'29 Ford Model A Roadster Lowboy

I had once mentioned to others about combining the leftover '29 Model A Roadster and the '30 Model A Coupe parts and combining them into one model. That was until I did my research and found that there is no second body in the Roadster kit like I thought there was. Club member John Davison offered me his '29 Ford Model A Roadster parts kit for this build and I thanked him for it! But, what I got was a nearly complete kit for nothing! Thank you, John!!!
John used 3 parts out of the kit and those pieces wouldn't affect to outcome of my build. A lowboy '29 with a SBC and 3 deuces, interior pieces from the '30 Model A Coupe such as the bucket seats, open back interior and cut-out interior panels. My paint will be Dupli-Color Stellar Blue Pearl with a light tan interior and emobssing powder for carpet. Let's see what I can do with this.




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I have finally finished the Small Block Chevy with its three deuces. I wired the engine and added a ignition coil since Revell never included one.




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I primered and painted the '29 Roadster today, but the results were not what I had hoped for. This hot paint crazed the plastic inspite of the primer I used. I guess some sanding is in order for this hot rod.




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I have been assembling the chassis and the wheels and tires.




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I've been working on assembling the chassis. I sure hate these spindly front suspensions! Anyway, the chassis is up on its wheels and tires and it's level, too. Now, to figure out what I am going to do about the body...




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I had this vision of using the Coupe's inner structure and it just doesn't fit. So I took the Roadster's inner structure and placed inside the Roadster's body and, of course it fits better. I took my hobby knife and scored the interior panels and removed them and I liked the look a whole lot better. I am moving forward and using these side panels instead.




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A mockup to check my work. This is looking great and I wished I thought of it earlier! I sanded the body and now to take it apart for a bath. The firewall will be primed and painted, but I don't know if it would be white or body colored. John took the original dash and I had a spare from the AMT '32 Ford Phaeton. Now to primer it, paint and detail it.




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I took a piece of wide masking tape and masked off the grille so I could paint the grille surface flat black. When I removed the tape, I was left with bleed-through and tape residue on the chrome. Now to figure out how to remove the bleed-through and the tape residue. The seats have been painted. I sanded the body, but the side panels need to be repainted since they fell victim to my dropping my small bottle of paint thinner for brush cleaning.




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I love those seats

Thanks Dirk! I wanted a different kind of seating that the kit didn't offer. The bomber seats came from the Revell '30 Ford Coupe.

I went and added the headers to the engine and realized that the ignition wiring was going to interfer with the headers. I removed the wiring from the engine block, added the headers and then reinstalled the ignition wiring. I did have to redrill some of the spark plug holes and the rewiring with a pair of tweezers and a magnifier was a lot of fun...NOT!




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Another two coats of paint and soon the '29 Lowboy will be ready for final assembly! It appears that my flash highlighted the door lines of the model.




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Apparently, I didn't sand the old paint enough and my glossy wet paint dried into a semigloss finish. The more I look at this, the more I like it! It seems to fit the theme I have for this rod. I added two radiator support rods made from some wire I had in the drawer. The tough part was getting the bends out of the wire.




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I took the Model A apart this morning and rebuilt it, but I am still not 100% happy with it. The engine was removed and reinstalled straighter, but it is still off to the left side slightly. I added an engine fan to take up the space in front of the engine and behind the radiator. Even though there is an electric fan, the engine fan looks like it should be there. I drilled out the holes in the radiator for the support rods and the radiator was tipped back to give it some rake.




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I used the extra dashboard from the AMT '32 Ford Phaeton for this build. I detailed the center of the dash, installed it after cutting it down and then I added the steering wheel. I added the taillights and the license plate holder. This mess is the windshield which was slightly warped. I hope this helps or I will have to figure another way to add the windshield.




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So, I was staring at the box art and I noticed something is wrong. I verified what I saw by looking at my '29 Ford Lowboy Roadster...there is no spreader bar on the front of the frame! But, I do remember putting one on my previous '29 Ford Highboy Roadster with a piece of sprue that I had on the bench. I checked the instructions and there is no spreader bar mentioned anywhere. It shows up on step 4 and disappears on step 5 and shows up again on step 6. I guess I'm making one, but this time it will be chromed!




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