My Version of My Dual Cowl Art Deco Roadster

[Peter Lombardo]

Dual Cowl Roadster

As I stated earlier, I always planned on building my version of this car in the direct manor that it was designed to be. I hoped, and that seems to be the case, that others who ordered the car would build different variations of the design.

So in keeping with the original design, I can now show my finished Dual Cowl Art Deco Roadster. I will begin at the beginning and explain the design philosophy, working features and building techniques employed to produce this model.

The Design Philosophy

I began with a few design sketches that I worked up using the 1938 Buick Y-Job Concept, 1941 Chrysler Newport Dual Cowl and the newer 2004 Buick Blackhawk as inspiration. I boiled down the sketches to one design that I thought expressed my idea of what I attempting to create. That design incorporates a long low hood, large rounded fenders, a dual cowl design that separates the front and rear seating areas and a wide sloping trunk area. I think if you look at the three vehicles that I sighted above, you can see how they formed the inspiration for this cars design. I wanted a bold and flowing design that captured that 1930’s Art Deco look while utilizing more modern running gear and more advanced technology.

Body Fabrication

From the sketches I doodled, I created the shape in a piece of sign foam. Using my Dremel tool and a variety of grinding and sanding bits, I shaped the foam into the basic outline of the car I wanted to build. Once the basic shape was done, I sanded the “buck†smooth and added in the basic outline of the four doors and then vacuum formed a body. After the body was done I created two tops for the car, one hard and one soft along with the two windshield frames, and they were also vacuum formed. Somewhere along the way, I hatched the idea that maybe there would be some interest in this design by some of the more advanced and adventurous modelers on this forum and then the idea occurred to me that I should offer it up and see if there was any interest. And if so, maybe we could have a post where we could all present our builds together…..after all, that is one of the great things about this forum……we, from different parts of the country, continent and even world, can bring together our ideas and creations and view them in one place…..no travel or additional expense needed. Well, needless to say I was thrilled to see a daring group of modelers jump into this idea and take up the challenge, as it were, and begin building their version of this car. Again, I want to stress that I was hoping to see other takes on this design….,and I don’t care, Donk it, Tank tread it, chop it, shorten it, stretch it…..whatever floats your boat is fine. Anyway, enough on that, back to this build.

Construction

Starting with the basic plain vanilla body I opened up the grille area. I had always planned on a grille design that had a very “1930-1940 Buick†shape to it. I glued 22 vertical slots on to a backing of three horizontal crossbars. Once set, I grinded the outside edge into a shape that fit the contour of the nose and basically mimicked the shape of the front fenders. I wanted the grille to have a rounded “waterfall†effect to it and I wanted it to have a very slight bulge to it. Once contoured to my plan, I spray painted it with copper paint since, as I will explain later, I wanted a copper and black/brown palette of colors for this build. Next I cut out the area where the headlights were going on the front surface of the front fenders. I kind of borrowed the design of the hidden headlights from the early Cord autos. I fabricated a frame from styrene and hinged the covers. The “unit†was mounted behind the fender and the headlight is represented by an MU jewel designed to be used in HO Trains. Originally, I had a rod running between the two fenders linking the two covers together so if you opened one, the other opened too, but sadly, I was forced to cut the wire because it interfered with the radiator placement…..I could have designed the connection between the two covers better had I anticipated this conflict……oh well, I will know better for any other versions of this.

Under the hood, the engine is a modified 1990’s Pontiac Firebird unit. I fabricated valve cover shields ala Corvette and covered them with aluminum bare metal foil just to dress up the engine a bit. The engine was painted copper along with the air intake funnel. On the fabricated firewall, I installed a Corvette brake bolster and a wired up battery on the passenger side.

On the hood, I glued on 54 tiny ¼ round strips of styrene in four rows (10, 17, 17 and 10, from left to right). Once they were dry, I sanded the edges of them to give them a rounded appearance like a real louver would have….then I carefully grinded away the underside of the hood under the louvers so that I could open up area behind the louver with my knife to give them an open airy look. As a side note, as I grind away the plastic from underneath, I work very slowly. Every few seconds I hold the body up against a strong light so I can get a visual on how close I am to coming through the plastic. You must take great care so as to not grind through the plastic….it can really ruin your day. Then, using a piece from another body I molded for “parts†I created the under hood framework that would be necessary on the real car to support the hood. Next I built up a support to hold a magnet at the back end of the opening, on the firewall and installed a corresponding magnet under the hood……these are slightly bigger magnets then I usually use and man do they hold the hood down tight….almost too tight.

For the front windshield I began with the piece I molded and cut away all of the excess so that I was left with a piece that resembled a basket handle. I made two triangle shaped supports to attach to the back end of the frame and used a piece of the ¼ round molding, softened with liquid glue to form the leading edge of the windshield molding on the front cowl. I wanted a very low windshield to heighten the look of a “chopped†top. I love the look of custom cars from the 40’s and 50’s that have severely chopped tops, like the Carson tops and I wanted that “flavor†on this one. I also wanted the windshield to extend forward with a rounded look to match the curves and soft bulges of the fenders. I used a piece of acetate, just like the one I supplied with the body and tops, to make the two windshields. Learning from Curt’s mistake, I added photo etched wiper blades and two rear view mirrors (actually, I had planned them all along). The rear window frame also came from the part I molded….it was cut down and glued to the car between the front and rear seating areas. The rear windshield is cut in a sweeping curve to fit under the roof when it is in the up position. They are glued in place with Future clear acrylic floor “stuffâ€.

I cut open the four doors and created hinges out of brass rod and aluminum tubing. Once I glued on the inner door panel which is later to be covered, I filled in the area between the outer and inner door panels with Bondo putty which was later contoured to surround and fill the door jam area. I left the door to slightly “slide†on the hinge so that it opens out to clear the heavily bulging lower contour line on the body. That contour line was put there to mimic the contour line on the Chrysler Newport. Also, I wanted to visually follow the front fender line into the rear fender beginning without really having the fender protrude that far. The line serves to flow the front of the design into the rear so they feel connected. On each lower fender side I added four pieces of molding which is paying homage to the 1938 Y-Job which had many smaller moldings. I lengthened them and widened them to give a more 1950’s look to them reminding viewers of the golden days of the chrome maidens of that era. These molding were covered with bare metal foil (I bought a package of copper foil from the hobby shop from BMF and it is pure junk….it would not stick to anything so I scraped that idea) then I painted on a center line of copper to break up the chrome as I thought it was too much. I placed the front turn signal between the middle two moldings and spaced out the rear turn signal, rear brake light and the back up light, in that order top to bottom, between the top three moldings wrapping them around the back of the car and the fender to allow viewing from the side and back. The lens were made from pieces of sprue that was grinded down and painted (clear red or amber, depending on the light) and glued in to place also with Future. In the center of the lower rear deck I cut out the opening for the license plate and then fabricated the inner walls so that the plate is recessed into the rear deck.

The rear deck opens up to the rear on a double hinge, meaning that the hinge pivots at both ends which is necessary to allow a big enough opening for the top to lift out of the trunk area. The other reason for the double hinge is to allow the truck lid to slide under the lower rear of the roof once the roof is up and in the closed position. The roof is hinged under the rear seat and has a reverse hinge in the center allowing it to fold up into itself like a clam shell. The rear window is also made of acetate glued in. The bottom of the trunk is covered with black leather to provide a soft landing for the top which has the top side down when the top is stored away. The idea for the retractable top is lifted from the Buick Blackhawk concept. Clearly, that was not the first time that, that feature was installed in a real car, but it was always in the back of my mind when I was designing the rear of the car and it is a feature of one of my “inspiration carsâ€, the Buick Blackhawk…..I was aware that a little wider was better than not because I thinking about having a top retract on this car.

On to the interior where I accomplished a few “firsts†for myself. I have said many times that I want to push myself to try new things and new ideas….how else do you grow, if not with new techniques and personal challenges? This is the first interior I have done that incorporates real wood and leather in it. I know, maybe not such a big deal, but none the less, they are firsts for me. To start with, I built up a number of inner frame work supports under the outer skin because the body styrene is relatively thin which is closer to real thickness. Part of the frame work provides the barrier between the front and rear seating areas. Next I dug through my parts box and found a front and rear sear that I did not use from the AMT Phantom Vickie Roadster from a few years ago. Since I going to cover them, and modify the sides and backs, I made vacuum formed copies of the seats, saving the originals for another use. I cut down the sides and rounded the backs to better fit the contours of the interior openings. Then I realized that I did not have any leather to use, save for a single old black glove that my wife had lying around in a closet. I wanted brown leather to go along with my paint scheme so I thought about it awhile. Then one day while traveling to a client I went past a Goodwill store and I got an idea. The following Sunday I stopped by and sure enough I found two leather wrapped ladies bags, one in brown and one in cream. They were both marked $2.99. Such a deal! But when I got to the checkout counter I found out that they were both half price…that was crazy, I got two leather ladies bags for three bucks! Now I remember old Treehugger (where is he these days?), explained how easy using the leather was and he is right. A little care, a sharp knife blade and glue and you are in business. As for the wood, I searched the internet for mini, micro veneer wood. I found plenty of suppliers but none willing to sell small amounts to us stupid hobbyists. Fine. I am almost ashamed to say what I ended up doing because it was so easy. I took some balsa wood and cut it down to small thin pieces. I sanded it smooth and stained it and then applied 5 coats of clear lacquer. The first few coats of clear get absorbed into the wood so you need to apply many. The gauges are from one of the photo etch guys, I can’t remember who now. I figured the rear passengers may want to know the speed and vital engine signs so they got a few gauges back there too. I omitted a radio, but we all know there would be one in there somewhere if this was the real deal.

The chassis of this car is from the same Firebird that donated the engine. I stretched it out about 3/4 of an inch just aft of the engine and it fit pretty well. You can’t tell because of the low fender wheel openings, but the front wheels turn even thought there is very little room up there. The wheels came from one of the reissues of the AMT 1966 Nova….the wheels are huge, but mostly covered up. I painted the spoke area of each wheel copper but it is hardly visible….but I know its there. I also set the car down pretty close to the weeds too….long and low…I love that kind of stance. There is one muffler in the back and dual exhaust outlets with angled tips.

The body color is not exactly what I wanted but I now love it. The original plan, as I stated before in an on the workbench post, was to have a black body with copper trim, like the motorcycle that my brother worked on. I painted the body black and was very happy with it. I then got the bright idea to mix a little Jacquard copper pigment powder with clear and over spray the car to give it a high light of a copper glow. Good idea I thought, but when I sprayed on the thinned out copper clear, it turned the body into a chocolate brown with a deep copper glow. In some light it looks almost black, but in the sun light it looks like a cross between light and dark chocolate with a million sparkles going off. I love how it contrasts with the copper trim and the little bits of chrome. I especially like how the brown and black leather seats along with the wood trim and dash looks with the body color. So even though this is not exactly what the plan called for, I like it so much it is staying the way it is. Once the copper overcoat that I applied dried, it was clear coated. Once that was dry, it was lightly sanded and rubbed out.

As for the final product, I am very pleased. I know this is self serving, but I would sure love to see this as a real car. I could just see this at the Pebble Beach Concours. I think, again, I know, self serving, that it is a very interesting design that would make a neat retro touring car.

I am looking at this car and thinking that if I shortened one of the bodies cutting out the rear seats and making a two door runabout, it might look really cool. I may just have to build a little brother for this bad boy.

OK, all you guys out there with one of these bodies, let’s see what you got! You can’t do the wrong thing with it….let yourselves go and build something unlike your normal builds. Stretch your imagination….get out of your comfort zone…..break some glass…it’s only cheap styrene that is easily replaceable.

Ok, thanks for looking, congratulations if you made it through the entire description, and as always, comments, up or down, are always welcome. Just one last note, it looks a thousand times better in the flesh than in these pictures.

[Foxer]

I wasn't sure I'd be making NNL East next year .. now I KNOW I will be there just to see this in the flesh! It looks fantastic ... there's no words to describe it .. WoW!

[RodneyBad]

As Usual.

Very Very Awesome work.

Edited October 16, 2010 by Zukiholic

[davyou5]

Ummm, WOW! .

[bsoder]

That is really really cool..looks like it should be in one of those league of gentleman type movies

[camaroman]

As Usual.

Very Very Awesome work.

What He said!!!

[Clay]

As Usual.

Very Very Awesome work.

I agree, great job Peter!!!

[crazyjim]

Unreal, Peter. It looks great! The body I bought from you is still sitting, waiting for my mind to come up with something

[curt raitz]

Excellent...Excellent...Excellent

Golly - how many hinges did ya put in this model?

I'm impressed with anyone that can hinge stuff...one area where I fully "suck" as a builder

Love the color plus the trim/moulding you used

It would be kinda cool to have these builds photo-shopped into a photo with the Pebble Beach Lodge in the background...food for thought, heh!

Great Job Pete, lookin' forward to seeing more of these pop up on the forum

toodles

[DRG]

In all honesty I at first did not care for it.

But after looking at all the photo's and studying them I do like this model and appreciate all the work that went into it.

Good job just doesn't correctly express my thoughts, fantastic, superb, wonderful, I don;t know.

[jeffs396]

Incredible job Peter!!!

Hope too see another version of your masterpiece from you, as well as others here lucky enough to get one!

[charlie8575]

I want that in 1:1! The only difference I'd have is wide whites and some kind of 1930s-style steel wheel/trim ring/dog-dish in a contrasting color.

Peter, this is stunning, and very well done. Great work.

Mike- want to carpool to New Jersey?

Charlie Larkin

[randx0]

Well shoot ,absolutely stunning.

[randx0]

On a seperate note ,would mixing the jacquard copper pigment with thinned black be the answer for your intended paint color ? or doesn't it work like that? I haven't experimented with the jacquard stuff at all but I have noticed you use it so I assume you have tried it out alittle bit.

[Peter Lombardo]

On a separate note ,would mixing the jacquard copper pigment with thinned black be the answer for your intended paint color ? or doesn't it work like that? I haven't experimented with the jacquard stuff at all but I have noticed you use it so I assume you have tried it out a little bit.

Randy, I don't think so. The problem is that the black would overpower the copper and there would be very little copper flecks if any any at all. I think I added too much copper to the clear. I thought I only added a very little, but I guess not. As it turned out, I really like the brown look on the car. It is very reminiscent of the type of color that would have been used back in the 30's and 40's, but with a serious copper glow to it. So I think it fits the build....the design and the color are throwbacks to the original era but with a modern flair to it. And yes, I use the Jacquard pigments on many builds and love the stuff. It opens up so many more possibilities to you. I highly recommend them. They are so economical. For $4.00 or so you get a bottle of the powder. You only need about one twelfths of the bottle mixed with a half a bottle of clear lacquer or Tamiya clear and you can spray a car. I use it as a base sometimes and as an over coat to add depth and variety to the finish.

I have been touting these pigments for years now and I still don't recall seeing anyone else using them. If you are not experimenting with these pigments, you are surely limiting your creative abilities.

[randx0]

Thanks Peter,I have some I just don't get to the painting stage very often ,however, I will give them a shot on the next model that gets to that point .thank you

[sjordan2]

Just superb all around. It does indeed share design cues from Harley Earl's 1938 Buick Y-job, but with some Figoni & Falaschi and Saoutchik (and maybe a bit of Walt Disney) tossed in. You really captured the essence of the era and that type of coachbuilding.

Edited October 17, 2010 by sjordan2

[John Teresi]

OUTSTANDING! OUTSTANDING! OUTSTANDING!.........did I say OUTSTANDING?.........What a beauty Peter.

[TheCat]

AMAZING LOOKING!!! All I can say is... AWESOME!!!

[Romell R]

OUTSTANDING!

[Guest madazzskilzkustumz]

PERFECT color for that! Great story 2! Thanks Jimmy!

[Peter Lombardo]

To all of the kind words and wonderful response, thank you, I really appreciate them, thanks my brothers.

[cruz]

You can't be from this planet my friend, your work is always out of this world......

[jonesracing45]

is that a real wood dash if so what did u use???and the beauty of this car is out of this world.......

[Peter Lombardo]

is that a real wood dash if so what did u use???and the beauty of this car is out of this world.......

Here is he section of the dialog that mentions the dash board.....

As for the wood, I searched the internet for mini, micro veneer wood. I found plenty of suppliers but none willing to sell small amounts to us stupid hobbyists. Fine. I am almost ashamed to say what I ended up doing because it was so easy. I took some balsa wood and cut it down to small thin pieces. I sanded it smooth and stained it and then applied 5 coats of clear lacquer. The first few coats of clear get absorbed into the wood so you need to apply many. The gauges are from one of the photo etch guys, I can’t remember who now. I figured the rear passengers may want to know the speed and vital engine signs so they got a few gauges back there too. I omitted a radio, but we all know there would be one in there somewhere if this was the real deal. Thanks!