'29 Ford Roadster - TROG theme entry for 2018 NNL West - 12-26 Update

For the last several years every winter I try to make it down to the NNL West in Santa Clara, California from my home in Seattle, Washington. It’s a huge show, perhaps thew largest here in the USA,  with around 1,000 cars on display and with some of the finest models you are ever likely to see. Each year the organizers choose 2 themes and reserve feature tables for each.  This year’s themes are The Race of Gentlemen and Show Cars.



I’m hoping to build 2 entries for the TROG theme table. I just started on the first of them. It’s a straightforward pre-WWII dry lakes ’29 Ford inspired by this box art illustration from the recently re-issued AMT Mod Rod:



It will be built largely out of the box with detail modifications to improve the detail and authenticity somewhat. For example, rather than using the hopelessly skinny and somewhat crude spoked wheels from the kit I’m using the far nicer early Kelsey Hayes wire wheels from the AMT ’34 Ford 5-window coupe kit. The front tires are the ones found in the Mod Rod and countless other AMT ’29 Ford Roadster variants, but the rear tires are from the Revell ’40 Ford Standard kit. The whitewalls on both types of tires have been finished over in flat black. The whole setup is more like what was seen in the early days at El Mirage in the mid 30’s
Over the years some of the 4 banger hop up parts originally in the ’29 Ford/Ala Kart double kit were lost, notably the Riley Type B 2-port heads. Fortunately a very nice set can be found in the Revellogram ’30 Ford Sedan kit and the fit is exact on the AMT block. I once did a project where I installed the entire Revellogram 4-banger in an AMT ’29 Ford Roadster chassis, but the Revell piece its larger in several key dimensions and it required extensive work to squeeze it in the AMT chassis. This time I’m building up the basic AMT short block, improving details where I can. Once such modification is to reshape the molded in starter motor to resemble a Wilco Magneto. Removing the starter motor and driving a Wilco Magneto off the flywheel was a standard hop-up in the 30’s I haven’t finished the work on the magneto but I’m getting close. Hopefully I’ll be able to wire up the motor in the next week or so.

Here’s the status of things so far:



Overall this is a very simple build, pretty much straight out of the box. As is my habit, I’m making up a bunch of period decals. The sponsor is Gilmore Oil, a famous Southern California oil company of the period. Sponsorship was fairly rare but Gilmore sponsored a fair number of circle track cars, racing airplanes and speedboats, so the theme is not totally out of the question. All the fonts and text are lifted directly from period Gilmore advertising. Below is a Photoshop mockup of the basic graphics. In addition there will be racing numbers on the doors and perhaps some additional Wilco and Firestone trade decals.



Thanx for lookin’,
B.

Here's a quick update of a mockup of the side view with the number and Wico and Firestone decals in place:

Here’s what I’m hoping will be the final update. I’d like to be able to include this one in my 2017 builds. The “long pole in the tent” right now is that I’m waiting on a 4-cylinder distributor cap for the Wico magneto I’m modeling, as explained below. Other than that everything is pretty much wrapped and requiring a pretty simple and quick final assembly.

It turns out that I was totally wrong when it came to mounting a 30’s style magneto (the big brands of the time were Eisemann, Wico, Edison, and Bosch) to a Ford B-block 4-cylinder. It’s true that on a lot of farm equipment, tractors and stationary motors they were driven off the flywheel, but in 4-stroke applications they were either stepped down to half speed (for example on John Deere tractors), or in low-stress applications like stationary pumps  the magneto simply allowed to fire on the exhaust stroke. But in racing 4-banger Ford applications the magnetos were invariably driven off the cam drive so that they ran at half speed. This was usually accomplished using some sort of adapter. In the summary composite picture which follows I’ve included a photo of an Eisemann magneto in a lakes modified with the magneto driven by a short quill shaft off an adapter case. A water pump is mounted to the front of the same casing.

In any case this created a problem for me because, as you’ll see below, I had already created a Wico Magnetos decal and applied 2 of them to the painted and finished body. The placement helps balance things out graphically, and besides I wasn’t inclined to risk marring the paint by removing them. So I’ve taken the long way around by changing the magneto mounting position. Since I had reshaped the molded-in AMT starter motor into a Wico-shaped lump this meant cutting out said lump and replacing it with a proper starter motor. Fortunately I was able to accomplish this fairly cleanly and it turned out that one of the countless small-block Ford V8 starter motors from one of the equally countless Revell ’32 Ford kit leftovers in my parts box fit perfectly. The result is in the second panel of the summary picture below.

On the other side of the block I fabricated a quill shaft drive from some mysterious piece I found in a Revell ’30 Ford Tudor Rat Rod kit and various styrene bits. I positioned it on the other side of the oil feed tube in order to preserve that  detail. This is further back than in the Eisemann installation and required a longer quill shaft. It’s all painted and installed and simply waiting for the 4-cylinder distributor cap from Morgan Automotive Detail, which I’ll reshape slightly and glue in place. Then I can wire and plum the motor and stick it in the chassis, followed by final assembly.

The last image in the summary picture below is a view of the undercarriage. The AMT ’29 Ford Model A Roadster kits have a really nicely detailed floor panel. It’s typical of the great job they did on the stock Model A part of the original double kit, paired with the Ala Kart. Frankly, in working on this project I once again have been reminded why, in many ways, I prefer the AMT kit for my hot rods over the recent Revell kit, as nice as the Revell roadster is. Because the AMT kit is essentially a stocker kit the hot rod modelling experience is more like building a 1:1 – big fun in my opinion… In any case, I cut out the floor panels from the stock fender assembly and fabricated some small styrene panels to fill the gaps between the panels and the edges of the body. The result is shown below along with the finished chassis, which is straight out of the box with stock front and rear suspension..



As I said, all the decals and bodywork are completed. The windshield was removed, leaving the stock bracketry and dashboard in place. The interior was also finished, again essentially stock out of the kit. The side panel and seat are finished in a distressed leather effect done by applying multiple thin coats of Testors Acryl paint (the shade is, oddly enough, Leather) and then brushing it in a diagonal cross hatch pattern as each coat dries. Then a light coat of black wash is applied and lightly removed with a piece of tissue to highlight the distressing.

The picture below shows the completed decal application and the completed interior:



That’s it for now. Fingers crossed that the distributor cap gets here this year, LOL!

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

Very nice build, those wheels are the ticket!!

Thanks!

This is a micro-update, but the distributor cap came today and I was able to finish off the darn Wico magneto. Now to button this baby up and call it a year – my last project of 2017. I’ll probably get ‘er done tomorrow and post a completed model in the next day or two.

In the meantime, thanx to all who followed along and here’s hoping you’re having a happy holiday season and wishing you all the very best for 2018!

Thanx for lookin’,
B.