Here’s a project inspired by the recent ‘Rat Rod’ movement although I’ve not yet decided on how to paint it up. That primered look that goes with the style or maybe a more traditional rod finish. But I wanted it slammed and to be plausible as something a real rodder might have built as being inspired from a sixties era subject. So I started with reworking the frame with a deep channeling and rebuilt crossmembers to mount a very traditional buggy suspension. The hood was put together without the center hinge and a track style nose option from the kit was modified. The mockup shows the approximate stance.
The front tires are from the kit while rear are an old set of drag slicks hogged out to accept the whitewall inserts.
The front suspension was reworked to move the steering arms while a new spring was built for the rear.
The bed was shortened for proportions and a wood insert fitted in place of the kit’s bed floor which will include new “rub strips”. after the bed boards are cut out of this sheet.
Brass channel was used but the channel was widened between the webbing to decrease the amount that would stand proud above the planks. It was then notched to fit slightly over the end of bid sill.
I shared that thought and even have an Ardun head version at the ready but I think I’ll be going for something a lil different. The hopped up 4cyl that the kit offers.[8-|]
It’s been bugging me that I started with a Rat Rod for which a hopped up 4-banger could be cool but now that the project is swinging into Hot Rod territory a V8 really would be better. But my firewall, tranny tunnel and floor boards were all fitted around the 4-banger?
So I got off the fence and hacked up alot of what I had done so far? Those Razor Saws are truly wonderful and allowed careful cuts around the various components which had all been made into one piece. You can see another stock firewall and even a floorboard in the upper right of the shot. I’ll go back and fit things for the larger V8 now.
I broke out the home hobbyist casting kit (Alumilite) and whipped up the parts needed for either a ‘traditional’ flathead V8 with performance goodies or the Ardun OHV head conversion. These are straight out of the molds mostly- before cleanup of the casting ‘flash’.
Here’s an Ardun version of cast pieces going together with the parts copied from the Revell '50 Ford F-1 model kit. It’s a ‘good’ representation by Revell because the front mount distributor (drive showing) is there as well as the way the intake is ‘captured’ underneath the valve covers like a real Ardun. This could help the ‘cool factor’.
Casting can be fun to learn and it’s certainly useful foir what it’s intended- making copies which comes in real handy for modelers. This way I’ve still got another Ardun for a different project- or, a traditional flathead.[H]
The Ardun was an overhead valve conversion which negated the factory exhausts in the engine block. Here I’ve scraped the kit molded on representations off and replaced them with styrene shapes and styrene rod to look like the ‘bolts’.
Mr. Squid-you’re setting the bar very high on this one. I’m looking forward to more progress pics-there’s a Rat Rod in my future…someday.
On that note, do you know if the engine in the Revell '32 Five Window kit is a modern hemi or a flat head with an OHV conversion. My money is on hemi, but I’ve been wrong before.
