Chopped '32 Ford Tudor HiBoy Street Rod

Chopped 1932 Ford Tudor HiBoy

This is a project I started over 6 years ago when Revell first introduced their ’32 Ford Tudor Street Rod kit. My plan was to make a “lowboy” Hiboy hot rod with a 3” chop out of the top and a 4” z’d frame at the rear and a deep drop front axle. I was about 3 years into my return to car modeling and the chop job went badly on me, ending with me losing bits of the A-pillar so that it became impossible to proceed. I had started the chassis and completed the 4” z-job but that was about as far as I got.

As the years passed by this kit was robbed of virtually all of its major parts except for the chassis, the butchered body and the inevitable small block Ford OHV V-8. In the meantime I had gotten another copy of the kit and last month I decided I would attempt to pick up where I had left .off, taking advantage of what I hoped were significantly improved skills.

I started with the chop, 3” all around as on the first attempt. My idea was to do a glossy jet black street machine in the style of the resto-rods out of Southern California in the mid 60’s. I was also inspired by the recent Goodguys PPG Nationals winning Deuce Tudor built by Johnson’s Hot Rods for George Poteet. So, to make sure the paint came out right I did it first before doing anything else. Not the brightest idea since it meant being super careful when handling the body during the rest of the construction. Fortunately I still had the original butchered body shell for test fits which minimized handling issues.

I decided to do a more interesting V8 than the ever-present Revell item, so I ordered a ’65 Mustang Cobra Hi-Po Tri-Power setup from B-N-L resins, which, along with a set of Cobra valve covers and oil pan taken from a Revell Buttera ’34 Ford coupe, adds a little spice under the hood.

Speaking of the hood, I spent the better part of a week of bench time carefully cutting open the hood side louvers. It came out OK but is a complete waste of time, especially on a black car. The 3D effect is totally invisible!

The suspension is based on the kit setup with rear coil-overs adapted to the original deep 4’ z-job. At the front, bring the nose absolutely in-the-weeds I swapped out the kit axle for the deep 4” dropped I-beam axle from a Revell ’40 Ford street rod kit, paired with the kit front spring shaved down to a single mono-leaf. The rest of the drive train is straight from the Revell kit. The chassis horns at the front were reworked so that they are the stock-style open channel rather than the solid filled ones in the kit.

The interior is based on the kit pieces, with the rear seat removed and a raised floor fabricated from styrene grooved sheet (Plastruct corrugated roof material) and styrene semi-circular rod for the skid rails. It’s finished in gloss black with foiled rails. The tank is the kit tank halves glued together and flipped bottom side up, finished in Testors Aluminum Plate Metalizer. The seats are really nice basic old school racing buckets courtesy of Big Donkey Resins. The Insignia Red finish is Testors Acryl.

The rolling stock is based on some super-sweet 50’s era Halibrand mags I got from Model Builder’s Warehouse. They’re made by Historic Racing Miniatures and the detail and finish is superb with gorgeous finely detailed knockoffs that come as separate pieces. The wheels are finished in Testors Magnesium Metalizer with the rims and knockoffs picked out in Molotow chrome. The rear tires are my current favorite hot rod rear tires, skinny bias-ply truck tires from Herb Deeks. The front tires are the ribbed pieces found in various Revellogram ’37 Ford pickup and van kits. Combined with the almost dead-flat stance of the suspension the result is a subtle rubber rake that complements the severe conservative look of the bodywork.

The headlights are the big stock items from the Revell kit, but mounted low down by drilling a hole at the back of the light and inserting it over the mounting pin on the shock mounts. The cross bar is from my parts box, but I think it’s an AMT ’32 Ford piece. The taillights were fabricated from the spot lights out of an AMT '50 Ford Convertible. I filled the buckets with clear red tinted epoxy. They’re mounted to the kit rear crossbar which is mounted to fabricated tabs which drop the bar below the bottom of the body lip.

Paint is 3 coats of Duplicolor Black Lacquer over hot rod grey primer, with 3 coats of clear, color sanded between each coat of black and clear and then rubbed out using Tamiya Polishing compounds.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

Alright this looks great

Awesome build

Thank you everyone. I'm glad you all dig it!

This project got me as close to the "picture in my head" as I've ever come with a model. So I'm fairly pleased with it. But looking at the photos again after a few days away I was bothered by some problems with hood fit and minor photo funkiness, so I re-jiggered the hood fit and re-shot some of the pictures, mainly front 3/4 views. I've replaced the relevant pictures in the initial post.

Cool Tudor

Thanx again! I hope you all are having a nice Xmas.

This is so cool Bern, love the black with the Halibrand mags it works so well.
Great build

Thank you! Sometimes I think it's almost too subtle in its overwhelming blackness, but to me this is what a shiny hot rod looks like...