alan barton Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 Some years ago I bought a box of gluebombed Monogram Sport Coupe parts for $25 in an Adelaide antique store. I figured there were enough decent parts in there to build one of my holy grails. recently I had another look in the box and figured I had enough to get another one out of those parts if I combined them with other parts in my stash. Before we start, for the benefit of newcomers to the hobby, this is NOT a model of a 1932 Ford Sports Coupe. It is a model of a five window coupe. The sports coupe had a fixed fabric top behind the doors, where the quarter windows are on a five window coupe. Just thought I would clear that up for those who weren't aware. The first photo shows the contents of the box. Plenty of old enamel paint, plenty of glue but the bones were there. Second photo shows the results of paint stripping in caustic soda. I got the basic body panels assembled although they needed a bit of tweaking. There were some broken pieces of plastic missing plus some fairly rugged glue joins to contend with. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 The chassis had a broken front crossmember that needed reinforcing. Otherwise all the parts were there to get it back on wheels. I considered fitting the original electric motor but decided it would only complicate things and left it out. I was missing some of the original wheelbacks so had to use short lengths of K and S aluminium tubing to make the replacement items fit the axle. Some of the tyres had handpainted whitewalls so I did the same on the replacement one that I used. Its a lot whiter but maybe it will yellow with age to match the others? Engine assembly went well and it was great to see it all together. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 It took a few rounds of putty/sand/prime before the body was ready for paint. Considering what it looked like when I started, I was pretty happy with these results. The front cycle fenders also needed a few telescoping sleeves of aluminium tubing to get them firmly located on the axle. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 Finally, after a lot more fine sanding, it was painted in a Dupli colour Mazda metallic blue with plenty of clear. Considering that this is the only one I had ever come across for sale in Australia, I was very happy to finally park this one in my collection. These old Monograms are a great window into the history of modelling and I treat them as such - I see no point in attempting to super detail or accurize these models as there are plenty of far nicer examples of these cars in model form, especially the Revell version. Cheers Alan 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 So last week, I started thinking about tackling another build. The first issue was that the box had contained three left hand side panels and 1 right hand side panel - so in effect I only had 2/3rds of the second body. There are plenty of other parts missing but I figured there was no point starting to look for parts if I couldn't replace the missing side. I started by tracing the spare right hand side onto a sheet of 1mm white styrene. Before attempting to do any shaping, I began cutting out the windows. I started by drilling a series of holes in the waste area and then trimming them to size with a sharp X-Acto. The thing is, if I was going to duplicate the window mouldings, I had to cut the window opening to the larger size of the moulding. I checked regularly with the spare left hand side to see how I was going. When I was happy with the size I rounded the edges by sanding them smooth to duplicate the mouldings. Next, I cut a piece of styrene roughly the size the side window area of the coupe and then marked out the actual window openings, Again I used drills to hog the area out but I didn't trim them to the exact size. I felt it would be too easy to misjudge their size, shape or positioning. Tamiya liquid cement was used to glue the piece on the inside of the side panel. While this was drying I clamped it to the spare side piece to aid in achieving the correct curvature of the side panel. I was now ready to cut out the overall shape of the side panel and sand it to get as closes a fit as possible. Flat Evergreen strip was added along the top edge to form the basis of the gutter. The gutter would not be sanded to shape until the body was assembled. Small strips of flat strip were glued to the front edge of both side panels and the last step for this stage was to glue the cowl onto the body and clamp everything in position on the frame - a bit of a handful if I say so myself! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 The spare cowl from the box of parts was split and cracked and missing the windshield opening. After a bit of thought I decided to start with a windshield shaped hole in a piece of thick styrene! After finessing the fit for a while< then cut way the lower section that would not be needed and glued it, slightly oversize, to the body. Once again, plenty of filing, puttying, sanding and priming followed. About the same time I tackled the swage lines or body mouldings on the side of the coupe. I was originally going to use either flat or half round styrene to form these - that seemed pretty obvious. The more I studied it, the more I decided an easier was would be to first run the whole swage line from firewall to lower rear corner using one strip of 1.5mm quarter round. When that had dried, I ran a second piece above the first piece, tapering it off as it began to curve. Finally I took a third piece of 1.5mm half round and glued it upside down in the valley between the first two pieces. The main reasons for this long winded operation was that a) the thin strips were easier to curve accurately and b) there is quite a change in thickness of the body moulding over the length of the car. Another strip of 1.5 was used to make the wheel arch. You will see that I also cut a huge gaping hole out of the firewall and cowl - hey, it was already split and broken so no crime here! These models are approximately 1/20th scale which restricts the amount of parts available for a project like this. I did have a big ol' Hemi lying around from a Monogram Sizzler so that led me to choose an early sixties altered coupe as the them for this build. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 29, 2023 Author Share Posted August 29, 2023 When everything had dried overnight I took a look at the car and it looked too fat, ie, tool tall in the height of the doors. Early Monogram kits were at best twenty footers - they weren't dead nuts to scale. After some serious eyeballing I elected to saw off 3mm or 1/8th inch from the bottom of the rockers and then replace the lower moulding, both sides, with 2mm Evergreen half round. I also rescribed the lower door line at this stage. After some more filing, sanding and puttying, it was time for the first coats of primer. So as of tonight, we have a mockup. The front wheels are resin versions of the Boothill Express front wheels and tyres form thepartsbox.com. The back wheels and tyres are Ice T but probably wont stay. It's looking pretty tough but there is a long way to go! Cheers Alan 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zippi Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 Both 32 Ford Coupes look Great. Two nice models for the collection. Love these old school Hot Rods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobss396 Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 Nice work, resurrecting a glue bomb is always a challenge. I have never tackled making a body side before. I have an old AMT '62 Ford glue bomb in process, I was lucky to get it apart and not break anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Payne Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 Alan, that is a great save on two rare models! Very ambitious work, with great results! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bainford Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 Well done, Alan. Two great saves there. The second one is looking pretty tough indeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dino246gt Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 Nice work! Looks like great fun with a high satisfaction value! I love saving these old things and you are really doing it right, nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Metallic Posted August 29, 2023 Share Posted August 29, 2023 You had me with your well done restoration of the first coupe, but then knocked me over with the second and all the scratchbuilding it reqiuires. Wowza ? and thank you for doing a color other than red on the first one. It's rare to see these, but nearly every one is left red plastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 30, 2023 Author Share Posted August 30, 2023 17 hours ago, Mr. Metallic said: You had me with your well done restoration of the first coupe, but then knocked me over with the second and all the scratchbuilding it reqiuires. Wowza ? and thank you for doing a color other than red on the first one. It's rare to see these, but nearly every one is left red plastic. Thank you Craig - if I had a mint kit to start with I would probably have assembled it in red and polished the plastic for nostalgia's sake. With the amount of work required to repair the body, it was a no brainer to do a different colour, for exactly the reason you stated - they're all red! 19 hours ago, dino246gt said: Nice work! Looks like great fun with a high satisfaction value! I love saving these old things and you are really doing it right, nice! Yes, Dennis, very high satisfaction value. I look at it this way - my complete unopened kits and built kits are possibly going to live on beyond me, but random parts are at risk when the estate sale starts! The more lame, three legged dogs I build, the more I save! I do however sometimes question my sanity when I look at how many mint unstarted kits I still have to build! 19 hours ago, Bainford said: Well done, Alan. Two great saves there. The second one is looking pretty tough indeed. I hope it will get even tougher when I get the Hemi sunk back to where it should be! I can see pipes coming through the cowl! Thanks everyone for looking so far, I really appreciate your comments and compliments. . Cheers Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozmodeler Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Great work Al. I love how you are rescuing some of these models from our past. Model car archaeology ? Anyhow keep up the great work mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straightliner59 Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Oh! Must be Tesla powered!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOBLNG Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Wow, that is some major reconstruction. They are both looking great!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dino246gt Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 4 hours ago, alan barton said: Yes, Dennis, very high satisfaction value. I look at it this way - my complete unopened kits and built kits are possibly going to live on beyond me, but random parts are at risk when the estate sale starts! The more lame, three legged dogs I build, the more I save! I do however sometimes question my sanity when I look at how many mint unstarted kits I still have to build! Yeah that's exactly where I'm at too, still buying more kits though, it's an addiction! Fun trying to do stuff with the old "junk" though, very satisfying! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaftygas Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 OMG! That’s a lot of work on that body! I love it. Great job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
customsrus Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 Wow. That’s a lot of work but it looks like it paid off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 Fantastic work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dino246gt Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 On 8/30/2023 at 3:36 AM, alan barton said: Yes, Dennis, very high satisfaction value. I look at it this way - my complete unopened kits and built kits are possibly going to live on beyond me, but random parts are at risk when the estate sale starts! The more lame, three legged dogs I build, the more I save! I do however sometimes question my sanity when I look at how many mint unstarted kits I still have to build! I'm in the same situation. But I'm finding so much satisfaction doing what you're doing, making something out of............. a sow's ear? LOL So much fun! Cheers!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenmojr Posted September 5, 2023 Share Posted September 5, 2023 Wow...nice fabrication and restoration skills!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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