Baremetal Deuce HiBoy Roadster - Update 5-28

[Bernard Kron]

I haven’t done a hot rod or drag car project since the Autorama contest on the TRaK board last December. This is quite a dry spell for me, but I’ve been working on several sports car projects since then, including a couple of Porsches. This project, however, has been percolating in my imagination for quite some time. It’s a ‘32 Ford roadster which will be done entirely in bare metal tones with the exception of the tires and any non-metal items like hoses and seating surfaces. The stance will be that of a “low Highboy”, with a Z’d rear end and severely dropped front axle, providing for a low overall ride height despite the body being mounted atop the frame rails. I’ve done the basic chassis work, based on a Revell Deuce chassis. I’m incorporating as many details that will emphasize the bare metal appearance as I can think of, so I grafted a ’37 Ford truck X-member to the Deuce rails. The rear end has a buggy spring from a Monogram ’27 Ford. The rear axle will feature a Halibrand quick change which will be visible from the back end because I won’t be extending the rear pan despite omitting the stock fuel tank.

The interior will be all bare metal except for the upholstery on the bomber-style seats which are resin pieces I got from Big Donkey Resins. The picture below shows a rough mockup of the interior bits. The interior side panels will be glued and clamped into place to conform to the body shape.



Below are some body photos showing the basic setup. All the metal finishes in the two phtos consist of Duplicolor Metallic Silver lacquer which was treated with Kosutte Gin San metalizer powder and a some thin black acrylic wash.



Still to be determined are some pretty major items, like the motor and rolling stock, but I wanted to get the basic look started in my belated re-entry to things of a hot rod nature. The motor will most likely be something big and powerful, not a flathead, and the motor will determine whether I include hood panels or not. The wheels will most likely be traditional Halibrands of some sort, with skinny big ‘n’ littles.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[fordrodnkustom]

[harron68]

Your ability to surprise,and with quality work, is masterful. I'm not a fan of the bare metal look. however, the effect you achieved is remarkable! So far from the days of Pactra and Testors silver paint!!!!

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks guys!

I’m in the “bitsa” stage of this project. I’m doing some “bitsa” this and “bitsa” that, a natural outcome of my improvisational kit-bashing build style. I didn’t care for the thick look and stiffness of the interior panels so I landed up redoing them completely from .010” and .020” styrene sheet. The original was done from .030” styrene sheet as a base with .010 and .020 strip to construct the details. So the overall thickness is now about ½ of what it was. Because it’s so much thinner it’s flexible and rests snuggly up to the interior surface of the body. I also cut out the triangular areas so that the interior body surface is now revealed, creating a far better depth effect than before. I like it much better, now.

I also added a dash panel from an AMT Phantom Vicky kit. Both the new panels and the dash are shown as part of the composite summary photo below.

The rolling stock is now complete, too. The wheels are a combination of Halibrand mags, the fronts coming from an MPC funny car kit, and the rears are the front mags from the AMT Phantom Vicky kit. The wheel centers have been painted in Testors Acryl Jet Exhaust to simulate a Dow 7 coating. The rims were left in the kit chrome. The front tires are Modelhaus T110B’s and the rear tires are my favorite Old Skool hot rod rear tires, Herb Deeks bias ply truck tires.

Next up, the motor. As I mentioned I wanted a big, powerful looking motor, and considered several of the currently fashionable “alternative” Old Skool power plants, like the Buick Nailhead and especially a blown Oldsmobile. But in the end I decided on the massive looking DeSoto Firedome from the AMT ’53 Ford Pickup Trophy Series kit. Those 8 Strombergs really command attention!

And lastly I’ve included a photo of the front and rear axles. The front is the dropped I-beam from the Revellogram 1/24th scale ’32 Ford Roadster kits. I shaved the spring to bring the front end further down. The spot brakes are from the AMT Phantom Vicky kit. The rear is a resin Halibrand quick change setup from parts stash. The rods you see protruding from the ’40 Ford brake backing plates are the mounting pins for the rear spring. They’ll be trimmed away to a shorter length once everything is assembled.

With the “bitsas” all cleared away it’s time for final assembly. The exhaust system and driveline will take some fiddling but it shouldn’t be too long before this project is completed.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[fordrodnkustom]

Just outstanding Bernard. The metal looks like well....metal! Your choice pf parts for this is brilliant. Perfect match especially the mill.

[jbwelda]

You are a brave man, Bernard, for attempting bare metal finishes. Turning out really nice though, worth taking the chance!


jb

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks!
The chassis work is now complete with the exception of the steering tie rod and hairpins. At last I could check the stance by temporarily attaching the wheels and tires. So below are 4 photos which amount to a stance check. I came out as I wanted, with that characteristic tough and slightly fat look of a classic highboy. I fabricated a steering pivot arm to connect to the largely hidden Schroeder sprint car steering (a lovely resin piece from the late Ron Royston at Early Years Resin). The tie rod is done, fabricated from styrene rod and “plated” with Molotow, and the hairpins are the Revell Deuce ones from the 5-window coupe kit.

Lotsa fitting, fettling and adjustment right now, but it shouldn’t be long before this project is completed. I’ll include detail photos with my final update before completion. With only black to contrast with all the bare and plated metal tones it looks very monochromatic, which is what I like about the baremetal look.

Thanks for lookin’,
B.

[harron68]

Outstanding!!!! We're lucky to have you sharing with us. My only quibble would be with the carbs covered by the long air cleaners. The lower right foto showing the light reflecting off the curved, louvered trunk makes the model look oh so real! Thanx.

[fordrodnkustom]

Great stance! Looks realistic and tough!

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks to you both.

As I was looking at my last post I was noticing that the body wasn’t set straight on the chassis. The driver’s side rear was skewed high. In addition I hadn’t set my camera to shoot RAW format and shoot regular JPG format instead. RAW format is the basic data your digital camera generates before it compresses the color and pixel density information into a smaller file. Most cameras don’t offer you the option to save pictures in RAW format. It’s a feature mainly reserved for high=end professional and semi-pro cameras. But my cheap little Fujifilm ES900 9 megapixel compact camera will, and the result is truer colors and sharper details. So, since the body was on crooked anyway, I decided to reshoot my last post with the bopdy on straight and a more faithful presentation of the bare steel effect. I also adjusted the white balance to represent the true white of the background I was using.

Here’s a comparison of the side view from the last post and the new image with the body on straight and the higher quality photography. The red circles highlight the effect of the crookedly mounted body.



And here’s the re-do of the last post.



And finally here are some additional details omitted from the last post. The undercarriage shot is only missing the front wishbones and steering tie rod. The interior shot shows the Scroeder sprint car steeing underneath the cowl. And the two top photos show how the motor will look behinf the grill with the carburetors in place. The top right photo is a little Photoshop-Phun with a ghost shot of the carbs showing through the hood panel.



Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[dogfish7]

Very well planed and executed thus far.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks Bruce!

This project is now completed. I’ll post the final presentation photos tomorrow but in the meantime here are some last construction notes and detail photos. The Revell Stacey David Rat Roster contributed most of the final detail bits, including the hairpins, chopped windshield, most of the steering bits in the front end (except, of course, for the bell crank and steering rod which I fabricated), headlights, and things like the rear view mirror and radiator cap. The taillights and license plate frame are from a Revell’32 Ford Highboy Roadster, thinned down to look more to scale. Here’s a detail composite photo:



I’ve left some parts removable to present several variants. I made a small Moon tank from thecenter piece from an AMT ’49 Ford Moon tank and the two side plates from the Revell ’32 Ford 5—Window coupe Moon tank. Doing this eliminated the annoying horizontal seam of the Revel tank which results from the two piece center barrel. This allowed me to preserve the chrome, which I wanted to do in order to contrast with the bare metal grill and frame horns. Here are the 4 variants:



Next up the final “beauty” pictures and a post in Completed Models. Thanks to all who followed along and for your comments.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.