best tooling of a 33 ford?

[hellonwheelz3]

I am looking to do a tribute model of the 33 ford that Tim "the toolman" Taylor built on Home improvement. Which company does the best rendition of the 33? Also does anyone happen to know what shade of blue that car was?

[highway]

I'm trying to remember my Tool Time history, but wasn't that car a roadster? I know the only roadster or convertible I remember seeing was the Monogram/Revell 34 Ford Cabriolet, the top one in the picture.

Jimmy Flintsone also made a resin roadster body for either of the two kits in the picture.

It was based from the Monogram kit's body, and being mid 80s tooling, it may not be the best but does look nice in my opinion. Here's a pic of the cabrio's body mocked up for my wild creation.

AMT also did a nice 34 Ford Street Rod, but it was a coupe, you'd probably have a lot of modification to do.

By the way, I think the ZZ Top kit was the only one I ever seen actually marked as a 33 Ford kit.

[Frank]

The flinstone body is not bad, but lacks a windscreen

[Art Anderson]

The flinstone body is not bad, but lacks a windscreen

While in real life, the windshields of the 33-34 Ford roadsters/phaetons are different than those used on '35-36 Fords of the same body styles, the overall look is very much the same. With that in mind, locating a '36 Ford roadster windshield from an old Monogram kit might be the way to go here.

Of course, there are Duvall windshields available out there, currently only from Norm Veber, I believe.

Art

[dprbusm]

I've been trying the same project, the Tim Taylor '33. Do you know if the Thom Taylor '34 Ford can be built with no hood sides? Because in the show, most of the time he has those removed. Thanks!

[Steven Zimmerman]

Early Iron series Monogram 34 Ford has parts to build as a ragtop, with both uptop and boot.....

[Ace-Garageguy]

The accuracy of ALL the '33-'34 Ford kits has been discussed at length here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/?showtopic=81776

The Monogram convertible kits are for CABRIOLETS, not ROADSTERS. There are differences in the cowl, doors, rear deck, cockpit surround, etc. between cabriolets and roadsters. The Flintstone is a Monogram cab modified into a sortof roadster.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy

[buffalobill]

The doors on Jimmy Flintstone's resin '34 are too long. '33-'34 Ford roadster doors were the same length as those on Ford's '33-'34 5 window coupe bodies, while those on Cabriolets were the same length as those on the 3 window coupes. It would be relatively easy to re-scribe the correct length doors on the Flintstone resin roadster body. He has captured the look of a roadster's cockpit surround reasonably okay, and many 1:1 hot rod '33-'34 roadsters have had the area behind the seat modified to clean up that surround, as has been done on the Jimmy Flintstone resin body.

The grill found in Revellogram's ZZ top is close to being an accurate '33 grill. They're maybe photo-etch '33 shells available from an aftermarket source - not sure.

'33 hood sides had slightly curved louvers in the side panels that slanted forward from the top to bottom, while those on a '34 were straight, and slanted forward.from the top to bottom. The hood sides in the ZZ top version are custom, and do not represent either year stock side panels. Also, '33-'34 hoods were 4 piece units w/ a hinge down the center of the top, while the ZZ hood top is a single piece w/out the hinge. The hood found in the earlier non-chopped '34 kits does have a correct hood top.

The chassis under Monogram's original & early releases of their '34 unchopped '3 window/cabriolet is fairly accurate to do a stock or vintage-styled hot rod. As I recall, one will have to remove the molded-in single exhaust system to build a hot rod's exhaust system, but, other than that, it's a decent chassis for the basis of a more-current type of suspension, rear axle, etc. To get it to sit lower, a Model A type front cross-member could be done, thus dropping the front end a couple of scale inches. The dropped axle in the ZZ top kit is rather awful, however, and one would also need to scratch-build the entire f & r suspension, as the ZZ Top kit's suspension is not very accurate.

As was pointed out by Bill, there are significant differences between a roadster and a cabriolet body in addition to the door length - it's primarily in the cockpit surround area - the cowl, the rear deck behind the seats, the door tops (and how they are integrated into the shape of the surround behind the windshield on a roadster, and the windshield frame, itself. Best bet would be to do an online search for photos of each body style, as well as the differences between a '33 and a '34.

It may be just as 'easy' to use AMT's '34 five window coupe as a starting point, and add the hood, side panels, & grill shell from their much maligned '33 2 door sedan kit. Either way, you'd have to redo the same areas (except for the length of the doors) on the AMT kit as that on the Revellogram kits, but you'd be working in 1/25th scale where there's a huge amount of hot rod parts that could be used to build almost any era '33 roadster. Also, AMT's chassis should be easier to work with, having a separate exhaust system. You might be able to modify the windshield frame found in Revell's 1/25th scale '32 roaster kit, as the width and design are very similar to that on a '33-'34.

Maybe Revell will eventually do a series of '33-'34 Fords in 1/25th scale, in the same theme as their '32 Ford kits. It's really surprising that there's been such a lack of correct '33-'34 Ford kits, as well as '28-'31 Model A kits in 1/25th scale.

Edited December 20, 2013 by buffalobill

[sjordan2]

This is the car that Ben wants to match.

[Zarana-X]

The color looks like Ford Grabber Blue