'32 Chopped Sedan - custom street rod

Always a good idea to have few irons in the fire.
While holding on the Thames woody for painting, I pulled out this one for a look.

Revell '32 Ford Sedan Street Rod kit is the starting point.
After seeing some pictures of nicely done chopped sedans, thought I'd do a roof chop on this one.
Chop is done. Cleaning up the roof molding trim.

For the rest of it, I'd like to do the car very clean and simple, with some vintage touches.

I had a set of aftermarket Replicas and Miniatures Kelsey Hayes wheels that included a Detail Master photo etch set of spokes, with R&M resin big and little white wall tires.

Each wheel had multiple front and back PE parts, that required bending and over laying on each other.


This was a very challenging task, but with careful handling and patience, turned out pretty good.

Thinking of a basic jet black body with vintage pinstriping, grey interior, and a vintage flat head engine.

Ohhh Yeehhhh!... gonna keep my watchful on this one!

Uh -oh......looks like I have to finish it now. LOL

When I was a kid (long long ago) my brother and I got Monogram hot rod car model kits - for Christmas.
I got the Green Hornet, he got the Black Widow.

While the GH was a really cool dragster, I've always liked the clean look of a black vintage hot rod/car with white pin stripes.
So I'm thinking along those lines.
I'd do it up as a curbside, ....but a vintage flathead with a few chrome trimmings seems too good ....not to do.

Reckon the finished car is going to look fantastic!...SuperFleck, hope you all have a great Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.


P.s. Don't forget to post a Mugshot and your name on "General Chit Chat" for the rest of "The Gang"...
I'm gonna encourage the rest to like wise!.

Done.

Have a Merry one everyone!

Those spoke wheels look fantastic. Many of the 1:35 scale military motorcycle kits now have PE spoke wheels.

k1w1 wrote:Those spoke wheels look fantastic. Many of the 1:35 scale military motorcycle kits now have PE spoke wheels.

The nicest way to do a spoked wheel...I wish this set was still being made.

Has anyone built this Revell kit?
I've got a huge problem with it...the interior tub is supposed to be built and inserted into the body shell...but the opening in the bottom of the body shell is too narrow.

G'day there Jim... I've built two of these kits, the Green one pretty much out of the box. The White one with a few mods as you can see.
Both have been converted to R/H drives (as they are "Aussie" rods)




Yes fitting the interior tub is a bit snug, but generally not to much drama once in place. The body sides are a little forgiving, to allow the
tub to slide in before cementing. Good luck my friend.

Got a good tip on another Forum.

"do it before the interior is attached to the chassis and before the rear inner fenders"

I think that will make a big difference.

Just tried it....inserting the interior w/o the rear fender wells and chasis unit works much better.

Moving along, tried a full interior flocking, first attempt was a disaster.
There is a good way to do flocking which I should've done the first time.
I used a spray can of grey enamel, thinking it would stay tacky longer.
It did .....but it went on uneven.

Tried a brush next with a tea infuser/sifter which laid the flocking on much better...tried sifting it on instead of dumping the flocking medium on.

Got something I can live with on the third try.

Third time lucky. That looks flocking good mate. Looking forward to the rest of the build.

Working front and rear suspensions and wheel attachments...to get the desired stance.

I did quite a bit of work on the front axle to get the additional drop on the front end.
Channeled the rear floorboard to lower the body shell as well.
Think I got the stance I want.

Now that's looking mean and nasty so far!...can't wait to see it finished!

Scratch built a new leaf spring and shackles to change the location of the leaf spring below the frame (was told the spring travel would be a problem if above the frame).
Dechromed and airbrushed Alclad II Chrome on suspension parts.

Will need to begin engine build.
Waiting on some aftermarket fathead parts.

Alclad application today.

Today I worked on the interior....in keeping with the black widow theme...PE spider steering wheel and a black widow gear shift.

Dealing with painting now. Anyone out there use the Don Yost technique....Testors enamel thinned with lacquer thinner ?

I have a paasche double action airbrush with an AS186 compressor with pressure regulator...set at 32 psi.

Testors black gloss enamel in the classic little bottle, cut with Jasco Green Lacquer thinner from Lowes for good smooth flow.

First try was less than expected...after many light mist coats - building up to get the final gloss coat... the orange peel orange peel was disappointing.

I'm also posting in the paint chat......

G'day there Jim, waiting in anticipation to see this one in the "Showroom" mate.  As you know I've built two of these kits already...

   

So because I love the body style and seeing what you're up to with your build, I've just bought my third, and plan to do a roof chop like yours.


Cheers for now.

VERY GROOVY.

I'll be watching.

Had not posted on this one for awhile....had a second try with Testors black enamel thinned with lacquer thinner ala Don Yost method....still too cold to get a good finish w/o orange peel o I'm LMG/wet sanding for a third try.

Working exhaust headers while I wait out better painting conditions.
Aftermarket engine parts finally came in the mail from Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland ....will be starting a traditional hopped up flathead for this one.

I went over my recent flathead parts stash and new arrivals, and looked over my resource file for interesting flathead engines.

I think I found an interesting picture in Dain Gingerelli's "Ford Hot Rods" that will match my Replicas and Miniatures resin flathead engine block and trans, dual carb intake and vintage resin bell air cleaners, along with the detailed resin Stromberg 97s from Model Car Garage.

I tack glued it all together to see if it will tuck under the hood...the body sits pretty low..but it looks like it will fit.

The second flathead picture is from Dain Gingerellis "Idea Book :  Hot Rods, Roadsters, Coupes and Customs" which is an excellent collection of hundreds of color photos of everything from engines chasis tailights and interiors.  
I'll use resin Offy flathead valve covers from Model Car Garage, unless I dig up some Navarros.