Deuce HiBoy Roadster Resurrected - 12-01 Update

[Bernard Kron]

This is a project I first started 5 years ago. I posted the project at the time, but with all the things that have happened with the forum software since, the thread is no longer available. It was just months after I had gotten back into modeling after literally decades away and I had just discovered the wonderful world of aftermarket resin parts; more specifically the spectacular products produced by Norm Veber at Replicas & Miniatures Co. of Maryland. I was already on my second order from them and had obtained one of the Rik Hoving mastered traditional Deuce chassis with the buggy spring rear end. In fact almost half this car was made with RepMin parts!

Things started sort of bass ackwards for me since I usually do the motor and chassis before I do paint and body work, even now. Instead, in this instance I began painting immediately, using Duplicolor Aquamarine Blue metallic. The chassis I used was the Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland traditional 32 Ford chassis by Rik Hoving which uses the Revell '29 Ford suspension bits. With a full hood with the standard louvers, p/e grill and post '49 Flatty with three carb setup, it was to be a classic early 50's street rod. Details included RepMin stock '32 firewall, p/e Auburn dash from RepMin, and the nice tuck and roll interior from RepMin that Lyle Willits mastered. All these parts are still available today and are, as always with Norm Veber;s products, absolutely the finest resin parts available.

I was striving for period authenticity which was partially the reason I bought so much RepMin stuff. There's nothing out there better for that effect when building an old skool rod. Additional details included front suspension from the Revell '29/'30 rat rod Ford kits, finned Buick front brakes from RepMin, a quick change rear end, the flathead V8 from the (at that time recently released) Revell Deuce Tudor kit modified with a RepMin LaSalle transmission and highly detailed triple Stromberg 97's from Model Car Garage, and a p/e grill shell. As you can tell I was aftermarket crazy at the time!

Here are some build picks from 5 years ago. As you can tell the stance is pretty lame. At the time I made excuses for it as being period correct but the truth was that more work was required than I knew how to do back then. My excuse was even lamer than the stance!









Well this one turned out to be my first DNF after my return. I was in way over my head. Norm Vebers resin is famously thin, smooth and styrene like, but one result of his delicately fine castings is that they dont take to heat real well. Soon I had warped parts on my hands from using my newly acquired dehydrator and the whole deal was quickly going pear shaped. For the first time (but far from the last) I put all the parts away in a box and moved on to happier days.

I never forgot the car. Every year or so I would open the box and think about how to save it. It had a great color, the RepMin resin interior based on the Monogram 32 Ford Roadster looked fine, and Norms hot rod big n little whitewalls had the perfect vibe. Sure, I never got the stance right and the resin chassis was dangerously thin and delicate. The posable front suspension from the Revell 29/30 rat rod Fords had given me no small amount of grief, too. But time has moved on and thankfully my skills have improved from those early days. The time has come to tackle this sucker and finish it up.

Because of the dreaded 10 picture limit I'll continue my tale with the next post

B.

Edited December 1, 2013 by Bernard Kron

[Bernard Kron]

So I opened the box once more the other day and much to my horror discovered that the right chassis horn had snapped off, that the right kingpin was missing on the front axle and that the fuel tank underside was warped. This time however I think I'm up to the task. So I began by building up a new chassis from a Revell 1/25th Deuce, replicating as much as possible Hoving's design in order to assure a proper fit. Miraculously, a can of paint appears to have survived so I can match it to the body. I also have addressed the stance issue, although the car isn't yet back up on its wheels. The pictures and captions below will tell the tale

The original Hoving chassis with its thin K-member and side rails. For some reason I never took a picture of the nicely done separate floor board that it comes with. It's pictured below. I've made a mental note to ask Norm if he'll sell me some separately from the chassis. They could come in mighty handy!


The results of 5 years of neglect and clumsy handling. This picture was taken after I had cut the rear cross member out to re-use on the new chassis.


Topside view of the completed replacement chassis. The original fuel tank top is taped in place to check body fit. Anything white is genuine Revell styrene. The result is extraordinarily similar to Hoving's design, but it's far more robust and rigid than the thin resin original. I used the rear cross member from the RepMin piece to ensure proper fit of the existing rear axle and spring which survived intact. A Revell '29/'30 rat rod Ford rear cross member would work just as well. It's probably what Hoving used on his master. The rear cross member is glued in place with epoxy. Just as Hoving did, I had to notch the bottom edge of the rail a bit to clear the rear axle. At the front Hoving flipped the Deuce cross member upside down and reshaped it to take the Revell front spring. For reasons of rigidity and strength I left the front cross member intact and modified it to lower the front end to help improve the stance.


The underside of the front end. Note that I hogged out the inside of the cross member to allow the spring to sit more deeply into it. I also notched the rails to clear the spring ends. Finally, not shown here, I shaved three leaves off the top of the spring. All this puts the front axle center line just above the tops of the frame rails and lowers the front a good 2 scale inches or so. Also, note that like Hoving I moved the engine mounts forward, shortening them so they support the Flathead V8 Ill be using.


Bottom view of the frame showing the RepMin supplied floorboard assembly. The Revell chassis has the floorboards molded to it. I removed them and shaved the side bits of plastic all the way down to the tops of the chassis rails for a snug fit.


The separate floorboards without the chassis in place. Its a single piece and includes an inset panel for the buggy spring. I had glued it in place at the time of original construction and it just wont budge. Fortunately the funky contact cement residue seen in the picture is hidden by the chassis rails. I had just discovered I was badly allergic to CA and was just beginning to experiment with contact cement as a substitute. These days I use epoxy for all non-styrene joints almost exclusively. But there's nothing like thin CA and a zip kicker for the tiny stuff. Ah well


Next time rescuing the motor and dialing in the fiddly suspension bits. Also, will the paint match?

Thanks for lookin',
B.

Edited October 12, 2013 by Bernard Kron

[crazyrichard]

hmm curious

[curt raitz]

hey buddy

looks like fun...

I really enjoy re-opening a relationship with a model which has found itself on the "get-to-later" shelf!

sometimes good things happen and it finds new life or it just goes back, to be rediscovered at a later date

good to see your back building...

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx guys!

...I really enjoy re-opening a relationship with a model which has found itself on the "get-to-later" shelf!

sometimes good things happen and it finds new life or it just goes back, to be rediscovered at a later date

good to see your back building...

Nicely put, Curt. If I give up on this one it will never get built! But I think I've got a handle on it now (if only the paint will match - I'm trying to determine what color primer I used...). As to my seeming inactivity, we've been traveling this past month (in the land where I believe you may have a daughter staying?) and have had an enforced hiatus from the workbench. I must admit I have missed it...

[PappyD340]

Keep it going Bernard!!

[DrKerry]

Nice start, love what you build. Always, and I do mean always spot on Bernard!!!!!

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx everyone!

I’ve been working on this in between stints building the Willys coupe that I just finished. As I work on this I’m remembering why I stepped away from it the first time. There are countless parts that are damage or would have required more chops than I had back then to correct. The most important work has been correcting the stance which has involved not only modifying the front crossmember and the spring but moving the steering arms from above the kingpin to below it on both sides. I have yet to attempt installing the steering linkage so posable steering remains an opening question as to whether it will work.

This is the steering arm modification.

The stance is much improved with a nice subtle rake that will be more apparent once the grill shell and hood are installed.

The motor has been considerably changed from the first pass. I “detuned” the motor by switching to dual carbs instead of tri-power. I felt it was more in keeping with the classic street rod that this model is supposed to represent. Several of the original parts were broken and had to be replaced, including the front motor mounts and the ignition. To keep things clean and simple I switched to magneto ignition using a combination of a Replicas & Miniature 59A style ignition drive and a Morgan Auto Detail pre-wired magneto. The fan belt and accessory drive is adapted from an AMT ’49 Ford kit.

The rear suspension is largely as it originally was, the only major change being to go with stock style wishbones instead of the split wishbones I had originally planned on. Once again this is keeping with the early 50’s street rod theme. The wishbones are from a Revell ’30 Ford sedan kit. The drive shaft is scratch built and feeds into the Replicas and Miniatures quick change rear end.

The front suspension was quite damaged, but I managed to repair it rather than replace it. The kingpins had to be drilled out and wires inserted to replace the plastic kit pins which had snapped off. The brakes are Replicas and Miniatures finned Buick drums with the Revell ’30 Ford sedan backing plates fitted to them to be compatible with the Revell dropped axle.

Next up will be completing the front suspension in the hopes that it can remain posable. After that is final assembly.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[curt raitz]

Love the last photograph...you and Photoshop have a good relationship going, don't ya!

[crazyrichard]

looking sharp !~!

[jrherald420]

Great work so far!

[matthijsgrit]

Love those pics AND that Deuce, of course...

Really like the way you build these rods with that correct nostalgic look.

Makes me almost wanna drive to Bonneville in one of your creations :-)

[om617]

Nice color combo.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Really looking sweet, Bernard. It's nice to see one that's been resting come back to life and start to look so very very good. Everything about it looks right, and that ghosted photo is super cool.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx everyone! I hope to have more on this later this week.

...you and Photoshop have a good relationship going, don't ya!

Yeah, I consider the photography an integral part of the expression. A few months ago I started using a tripod for everything but raw workbench pictures. Now that I've banished "camera shake" and can perfectly reproduce a camera angle repeatedly, I can do these "cutaway" shots, which I have always thought were pretty cool.

At some point I'd like to do a project featuring removable body and subassemblies so I could do a whole series of “cutaways”. A racing car is the logical choice, but a full on sedan with removable interior as well would be really impressive!

More generally, the Internet has been a revolution - sharing photos of one's models across the planet was unheralded and unanticipated when plastic car modeling was invented more than a half century ago. It adds a whole additional dimension to ones enjoyment, I think. So why not put some effort into taking photos, alongside the other skills that can translate "the pictures in your head"? Besides which, I use it to distract people from my still frustratingly persistent flaws...

[Bernard Kron]

I’m making slow but steady progress on this thing. I was afraid it would land up back in its box for another 5 years but I think it will get done now. I managed to work out the posable steering issue by fabricating my own tie rod from .020” piano wire. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done. I am stoked and relieved because it was a feature I feared I might have to give up. The rest of the steering is from a Revell ’29 Ford RPU, the same source as the front axle and backing plates. The front wishbones are installed and are from a Revell ’32 Ford 5-window which is also the source for the shocks and headlight brackets.

The grill and radiator are completed now. The shell and radiator are a resin set from Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland and are designed for the p/e grille from Model Car Garage. The grille proper is painted Duplicolor Bright Red over red primer with the outer trim left in stainless steel. This would have been pretty standard procedure in the mid-50’s for a Deuce of this quality and color. In the pictures below the grill shell and hood are mocked up and will still require some fettling to sit right. With the grill and hood sides in rough position the stance really comes into place and is a significant improvement over the original version from 5 years ago. Major work left to do includes scratch building a muffler system and perhaps chopping the windshield (or not..).

The taillights are the standard pieces from the Revell Goodguys Roadster kit and not worth a special mention except that I thinned them down to half their normal thickness. I might have used some other taillights except that when I painted the car 5 years ago I failed to notice the marks on the rear panel below the trunk lid that Revell had kindly provided to help the builder locate the license plate and taillights! So I had to stick with the kit lights. Thinning them down improves their appearance enormously. For this reason I’ll be sticking with the kit license plate surround, but also thinning it down.

I’d love to get this car completed in the next week or so, but I’m trying to stay focused on getting this thing done right this time…

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[slusher]

Very nice work so far. Sweet...

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx!

Just about done. Here are the final workbench shots. An exhaust system was fabricated from the Revell Deuce system, consisting of solder used to join the mufflers to the Replicas & Miniatures competition headers from the original build 5 years ago and the Revell mufflers with shortened rear pieces exiting in front of the rear wheels. The Revell kit windshield received a 2/12 inch chop. Many small detail bits have been added. The chromed headlights from the Revell kit were stripped and painted body color to match the shock mounts and frame. Grill shell braces were made from .020 stainless steel piano wire. A beehive oil filter of probable AMT origin was added to the engine compartment. The chrome coolant pipes are from the Revell Goodguys '40 Ford Coupe Street Rod kit. The hubcaps are Ford V8 items from the Revell ’40 Ford Standard Coupe kit. I tried adding chrome beauty rings from an AMT ’40 Ford. They fit perfectly but took too much color out of the wheels so they were removed. I can’t recall the origin of the wheels themselves but I believe that they may have come from Replicas & Miniatures like so much of this project when I started it.

Still to do is completion of the small bits including installing the ’49 Ford steering wheel from the original build which fell off 5 years ago. There’s also the usual touch up and clean up to do. And then it’ll be time for the “beauty shots” and to call this project done … at last!

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[slusher]

Very nice progress and looking sweet...

[the goon]

Lookin' real good.

Mark

[rmvw guy]

You blow me away with all your builds. I love it, nice job.

[ronr]

Cool build Bernard!

[Bernard Kron]

Thanx again guys. After 5 long years (mainly in a box) this project is done! The final "Beauty Pics" can be seen Under G;ass here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=82470#entry1062833