little BIG Deuce (update 6/7/2022)

[Mr. Metallic]

By now most of us are familiar with one of the iconic kits of our hobby the Little Deuce (LD) and it's 1/8 scale brother, the Big Deuce (BD). The LD kit in various forms has been around for nearly 60 years.

I've even built 3 recently myself (as some of you may recall), all with a twist. Well, this one is another one with a twist.

  

If you are familiar with the LD and the BD kits you are aware that there are quite a few differences between the two as far as parts content. For whatever reason when Monogram decided to tool up smaller version of their highly successful Big Deuce kit they made quite a few changes. Several of these were probably done to reduce complexity, but others (especially the switch from a quick change rear to a stock style item) kinda make you scratch your head. At least they made me scratch mine.

I have had this build floating around in my head in various iterations for nearly 13 years now. It started out as being on a mission to find the LD parts and adapt them to the much more readily available Revell 32 roadster kit. That was done out of budget considerations. I even started that build, but abandoned it after a painting mishap, trying to match the old Monogram red plastic color. It went through various starts and stops over the years, and then I got bitten by the vintage Monogram hot rod kit bug. That's when I started to notice all the differences between the Little and Big Deuce kits. I set about mastering a set of the American Racing LeMans wheels for Drag City Casting to cast back in 2018. Last year I got on the kick of building up kits molded in color, and that's when the project evolved into it's final form. Unlike the other 3 kits in the Monogram hot rod series which came molded in multiple colors of plastic(Little T, Woody Wagon and Blue Beetle) the Little Deuce was all in white. This build proposes, what if they had molded it in color (yellow), and also steered closer content wise to the Big Deuce...

After a lot of words, here we arrive at the "proof of concept" mock up.

And here's a couple pics of the parts I have accumulated for this project. The yellow parts are actually from my parts box, not the virgin 80's kit seen in the background. Apparently the molded color of this kit when it was in the Monogram catalog back at that time varied quite a bit. The example in the box is a much darker yellow, where this one steers closer (but still a bit darker) than the color of the 2nd issue Big Deuce yellow. This is close enough for me.

 

The usual suspect parts from the various retools of the Little Deuce have been gathered together, with these additions

QC rear from the Little T (wide enough?)
Molded in yellow rear crossmember from a Monogram 29 Ford pickup
Spare tire cover and bracket from an AMT 32 Ford (Vicky?)
Air cleaners from the Revell new Model A kits
parts box seat belts (may not use)
Drag City Casting Lemans wheels
parts box 2 blade knock offs
horn from the Monogram 29 Ford pickup
Bumper bracketry from a Revell 32 Ford (may not use, but the ones on the Big Deuce were chrome)

I need to find a better Little Deuce pleated firewall. The only one I have is badly discolored.
I need to find a better brake reservoir
I was hoping to find a plastic 5 gauge insert for the dash, but have given up on that. 

As always, comments and questions are welcome.
 

Edited June 7, 2022 by Mr. Metallic

[Ace-Garageguy]

Love it, love it, love it.   

[Mr. Metallic]

This build is #3 currently on the bench, so activity comes in spurts. Over the weekend while I was making my way through the paint process on my challenge rail I was able to spend a little time making the biggest modification to this build, installing the quick change rear. I grabbed the QC from the former Little T tooling Boomer Bucket kit, but decided to use the better detailed spring from the Deuce tooling. In order to do that I needed to adapt the spring to sit on top of the axle instead of being mounted behind it because the tail of the QC would interfere with spring travel. It was a pretty straightforward mod, sanding a flat surface into the underside of the spring and then attaching small blocks of Evergreen onto the spring to slot into the top of the axle, just like the assembly out of the T kit.

Due to the spring now being mounted above the axle that means the stock Deuce kit spring attachment point no longer works as it would set the wheelbase back 3-4 inches. Since this is another "paintless" build I needed a molded in yellow crossmember to stub into the Deuce frame. This came courtesy of a builtup Monogram 29 Ford pickup (former Blue Beetle tool). 

I severed the crossmember from the rest of the frame and proceeded to clean up the paint residue that was left after stripping and trimmed the ends to fit between the Deuce rails. Then I marked the area of the Deuce floor I would need to remove to slot the new crossmember in. Fortunately I mostly fit between a couple molded in details on the floor, so I broke out the Dremel and made quick work of it.

After a little sanding of the opening and the crossmember it slid right into it's new home. Here's a mockup to show the new axle in it's home. I'll have to go back with some scrap yellow plastic to close in the gaps on the topside of the new crossmember, but otherwise this mod is complete.

[Mr. Metallic]

Still finishing up the paint on the challenge dragster, so I had a little time to finish up the rear end mods.

Boxed in the front and back of the crossmember using pieces from the molded in yellow hood (note the remnants of the louvers). Much more finished look from the underside.

Also carved a semi-circle out of the gas tank to give the QC some clearance, and boxed in the resulting gap. It was either do this or shorten the tail shaft on the QC, and this mod is what they would have done in 1:1. Not sure how the Big Deuce accomplishes this setup without the same accommodation to the gas tank, but maybe the clearances are different on the big kit? So, even though it doesn't 100% match the big kit, this is a real world 1:1 mod that could have appeared in the kit.

This may be the last update for a little bit since I have the challenge dragster to hopefully button up this weekend and then I need to finish up my nova wagon gasser before June 1.

[TooOld]

Nice work on the mods to add the Quick Change rear , this will look killer when finished !  I always planned on doing a yellow Little Deuce too but that was years ago when I did my "little " builds , got side tracked and just never got back to them .  Really happy to see you doing one ! 

[PHolden74]

Amazing builds Craig, love them!

[Mr. Metallic]

Very busy right now with 2 seniors graduating 2 weeks apart. Getting projects wrapped up around the house since we are hosting parties/relatives/etc. Any bench time was allocated to finishing my challenge dragster which is now complete (public debut coming soon).

Anyway, I have been able to work on this one a little bit. Decided to make the gauge cluster a separate piece like on the Big kit. Just because I could.

I cut out the gauge area on my yellow dash and harvested the cluster from another dash to slide in from the backside. I need to finesse the opening a little more, but otherwise it's ready to go.

[Vintage AMT]

I'll be watching with great interest as I've just started on my build of doing a "Son of Ford" style build using the yellow kit as you have here, lots of parts changed from when it was SoF to the yellow kit. And not for the better!!

Alex

[Mr. Metallic]

I have been unable to get my hands on a bright white Little Deuce firewall. The only one I had left had been modified slightly, and was discolored. Since this is another minimal paint project I decided to replicate the firewall. But in doing so allows me to more easily add a key detail of the Big Deuce more easily, the chromed upper portion.

Here you can see the last LD firewall I have left, the firewall that it got retooled into for later editions of the tooling (after the Early Iron edition) and the backer for the new piece I made out of .020 Evergreen. I used the new tool part as a template and put it back in the box it came from.

After severing the upper portion from the LD firewall I used it to mark the height of the upholstered portion of the new dash. I marked the center if the firewall so I could start laying out my pleats using .080 Evergreen half round.

In order to positively locate the firewall in the body I added short strips of plastic. I also drilled an access hole which allows me to remove the upper portion easily by pushing a pin through the hole.

And here is the nearly finished assembly. I wrapped the outside of the whole thing with .010 x .100 Evergreen to finish of the edge and it adds a detail more prototypical to the real 1:1 firewall. Note how the upper section is removable for easy chrome and paint detailing.

And here it is mocked up in place. Once the upper section is chromed I think only the most discerning eye will realize it's not the kit part.

[Mr. Metallic]

On 6/4/2022 at 4:39 PM, Vintage AMT said:

I'll be watching with great interest as I've just started on my build of doing a "Son of Ford" style build using the yellow kit as you have here, lots of parts changed from when it was SoF to the yellow kit. And not for the better!!

Alex

That sounds like a great project. I have a couple glue bombs I have taken apart to build a box stock SOF, but thought about using the other parts to build an alternate color. I'll be looking forward to your version because yellow should look pretty kool.

[TooOld]

That new firewall looks great , well done ! 

[Mr. Metallic]

Just a few more mods to make before I start polishing and detail painting. The BD comes with an optional covered spare tire and bracket. The LD has nothing like that, but thankfully the AMT 32 Phaeton/Vicky kits come with a nice smooth spare tire cover that closely matches what comes in the BD. The bracket is a little narrow to securely fit into the molded in frame horn covers on the LD tool, but this is a blessing in disguise. 

I bought some very small (1mm x 1mm) high strength magnets on ebay, and set a couple of them in a small pool of superglue on the underside of the frame horn cover. Then a drilled a hole and inserted a pin into the ends of the spare bracket. Now I have a removable spare.

Does anyone know if the AMT 32 phaeton or vicky were ever offered in bright white plastic? The one I have is a milky white which will require painting. 

The BD also has a chromed gauge insert. To replicate this I hollowed out the gauge area on my yellow piece, and did the opposite on a spare black dash I had. Now I have an easily chromed and detailed gauge insert.

The other mod was out of a matter of necessity, and since I'm not painting I had to get creative on how to solve it. When the tooling for this kit was updated in the 80's to delete the Pontiac engine and replace it with a SBC they changed the way the motor is mounted to the chassis. The Pontiac rested on a flange that projected rearward from the front crossmember, which is now gone. Since I'm using the Pontiac I needed to replace it, but it had to be the same yellow plastic. So, I trimmed a piece of the parts tree to fit, sanded it, and glued it in place. You can see I also removed the SBC motor mounts.

Left to do are the bumper brackets and a couple other minor items. It's getting there.

[Zippi]

The Deuce is looking good.