'27 T Highboy Roadster - Late 50's Show Car Style

’27 T Ford Highboy Roadster Done Late-50’s Show Car Style
(more pictures below)

The late-50’s and early-60’s were the Golden Age of the Custom Car show, an era when Kandy Kolor, Metalflake, angel hair and chrome plating ruled and no car was spared the full treatment, whether it was a contemporary sedan, a race car or a classic hot rod. It was this era that I tried to capture in building my Ford ’27 T Highboy Roadster. As iconic as a ’27 T roadster may be, they are rarely built in scale, this despite the fact that 1/25th resin copies of this body are quite commonly available from several different suppliers. This is because, except for the body, virtually everything must be either scratch built or kit-bashed, including the interior and the frame. As a result this was an especially challenging project to take on, one which I had wanted to do for some time now, but put off until I felt I had some chance of success.

The basic body is from Altered States Models (http://www.alteredstatesmodels.com/) and is a particularly nice example, crisply cast in thin white styrene-like resin with a well detailed firewall area missing from most examples on offer. The “donor kit” for the project was effectively one of any of the various Revell ’32 Ford kits which contributed chassis, suspension, engine block, transmission, drive shaft and interior, all of which were extensively modified to fit the ’27 T which is far smaller than the Deuce. Other major parts were either scratch built or adapted from a variety of other kits, all of which are listed below along with the work done.

My hope was to be able to capture the spirit of this historic period in hot rodding with a unique model that would test my current abilities as a car modeler.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.


Bodywork: 1927 Ford Model T roadster body made by Altered States Models (http://www.alteredstatesmodels.com/). 4” chopped 1932 Ford grill shell and photo-etch grill by Model Car Garage. Custom rolled rear pan fabricated from styrene strip. Recessed firewall adapted from Revell ’32 Ford Roadster kit. Windshield cut down from AMT ‘27T Phaeton kit (special thanks to Ace-Garageguy). Teardrop taillights from Revell Deuce kit with photo-etch trim by Model Car Garage. Home made ’59 California plates with Model Car Garage photo-etch license plate surround.
Chassis and suspension: Revell 1/25th scale ’32 Ford shortened to 98 scale inch wheelbase behind passenger compartment and z’d 4 scale inches. Rear kickup narrowed to fit inside turtle deck. Frame rails notched at front crossmember to accommodate lowered front suspension. Front and rear  suspension from Revell Deuce kits. Rear shock mounts relocated to fit inside turtle deck. Rear radius rods shortened to accommodate shortened chassis. Front hairpins and shocks from Revell Stacey David Rat Roaster kit. Front spring shaved, removing 3 spring leaves to lower front end approx. 2 ½ scale inches.
Engine and Drive Train: Ford engine block and transmission from Revell Deuce kit. Block and heads reshaped and extended to accommodate AMT ’57 Ford Thunderbird valve covers, accessory drive, intake manifold and oil pan to represent  1957 Ford Thunderbird 312 High Performance motor. Pre-wired distributor by Morgan Automotive Details. Tubular exhaust headers from Monogram ’57 Chevrolet Nomad kit. Exhaust system scratch built from aluminum tubing, solid-core solder and plastic rod.
Wheels and Tires: Chrome reversed rim wheels from AMT ‘51 Chevrolet Bel Air kit, trimmed in blue acrylic wash to simulate Kolor Krome. Tires by Modelhaus (T120 fronts and “I-forget” rears).
Interior: Revell Deuce kit floor, seat and side panels cut and reshaped to fit. AMT ’37 Chevrolet kit custom tuck and roll dashboard. Upholstery finished in Duplicolor Oxford White with Duplicolor Wimbledon White accents and 28 ga. blue insulated wire piping. Corvette-style steering wheel from AMT ‘51 Chevrolet Bel Air kit, trimmed in blue acrylic wash to simulate Kolor Krome.
Paint: Duplicolor Metal Specks Silver base coat, Duplicolor Medium Quasar Metallic color coat and Duplicolor Clear sealer. Floor pan finished in Duplicolor Oxford White.

Great build Bern, love the look of this one, a not often seen model.
I do like the colour on this, it really suits the period/era and especially in the wheels.
Hot Rodding excellence, 10:10 Hot rod points

Thanx guys!

70cudatj wrote:...Hot Rodding excellence, 10:10 Hot rod points

Thank you!  LOL

Beautiful!...I'm guessing Bernard, no one, apart from another
fellow modeller, can appreciate the amount of work and detail
you committed to this build, but I'm sure there will be many a moment,
when you will look at this awesome looking model, and know that
it was you who created it and with pride. Well done mate!

Great job, I like it

Gorgeous.
Wish i'd built it.

The "body perched on the frame" look I whinged about earlier has gone now.  I'm thinking due to the dark paint.

Thanx for the incredibly generous comments, everyone. This project was certainly "non-trivial" but as I mentioned already I've been wanting to do one of these for a long time and the moment seemed to be right for it. This actually came out looking pretty much as I would have wished it to. It's nice to have done a model that's not seen that often in scale.

zenrat wrote:...The "body perched on the frame" look I whinged about earlier has gone now.  I'm thinking due to the dark paint...

Thank you, Fred. At the beginning of the build thread I showed pictures of the 3 cars that inspired me in the design of this model and of them the 1962 AMBR winner, the Barris Twister T, was the one I wanted to avoid looking like. I wanted to use this opportunity to do it in a way that looked good to my eye. I think I was able to adjust the stance enough to avoid that horrible tall look of the Barris car. Also, the early mockups without motor or grill shell in place certainly didn't help matters.

Ultimately there are two very general "flavors" that fenderless roadsters seem to come in, especially T-buckets. For lack of better terms these might be thought of as "carriages" and "speedsters". The "carriages" emphasize the early 20th century aspect of the body design. I often think of Grabowski's Kookie Car as from the carriage school since it "sells" the bucket so hard. But even low-slung fad-T's can be in this flavor. The "speedsters" were less common by the early 60's, the high period for them being the track-nosed channeled cars of the early to mid 50's like the Regg Schlemmer, Eddie Dye. and Bill Niekamp  roadsters, among them early AMBR winners. As the 60's progressed the "carriage" school dominated, culminating in the resto-rod and Fad-T schools. With the whole neo-traditionalist TRJ revival thing we seem to have come full circle with last years AMBR winner underscoring the renewed appreciation for sleek and low roadsters, and the 27 T in particular.

Like you I tend towards the low and sleek but I have learned to appreciate a properly proportioned highboy and have recently done a few in scale. This one is definitely of the "carriage" school, but I tried to get the proportions right. I agree that the contrast between the single dark color of the frame and body and the whitewall tires, chrome wheels, and motor helps unify it and obscure the Deuce rails somewhat. That's something, with all it's busy details, rearward sloping motor, stock windshield and miscellaneous bracketry, the Twister T gets terribly wrong IMHO.

Looks real good

Absolutely stunning!

Nice one Bernie

Thanks once more, guys! Glad you like it. One of my more successful builds this year. Now on to the next one...