"Nickels & Dimes" '29 Ford Altered Roadster
Dec 11, 2019 17:42:08 GMT -4
Post by BERNARD "HOT ROD" KRON on Dec 11, 2019 17:42:08 GMT -4
“Nickels & Dimes” ’29 Ford Altered Roadster
Most of the following is entirely fictitious but greatly inspired by historically important late 50’s/early 60’s cars such as the Dean Murray and Mike Waters “Triple Nickel” and the Tony Nancy “22 Jr.” ’29 Ford roadsters. For more discussion about these iconic cars and how they inspired this project see my build thread here: vintagedragmodelsinc.proboards.com/thread/4738/triple-nickel-inspired-roadster-update
Growing up on the edges of the high desert north of the Los Angeles basin in San Fernando just before WWII, Fred Nichols and Bill Dimas would see the lakes cars being flat-towed out to Muroc and El Mirage, so it was natural as young men of the 1950’s they would turn to hot rodding as their passion. Close friends from childhood, Bill was the engine man and Fred had a way with sheet metal and chassis design. And naturally, being always seen together, they were known as “Nickels & Dimes”, and the car that would secure their reputation in hot rod lore was the legendary 510 altered roadster. Many people thought the name was given to them because they ran a shoe-string operation. They may have been smart with their budget, but one look at the car shows that this was far from the case. This is my representation of that car. Besides its striking orange and white livery with the gold leaf 510, the car was known for its light weight tubular frame based on Model A frame rails and eventually (it started out running a Flathead) its large displacement Caddy mill whose big torque ensured domination once Ted and Bill started drag racing in the late 50’s.
Thanx for lookin’,
B.
Base kit: AMT ’29 Ford Roadster – Chassis rails, rear cross member, rear spring, front suspension, body, hood and grill.
Motor: Revell Parts Pak Cadillac 354 with 6-carb option. Scratch built “dog house” flame arrestor.
Rear suspension: Halibrand banjo-style non-quick change center section from Revell Tony Nancy Double Dragster kit.
Wheels and Tires: Plain aluminum disc wheels scratch built using scrap AMT rims and styrene sheet. Front tires from Modelhaus, T110s. Rear pie-crust slicks from Round2 re-issue of AMT ’36 Ford kit.
Other scratch built items: All interior tin work, seat, tubular chassis super structure, aluminum tubing roll bar and push bar. All steering gear. Tonneau cover made from sheet styrene and layered masking tape.
Paint and decals: Main body colors - Tamiya TS-31 Bright Orange and Duplicolor Wimbledon White. All decals home-made. Gold foil 510 custom printed. Gild stripe on body side molding done with Pactra Trim Tape.
