'40 Ford Hot Rod

[ChrisV]

Thought I'd share a few pictures of one of my latest projects.

Now I've always liked AMT's classic Trophy Series '40 Ford, but the molds are beginning to show their age, and correcting the shape of the front wheel arches and replacing the side trim is both time consuming and tedious work (More on that in a separate thread).

Surely there must be an easier way to build a '40 Deluxe Coupe...

A quick look in the stash revealed a couple of Monogram's old "Pro Modeler" series '40 Deluxe Convertible kits as well as some Revell '40 Standard Coupés.


Some careful measuring determined, that the hood and front fenders could be swapped with an absolute minimum of modification, so out came the new razor saw. For those of you, who haven't heard about it yet, the Gyros Razor Saw is possibly one of the best ones available on the market. The hardened blade is only 0.2 mm (that's about 1/128" !) wide and cuts with almost surgical precision.
For ease of grafting the parts together, I used the door seam and side trim as a guides for the cuts.




After carefully sanding the edges of the cuts with some fine grit abrasive sticks, I added some wide "guide" strips, and a narrow pair of 0,25 x 0,50 mm "spacer" strips for perfect alignment of the front clip.


Now I'm waiting for the liquid cement to completely dry before the final fine-tuning of the alignment.

[randfink]

Sweet! Can't wait for more updates.

[krassandbernie]

This is how I determined it needed to be done a couple years ago when I was looking over both of these bodies to do the same conversion. If I recall correctly, the '40 Deluxe hood and cowl on the convertible were actually slightly more narrow than the '40 Standard. When I placed the Deluxe hood on the coupe body it did not fit the 'v' shape of the cowl perfectly either. This lead me to backing off the conversion until I had more ambition and more time to think these issues over. I can't wait to see how yours turns out Chris! Don't keep us waiting too long! LOL!

[krassandbernie]

btw, are you going to address the difference in the shape of the windows from the left to right sides? The shape of the door windows are a bit too squared off in the upper front arch (should be shaped more like the AMT body); and the quarter windows definitely do not match from side to side........going from memory now. I had started making note card templates to true up each one with a round file; and make them match. I could live with the quarter windows being slightly off side to side; but the shape of the front portion of the door windows drives me nuts!

[krassandbernie]

I just double checked my '40 coupe and convertible bodies..........I was partly mistaken. The back edge of the Deluxe hood fits the cowl on the coupe just fine........across the top. The hood is definitely too narrow when it comes to lining up with the sides of the cowl; so I would keep that in mind when you glue the front clip onto the coupe so that you do not push it inward too tight recreating the gap/width issue. Hopefully you can glue the convertible clip on, making it flush with the doors without pinching it.

[ChrisV]

Depending on how noticeable the gaps are, I'll likely make some relief-cuts to widen - or narrow - one part or the other.
I hadn't noticed the issue with the windows, but I'll look into it and see, how badly it needs to be addressed.

[krassandbernie]

Jul 20, 2017 10:57:10 GMT -5 ChrisV said:

Depending on how noticeable the gaps are, I'll likely make some relief-cuts to widen - or narrow - one part or the other.
I hadn't noticed the issue with the windows, but I'll look into it and see, how badly it needs to be addressed.

I don't know if you'll be able to tell at this point; but when I placed the Deluxe hood onto the coupe body you could see a good sized gap between the sides of the hood and the inside edge of the fenders; which is why I determined (like you) that the entire front clip had to be transplanted instead of just the grille. When the Deluxe hood was placed on the coupe body a good portion of the edge of the cowl on either side was exposed......almost like placing a 1/25th scale hood onto a 1/24th scale body........'it fits, but it doesn't'! LOL!

[ChrisV]

It turned out, that the body/cowl/hood fit is far better than expected:



After taking these pictures, I've knocked down the gap with a small file and some sheets of wet-or-dry abrasive.
Once the model has been painted, I doubt, that anyone in their right mind will notice what's left of the panel gap.

[krassandbernie]

It looks good Chris! One thing I found humorous to realize was that even bone stock '40 Ford coupes had major fitment issues like this! I was looking at reference photos a year or two ago when messing with the hood fit on my '39 Ford coupe project; and the pics of the stock 1:1 I was looking at showed horrible hood/cowl alignment too! LOL! So, I agree with you. Once it's painted maybe only 1% will notice anything 'off'.