1932 Ford Highboy SoCal

So this is really not a stalled build per se, I bought this kit only to raid it for parts.
I had at one time planned to tub it and put some prostreet super fat tires on in with an injected 427 Cammer.
I cut the frame in preparation to build a really narrowed rear section but that's as far as I got, I never really had the interest.

I am not really a Hot Rod guy. Muscle cars and race cars are my true love so this kit was destine to be raided some more and eventually broken up into the various parts boxes I have....

But yesterday I saw this car and had to build a model of it. I have always like the old nostalgic SoCal logo so I want this car on my shelf.

I had raided the kit pretty badly so I am going to use a Boss 302 from the Revell 70 Mach 1 kit from my parts box and some headers and exhaust from the parts box. I will have to make my own SoCal decals.

I don't have the right wheels. If I can't find any American Racing Salt Flats wheels I am just going to try and make these look like them by painting the centers.

The first step was to put the frame back together. Fortunately I didn't throw the rear piece I cut off away. However it wasn't in the original box. For some reason it was in a random extra parts box but I had remembered seeing it when I was digging for something else a month or two ago.

Cool subject Mitch. I will be watching this one.

Ditto what Pete said.

Love that So Cal look. Nice one Mitch.

Mitch: I have several 32 kits in my stash. I'll dig around and see if I have a set of wheels. I'll let you know.

JohnJ wrote:Mitch:  I have several 32 kits in my stash.  I'll dig around and see if I have a set of wheels.  I'll let you know.

Thanks John. Let me know .

Nice to see you doing a Rod Mitch

Thanks Shay, I guess I'm branching out...

I am not going try and make it an exact copy. The real car I think just has a brown interior and I want to incorporate the paint scheme into the interior upholstery.

The next thing to do after joining the frame back together was to tapered the frame to blend with the body sides.
I filled the indentions with strip stock and then ran a few stair stepped strips of layers to make it beveled. Kind of boat hull shaped.
Next I had to fix a low spot on the left front corner of the body.

And started fixing up the engine.

It can be good to try new things and develop skills that will be handy later.  Best o' luck!

Does this help? It's from a Shannons Insurance ad that aired here in Aus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZhdH3NZCrs

Thanks Webby but the SoCal car is providing inspiration and I am not attempting to faithfully model the actual car.

With that said I started working on the interior bucket. I am going to do it in a more tomato red and off white and take some cues from the body paint job.

I used some very thin styrene rod to make piping on the flat parts of the seat so I can differentiate where the two colors come together and take the body stripe into the interior a little ways.

All of the rolled parts of the interior are going to be off white and the smooth parts red except for the middle of the upper seat back and the middle of the front part of the seat cushion.  

I took artistic license on the engine as well and imagineered a port injected Boss 302 using the Boss 302 from the Revell 70 Mach 1 kit and one of the extra upper intake assemblies from the Revell 99 Mustang Cobra.

I painted the valve covers semiflat black and rubbed off the ribs and painted the upper part of the injection system semiflat and then gently brushed some chrome silver onto the embossed ribs and cobra logo. I think it loos pretty cool.

The kit had disc brakes which I stole for the aluminum Cobra build. I found some discs in the parts box but the real car had finned drum brakes so I am using the drums from the AMT Mercedes 300SL out of my parts box.

I am probably just going to use the kit wheels. The Revell RAT ROASTER kit has the right wheels but I am not going buy another hot rod kit just to get the wheel for this one...

Nice. Looks super.

Thanks guys.


I got some color on Tuesday and the second color on last night. I use lacquer so it dries quickly.
I also got the interior sub parts painted up. Still need to work on the dash.

The carpet inserts on the door panels is embossing powder. I think it looks like loop carpeting.

The black stripes on the seat are hand painted. The straight black stripes on the body are decals from the parts box and the curved parts on the hood are hand painted. I still need to make some So Cal decals for the sides of the cowl.

Lookin good, so far. I like using the embossing powder, too. It gives a looped pile look with just the right amount of sheen to it.

THAT'S PROGRESS!  The thin black demarcation line between white and black must've been a pain to get down.  Good luck with the rest, great ideas on making it all come together.

Thanks guys. A good brush makes all the difference.

I shot some clear last night and made the decals.

Nice job on the paint, spot on.

Looking good Mitch.

Are you saying that you did the black stripe between the red and white with a brush? If so, it looks fabulous. A nice steady hand!

Paint really turned out nice! The decals are what's slowing me down on a So-Cal build.

Thanks for the encouragement.

This is definitely not one of my best. The clear seems to have reacted a little funny and has not dried as smooth as it when on.
I used a different clear and I didn't wash it with soap after I polished on the base red so it's my fault not the materials.

I am in the process of sanding it with 800 and 1000 and buffing it back out and I can save it but like most of my builds it will far from perfect.

I am happy with the way the engine came out. I think this looks better than the design with upper intake flopped over the valve cover.

I used some PE spinners.

I need left side header, I have reached out to Revell spares and they said parts aren't available for this kit anymore. I have a post on Facebook on the Model Car Part Finder page.

For my first Hot Rod build in close to 35 years, its going to have to do. It will look good on the shelf.

So some more color sand and polish, final assembly and touch up and I am going to call this one done.

Awesome.

Nice touch!