekend after I finish molding in the headlight housings and try a few different wheel sets.

Later,

[whale392]

I agree Raul, and might just have to dig this kit out of its' DEEPLY buried state and mess with it just to see if I can correct my percieved areas of poor kit design judgement.

[Raul_Perez]

I agree Raul, and might just have to dig this kit out of its' DEEPLY buried state and mess with it just to see if I can correct my percieved areas of poor kit design judgement.

Yeah...that was pretty much what I had in mind when I decided to tackle this one...

Go ahead...give it a go!! If nothing else, you can always put it back in the box and mark it as "parts only"!!

Later,

[Clay]

Nice start as always, can't wait to see this one in progress.

I got to get my truck running before I can tackle the garage to even think about working on a model.

[sjordan2]

I'll be interested to see what you do with the grille, which looks pretty cheesey and ugly.

[Raul_Perez]

Though I had originally planned on building this one pretty much from the box, only fixing the fugly headlights, I decided that the nose of the hood needed to come down about an inch and a half and that the grille needed a bit of reshaping to conform better with reshaped nose and the lines of the hood.

Rather than removing material from the underside of the hood where it meets the grille, I removed the two top bars from the grille to get all of the parts fitting after the nose was lowered.

Since I trimmed off the top of the sides to get the hood down in the front, I need to get some half-round styrene and lower the front end of the moldings on the sides of the hood. That will also help make it look a bit lower in the front.

I like this view the best. Once I fix the side trim on the hood sides I'll finish fitting the hood and the grille.

Well, that's all for tonight...

Later,

[Clay]

Nice work Raul, love the subtle changes.

[Bernard Kron]

Makes a big improvement to the flow, really freshens up the look! It's the little touches on this already heavily stylized car that can make a huge differemce.

...Since I trimmed off the top of the sides to get the hood down in the front, I need to get some half-round styrene and lower the front end of the moldings on the sides of the hood. That will also help make it look a bit lower in the front. ...

I couldn't resist a little Phun with Photoshop. I assume something like this is what you meant by your comment above (Are you going to extend the hood side down to the new molding and make a new cut line?):

as compared to the original

Edited March 6, 2010 by gbk1

[Raul_Perez]

Nice work Raul, love the subtle changes.

Thanks, Clay!! Stay tuned...this one's headed for a pretty wild change!!

Makes a big improvement to the flow, really freshens up the look! It's the little touches on this already heavily stylized car that can make a huge differemce.

I couldn't resist a little Phun with Photoshop. I assume something like this is what you meant by your comment above (Are you going to extend the hood side down to the new molding and make a new cut line?):

as compared to the original

You're having way too much fun!!

Actually, I may cut the grille in half, (right where the grille, fender and hood side comes together), remove the bars from the upper portion of the grille and combine that part with the hood. If I do, I'd go with a forward tilting hood.

Later,

[Alyn]

Thanks, Clay!! Stay tuned...this one's headed for a pretty wild change!!

Oh boy, don't tell me you're going to un-chop the top!!!

Looking forward to your "take" on this cruiser. Just for a little inspiration, here's one Jim Hernandez built last year. Talk about inspired.

He named it The Friki Tiki.

[Raul_Perez]

Oh boy, don't tell me you're going to un-chop the top!!!

Looking forward to your "take" on this cruiser. Just for a little inspiration, here's one Jim Hernandez built last year. Talk about inspired.

He named it The Friki Tiki.

WOW!! That's pretty wild!! And...way too cool!! It's hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like there's a HEMI under the hood. I really like it!!

This one will be called Heavy Metal. It will be a dark metallic color, possibly in a flat finish. Instead of woodgrain on the sides, this one will have carbon fiber. With the name, I'm going to use the kit wheels, but dechrome them and paint them some sort of metallic color that compliments either the body color or the carbon fiber color.

Yes, it will polarize people's opinion...but that's nothing new to me!

Later,