'31 Ford Sedan Bonneville Race Car

[Bernard Kron]

Chopped ’31 Ford Tudor Dry Lakes Car
(More pictures below)

Based on the Revellogram ’31 Ford Tudor Sedan body shell this model represents a straight line racer of the sort that ran at the Bonneville salt flats and the SoCal dry lakes in the late 50’s and early 60’s. It’s as pure a form of scratch building and kit bashing as I am capable of. Since everything is either scratch built of from my spare parts stash here’s a breakdown of what went into it.

Chassis: Tubular space frame scratch built from .100 styrene rod based on Revellogram ‘1 Ford Sedan floor pan. Rollover hoop is from AMT ‘39/40 Ford sedan kit. Scratch built removable push bar,
Suspension: Dropped front tubular axle and coil spring rear suspension adapted from Revellogram ’32 Ford 0street rod series of kits. Front lever shock from Revell Tony Nancy double dragster kit.
Motor: Basic block and heads from Plymouth 426 wedge V8 from Tony Nancy double dragster kit. Modified for dry sump lubrication. Potvin front mounted GMC blower setup adapted from Revell Parts Pak Chevy 283 V8. Scratch built headers from Evergreen butyl cover wire. Bell housing and in-out box from Revell Tony Nancy double dragster kit.
Wheels and tires: Front wheels from AMT ’40 Ford kits. Rear wheels modified from Revell ’40 Ford kits, Parts by Parks spun aluminum Moon discs. Front tires from Speed City Resin. Rear tires from Herb Deeks. Scratch built front inner wheels discs.
Interior: Scratch built firewall and interior sheet metal from styrene sheet. Steering wheel from Revell Miss Deal. Fuel tank from AMT Phantom Vicky. Battery from AMT ;40 Ford. Seat adapted from parts box seat of unknown origin. Seat belt from AMT ’29 Ford Roadster kit.
Body work: Main body and grill shell  from Revellogram ’31 Ford Sedan kit.  Approx. 3 ½ scale inch chopped top. Firewall removed and doors glued shut. Cloth roof filled and smoothed. Hood top and sides adapted from Revell ’32 Ford kits. Transparent red plastic window “glass and grill center.
Paint and graphics: Duplicolor white primer covered with 4 coats Duplicolor clear gloss lacquer. All decals designed and printed by the builder.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

[ChrisR]

COOL!!

[Phildaupho]

Fantastic. Very well engineered and built. Great photos especially the cut away. Reminds me of old Hot Rod magazine articles. I see Bonneville Speed Week which was due to run last week was cancelled due to adverse weather.

[EngineerBob]

Love the scratch building and kit bashing. Good looking finished model.

[Claude Thibodeau]

HI Bernard!

Well, one more for the lakes! Your packaging job is very "Bonneville", bravo!

CT

[cobraman]

Very cool and well done.

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks to you all! Your kind comments are greatly appreciated.???

[bisc63]

That really looks the part! Nice period piece, and I love the colors/graphics.

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

Never seen anything like it. Just cool as heck. The orange chassis and caging is super. So good that it flips up. 

[Bernard Kron]

Thanks Rusty and Robert. I'm glad you like it! I tried to capture the vibe of the Bonneville coverage of the rod and customs nags from the early 60's. And I designed the model so that the hood and bodywork would be removable or displayed with the bodywork tilted up so I could show off the chassis. When the bodywork is removable like this it's possible to do a cutaway photo using Photoshop.