Sea-N-Sun '30 Ford Phaeton Beach Racer

[Bernard Kron]

Sea-N-Sun Special - The Race Of Gentlemen (T.R.O.G.) style ’30 Ford Phaeton
(More photos below)

One of the members on another forum started a community build in recognition of The Race of Gentlemen (TROG) California Drag Racing event in Riverside California at the Flabob Airstrip which ran on December 9-10. The community build extends through to the end of 2023 and has attracted a lot of interest. This is my first entry of what I hope will be several projects across the next year , this first one acknowledges the original Spirit of Wildwood, the funky, no holds barred, old car and motorcycle beach racing in Wildwood NJ. This car, the Sea-N-Sun Motel ‘29 Ford phaeton is from the 2016 Wildood TROG. The Sea-N-Sun is a real motel in Wildwood, N.J. right next to the amusement park and the beach where TROG runs its event. It’s got a mildly hopped up 4-banger and is otherwise pretty much just a stripped down stock A-Bone.

For my donor car I’m used a Monogram 30 Ford Phaeton gluebomb I got off of eBay, It’s a ’30 instead of a ’29. The body and interior panels are from the original issue Model A Phaeton from 1961. Virtually everything else from the gluebomb proved useless for this project. This required a deep dive into my parts stash to get this car built.

Here’s a composite of the real car and the eBay photo of the donor car.



The grill, hood, chassis and motor are from the Monogram ’30 Ford Coupe re-issue from a few years back. The front wheels and tires are from an AMT ’34 Ford 5-window coupe. The rear tires are my favorite period bias ply rear tires for these early hot rods, Herb Deeks truck tires, and their mounted to Revell ’32 Ford Tudor Kelsey Hayes wire wheels, stripped of their chrome and narrowed to fit. The motor, as on the original, is in a mild state of tune. While the stock style carburetion can just be glimpsed in the few photos of the 1:1 that are out there, I took the liberty to guess at the top side of the motor, which is invisible on the photos. I installed a Riley F-head from the Revell ‘’30 Ford Sedan “Rat Rod” kits. The rear seat is the original Monogram Phaeton rear seat which had served as the front seat on the gluebomb, while the front seat was cobbled together from an AMT ’32 Ford Phaeton rear seat. The graphics are homemade decals.

Thanx for lookin’ and all the best for a happy and fulfilling 2023.
B.

[froghawk]

Love it, Bernard. TROG perfect! We don't live far away from Wildwood, in Philadelphia, and hope to make it to TROG this year!

[skip]

Great Job B., even though I'm not a fan of distressed finishes this is a "replica build" and that's what
distressed finishes are for so distress on! (My gripe on distressed finishes is towards rat rods or a
distressed finish just to see how rusty the builder can get it, replica builds are another story
altogether.) A bit of beach sand spray would look great in the appropriate spots! Being a big fan of
early "Gow Jobs" I think you nailed the look alright!

[spex84]

You captured the look of the original car very nicely!

RE: useless gluebomb parts...yeah, sometimes it's shocking just how broken and over-cemented those parts can be. I have a "survivor" '29 roadster in my collection that didn't really survive at all; in fact it was pretty much ruined from day 1 (sometime in the 60s). I couldn't salvage a thing off of it!