AMT ‘50 Shoebox Ford NNL East build

[OldNYJim]

I’ve been racking my brains for MONTHS trying to decide on something to build for the NNL East ‘Known Survivor’ category at the show this year - I’ve been researching kits, looking at the ‘scale survivor’ groups on Facebook, looking at all the weird and interesting kustom parts AMT used to include...I really wanted to do something LIKE those old survivor built-ups that you see on eBay a lot...but also something that would stand up to scrutiny today.  
 

I never did actually decide 100% on the ‘perfect’ kit to choose for this...but it’s the 70th anniversary of the 50 Ford and Round 2 reissued the old AMT kit with a bunch of weird and wonderful extras so I decided to bite the bullet and actually build something ?‍♂️?.

This is the kit:

 

I’m not crazy on the box art version, but it has a tonne of extra parts and I’d definitely like to incorporate some of those extras into my build.

I really like the lines of these old Shoeboxes - I know it’s popular to section them but I do like the proportions of them even without too much messing with them...I might end up giving it a mild slice to take a little out but it won’t be a bunch if I do.  I want the proportions to look good with or without the top ‘up’ - I’d like the finished product to look good with it either way.

I can already tell this body is going to take some work to get REALLY nice...it’s not terrible out of the box but it’ll definitely need some massaging (and the custom windshield that I like doesn’t match up to the roof very well so I’ll need to give that some attention for sure) even aside from any body mods.

If anyone has built one of these I’d love to hear any feedback on how it goes together...more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[alan barton]

Jim, when you are ready to fit the windshield frame, don't be shy!  Use whatever combination of glues, epoxies, pinning, welding etc you have in copious amounts because for some reason they commonly come off!  The one on my shelf is the old Matchbox version that was in blue plastic and it cracked away several times BEFORE I got it painted and then came loose again later on.  Makes no sense to me but I've seen other examples with the cracked paint in this area or missing them altogether so it's worth keeping in mind.

Like where this one is going - they definitely are a cool shape!

Cheers

Alan

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Jim!

Promising start. I'll follow on your build.

I'm finishing a Pro-Touring version of this kit, in Coupe form. I've opened everything (doors, trunk, etc.), and building door jambs for the suicide doors got me to realize the car has different measurements  on both sides (!?!). I've not verified if the same is true with the convertible version, of which I have one in my stash. I guess it has to do with the mastering process back then, since this is VERY old tooling. That may explain the problems outiled by Alan in the post above. Anyways...

Just to entertain you: here's a mash-up of your body with the AMT Ford Probe greenhouse, along the style of Ford's FortyNine concept car. Hours of fun with styrene.

CT

 

[espo]

Does the kit you have contain the Chopped Hardtop ? I have built one with that and some minor other '50's type styling and it turned out pretty nice. Additional body panels can be found in the '49 Ford coupe kit.  

[Tom Geiger]

Jim, here's a bit of inspiration for ya!   This is a survivor from my collection.  A few years ago a buddy-0-mine gave me this along with another Ford and a Merc (see last photo). He said he knew I'd appreciate and preserve them for what they were, where he feared anyone else would use them for parts!  All built by the same guy from original releases.  The odd part was that he didn't install any glass!  You can see that in the group shot.  So upon restoring this one,  I polished out some paint runs, added the missing spot light and custom wheel centers.  And yes, I did fish glass in there through the side windows!  

This kit is a great choice to build that faux survivor because there are so many things you can do with it!  And so many options in the box! 

Build on my friend!  I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

 

[ewetwo]

Nice custom

[misterNNL]

4 hours ago, Claude Thibodeau said:

Hi Jim!

Promising start. I'll follow on your build.

I'm finishing a Pro-Touring version of this kit, in Coupe form. I've opened everything (doors, trunk, etc.), and building door jambs for the suicide doors got me to realize the car has different measurements  on both sides (!?!). I've not verified if the same is true with the convertible version, of which I have one in my stash. I guess it has to do with the mastering process back then, since this is VERY old tooling. That may explain the problems outiled by Alan in the post above. Anyways...

Just to entertain you: here's a mash-up of your body with the AMT Ford Probe greenhouse, along the style of Ford's FortyNine concept car. Hours of fun with styrene.

CT

 

Very slick.An inspired design.

[stitchdup]

I built this one a couple of years ago. I also wanted to keep it fairly close to how the kit was so it still has the wire axles and hole in the block. I think some of the parts i used may have been from other simialr era kits such as the studebaker custom seats in place of the ford ones. I also used both chopped tops so i can swap them depending on mood but my carson top pics seem to be awol. As far as problems the rear glass for the chopped vicky top is a little awkward to get fitted right but a little patience and time will see that job done.

 

 

[OldNYJim]

19 hours ago, alan barton said:

Jim, when you are ready to fit the windshield frame, don't be shy!  Use whatever combination of glues, epoxies, pinning, welding etc you have in copious amounts because for some reason they commonly come off!  The one on my shelf is the old Matchbox version that was in blue plastic and it cracked away several times BEFORE I got it painted and then came loose again later on.  Makes no sense to me but I've seen other examples with the cracked paint in this area or missing them altogether so it's worth keeping in mind.

Like where this one is going - they definitely are a cool shape!

Cheers

Alan

That’s really useful to know - thanks Alan!  I already figured that part was going to give me trouble - there’s about a scale 1” gap all around it where it attaches to the body and another 1” gap at the top where it meets the roof.  That’s definitely going to need some attention

 

[OldNYJim]

3 hours ago, Claude Thibodeau said:

Hi Jim!

Promising start. I'll follow on your build.

I'm finishing a Pro-Touring version of this kit, in Coupe form. I've opened everything (doors, trunk, etc.), and building door jambs for the suicide doors got me to realize the car has different measurements  on both sides (!?!). I've not verified if the same is true with the convertible version, of which I have one in my stash. I guess it has to do with the mastering process back then, since this is VERY old tooling. That may explain the problems outiled by Alan in the post above. Anyways...

Just to entertain you: here's a mash-up of your body with the AMT Ford Probe greenhouse, along the style of Ford's FortyNine concept car. Hours of fun with styrene.

CT

What a great looking build Claude!  That color isn’t too far off the color I had in mind for that, although mine won’t be quite so radical - really cool tho!  Nice job! Interesting about the body length - I’ll have to do some careful measuring and see if I’m about to open another can of worms or not

[OldNYJim]

 

3 hours ago, espo said:

Does the kit you have contain the Chopped Hardtop ? I have built one with that and some minor other '50's type styling and it turned out pretty nice. Additional body panels can be found in the '49 Ford coupe kit.  

Good tip on the 49, thank you!  I’ll take a look!  This one comes with a full length soft top, and a VERY 60s (and odd) half length semi-hardtop one that you see on the box art...I’m going with the long version because the short one looks like it would rip itself off if you drove the car at anything above crawling speed

[OldNYJim]

Apologies for the multiple replies - was getting the dreaded 404 error so had to break it down into chucks so I could load - of course by which time there were some new ones!  Thanks for all the pics and tips fellas, appreciate the feedback and showing me your builds! 
 

Just a quick look at the body on this kit and you can see, as noted above, it’s an old tool that’s definitely showing it’s age a little.  I started make a mental checklist of things I wanted to do and it soon became long enough that I thought “you know what, I need to start at the front and work back”.  So, starting at the front...

The headlamps on this mould are a little “crusty” to say the least:

Viewed from the side they’re not so bad, and I like that little rounded edge, but it doesn’t continue all the way around and resolves in those nasty recesses at the top:

So, in a effort to keep that thin lip that I liked but to fix the top of the fenders I make a couple of brass inserts and opened up the holes carefully until they were a friction fit:

The areas of the fender around the headlamps will still need some work, but I’ll be able to sand, Bondo and sand again that whole area without losing that lip that I liked on the edges.  I could’ve used styrene tube, but my thinking was that the brass would be a lot tougher and harder to accidentally sand away.

I opened the holes up with a reamer, working super slowly to take off just enough material that the inserts would fit in the holes tightly, so I could adjust them a little before gluing and they’d hold their position, and once I was happy with where they were located I added a little Bondo spot glaze to smooth out the fenders and blend them in nicely;

I need to let the Bondo setup over night now - well, actually I don’t NEED to, but it’s fairly humid here today so I’d rather let it set a while to make sure it does most of it’s shrinking now rather than after I’ve sanded.  Tomorrow I can level it out, blend everything in how I imagined (there’s a particular shape inside of the headlamps on the top of the fender that I don’t like and I’d like to address) and then see what I need to do to get the grill to fit.

Thanks for looking everyone, and thanks for the feedback!

[dino246gt]

Great start, interesting thread, I'll be following, I've always loved those Fords for mild customs.

[speedy5963]

Here is a 50 Ford my pops and I helped my sister with....about 20 years ago but still looks great!  

[OldNYJim]

Thanks Dino - and cool build Speedy!  Paint looks GREAT!

Just a tiny update, as I’m replying anyway... smoothed out the hood today...before:

And after:

Removed the center trim, filled the hole for the emblem and the on the front too.  Ready for a little Bondo, which is drying now and then I’ll finish that off tomorrow.  The top side anyway...the underside is kind of a disaster so that’ll take some additional work...

Smoothed out the fenders I was messing with yesterday too - I’m sure they’ll need some fiddling once they get a coat of primer but it’s a start anyway:

More soon!

[Claude Thibodeau]

6 hours ago, speedy5963 said:

Here is a 50 Ford my pops and I helped my sister with....about 20 years ago but still looks great!  

Hi!

That mohair interior looks very real! And that pink hue... Cool!

CT

[speedy5963]

1 minute ago, Claude Thibodeau said:

Hi!

That mohair interior looks very real! And that pink hue... Cool!

CT

Yeah, the white flocking help break up everything, overall seemed like a good build!  

[OldNYJim]

A little more (slow) progress on this one...

After some time looking at the front end, I decided I wasn’t crazy about how the line of the hood intersected with the base of the windshield.  As you can see from an overhead shot, the line gets broken where the hood meets the base of the pillar, and then the top of the pillar doesn’t meet the roof.

I decided I’d narrow the windshield and fill the resulting gaps - the problem being that I needed to lose a different amount top and bottom to make it fit how I wanted.  Some scale calculation later...

I separated the windshield frame into four parts - left pillar, right pillar, upper center and lower center, and then repositioned the pillars inward of their original location by a scale 1.5 inches:

Then, with the top corners angled in to meet the roof, I resized the center pieces to fit:

You can see in the pics above that I’ve used a little styrene bar to help fill the resulting gaps on the edge of the windshield where it meets the fender and the door - I try and use as little Bondo as possible (despite appearances ??‍♂️)  to reduce the risk of it shrinking over time.
 

LOTS more cleanup to do, and we’ve got a lot more to do on the body, but another part roughed-in far enough that I can move forward with an idea of how the finished product will look.  

More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[OldNYJim]

Oh, I forgot the shot that actually shows the benefit of that work ?? - kinda hard to visualize when it’s all messy and Bondo-y I know but I’m pleased with how it’s looking!

[Lordmodelbuilder]

I built a 50 Ford back in 2009. Great kit with a ton of cool parts, although I went a different way with mine.:)

Your model is coming along nicely! Will be following your build.

[OldNYJim]

Ohh, that’s a GREAT looking build!  The quad headlamps are cool, and the paint looks good!  Nice job!

[espo]

From your overhead picture I can really see the difference in the width of the windshield area and the convertible top. I never realized it was this great of a difference. The one I built was with the chopped hardtop and I don't remember having any problems in this area. The same photo shows how the rear edge of the hood doesn't align well with the cowl edge. This has always been a minor and often overlooked issue with both the '49 and the '50 kits. The simple correction, or at least what I have done, is to shape the rear edge of the hood between the center line and the passenger side of the body. Now that you have modified the cowl area this might not even matter anymore. I like how you redid your headlights also. 

[OldNYJim]

Thanks Espo!  Luckily I’m not trying to go stock on this one or I can see there being a LOT of little details I’d want to fix - but that said, I’m glad this kit got reissued and it’s available!

This week’s shenanigans mostly involved the front end again...I didn’t much like the look of the stock front bumper pan, at least not for this build.  Here it is out of the box:

I like the bottom edge where it meets the wheel arch, but the rest was too messy for what I had in mind...so I sliced the two edges off, tucked them in and made a center piece to connect them:

Then smoothed it out with Bondo, shaped it to the body nicely (or at least close enough for right now...) and added a couple of arched pieces to blend in where the pan meets the edge of the radiator and the wheel arches:

I keep coming back to the idea of some kind of floating grill bar in there but I haven’t totally decided how that would look yet.  Next job today is to flip it over and see what I can do to make this piece flow nicely into the underside of the car where it meets the front of the frame.

More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi!

Interesting progress on you project! 

To your point about Bondo "shrinkage", allow me to expose my personnal experience. If you are using CATALIZED bondo (with hardener), the shrinkage phenomenon is almost non-existent, provided you use a "serious" pro stuff. I do, and I also experienced some "after-effect" on a severely mashed-up car, namely the blue 49 Ford featured prior on your thread. I too felt it was BONDO shrinkage. But upon making the repair, I could verify that it was actually the styrene substrate, in the "joint", that was still soft. Obviously, the plastic glue was not fully evaporated. Lesson learned!

Now, when I conduct extensive bodywork/mashing/cutting and joining of parts... I use exclusively "Super Glue Gel", with an accellerant. Even on severely cut-up cars, with extensively rubbed paints, never a trace of the joint telegraphing tru the finish. Same substrate (styrene), same putty, primer & paints. but NO styrene (acetone based) glue anymore. 

I'm no chemistry expert... but I sure solved that damning problem that plagued some of my projects. 

My two cents, for what it's worth... 

CT 

[espo]

"Shenanigans" ? This remark brought a smile to my face remembering all of the times in my misspent youth being asked what type of "Shenanigans" I had been up to. As for the front bumper mounting area, that isn't pretty but it was the way Ford did it at the time and part of the function was to force incoming air toward the radiator. In some cases I have used the styling option from the '49 Ford kit. This was designed to eliminate the center hump in the grill and the hood. This was a popular custom touch of the time on 1:1 cars. The lower part was designed to eliminate the front bumper but with a little modification you can still use the front bumper if desired. One of the kits I think offered a grill option of a floating bar ala '50's Plymouth style. Of course one of the more popular ideas was either a '54 Pontiac or a Chevrolet grill bar. What are you considering for the rear trunk and bumper portion ?