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Posted (edited)

This will be a fantasy build, a shop car for Frank Baron, Bob Tattersfield's partner in the famous Tattersfield-Baron 4-carb manifold for the Ford Flathead. A modeling friend of mine cast up some resin 4-carb manifolds and sent me a few (he doesn't want me to reveal his name since he doesn't want to go in the resin business). I decided to build a 4-carb flattie and install it in a Jimmy Flinstone chopped '36 Ford 3-window coupe. The car will be a streetable lakes car.

The idea is that Frank used the car around town and ran it at the lakes, circa 1948 when he and Bob first launched their line of speed parts. So far I've prepped the chassis, lowered the back end, scratch built some skirts, adapted the AMT 5-window '36 Coupe hood to the 3-window cowl (see pics below) and completed the bodywork. The bumpers are '40 pieces. The car is in white primer. It will be Duplicolor Oxford White with red lettering and paint accents, inspired by Bob Piersons's white '36 3-window featured in the August, 1948 issue of Hot Rod Magazine which ran 120 mph that year.

Thanx for lookin',

B.

…My initial steps on this project:

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The AMT 5-window has a shorter hood with a different shape that their 3-window:

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Scratch built skirts from sheet styrene:

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Edited by Bernard Kron
Posted

Beautiful, that is going to be one fabulous model. Keep it going. It looks like October is going to roll in full of amazing eye-candy on this forum!

Posted

Thanx everyone! B):)

I got the color coats down, and also completed the wheels and tires. The tires are from Modelhaus. The wheels are replicas of those found on the Pierson ’38. They’re stock ’36 wheels with chrome rings. I used rings from the AMT ’49 Ford. I also fabricated a mesh grill and painted it red. The simple grill is in keeping with the notion of the car being a streetable lakes car.

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Here’s a picture of the manifold. Not too fancy but it’ll do the job under a quartet of 97’s!

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Next up on the to-do list are the motor, chassis finishing, interior, decals, clear coats and ultimately final assembly and engine compartment detailing.

Thanx for lookin’,

B.

Posted

I got caught out by the 5 picture per post limit when I tried to edit the title, so here are two key pictures from my first post I had to remove…

The Pierson ’36:

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Photoshop mockup of decal scheme:

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Posted

Here’s a small update. I’ve gotten the interior completed. It’s basically stock with a Testors Leather acrylic “leatherette” seat and door panels and reddish dashboard and other interior surfaces (Testors British Crimson acrylic). I printed out and applied the decals. I added small “Tatterfield-Baron Racing Equipment” logos to the hood side panels, proportioned and placed to mimic the effect of the stock hood vents. Then I sealed them several coats of Krylon Crystal Clear Gloss. I’ll let the clear coat cure for a few days and then polish out the paint. I’m always slightly surprised (and relieved!) when the actual real decals look so much like the Photoshop mockups.

In the meantime, with the wheels and tires and chassis all completed, it’s time to finish up the engine. Final assembly can’t be too far away now…

Thanx for lookin’,

B.

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Posted

Thanx everyone! B):)

The engine is now complete and ready for installation. This was a good example of a false economy of time and effort. I had decided to use the kit flathead because I knew it was an exact fit and would simplify installation issues. I knew that these early AMT engines are pretty “soft”, lacking much in the way of detail, and this one is no exception. The headers are molded into the block sides and the distributor lump is pretty vague. But I figured the motor would be buried in the engine compartment so the lower half detail wouldn’t be very important. I was going to change out the heads for high-compression finned aluminum jobs, and of course I’d have the four carbs up top. Plenty of eye-candy, I figured.

But…the heads I had that most resembled actual Tattersfield-Baron types were a set of Model Car Garage Offenhauser heads; very nice with crisp fins and lots of bolt detail. Unfortunately, they are of the center water outlet variety, the sort first seen in 1938 on the 59A style engines when Ford did away with the water outlets and water pumps at the front of the heads. While quite appropriate for the showpiece high performance mill that Frank Baron would want to put in his shop car, this necessitated converting the early 21 stud style AMT engine to something that looked like a 59A. Work I had to do included mounting the lateral belt pulleys low down on the block instead of up by the heads, cutting new drivebelts from styrene stock, and even fabricating an offset generator drive to accommodate the extra length of the four-carb manifold. So much for a shortcut! I’d have been better of adapting a Revell flathead…

Anyway, below is the result. The carbs are courtesy of Replicas & Miniatures Co. of Maryland, the manifold is the mystery resin piece mentioned earlier, and the air cleaners are actually tail lights from some AMT ’34 Ford 5-window kits.

Next up, final assembly!

Thanx for lookin’,

B.

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Posted

You really captured an evil look about that car, very impressive I might add. Not too many builders can do that chop and get that "Look " such as you accomplished . That car when completed will certainly be a real show piece . Ed Shaver

Posted

Hey Bernard...

good to see you're still buildin'

I like how this car is turning out

nice job on the interior, the seat looks like a nicely worn leather seat

aren't 4-carb flatheads cool lookin'?

nice job on the decals

lookin' for more

c'ya buddie... B)

Posted

You really captured an evil look about that car, ... Not too many builders can do that chop and get that "Look "

Thanx Ed. I wish I could take credit for the chop but this is Jimmy Flinstone's resin casting of the original AMT chopped top. They did a super job back in the day!

...aren't 4-carb flatheads cool lookin'?...

Thanx Curt. Yeah, Mystery Resins sure casts up a mean manifold!

There’s very little left to be done on this build, only the rear bumper, tail lights, tail pipes and license plate. Below are some pictures of the engine compartment and front end, The front end work included cutting down some sealed beam headlight lenses from a pair taken from an AMT ‘29 Ford kit, and changing out the earlier grill for a finer meshed screen. The engine compartment features a beehive oil filter, voltage regulator and some scratch built coolant pipes made from insulated wire and aluminum tubing buffed out with Simichrome.

These are the last W.I.P. pictures. Next time I’ll post “beauty shots” Under Glass.

Thanx to everyone for following along,

B.

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