Post by Mr. Metallic on Oct 14, 2022 7:22:53 GMT -5
Didn't want to spend too much time trying to come up with a witty name for this one, hence the title.
Anyway, thanks to my good friend Randfink, I now have the brand new release of the Revell 32 Ford roadster in my hands. This is the tooling that was released as the Stacy David Rat Roaster a few years ago. Kudos so Revell for taking the opportunity to get this kit back in the catalog now that the Stacy David licensing has expired. Double kudos to Revell for keeping all of the RR parts in the kit , rather than replacing them, they just tooled NEW trees of updated parts but still kept the RR parts in the box (with the exception of the porthole riddled hood and the glass for the chopped windshield glass). even the sweet electric guitar is still there.
For those of you unfamiliar with the 1:1 RR, it is kind of a mish-mash of several different eras of hot rodding, and the end result is not everyone's taste. However, when Revell decided to partner with Stacy David to do the RR in scale, this was a boon to scale hot rodders (despite it not having the 1:1 front beam axle, but lets not go there). In order to use this tooling again Revell had to modify the look of the car to avoid copyright and royalty issues, and they took this opportunity to give us some really nice new parts. Specifically an all new traditionally styled interior, lakes style exhaust headers for the SBC, and a Duvall style windshield. Out of the box you can build a perfectly serviceable "newstalgia" style hot/street rod. But I wanted to take this opportunity to backdate it a bit to plant it firmly in the early 60's era of hot rodding. By doing some simple parts swapping from readily available sources I hope I can inspire someone else to try their hands at backdating this kit to more accurately fit one of the earlier eras of hot rodding. Lets get into it.
First, here is a look at the new Duvall windshield. While observing the test shots and first box art build of this kit online I began to worry that they had designed the new windshield to be too upright. My taste (and the typical look) of a Duvall is to be raked back a bit. So, first thing I did when I opened the kit is test fir the windshield. Good news is that it looks much better than I had hoped. Not so great news is that it will be tricky to install in the optimal position since there are no positive locating points. There is a slight raised line on the cowl to show you WHERE it goes, but it is so fine that it doesn't give you a positive mounting surface. Anyway, here it is.
I built this in my head over and over once I found out this kit was hitting distributors, so I had gathered a bunch of parts ahead of time. The parts included in this kit are most easily adaptable to an early to mid 60's hot rod. Of course it can go earlier or later depending on how deeply you want to swap parts. However, by the 60's Duvall style windshields had fallen out of style. Nice thing is that the chopped stock-style windshield is still in the box. I'll also be swapping out the beautifully molded, but too modern Weiland blower setup for a more era correct blower. I'll be swapping in the beam axle from the Revell Model A series. Not sure how extensive my mods into backdating the rear setup will go, but the airbags will definitely disappear.
I went through a handful of wheel/tire combos. I wanted to try the beautiful new Round2 Firestone Supremes from the parts pack, but I couldn't find a good matching rear tire. The different width of the whitewall bothered me paired with these slicks.
So, I swapped them out for the standard whitewall found in tons of Round2 AMT kits. Much better.
And just for fun I tried some blackwall tires with the beautiful pad printed lettering giving it a definite McMullen Roadster vibe.
But I decided to go with the thin whites. Then spent the rest of my evening properly modifying the tires and the 5 spoke wheels from the Revell 32 Ford series (not in the RR based tooling). The rear needs to come down a bit, but otherwise I'm definitely digging this.
Anyway, thanks to my good friend Randfink, I now have the brand new release of the Revell 32 Ford roadster in my hands. This is the tooling that was released as the Stacy David Rat Roaster a few years ago. Kudos so Revell for taking the opportunity to get this kit back in the catalog now that the Stacy David licensing has expired. Double kudos to Revell for keeping all of the RR parts in the kit , rather than replacing them, they just tooled NEW trees of updated parts but still kept the RR parts in the box (with the exception of the porthole riddled hood and the glass for the chopped windshield glass). even the sweet electric guitar is still there.
For those of you unfamiliar with the 1:1 RR, it is kind of a mish-mash of several different eras of hot rodding, and the end result is not everyone's taste. However, when Revell decided to partner with Stacy David to do the RR in scale, this was a boon to scale hot rodders (despite it not having the 1:1 front beam axle, but lets not go there). In order to use this tooling again Revell had to modify the look of the car to avoid copyright and royalty issues, and they took this opportunity to give us some really nice new parts. Specifically an all new traditionally styled interior, lakes style exhaust headers for the SBC, and a Duvall style windshield. Out of the box you can build a perfectly serviceable "newstalgia" style hot/street rod. But I wanted to take this opportunity to backdate it a bit to plant it firmly in the early 60's era of hot rodding. By doing some simple parts swapping from readily available sources I hope I can inspire someone else to try their hands at backdating this kit to more accurately fit one of the earlier eras of hot rodding. Lets get into it.
First, here is a look at the new Duvall windshield. While observing the test shots and first box art build of this kit online I began to worry that they had designed the new windshield to be too upright. My taste (and the typical look) of a Duvall is to be raked back a bit. So, first thing I did when I opened the kit is test fir the windshield. Good news is that it looks much better than I had hoped. Not so great news is that it will be tricky to install in the optimal position since there are no positive locating points. There is a slight raised line on the cowl to show you WHERE it goes, but it is so fine that it doesn't give you a positive mounting surface. Anyway, here it is.
I built this in my head over and over once I found out this kit was hitting distributors, so I had gathered a bunch of parts ahead of time. The parts included in this kit are most easily adaptable to an early to mid 60's hot rod. Of course it can go earlier or later depending on how deeply you want to swap parts. However, by the 60's Duvall style windshields had fallen out of style. Nice thing is that the chopped stock-style windshield is still in the box. I'll also be swapping out the beautifully molded, but too modern Weiland blower setup for a more era correct blower. I'll be swapping in the beam axle from the Revell Model A series. Not sure how extensive my mods into backdating the rear setup will go, but the airbags will definitely disappear.
I went through a handful of wheel/tire combos. I wanted to try the beautiful new Round2 Firestone Supremes from the parts pack, but I couldn't find a good matching rear tire. The different width of the whitewall bothered me paired with these slicks.
So, I swapped them out for the standard whitewall found in tons of Round2 AMT kits. Much better.
And just for fun I tried some blackwall tires with the beautiful pad printed lettering giving it a definite McMullen Roadster vibe.
But I decided to go with the thin whites. Then spent the rest of my evening properly modifying the tires and the 5 spoke wheels from the Revell 32 Ford series (not in the RR based tooling). The rear needs to come down a bit, but otherwise I'm definitely digging this.