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Chopped/sectioned 39 Ford coupe(update!)


Ferbz

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Since my last post on this project progress has been slow and steady. I've since glued the top/body/fenders together, filled the rear wheel openings(I'll later scribe a fender skirt line for the flush skirt illusion), filled the bumper bracket holes(I'll cut small, more accurate ones later), cut open a recessed license area in the trunk, added a filler strip along the bottom of the front fenders/doors, filled/smoothed the firewall, replaced the 40 grill area with a 39 from the Revell kit, filled the windshield opening at the top(even when chopped the opening is too tall for me)and added an inner lip for the "glass" to mount to. I took some step-by-step pics of how I did this and may create a separate post with them. I got the idea from Steve Boutte and I think it's going to work pretty well(thanks Steve!)

It's almost ready for first primer coat. Paint color is undecided except it will be some single stage color appropriate for the era. As I think I mentioned, I'm attempting to build this car as an early post war style custom. Plans call for a hopped up flathead with a 4 carb setup. I may try to scratch build a weird one that has the carbs side by side rather than all of them inline, just to be unusual. After some researching it seems there were a few people experimenting with really odd but cool multi carb setups back then! Those manifolds are super rare today. Enough yapping, have a look at the pics :) 

One last note: notice that piece of tubing in the interior? I was gluing some sheet strips on the inside of the top to strengthen my cuts as is my usual practice, but because the top was not yet glued to the sectioned body, the B pillars buckled inwards towards each other! I tacked in that tubing to push them back out, then glued the top/body/fenders together. I hope that when I remove it things will stay where they are...

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Lookin' spectacular so far!!

The widened fenders are very interesting and the chop looks great.

Very slick technique for the windshield opening.

I almost didn't notice it was sectioned, until I saw the various cuts that were necessary to re-curve the trunk. Sleek!

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Nice job on the bodywork, the roof looks nice and smooth considering how many cuts you put into it. Have you laid any primer on it yet?

 

Thanks! No primer yet....I'll post pics when I spray the first coat. I wanted to publish pics of the bodywork before it gets covered up. The first coat to me is the initial test of how the bodywork looks.

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Lookin' spectacular so far!!

The widened fenders are very interesting and the chop looks great.

Very slick technique for the windshield opening.

I almost didn't notice it was sectioned, until I saw the various cuts that were necessary to re-curve the trunk. Sleek!

Thanks! While I've been learning alot about the many chopped/sectioned 39/40 1:1 custom Fords built in the early post war period, not many widened the fenders. Doug Rice's 1:1 39 Ford had the widened fenders and was a huge inspiration for this project. Although I wonder about the practical need for why he did it, I really like the look of the wide fenders. It fixes the quirky narrowness of this body style to me.

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Nice job on the bodywork, the roof looks nice and smooth considering how many cuts you put into it. Have you laid any primer on it yet?

 

I actually chopped the roof twice! When I first did it, I wasn't happy with the profile as it didn't flow from front to back the way I wanted so I made some additional cuts and moved things around a little more. Chopping these coupes are difficult to get right in scale as well as 1:1 in my opinion. My model still has too much crown in it to me, but I'm not messing with that top anymore :)

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Superb, makes my chopped and channeled 32 Five Window seem very simple (and ive been filling and sanding that for what seems like weeks)

Do you have pics posted of your progress? I'd love to see it. Chopping AND channeling/sectioning is no small task no matter what the body style is.

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