THE DEUCE BODY SHOP

mrm · November 10, 2020

I decided to make another Deuce dedicated thread thread. This time showing modifications on Deuce bodies, much like in real body shops.

I'll start with three different body mods.

First on the agenda is everybody's favorite Roadster, which will swap its cowl with the not so favorite Phantom Vicky. The idea is to have a much more traditional looking Phantom Vicky and also a nice roadster with a custom Duval style windshield.

Lets start cutting....

While we are at it, why not add one more Deuce to the mix? This is the Revell Tudor Sedan, with its roof cut off and the cowl from the Rat Roaster '32 grafted on.

But first things firs........ The Roadster!

The body was cleaned up and then the uper section was cut to fit from the back edge of the doors all the way around. The front part of the body was kept to retain the little reveal that goes around it. Everything was aligned by the front edge of the doors, which opened just a hair thin gap. Nothing some sheet styrene can't fix.

That's it for now.

stay tuned for more and thanks for looking.

Edited November 10, 2020 by mrm

crossfire 2004 · November 10, 2020

Nice job on the cowl swop Michael, I cut mine at the front edge of the door but I think I prefer your method.

I will certainly be following your progress on both builds, the sedan conversion hadn’t crossed my mind.

Here’s mine attempt.

mrm · November 10, 2020

Nicely done. You should put that stunning model in the Deuce Roadster thread and tell us more about it

mrm · November 10, 2020

7 hours ago, crossfire 2004 said:

Nice job on the cowl swop Michael, I cut mine at the front edge of the door but I think I prefer your method.

I will certainly be following your progress on both builds, the sedan conversion hadn’t crossed my mind.

Thank you Stuart.

The idea behind the way I cut the cowl on the Roadster is to help with two things. First it is cut above the belt line, which keeps the original belt line on the roadster and I don't have to worry about it afterwards. Second, this way the dash flows naturally into the doors. Also it is easier to square everything off when lign up the front edges of the door lines.

About the sedan conversion. I have been always in love with the yellow Bob Kolmos Phaeton, built by Boyd Coddington. It was created by cutting the the roof off a sedan, as its lines are different from the standard Phaeton Ford originally built. In recent years Foose ripped that idea off (he had nothing to do with the Kolmos car) and announced it as his own limited edition body by Brookville. The only difference in the Foose design is that the front edge of the door is like on the 3 window coupe. I am very split on that. The Boyd car has the large door from the Tudor, with all the lines being straight. It works perfect as all the gaps match - the grille to hood, hood to cowl, cowl to leading door edge to back of the door. They are all paralel. On the other hand the leading edge on the 3 window door is beautiful and has that graceful curve on the bottom. It will work great on a full fendered car, but on a high/low boy I think it will look odd.

So I still have not decided how to scrape the door lines on that body. Any opinion, argumentation or advise is more than welcome.

mrm · November 12, 2020

OK. Today some work on one of my all time favorites body styles - the Phaeton.

First, everything was puttied and then sanded smooth. That included removing the character belt line, which at that point was a mixture of the one remaining from the sedan and the thinner one from the Roadster. I figured that sanding everything away would make things so much easier and also creating a new belt line would make it more uniform and easier to manipulate to follow the lines I want.

Next a new character line was made from 1.0mm x 1.0mm styrene rod. I like stretching it as much as I can in order to keep it as straight as possible. It was glued with Tamiya thin plastic cement, which I love using. What I love most about it is that it is available at HL and I can get it with 40% off. Just like their Primers and putties, which I also love to use. The wooden pins you see are really small and available in both HL or Wallmart and are very inexpensive for a bag of them. They are perfect for jobs like this, because they are not very strong. Just enough to keep stuff together. But because they are wood and somewhat soft, they don't damage the plastic and leave no trace, since the glue does not affect them.

Fifteen minutes later, we have a nice body with a brand new belt line reveal. at this point I will let it cure for a day and then spray Tamiya grey primer on everything. This will reveal if any areas that still need to be addressed with putty and also help with sanding down that belt line, to where it looks down to scale and has rounded edges.

This brings us to the dilemma with the doors. And I would really like everyone's opinion on it. Should I scribe the door lines like a Tudor door - straight down, parallel to the cowl or should I make it like 3 window door, where the front edge is angled and curved on the bottom, like on the Foose/Brookville bodies? Keep this in mind when you cast your vote; there is a chance this body may get cast and become available. So if that was the case, would you prefer to purchase it with the 3 window doors or with the Tudor doors?

Edited November 12, 2020 by mrm

Dennis Lacy · November 12, 2020

Neat work going on here. I like the 2-door Phaeton a lot and I think you should leave the front door line vertical/straight. I honestly don't like the 2-door Phaeton bodies that Brookville did. I think they are awkward looking and I've seen them in person at Brookville's display at The Grand National Roadster Show. They tried to hype them up as a big deal but nobody really cared. So far I've seen one finished by Brizio and the other by Kugel. So there's 2, where's the rest?!

crossfire 2004 · November 12, 2020

On 11/10/2020 at 5:28 PM, mrm said:

Thank you Stuart.

The idea behind the way I cut the cowl on the Roadster is to help with two things. First it is cut above the belt line, which keeps the original belt line on the roadster and I don't have to worry about it afterwards. Second, this way the dash flows naturally into the doors. Also it is easier to square everything off when lign up the front edges of the door lines.

About the sedan conversion. I have been always in love with the yellow Bob Kolmos Phaeton, built by Boyd Coddington. It was created by cutting the the roof off a sedan, as its lines are different from the standard Phaeton Ford originally built. In recent years Foose ripped that idea off (he had nothing to do with the Kolmos car) and announced it as his own limited edition body by Brookville. The only difference in the Foose design is that the front edge of the door is like on the 3 window coupe. I am very split on that. The Boyd car has the large door from the Tudor, with all the lines being straight. It works perfect as all the gaps match - the grille to hood, hood to cowl, cowl to leading door edge to back of the door. They are all paralel. On the other hand the leading edge on the 3 window door is beautiful and has that graceful curve on the bottom. It will work great on a full fendered car, but on a high/low boy I think it will look odd.

So I still have not decided how to scrape the door lines on that body. Any opinion, argumentation or advise is more than welcome.

Many thanks for your reply Michael, I was aiming for the least cutting with my attempt and added small pieces between the cowl and the door top. I only have one in progress shot showing an early mock-up of my effort.

Regarding the phaeton, I’d stick with the Tudor door shape, Mr Foose is not always right.

Rocking Rodney Rat · November 12, 2020

Some nice body work going on here. I did the opposite, put the '32 sedan cowl and chopped windshield posts on the Phantom Vickie body. https://public.fotki.com/jferren/32-vicky-cabriolet/ I hope to see more updates soon! -RRR

crossfire 2004 · November 12, 2020

2 hours ago, Rocking Rodney Rat said:

Some nice body work going on here. I did the opposite, put the '32 sedan cowl and chopped windshield posts on the Phantom Vickie body. https://public.fotki.com/jferren/32-vicky-cabriolet/ I hope to see more updates soon! -RRR

That’s a nice twist on the Phantom Vickie Rodney, unfortunately both the ‘32 hiboy roadster and the sedan kits are fairly scarce and relatively expensive here in the U.K. . Sacrificing a sedan body for the cowl is just not viable I’m afraid.

mrm · November 12, 2020

5 minutes ago, crossfire 2004 said:

That’s a nice twist on the Phantom Vickie Rodney, unfortunately both the ‘32 hiboy roadster and the sedan kits are fairly scarce and relatively expensive here in the U.K. . Sacrificing a sedan body for the cowl is just not viable I’m afraid.

I believe there is a solution coming up soon. Stay tuned.

Quiet Eric · November 12, 2020

One more vote for Tudor door lines

Bullybeef · January 9, 2021

On 11/11/2020 at 5:56 PM, mrm said:

OK. Today some work on one of my all time favorites body styles - the Phaeton.

First, everything was puttied and then sanded smooth. That included removing the character belt line, which at that point was a mixture of the one remaining from the sedan and the thinner one from the Roadster. I figured that sanding everything away would make things so much easier and also creating a new belt line would make it more uniform and easier to manipulate to follow the lines I want.

Next a new character line was made from 1.0mm x 1.0mm styrene rod. I like stretching it as much as I can in order to keep it as straight as possible. It was glued with Tamiya thin plastic cement, which I love using. What I love most about it is that it is available at HL and I can get it with 40% off. Just like their Primers and putties, which I also love to use. The wooden pins you see are really small and available in both HL or Wallmart and are very inexpensive for a bag of them. They are perfect for jobs like this, because they are not very strong. Just enough to keep stuff together. But because they are wood and somewhat soft, they don't damage the plastic and leave no trace, since the glue does not affect them.

Fifteen minutes later, we have a nice body with a brand new belt line reveal. at this point I will let it cure for a day and then spray Tamiya grey primer on everything. This will reveal if any areas that still need to be addressed with putty and also help with sanding down that belt line, to where it looks down to scale and has rounded edges.

This brings us to the dilemma with the doors. And I would really like everyone's opinion on it. Should I scribe the door lines like a Tudor door - straight down, parallel to the cowl or should I make it like 3 window door, where the front edge is angled and curved on the bottom, like on the Foose/Brookville bodies? Keep this in mind when you cast your vote; there is a chance this body may get cast and become available. So if that was the case, would you prefer to purchase it with the 3 window doors or with the Tudor doors?

Both options sound appealing, but I think. The Tudor line would suit it better

Edited January 9, 2021 by Bullybeef
Messy

alan barton · January 9, 2021

I would go with the Tudor door line. I don't hate the Brookville bodies but there is definitely a conflict between the sloping door line and the straight cowl line. That should mean that I don't like 32 3 windows and I love them so go figure! The value of my opinion plus $2.00 will buy you a Coke!

Love the wooden peg idea! Have looked at those many times and thought, eh, I've got heaps of clamps. Didn't think of their resistance to styrene cement - better get some! Funny, i was just doing swage lines on a 32 roadster today, just on the opposite of the world to you - great minds think alike!

Cheers

Alan

Kit Karson · January 10, 2021

On 11/11/2020 at 11:57 PM, Dennis Lacy said:

Neat work going on here. I like the 2-door Phaeton a lot and I think you should leave the front door line vertical/straight. I honestly don't like the 2-door Phaeton bodies that Brookville did. I think they are awkward looking and I've seen them in person at Brookville's display at The Grand National Roadster Show. They tried to hype them up as a big deal but nobody really cared. So far I've seen one finished by Brizio and the other by Kugel. So there's 2, where's the rest?!

The only other consideration is the width of the 2-door Phaeton door. The Phaeton originally came with 4-doors and both were a bit narrower than the Roadster's doors.

I decided to go with the Roadster door opening on my Tubster: