50's Style Deuce HiBoy Roadster - Resurrected

This is a project I first started 5 years ago. 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 Veber’s resin is famously thin, smooth and styrene like, but one result of his delicately fine castings is that they don’t 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 becoming the Project From Hell. 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 Norm’s 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.

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 I’ll 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. It’s 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 won’t 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.

Thats going to be one very cool 32 roadster once its done,  

B - we call this a Wreckscue here.
The paint colour is gorgeous and the interior is great.

yeah, i think 5 years is enough to get under my skin. missing parts seems to go hand-in-hand with long stored kits (which is why i usually use zip-lock bags now). My 1/16 charger that's been on and off for over a year and a half, and is now missing the rear suspension hangers (luckily easily scratchbuilt).

I’ve been working on this in between stints building a 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 damaged 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.

Slowly getting there with it.

Looks good.

coming up a treat Bernard, love that blue too mate.

I like where this is going Bern, the matching wheel colour works well.
Good work.

Looking great Bernard, can't wait to see more progress.

Josh.

Thanx everyone!

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.

NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Love your work on this one Bernard.  

Looks awesome Bernard, well worth the 5 year wait!

 Nice work on the model, and I like the see through effect 

Your cars all have the "right stuff", have you done any large scale models?

dpride wrote:...have you done any large scale models?

Thanx everyone!

I haven't done any large scale work - frankly for all the usual reasons, lack of room, expense, etc. But actually it's out of lack of confidence. I've always felt that the effect of  building in large scale is a bit counterintuitive. One would expect that smaller scale would be more difficult because the bits are harder to work with and more difficult to fabricate. But of course any difficulty with size is more than offset by the fact that larger models expose the handiwork to far closer scrutiny. However, if your have the skill and the vision, I can think of no better pallet to show off what you have in mind than the larger scales. The opportunity for elaboration of detail and for realism of texture and color is so much greater. I'm certain that's why the finest builders in our hobby will often work in larger scales when the subject warrants. Whether I ever do will largely be a matter of when I feel I have the skills to.

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.

After 5 years (of sitting in a box)... It's Done!!! Here's a kunk to the Beauty Shots: https://ozautobuilders.forumotion.com/t7385-a-deuce-resurrected-32-ford-hiboy-roadster#94951