'32 Ford Highboy Roadster, 90's Barry Lobeck Style
Jul 26, 2010 17:54:41 GMT -4
Post by BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON on Jul 26, 2010 17:54:41 GMT -4
Barry Lobeck Style ’32 Ford Highboy
(More pics below)
I haven't visited DPMCC since last December. I tend to build Old School an awful lot and have been focusing my time over on the TRaK board. But shame on me for missing all the great builds posted here! Here's my latest completion which is far more contemporary than most of my builds.
The Revell Goodguys ’32 Ford Roadster has always been problematic for me, most of the time it’s because it’s too modern. I land up replacing the airbags with a Model A buggy spring and wishing it came with a more traditional dropped I-beam front end. such as the one from the Revell “Rat Rod” ’29 Ford Roadster Pickup and ’31 Ford kits.
But even as a modern ride it has always bugged me a little. Some things like the wheels and tires and the stance were never ideal, even when it was released in the mid 90’s.
For me the master of the “contemporary traditional” look of the 80’s and 90’s was Barry Lobeck. A primo Lobeck ride is a thing of beauty to my eyes, very low in the front with a dramatic stance and exaggerated big and littles at the corners. So, using the Revell kit as the starting point and using the Butch Martin Lobeck-built Deuce highboy from Vol. 1, No. 1 of The Rodder’s Journal as my inspiration I set about trying to “perfect” this classic kit.
First off I lowered the front and rear suspension about 1 ¾” all around by changing to a mono-leaf front suspension and cutting down the dreaded Revell airbags. To get a dramatic “rubber rake” I grabbed the front tires and wheels from the Revell Stone, Woods & Cook Willys Gasser kit and cut down a set of rear mags from the AMT '53 Studebaker Starliner kit to fit a pair of 11 inch Firestone dirt track tires from Replicas & Miniatures.
Next up was building a classic small block Chevy in place of the kit’s Ford mill. It’s made from various bits and pieces from my parts box but it’s basically a Revell piece.
The only modification to the kit body was to make a louvered hood and smoothed hood sides with a small row of louvers at the lower rear corners. This turned out to be the most major work of the project. First off only the hood sides from the original roadster kit fit a fenderless car properly. The smooth sides that come in the Coupe and Sedan kits are curved at the bottom to fit the tops of the fender valances and thus leave a gap when you try to use them in a fenderless application. Since the only hood sides that come with the roadster are heavily louvered I had to file them off. Then I applied some 3 dimensional louver decals from Archer Fine Transfers ( www.archertransfers.com/ ) to the top the hood and sides.
The interior is stock except for the dashboard. I’ve never cared for the kit dashboard with its air conditioning outlets and radio and cassette player (?!). So I cut them out, glued in a blank panel and installed a p/e dash from Replicas & Miniatures.
Paint is Duplicolor Torch Red over Duplicolor Red Oxide Primer. The grill is a p/e piece from Model Car Garage finish in body color and set into a Replicas & Miniatures grill shell and double sided radiator. Headlights and taillights are from the AMT Phantom Vickie kit, with the headlight buckets stripped of their chrome finish and painted body color.
Thanx for lookin’,
B.
