Post by thirdgearspeedshop on Jul 25, 2019 13:41:53 GMT -5
This is a project I have been working on for about a year off and on and I decided it was time to document it's progress in a build thread. It's a single seat Ford powered speedster similar to the very early sprint cars and "big cars" of the 30s. They have become quite popular at the Beach Racing events (hence the name TROGster). The running gear and wheels and tires are sourced from the Revell 31 Model A Woody. There will be lots of scratch building along the way.
The Inspiration:
The humble beginnings: I took the frame rails from an AMT 25 T model, cut the front cross member and laid it on its side. I drew out a wheelbase of 90" (90mm) and mocked it up with the 4 banger and a parts box seat. (Imagining I'm doing this for real in my garage lol)
I found a bumper bracket out of the woody kit. If you flip it upside down it has a nice smooth kick up similar to an Essex frame. I grafted that onto the frame rails, unboxed the rails with strip styrene and added a rear crossmember from a 29 Ford. I then inset strips of styrene around the front to make a clean round shape and added plastic to mount the radiator.
The grill shell was made from the lower half of the track nose in the 29 Ford pickup, flipped upside down and cut in half. I made an opening that was the same shape as a 37 Ford grill and inset the grill using small styrene rod to form a bead around the opening. I then cut the grill and sanded the bottom flat.
The front end is Model A with an added perch style spring hanger. Since the front wheels will not have brakes I had to fabricate some spindles and relocate the steering arms below the kingpin to replicate a 32 spindle.
The rear is 31 Model A with the spring lowered behind the axles. mechanical brake levers were added to the rear hubs and the rear radius rods were split and mounted to brackets on the frame. The front wishbones were also split and mounted to the frame. I started fabricating a gas tank , radiator and belly pan and I'm currently working on the split wishbones up front. Stay tuned for more Updates!
The Inspiration:
The humble beginnings: I took the frame rails from an AMT 25 T model, cut the front cross member and laid it on its side. I drew out a wheelbase of 90" (90mm) and mocked it up with the 4 banger and a parts box seat. (Imagining I'm doing this for real in my garage lol)
I found a bumper bracket out of the woody kit. If you flip it upside down it has a nice smooth kick up similar to an Essex frame. I grafted that onto the frame rails, unboxed the rails with strip styrene and added a rear crossmember from a 29 Ford. I then inset strips of styrene around the front to make a clean round shape and added plastic to mount the radiator.
The grill shell was made from the lower half of the track nose in the 29 Ford pickup, flipped upside down and cut in half. I made an opening that was the same shape as a 37 Ford grill and inset the grill using small styrene rod to form a bead around the opening. I then cut the grill and sanded the bottom flat.
The front end is Model A with an added perch style spring hanger. Since the front wheels will not have brakes I had to fabricate some spindles and relocate the steering arms below the kingpin to replicate a 32 spindle.
The rear is 31 Model A with the spring lowered behind the axles. mechanical brake levers were added to the rear hubs and the rear radius rods were split and mounted to brackets on the frame. The front wishbones were also split and mounted to the frame. I started fabricating a gas tank , radiator and belly pan and I'm currently working on the split wishbones up front. Stay tuned for more Updates!