Altered States Louvered 29 Ford Model A Finished!

[jbwelda]

I have been working on this or at least thinking about this project for a while now, procrastinating about finishing up a certain AMT Nova wagon. I picked the body up along with a 30 A chopped coupe, both designed to fit the similar Revell model A kits. Since I never did pick up a virgin coupe kit, the coupe body will serve double function, but for now I thought I would see how the louvered roadster would look.

I have never built a highboy style rod before, and I had a Revell Model A roadster kit that I had pirated the channeled version chassis and pretty much all the goodies from the kit, but there was still the highboy version chassis and associated parts, so I figured I would build a highboy, exposed chassis, car this time. The problem is the "high" in highboys...I am much more partial to low cars, especially hot rods. So I decided to build what might be called a "lowboy": body sitting atop chassis, but chassis sitting very low to the ground.

Now as those who know the Revell kits know, the stance is kinda wonky in more than one way. The Highboy actually sits, or appears to sit, lower than the channeled version. So that was the first thing to be addressed, and various methods have been tried on this model to varying degrees of success, in my eye anyway. And I want it to sit LOW, probably slightly higher in the rear, but the front definitely down on the pavement. Screw driving it, its a model. There are no speed bumps (aka sleeping policemen) in my model world.

So with that in mind, I decided to Z the frame in the rear, to lower it down but also to adapt a more traditional rear end on a transverse spring, which requires some height just to implement. In the front, the real problem, I decided to use a Parts Box (not my parts box, the people in Australia) deep dropped front end on a transverse spring. That didn't really do much for the stance though so I tried to figure out a way to raise up the mounting point. Didn't really want to use a suicide perch, so I came up with a kinda ok solution: carve away the inside of the supplied chassis axle mount bracket and thin the transverse leaf spring so the latter would fit up inside the former. 

I have a few Revell Parts Pack Cadillac engines, so I decided that would make a suitably vintage engine choice, and I used the supplied four Stromberg 97 carb manifold and am also using the uber kool angular intake scoops that someone is offering through Shapeways. Don't have any pics of them but currently the Molotow is drying up.

Also, do not really have good pics of the body and its pieces, but it has a louvered rear deck, louvered engine side panels and a louvered grille shell. I may also draw on some Replica and Miniatures of Maryland pieces I have in stock, like the stock firewall, and perhaps finned brake drums up front.

Here are some photos of progress so far; I may only get the chassis finished up and the engine mounted and then set it aside for awhile to finish up the Nova, but I got the whole winter ahead for that.

As always comments or questions are encouraged, and thanks for looking!


Here are the pieces, although the radiator shell is not shown and front axle is not the one being currently used:




A shot of the body up on the Z'ed chassis, you can see the louvered decklid:




Here is a close up of the Z'ed chassis up inside the body. That tubular cross beam you see there is just for stability while cutting the frame apart and will probably come out.




The current state of the front end: axle spring coming up through mount. will be of course trimming the tab off the spring, and will fab up some kind of cover there to serve to hide the mounting point. Not sure if I will use tube shocks or lever shocks, probably leaning toward the latter for simplicity sake.




Here is the engine, Revell Cadillac parts pack special, with the included four carb Man-A-Fre style manifold, in process. This engine is a real little jewel, the manifold detail where it mounts to the heads is really kool, but as usual for me anyway, there is a fly in the ointment. In this case somehow the bellhousing/scattershield is slightly off alignment with the engine block, due to the top part of it, actually a segment of the upper block pieces, being just slightly cockeyed. I noticed it and at least aligned the transmission with the engine block but it still bothers me. I was trying really hard to do a perfect assembly job on a parts pack engine, and this one was coming along nicely...




Here is the engine sitting in place in the frame:




And here is the Z'ed section of the chassis with the rear spring, axle hangers and axle posed in place. You can see the axle hangers I fabbed up, I may redo them for a third time to put a little more shape into them, but they are looking pretty good as they are. At least they are straight and symmetrical looking, so far. This is always the hardest part for me: getting the chassis square and level after major modifications. I hate having a model with one tire off the ground or the body sitting non-parallel to the ground.




Another look at the hangers and the frame in general:




That's about it for now, I will probably do some posed shots with the body, engine and wheels and tires in place, so will post them up when I do. Next up is to plot and drill holes for front and rear radius rods and finish smoothing the frame rails and joints. I have done a bunch of filling and trimming on the stock chassis already, plan on doing some more before committing to paint.

Speaking of which I am thinking of a pretty subdued paint scheme: Tamiya TS 42 Light Gunmetal for the body and frame, and possibly a white or maybe darkish red interior. And I like those AlaKart wheels and tires I am posing the body with so will probably stick with them.

Again, thanks for looking and please comment!

jb

[TooOld]

Great start JB ! Really glad to see you building this one as I just bought the same body from Altered states along with the chopped '30 5-window .

[Bernard Kron]

Glad to see a Revell A-Roadster getting the revisions it deserves/requires. The louvered Altered States body is a nice complement to all the work you're putting in. Ditto the big Caddy mill. Looking forward to seeing more...

[kopperkart]

I like the work on the chassis. Stance is everything.

[jbwelda]

One thing to keep in mind if you are using this body: you need a NARROW engine under the louvered hood that comes with the body. This caddy is too wide for the hood to fit over the front of the engine, not to mention the headers interfere with my engine mounts. So I had to cut out the front mounts and move them forward and now have to do some surgery on the headers to get them to point back, not down so much, along with deciding if I want to pursue this engine in this vehicle and if so, how to handle the width problem: 1) don't use the hood (seems a shame to waste) or 2) relieve the front section of the hood to allow the front of the valve covers to stick out (initial measurements are not especially encouraging); or, if I don't want to use the engine and bugger up the hood piece, then decide on a replacement. An inline six would be ideal from the width standpoint but not sure I want to go that route, though I do have a chevy blue flame six on hand; another possibility would be to use the mini-flathead from the Revell Midget racers, of which I have a few and one built to use for fitting. That is certainly a beautiful little jewel of an engine, just not sure how appropriate it would be for a full size car like this.



So, some decisions to make before getting much further down the road


Edit to add: after some hours looking at and playing with this body/hood/grille shell in combination with the chassis from the 29 Model A kit, I have come to find that this hood is about 1/8" too short to work with the grille shell in place, and neither the front nor rear of the hood piece is an exact fit for the body or the grille shell (the hood is wide at the rear vs the body, and narrow at the front vs the radiator shell). It could be this is meant to be a shortened body/hood/grille setup, with an engine recessed into the firewall/interior, but it certainly is not going to fit the standard placement of the body and radiator shell as planned in the original Revell kit. I figure this by lining up the body, with the forward edge of the rear wheel cutout directly above the start of the character line in the deuce chassis, and then observing where the body begins, the hood starts and the grille shell is supposed to fit (in front of the front axle cross beam). If one tapes the body pieces together, and lines up the front of the rear wheel indent with the character line of the chassis, the radiator shell sits firmly centered upon that cross beam, instead of sitting forward of it. A difference of approx. 1/8", maybe a bit more. And sure enuff, when I take the hood and attempt to place it on one of my out of box factory buildups of the Model A, it is short by about the same distance.

All this is leading me to think perhaps I should stay with the Cad motor and ditch the louvered hood piece. Alternatives gone over this evening included the stovebolt six with hop up parts from the AMT 51 Chevy, or the Jaguar XK120 engine from the Monogram metal kit. That is actually a very nicely done engine but unfortunately it is in 1/24 scale so it is a bit larger than it should be for the Model A.

Will probably come to some decision soon, meanwhile am continuing on refining the Cad engine and thinking about alternatives that would allow using the hood piece. The problems associated with using it, though, pretty much are making me lean toward ditching that idea.

May take some photos of the body pieces taped together and posed on the chassis later today or tomorrow


jb

[jbwelda]

These photos illustrate the situation perfectly:

here are the two front ends, one of a box stock build of the 29 roadster, and the front of the one currently under construction:




note that in the box stock one, the radiator shell sits forward of the front axle/crossmember. And on the one under construction, it sits down inside that crossmember, and that is only because I had cut out the center of the crossmember for the axle spring pack to fit up into and thereby lower the front end.

Here is the original, box stock setup:




and here are the resin pieces:




If that isn't clear enuff, take a look at how the hood looks in comparison to the gap it would have to fill were it to be used on a box stock build (hood is on upside down for convenience, and is even with the cowl on the body toward the rear):




So, the upshot of all this is it would not be a problem if you realized this feature to begin with and planned for it, probably by setting the engine back into the firewall or even the interior. Remember, the squeeze is on at the front of the hood also, you need a narrow engine to fit inside the hood, which was what took me off on this journey to begin with. So with those two issues facing me, I think for me personally at this time, I am going to ditch the hood and just go with the body and grille shell, rather than source another engine, set it back and then do the necessary work to make the body match up to the hood and the hood up to the grille shell. But just be aware of this situation when you plan your build with this body and it will work out better. Seems to me the front crossmember will have to be reworked to have the grille land where it is landing and some other mods might be necessary as well to get it all to fit nice.

Meanwhile, detailing continues on the engine. I used Molotow pens to chrome the air cleaner scoops I am using and it came out real nice. I did three flood coats of the stuff, letting it dry at least 24 hours between coats, but by the third one I have a nice hard smooth chrome surface. Will post more pics soon. Thanks again for looking!

By the way, here is a better pic of how it looks with the hood. Very nice I would say, would be worthwhile to get it together like that.



jb

[jbwelda]

Time for an update: got the chassis all sorted out and painted, the body color will be the same, Tamiya Light Gunmetal. 





Also pretty much finishing up the mill, the scoops are in line to get one more flood coat of Molotow and the headers have been modified to fit a little better than they did earlier, but they are not shown in these pics.











Now something different, I like to buy assembled chassis and engines, in as good of condition as I can find them (but cheap generally), and then use them as mules to pose resin bodies I pick up, or just to use in one way or another. Occasionally I come across some I would like to repair/restore and use semi permanently as a basis for some body or another I particularly like. Enter the edibles, a razor saw, a spare kit or two, and a very nice chassis from somewhere, and we can end up with something like this:






That of course is the Roth Beatnik Bandit, sans fenders and with some initial bodywork to make it fit on what I think must be a Revell chassis. It was kind of crude, and came with a Revell parts pack Fiat body on it, but I already cleaned it up some, and reinstalled the engine and some other repairs just to get it up on four wheels.

Now i'm not prepared to say this is a real project as of yet, that's why I am hiding it here, but I am thinking about cutting some strategic slots in the front fenders to let the zoomies come up through the body work and let the front end drop a good bit. Some wild azz paint and it might work. Even sitting as it is, it has its charms. Have to sleep on it...





as you can see, I have already done some cutting





Thanks again for looking and as always, all comments welcome!

Oh I forgot to add: I am thinking about incorporating the bubble top, cutting away the rear to fit around the roll cage area.

jb

[jbwelda]

Had some time to devote to this one so an update is due. Set up the rear axle pretty much for reals this time, and have readied the wheels and tires all around, along with the front axle, you can see the stance in the photos. Very low. Funny thing about these highboys, though, they never really look low. But I am going to have a dicey time with the engine not dragging on the ground. At this point the front and rear are adjustable up and down (with some pain and scratch re-building) but the rear will not be for long as I want to secure that and make sure it is sitting as straight as possible in all its possible angles. And before I do that I need to permanently mount the engine, which is pretty much ready to go in, and then permanently affix the headers to the engine with them and the engine in place in the chassis. I have already done a rehearsal and it all fits, but its funny how it all fits until it senses glue and then suddenly nothing fits. But I digress...


A few shots of the chassis up on front and rear axles, with tires in place. I have scratchbuilt a pair of rear shock absorbers, made them small to resemble like 63 Honda 160 shocks that I will mount after the axle is in. They are adjustable, and actually work. Not that you would or anything but they do.











Here are some more, this time with the body posed on the chassis. Body is just short of getting painted, a little more firewall and cowl work and I will be squirting some Tamiya TS42 Light Gunmetal on the body and a couple coats of clear.













Meanwhile, photos are reminding me, I don't like those rear tires at all, those stupid looking whitewalls are just stupid. Actually its the tires, not the whitewalls, and I totally like the idea of white walls in the rear, but those just don't cut it. Wheels and tires by the way are from the AMT new tool Ala Kart of a few years back. Fronts look ok but the rears the whitewalls are recessed inside the tire and just don't look right. I have messed around with them to no good effect, so next I might try to find a set of replacements with a more realistic look. 

You can see the neat-o radial finned front brake backing plates, from Replicas And Miniatures of Maryland, and the axle is from The Parts Box in Australia. Also visible is the nice curtaining effect on the firewall from over ambitious application of primer. I had to build up the area, that's my story. 

Edit: Never mind, the line in the cowl, it totally needs to stay, and saw a few kind of nice real life examples too!






If you see something you like, or you don't like, give me a yell!


jb

[fordrodnkustom]

You sure have been busy! The roadster looks good but I agree about those rear tires for sure. The old Revell Rat Rods '29 Ford P.U. has a nice set of big 'n' littles with open steelies. That Beatnik Bandit gasser sure is intriguing to say the least. Looking forward to seeing you're progress on both.

" I have already done a rehearsal and it all fits, but its funny how it all fits until it senses glue and then suddenly nothing fits." LOL you have that too? I was just lamenting the same thing here!

[jbwelda]

I decided to just shoot that Bandit body with some duplicolor paint I had around, called Chili Pepper Red Pearl, and it came out really nice, smooth and ready for clear. Its currently in the back of the shelf somewhere, didn't even take any pics of it. Didn't really get much beyond what you see above, except for the paint. It does look pretty kool though, you could imagine Big Daddy might dig it. One rainy day I will pull it back out and see what I can do about lowering the front, but I think it looks pretty good level as it is above.

I went looking into my kit stash and found a Monogram 40 Ford convertible with some nice wide whitewall tires of about the same outside diameter as the ones I was using, and the wheels and backing plates fit well so I think that's that. They look way better, larger whitewall area and way better looking sidewall. they are just a bit skinnier which I don't mind on this build as it kind of fits the look.

I am actually really partial to the cheater slicks that come in the AMT Gasman 49 Ford but the set I have is earmarked for something else. If I had an extra pair of those I would probably use them, and in fact the way the rear end is set up I can change rear wheels easily, I made aluminum sleeves that telescope into each other and attach to the backing plate mounted to the tire. That is going to be nice since I just ordered some wide whitewall tires from the new Modelhaus tire place and am expecting great things there.


jb

[Mr.409]

Great job on this Roadster! Those louvers really look good on it. Well, to be honest they almost always look very good. Your engine and chassis are looking very good already, so I'm interested in seeing how the body looks with the color on.

I agree on the rear tires though, they're not the best for this application. I also think that A set of old Pie Crust slicks with whitewalls would look killer on it. But, any "regular street tire" is not bad either... As long as the tires fit to "the look".

[bob29579]

This is coming along great. Nice job so far.

[jbwelda]

Thank you Bob, and others.

Made some progress recently including some interesting things as far as rear wheels and tires. As I mentioned above, the rear tires especially just were not cutting it. But I was pretty committed to the wide whitewall/chrome reversed rim look. So I started looking around, beginning with the excellent suggestion to look in the Revell 29 Rat Rod kit, which I happen to have pilfered copies of galore. I had always checked out these wheels and tires when I wanted that look, the problem is I wanted chrome and didn't want to send it out. Also the wheels aren't quite as deeply reversed as I like on the rear, but that was a minor quibble compared to the finish on them. On this build my heart (and the front wheels) is pretty much set on chrome.

Secondly, the Monogram 40 Ford convert mentioned above still ranked pretty high on my list. They are skinnier than the Rat Rod ones (normally, to me, a plus for meatier rear tires) but they are slightly taller and look more "vintage" I suppose. However they also are not chrome, and they also are not reversed at all, more a flatish insert that goes into the grooved tires.

So, I proceeded to do both sets to see which looks best, and as I mentioned above, I have tried to build the rear axle so wheel/tire changes are easily possible. Lets see some photos:

Here is the basic selection: running horizontally along the top are the wheels and tires from the Rat Rod. Below that are the wheels and tires from the 40 Ford, in normal assembled form to the left, and the wheels and tires as they are being prepared next to those. Note I sent the wheels out to Molotow Plating Service, and got them returned in about 24 hours, dry and ready to use. Seriously, that stuff is the shite.




A close up of the Rat Rod wheels and tires:




And a similar shot of the 40 Ford combo, note the nice detail including valve stem:




That chrome came out looking pretty good! I totally flow it onto the wheel so it goes down into the crevices, getting my 2mm pen really pumped up and flowing. It sets down when it dries, as you can see, and I let it sit for a good 24 before I even think about touching it, and really more like 72 hours before I handle it.

Anyway, here is a closer shot of the 40 Ford wheels showing the untouched examples on the left and the more prepped items on the right. 




So honestly I think its going to come down to final look and possibly height and stance fine tuning. I will say I like the look of the more skinny tire and wheel with the fatter whitewall, but I am more inclined to the somewhat fatter tire and wheel combination even though the whitewall isn't quite so pronounced on it, and I think those wheels look more detailed than the skinnier ones. 

Meanwhile I installed the engine into its place, and the front axle will be next up there:







Those are 3D printed little tiny Cal Custom air scoops, look great! And the fan and exhaust pipes are not committed yet, just loosely attached.

And am getting the rear axle wrapped up, just attached the shocks I built earlier and put some (dumb) traction bars on the axle. The problem there was, both were identical pieces, not mirror images of each other. That means that the kool little recess that I outlined with india ink is facing toward the wheel on one side, but toward the driveshaft on the other side of the car. Really dumb. I considered trying to cut one apart to reverse on side to make it symmetrical with the other side, but it wasn't working. So as to avoid totally breaking everything I left sleeping dogs lie. For now.

Anyway here are the shocks:







Forward on to some body and paint!

thanks again for looking and all comments welcome!

jb

[Bernard Kron]

Holy rat nanas, Batman! This is some kinda heavy duty modeling action goin' on here. The final detail selections are uniformly on the money and the execution first rate. The tire choice battle will definitely be worth it. My choice would be the '40 Ford items. I've always struggled with the theoretical appeal of the Rat Rod tires. They've always struck me as somewhat the lazy way out with odd proportions and strange tread patterns. The skinniness of the '40 Ford tires might be an issue, as you sensed it will depend on how much of a traditional vibe you're going for. But the proportions and the tread detail are light years better than the Rat Rod tires IMHO, and the fact that you have actual tire brand detail on the sidewalls of your particullr set seals the deal for me!

[plowboy]

I would ditch the transverse spring setup on the rear and replace it with a set of coil overs. The spring should be behind the rearend to allow suspension travel. Not directly above it.
If you want to keep a transverse spring, get one from a Model T that has more arch to it and you can get rid of that huge block. You would also need to get a different cross member and locate it farther towards the rear. Coil overs would be the easiest fix. Which is what that chassis is actually set up for.