"Ohio Look" '32 Ford Highboy

[Bernard Kron]

”Ohio Look” ’32 Ford Highboy Roadster for TRaK 96 Hour Build Off

This project was for the Traditional Rods and Kustoms  In Scale forum April 96 Hour Buildoff which ran from midnight April 6 to Midnight April 9th. I managed to get this done within the deadline and the result is what you see below.

The inspiration for this build was the box art of the original 1996 (?) release of the classic 1/25th scale Revell ’32 Ford Highboy roadster.

This is patterned after the 90’s style “Ohio Look”traditional hot rods coming out of the late Barry Lobeck’s shop Lobecks’ V8 Shop in Cleveland. But the thing that always bugged me about the kit is that they got the stance wrong. The “Ohio Look” features a dramatic rake with a real “in the weeds” nose. The Revell kits all are flatter rakled with a higher nose. I have a standard set of adjustments that I make when I start these kits to get a lower nose and frequently lower the rear as well. That’s what I did here, with a the front lowered about 3 scale inches and the rear about 2 ½ scale inches. The rest of the rake is a “rubber rake” due to the difference in the tires. Other than these adjustments the build-off car stayed close to the basic kit, in the interests of getting it done in 4 days. The pther changes included the substituting the small “implement” front tires found in the Revellogram ’30 Ford Sedan kits, along with resin Radir wheels from my [arts stash. The motor is the Stacey David kit small block Chevy with carburetion from the small block Fords in the earlier Revell Deuce releases. The Stacey David car also offered up its chopped windshield. The ram horn exhaust manifolds were purchased on eBay. The stock hood sides are the Revell Deuce 3-window. Paint is Duplicolor Flame red.

Thanx for lookin’,
B.

Edited April 10, 2023 by Bernard Kron

[Calb56]

Another amazing build. 

Very cool rod.

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

Really fun to see. Great side shot showing the rake. Much better.

[Phildaupho]

Fabulous Deuce. You nailed the look you were after. The lower nose profile is very effective. I am going to have to study your technique on that one. 

[Zippi]

That looks pretty kewl. 

[bill-e-boy]

Looks kool - you have addressed the too high stance of the kit well

[XYHARRY]

Nice deuce Bernard. After 27 years that Ohio look still holds well. Timeless.

Cheers, 

David. ??

[Koellefornia Kid]

Beautiful roadster! Love the rake!

[espo]

The color has almost a warm glow about it. Beautiful looking build style that will never go out of style. Liked how you detailed the engine and the interior finishes. 

[Bernard Kron]

On 4/10/2023 at 3:15 PM, Calb56 said:

Another amazing build. 

Very cool rod.

 

On 4/10/2023 at 3:18 PM, rrb124@sbcglobal.net said:

Really fun to see. Great side shot showing the rake. Much better.

 

On 4/10/2023 at 5:42 PM, Zippi said:

That looks pretty kewl. 

Thanks! ?

On 4/11/2023 at 1:38 AM, bill-e-boy said:

Looks kool - you have addressed the too high stance of the kit well

Thanks! These days I simply refuse to build a Revell Deuce with the stock stance!

On 4/11/2023 at 3:14 AM, XYHARRY said:

Nice deuce Bernard. After 27 years that Ohio look still holds well. Timeless.

Cheers, 

David. ??

Thanks! I'm still surprised this style isn't modeled very often, especially given how the Revell Roadster is so obviously based on the Lobeck cars. It's probably because of the additio nal mods required to get it to look right (stance and maybe the chopped windshield).

On 4/11/2023 at 7:26 AM, Koellefornia Kid said:

Beautiful roadster! Love the rake!

Thank you! The secret to the rake is actually that the overall car is lowered. It's actually a flatter stance than if the rear ride height was left kit-stock. (see additional post below)

On 4/11/2023 at 12:18 PM, espo said:

The color has almost a warm glow about it. Beautiful looking build style that will never go out of style. Liked how you detailed the engine and the interior finishes. 

Thanks for noticing! I was surprised that I was able to make time for the details give the 4-day challenge. It's probably because I've built these kits so many times, LOL...

[Bernard Kron]

On 4/10/2023 at 5:37 PM, Phildaupho said:

Fabulous Deuce. You nailed the look you were after. The lower nose profile is very effective. I am going to have to study your technique on that one. 

Thanks so much, Phil. Here's some detail on what is by now becoming almost standard for my Deuce bjuilds.

Back in 2008 when I first started car modeling again I built a channeled Revell Deuce 3-Window and hated the kit stock stance. It was my first encounter with this series of kits and, despite the channel, it was mainly OOB and I soon understood that to get them to look right more work would be required...

At the time here on the MCM board there was a fair amount of discussion about how to get the front end of these Revell Deuces down "in the weeds". in particular an elegantly simple modification that Tim Boyd had discussed - I assume in one of his magazine articles. It was simply referred to as the "Tim Boyd" modification and it has become standard operating procedure on my Revell Deuces ever since. It consists of narrowing the mounting tab so that you can raise the spring/axle assembly closer to the front crossmember, thus lowering the front end. In addition to this modification, I generally will shave the front spring down, usually removing at least 2 leaves, and quite often 3 for a modern mono-spring setup. This may also require notching the frame rails to clear the front axle. Here's an explanation of these Mods:

"Tim Boyd" Revell Deuce front axle tab modification with optional spring shaving:

Shaved spring Revell Deuce tubular 3" dropped axle w/ "Tim Boyd" tab modification installed:

For an even more radical drop (and an I-beam as well) you can employ a Revell '40 Ford 4" dropped I-beam axle (or ThePartsBox.com re-pop I used in this case), here shown  w/ "Tim Boyd" tab modification installed and shaved spring:

Resulting rake with "Tim Boyd" front axle modification and standard Revell rear axle height:

The "Ohio Look" stance, and indeed the stance on many modern "Traditional" hot rods as well as many from the 50's and 60's involved lowering the rear end as well. If you were deleting the rear-mounted fuel tank then a simple "Z' job was all that was required. But recently I've wanted to conserve the stock tank location but still lower the back end. For some reason achieving this is rarely discussed in hot rod lore, even though it's a critical aspect of  the stance on many iconic highboy Deuces. Below is the technique I developed for the kit rear suspension of the Revell Deuces, which consists of raising the floor portion of the Revell chassis where the rear axle is mounted, In the case of a traditional "buggy spring" leaf spring setup you would substitute the requisite rear crossmember.

Stepped/lowered rear axle mounting allowing preservation of stock gas tank location on '32 Ford:

Similar modification on the Bob McGee Roadster (circa 1950):

Resulting rake with "Tim Boyd" front axle modification (tubular axle) and lowered rear axle modification:

Edited April 12, 2023 by Bernard Kron

[Phildaupho]

Thank you for your excellent tutorial 

[ChrisR]

Nice!!

[rrb124@sbcglobal.net]

Thanks for the much appreciated tutorial. I have about 3 unbuilts to try this on. Hey, wouldn't it be great if there was a kit available with these mods already designed into the product!

[TooOld]

Another great looking '32 Bernard , love the stance you were able to achieve !

[crazyjim]

A perfect hot rod.  Very nice.

[Bainford]

Cool build and great style, Bernard. Love the real world hot rods, and you do them so well. Cheers.

[Bernard Kron]

On 4/13/2023 at 12:36 AM, ChrisR said:

Nice!!

Thanx Chris!

On 4/13/2023 at 4:21 AM, rrb124@sbcglobal.net said:

Thanks for the much appreciated tutorial. I have about 3 unbuilts to try this on. Hey, wouldn't it be great if there was a kit available with these mods already designed into the product!

Thanks!

I've always had my "dream deuce" kit, which in my case would simply be to "shrink ray" the old Monogram (then Revell) Big Deuce down to 1/25th. It's perfect for most of what I build with both a Chevy Small Block, and in later re-issues, a Flathead with correct vintage Stromberg 97's and full multi-carb setups, great headers, full detail chassis with an I-beam front axle and quick-change buggy spring rear end, tuck and roll interior and on and on. Just awesome. I even bought a Big Deuce once, but as soon as i was confronted with the shear size of the thing, realized that, unless I was fully committed to building, and owning, such a monste,r I would have to sell it on, which is what I did. But what a beautiful kit!

But Revell came mighty close with their 1/25th Deuce series, IMHO. Sure the bagged rear suspension is kinda goofy and definitely not right for period correct vintage hot rod builds, and the stance needs some serious revision. Also, the years have not been kind to those wide front tires that, until the Stacey David version, they all came with. And that "curtain rod" brace between the firewall and the radiator shell is something that I personally truly despise! But frankly there's nothing there that's not within reach of any reasonably competent modeler to correct. So much is right about these kits that a little extra effort can reward you with a wonderful model.

On 4/13/2023 at 4:58 AM, TooOld said:

Another great looking '32 Bernard , love the stance you were able to achieve !

Thanks Bob. As they say, when it comes to hot rods, Stance Is Everything.

On 4/13/2023 at 6:51 AM, crazyjim said:

A perfect hot rod.  Very nice.

Thanks Jim. I was surprised that building something like this, with such severe time constraints, would come out as well as it did. But then again, I sure have had a lot of practice, LOL.

On 4/13/2023 at 8:43 AM, Bainford said:

Cool build and great style, Bernard. Love the real world hot rods, and you do them so well. Cheers.

Thank you Trevor. I consider that a great compliment, since a "real world hot rod" was definitely the goal.

Edited April 15, 2023 by Bernard Kron

[Ace-Garageguy]

Vastly improved stance as compared to out-of-the-box builds. 

The colors really work well together too. Nice one.  

Edited April 15, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[Calb56]

Mr Kron you definitely have 32 Fords down to an art form. How about a 36?

[Bernard Kron]

2 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Vastly improved stance as compared to out-of-the-box builds. 

The colors really work well together too. Nice one.  

Thanks Bill. I think this will be a worthy replacement for the one I sold off on eBay. Funny how I immediately regretted not having a more modern looking highboy roadster on my shelf...

6 minutes ago, Calb56 said:

Mr Kron you definitely have 32 Fords down to an art form. How about a 36?

Thanks! Funny you should mention 36's. I've done a few over the years among which are a couple that I think are among my better work, but the kits were rare and uncommon enough until recently that I tended to resist acquiring them to build up a stash. There are 2 versions, the ex-Monogram 1/24th and the 1/25th AMT. I'm prejudiced towards 1/25th so my stash is all AMT '36s. The Monogram version appears to be more finely detailed but lacks a generally available chopped top - Replicas & Miniatures once offfered one, though. I tend to shy away from cutting up compound curves so a chopped AMT or the Jimmy Flintstone repops have generally proven to be a better solution to going the Kustom route. In any case, it looks like there'll be another TRaK 96er coming up soon and I've thought about attempting a chopped 3-window custom '36 in much the way that I did this Lobeck tribute Under The Gun.

Here are some links to a couple of my '36 Fords:

 

[Jim B]

Well done. 

[Calb56]

5 hours ago, Bernard Kron said:

 

Thanks! Funny you should mention 36's. I've done a few over the years among which are a couple that I think are among my better work, but the kits were rare and uncommon enough until recently that I tended to resist acquiring them to build up a stash. There are 2 versions, the ex-Monogram 1/24th and the 1/25th AMT. I'm prejudiced towards 1/25th so my stash is all AMT '36s. The Monogram version appears to be more finely detailed but lacks a generally available chopped top - Replicas & Miniatures once offfered one, though. I tend to shy away from cutting up compound curves so a chopped AMT or the Jimmy Flintstone repops have generally proven to be a better solution to going the Kustom route. In any case, it looks like there'll be another TRaK 96er coming up soon and I've thought about attempting a chopped 3-window custom '36 in much the way that I did this Lobeck tribute Under The Gun.

Here are some links to a couple of my '36 Fords:

 

Well, obviously I walked in late... some very cool Fords there. Your builds are definitely an influence and I appreciate the history as well.

[slusher]

Super looking 32!

[Bernard Kron]

Thank you, Carl!