Peter Lombardo Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 Perhaps you saw the “on the workbench†posting for this build. Anyway, here it is completed, my first of 2011. This build began life as an AMT kit #6924, a 1936 Ford 5 door coupe. Every panel on this car has been modified or completely changed from the original kit. I will start at the front and work my way back. After a false start with the kits headlights, I opted to remove them all together and smooth out the front fender area. The headlights and the two small grilles under them were removed and smoothed over. The hood was cut into two halves and hinged with small brass dollhouse hinges. The hood front “center†was opened up for the small chrome accent piece. The kit comes with two sets of hood side panels….one with louvers and one without. Starting with the plain pieces I cut out the area for the Prowler headlight panels to be molded in. Under the hood, I installed a Ford Cobra 289 small block V8 with the Cobra finned head covers. The engine was topped with 6 carburetors and set back behind the front axle. If you recall, the top is a separate piece in this kit. I cut the door tops free and glued them to the body. Then I cut the windshield free also and laid the windshield posts back….this effectively lowered the top, gave the car a sleeker profile and allowed the top from the Boyd Smoothster to fit better. The top and seats are painted with Krylon “Make it Suede†textured paint. It was such a great deal….I picked it up at Michaels on the clearance rack…originally $8.99, marked down to $2.00. The stuff is great….it goes on easy and smooth with no clumping and dries to a slightly rough flat finish with a small and very appropriate amount of texture. Truth be told, it is worth the $8.99. Both the front and rear windows are clear acetate cut and glued in. The two doors were enlarged and reshaped. I hinged them from the back, ala suicide style with the rear turning into the car. The rear view mirrors, dashboard and steering wheel were lifted from the same Prowler kit that donated its headlights. The interior was completely reworked, I will be the first to comment that the seats are a little too high in the interior. They looked fine in the dry run mock-ups I did, but for some reason in the finished car they look too high to me. I may lower them later…we’ll see how much this bothers me….if it gets under my skin, I will fix them. The “offending†seats came from the Ford GT, I am currently converting into a GT2/3 race car (it is coming along very nicely, thank you), any way, the seats were painted with the Krylon Suede paint and the center inserts where the little chrome air holes are was covered with real leather. I used a small piece of orange wire I had to add the contrasting piping. The door panels are covered with the leather on the upper part and the same material as the floor carpeting on the bottom area. The trunk opening was reshaped and the license plate area was recessed into the trunk deck. The trunk is upholstered in the same ribbed cloth material as the interior floor. The two taillights were cut into the rear fenders. The were painted white on the bottom panel and later filled with two part clear 5 minute epoxy mixed with some Tamiya clear red paint. The epoxy was dropped in and allowed to harden in place. The wheels and tires came from the curbside Dodge Copperhead concept car kit. I painted the spokes cream to match the side color on the car. The brake calipers were painted orange to match the contrast color on this car and the raised letters were touched with flat white Tamiya paint. I have always loved the look of the raised white letters on tires (both real and on models) and since they are so well molded onto the tires I could not resist painting them. The chassis is a combination of the ’36 Ford rails and all of the running gear coming from the parts bin. I don’t recall where these parts originally came but really, I don’t care, I like the way they look on this car. The exhaust is made from aluminum tubing and the mufflers are increasingly larger diameter tubes glued over each other and painted clear red to replicate a version of the old “Cherry Bomb†muffler. The car is painted a two tone combination of GM Cream Beige on the sides and Mopar Char-gold on the top surfaces, fenders and chassis. I can’t claim to have come up with this combination on my own. A few years ago the Ridler Award winning car was a 1936 Ford 3 window Coupe finished in this basic color combination….I can only claim the orange contrasting color….that was my idea to help set the two colors off better….well, to my eye anyway. Char-gold was a feature color back in the early 1990’s offered on many Chrysler products. It was very popular on the LH front wheel drive cars…Chrysler LHS, Concorde along with the Dodge Intrepid and Jeep Grand Cherokee’s, just to name a few. Depending on your viewing angle, the color looks either dark greenish gold or dark silver gunmetal. I love the contrast between the cream beige and the char-gold and the vinyl hand cut orange stripes between the two really set them off very well, in my opinion. Once the top coats were on, I covered everything with clear lacquer top coat, and once the car was completely assembled, I carefully brushed on a coat of Future to seal the stripes and the entire car. This was a pretty easy build with the one exception of a few of the former panel lines. I said, back in the under construction posting that I was really enjoying the “soft†and easy to cut plastic on this kit….well, that statement came back to haunt me big time. No matter what I did, I could not eliminate a few of the “ghost†lines from showing up. I used the liquid glue trick…did not work. I used the super glue and baking powder trick, to no avail. I used the “future†as a barrier trick….it also did not work. I used two part putty, one part putty; the best putty of all, Tamiya putty….still no luck. I tried a few undercoats, different colors….still no luck. Finally, I just surrendered and accepted the minor defeat. The soft plastic beat me. I threw in the towel and just undercoated the area one last time, sanded it smooth, under painted it, top painted it and gave up.
John Teresi Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 Peter.......another beautiful work of art........you sure do have a style of your own......congrat`s on a AWESOME build.
Rob Z Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 I love seeing your work, everything is so clean and detailed.. This one is no different, VERY GREAT looking build... I really like the use of the Prowler headlights, that gives it a great touch...
Smart-Resins Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 ###### that looks cool! WOW. Not much into more modern style rodding, but this is fantastic job and well done with good taiste! Way to knock it outta there!!
Sixties Sam Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 Another amazing model! Great work! The top and Prowler headlights really change the old 36's looks. Sam
Jon Cole Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 Another awesome creation, Peter! Keep 'em coming!
george 53 Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 Beautiful coachwork Peter.Not to be mean or silly, but your work and attention to the Nth degree REALLY shows off! This reminds me of those sweepy flowing cars that Treehugger Dave used to build. That's a downright PRETTY car!!!! ;)
parki Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 amazing build. can't beleave how quickly you finished it, Awesome
kerc Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 In real life, this would be an excellent candidate to win the AMBR! Awesome job. I agree about the seats; take 'em down a bit and it'll be perfect!
Dave B Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 Peter, that is an exceptional build, I love the headlight treatment, it reminds me more of a Ducati 916 than the Prowler however.
curt raitz Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 Verry, Verry nice Peter... you're already ahead of me in the "Built in 2011" catagory
Peter Lombardo Posted January 10, 2011 Author Posted January 10, 2011 Verry, Verry nice Peter... you're already ahead of me in the "Built in 2011" catagory Not for long!!!!! your first build posting is due on Jan 11th![ /font] I want to thank all of you guys who have very nice things to say about this build.....I really do appreciate it. I really enjoyed it so the kind words just add to the pleasure of it.
TheCat Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 That's an AWESOME build. I love the color combo. B)
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