My Builds of the Tom Daniels designed "true" hot rods kits

[Mr. Metallic]

Edit- I changed the title of this thread because I figured it will be easier to just feature all of the builds I have planned in this series all in one thread since anyone that follows along with it will probably be interested in all the subjects I plan to tackle. I put true in quotes in the title because these kits are the ones (Son Of Ford/SweeTee/ Boss A Bone) with design updates by TD , but are based on the pre-existing Monogram tools in their Hot Rod only line (Little T/Little Deuce/Woody Wagon/Blue Beetle) meaning the kits never included a stock version like the 34 Ford/Model A Coupe/Model A  phaeton and others did).

TD partnered with Monogram to produce a ton of kits, but they are mostly show rods, so that's why I'm making the distinction. 

 

Now, lets get started:

I have been in an extended build slump for the better part of the last 5 years, with little output since then, but especially the last 8 months. I had actual cobwebs all over my bench. The ideas are always churnning away in the brain but the desire and/or time just hasn't been there. I was able to wrap up the last of my outdoor projects for this year so I was able to carve out a little time over the weekend in my hobby room. First order of business was to clean off the bench. Of course, i'm still buying things, so first up was the pile of purchases to sort through and put away. it was like Christmas. All the old projects on my benches were just making me sad, so I needed a clean slate. That meant carefully gathering all the scattered parts for various projects of my one bench and putting them away. Once that was done and a little deep cleaning I was starting to feel better.  Then I needed a project to work on. Something pretty straightforward and satisfying was what I needed. Not kitbashing, scratchbuilding or heavy detailing. The perfect kit in my mind ended up being this kit... Monograms SweeTee.

Pay no attention to the second bench. This is what they both looked like before Operation Clean Slate

For those of you not familiar with this kit it is the Little T tooling, with a sprinkling of Tom Daniel flavor to update it in 1970. The parts in this kit changed from the Little T are the wheel and tires, exhaust headers and the replacement of the 6 carb setup with a blower. Bob Spedding @TooOld did a great buildup of this kit here on MCM a few years ago, and it inspired me to do my own version. The plan is to do it mostly box stock with paint detailing, with a couple simple upgrades (most notably a pre-wired magneto from Morgan Automotive Details). I'm thinking about adding a thin "whitewall" to the slicks as was the style of the time in either blue or red. Haven't had much success using my Gelly Roll pen yet, but I'm going to do some more practice to see if I can make it happen. 

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by Mr. Metallic
content clarification

[redscampi]

It will be fun to watch a vintage kit go together. I wonder if you could paint the stripe on the wheels/tires with drill clamped in a vise and using a thin paint marker, or maybe even pinstripe paint with an appropriate brush? 

[atomicholiday]

Never seen this kit before,  but it looks really cool.   

I was in a long slump up to about a year ago.   Cleaned my bench of all the clutter,  did some decorating,  and now I can't get enough time there.   I still have periods when I can't get into the groove,  but they're much shorter now.   

Good luck with your build,  and stick with it!

[Mr. Metallic]

Actual progress, and it feels so good. ?

Drilled out the ends of the exhaust headers. Will be touched up with black and Molotow chrome. I also stripped the chrome off a couple parts, and dug up a spare molded in white seat to use instead of the molded in black kit piece. This is to aid the paint process, rather than trying to get yellow to successfully cover black plastic which would probably require several coats to reach full opacity, each coat risking a paint mishap on a rare part.

I also secured a couple Gelly Roll gel pens to attempt the thin whitewall on the slicks, but so far the results are subpar. I used a circle template to get a consistent circle, but the coverage of the white is not great, and the blue and red are too dark to really show up on the black tire. Wish someone made some precut vinyl ones, or that Round2 offered some bigger slicks with the pad printed narrow white wall like the one in their awesome Gasser wheel/tire pack, just with slightly bigger slicks.

Anyway, here's the pic. Next step is to blend up a good paint match for the Monogram plastic.

[Bullybeef]

Looks like a pretty neat build. I’ll follow along 

[Kennyboy]

Hey Craig. For the whitewalls I have used white craft paint thinned and airbrushed.  Apple Barrel from Michael's or Walmart. Good coverage and stays on tires pretty darn good.I also had done a set of blue stripe tires for a 34 Ford build with the above craft paint thinned slightly and run into the stripe "slot". Let it dry and wipe carefully with a qtip and water.

Edited November 3, 2023 by Kennyboy

[Khils]

On 11/1/2023 at 6:00 AM, Mr. Metallic said:

Actual progress, and it feels so good. ?

Excellent choice for your build!! (I have a SweeTee as well).... have another project in mind, for my rebound.

In a slump of my own.... gonna take your lead & try that deep clean slate and see if I can get any kinda results.

  ?

[Kennyboy]

These are from this kit. 

[Zippi]

I'll bet it does feel good getting back to the bench.  Nice little Street Rod to get back into the swing of things with.  I'll be watching this build.  

[Vettegasser]

First model kit I ever had. Would love to find one now  Be watching this. 

[Mr. Metallic]

Progress.

I was kind of in a little bit of a holding pattern for a couple reasons, one of which was overcome last night. I needed to find/mix some paint to match the color of the plastic so I could get the seat painted and also use it to detail paint a few things. Well, I was able to stop by my LHS and grab a bottle of Tamiya orange and yellow and get to mixing. It took a few tries, but I think I nailed it. I checked this morning after I let it fully dry overnight and the final attempt is almost imperceptible against the plastic color. Here is the parts tree with my 3rd, 4th and 5th mixes. In real life the differences between these attempts are more obvious, but I feel attempt 5 just about nails it.

I grabbed a spare seat from a glue bombed Little T that I parted out. Like I explained earlier, this was done so I could more closely match the box art by painting the seat, and trying to paint yellow over black plastic isn't any fun. So, I had to remove the chunks of the interior tub that came with the seats so it would sit in the new tub where it belonged.

I also grabbed a steering wheel from a Monogram 32 Ford because I felt it was more period appropriate to what a builder in 1970 would have put in this rather than the wheel that came in the kit. Got it mounted to the kit supplied column. On the fence about whether to add a turn signal lever or not. In real life that would just be something for the driver to hit their knee on in this tight passenger compartment.

A feature that I have been thinking about for awhile is that the Little T and SweeTee come with a short pickup box, a turtle deck and a big cylindrical fuel tank. I really like the look of the turtle deck and pickup bed, so rather than having to pick which one to use I decided to devise a way to switch them out at will. Thanks to some small rare earth magnets this is a possibility. Got the turtle deck done first.

 

The other issue that has me treading water is that I may have found a solution to my thin-whitewall-slick issue. Someone offered to design and print me a set that meet my specs. Hope to have them in my hands by the end of the week. So, I can keep working on other things for now, but the rear suspension fitment is paused because I may need to modify the ride height once I get the tires. We'll see. 

[TooOld]

Great start Craig !  Good to hear you got the Blue Lines figured out .  Switching the seats is a very smart move. . . when I painted mine it took 3 or 4 coats of white to cover the black then I painted the yellow . . . a real pain !

[bobthehobbyguy]

Coming along nicely. I like the idea of using magnets for changing the pickup box and the turtle deck.

[Mr. Metallic]

1 hour ago, TooOld said:

Great start Craig !  Good to hear you got the Blue Lines figured out .  Switching the seats is a very smart move. . . when I painted mine it took 3 or 4 coats of white to cover the black then I painted the yellow . . . a real pain !

Thank you, I seem to recall you raising that as an issue when you were building yours, and that's why I revisited your posts before I embarked on mine. Thanks for all your help and advice behind the scenes as well.

[Mr. Metallic]

Believe it or not there is progress to report, just not a lot of fun to take pictures of. Parts prep and detail painting were the weekend focus, plus still waiting for the potential ne rear tires to arrive. Thanks to those who have offered their encouragement. Might take some pics tonight if I get to the bench. 

[Bullybeef]

I hear ya on that Craig, I’m gonna try some test shots of primer this afternoon, the garage is my only place to shoot now, it’s holding a balmy 16c in there now, outside temp is 5c. Not ideal but we will see how it goes. 
I miss my paint booth 

[Mr. Metallic]

Received the custom printed replacement slicks in the mail yesterday. Thank you to Dean Maury for designing them and Rick Gondeck for printing them. They are such a big improvement over the kit tires kinda hoping I can convince them to do a pair of tires to replace the fronts now. Now to find a good spray paint for them. 

 

And of course I couldn't help but mock them up. Please note there are no suspension parts present here. These are just the tires standing next to the body.

[NOBLNG]

4 hours ago, Mr. Metallic said:

I like the looks of that already! ?

[Mr. Metallic]

Someone pointed out to me offline that there is no lug nut detail on these wheels. My immediate thought was that I could just use a spinner and turn them into knockoff, so I swiped a set from a Revell 29 Model A. Drilled a small dimple in the backside so it would sit over that molded detail, but looking at the big pictures on my monitor this morning Monogram actually added a center nut. But I still like the look of the knock off. The spokes of the wheel will be painted with magnesium, so that will really make the knockoff stand out. The only thing holding me back is it too much of a change from the box art?

 

[Bullybeef]

1 hour ago, Mr. Metallic said:

Someone pointed out to me offline that there is no lug nut detail on these wheels. My immediate thought was that I could just use a spinner and turn them into knockoff, so I swiped a set from a Revell 29 Model A. Drilled a small dimple in the backside so it would sit over that molded detail, but looking at the big pictures on my monitor this morning Monogram actually added a center nut. But I still like the look of the knock off. The spokes of the wheel will be painted with magnesium, so that will really make the knockoff stand out. The only thing holding me back is it too much of a change from the box art?

 

Well if you clock them about three minutes ahead they will line up with the spokes and aside from a colour difference no one would be the wiser. 
My .02 c Canadian says keep ‘em! 

[roadkill]

Hey man, nice builds I'll be keeping an eye on these, also I noticed you have glass on you work bench, I was wondering if you could tell me what it's like to work on glass as I'm thinking about going that way, thanks.

 

Kind regards

Michael (aka road kill)

[Mr. Metallic]

19 hours ago, roadkill said:

Hey man, nice builds I'll be keeping an eye on these, also I noticed you have glass on you work bench, I was wondering if you could tell me what it's like to work on glass as I'm thinking about going that way, thanks.

 

Kind regards

Michael (aka road kill)

I love working on glass. Glue and paint spills can be cleaned up with a razor blade after they dry and it provides and nice flat surface to work on. You can also put reference pictures under there to keep them out of the way. You can also cut on there too, but I prefer my cutting pad for that.

Edited November 16, 2023 by Mr. Metallic

[Mr. Metallic]

Got a few things done during my short stint at the bench last night. Got a bunch of items either painted or touched up with Molotow. Sprayed the 3D slicks with some Duplicolor primer and they look good. It really makes the details pop. Still struggling to find a paint that matches the kit supplied front tires in color and sheen. Also got the interior flocked.

Installed the items in need to secure the pickup bed option to the frame. There may have been better ways to do this, but I'm pretty happy. I drilled holes through the side of the frame near the rear crossmember and inserted and old metal axle from an AMT kit. Should disappear once the suspension is on place. This will give the magnets something to meet up with.

Getting all the magnets placed and secured where I want them was a little tricky, these little suckers are pretty strong. I placed the center magnet and glued it down with super glue. But when I tried to place the outboard magnets they wanted to join the first magnet. So, I held a magnet on the underside of the bed and then put another magnet on top. That actually let me slide the magnet around until it was perfectly positioned. I applied glue, and once that is cured I'll just pull away the magnet on the bottom and should be good to go.

On to modifying the wheels. When Bob Spedding @TooOld built his SweeTee he discovered the wheels looked better with the spokes that are molded on the wheel backs removed. I like the look he achieved, so I'm borrowing his idea. In order to still attach the wheels to the axle I needed to retain the center hub. So I cut that away and glued it to the back of the wheel front.

Then a trimmed away what remained of the spokes from the rim. Original on the left, modified on the right. Subtle, but better.

 

I got the rear wheel sets modified, but when I started working on the front disaster struck. As I was removing the center hub on this very rare wheel, it shattered into 3 pieces. They are clean breaks so I'm hopeful I can get it all glued back together because I'm sure finding a replacement will be very difficult. Fingers crossed.

 

[David G.]

Sometimes a fresh start is just what's needed to get the creativity flowing again.

You've made some excellent progress on some really great ideas.

David G.

[Mr. Metallic]

Things are starting to come together. Had to finish up a couple modifications before I started final assembly, and those involve the stance, now that i have finally decided on rolling stock. 

First up is the front. I devised this trick on another Monogram T build I have going. Most people if they aren't familiar with the kit might not realize where the change was made, put it actually gets you about a 2-3 inch scale drop. I removed the flange molded to the bottom of the grill shell that has the tab for mounting the front spring by making a vertical cut, flush with the front surface of the shell. It's a delicate piece, so take your time. I protected the grill shell with tape. here you can see after the cut.

Then I took the flange and sanded the ends until it fit between the uprights of the shell. Then I glued it in it's new home. Compared to the original shell you can see the drop.

 

The drop in the rear is more subtle, probably only losing 1-2 inches of height. But it's simple to do and worth it. Here is the unmodified assembly.

First thing is to cut the tabs on the bottom of the spring that attach to the axle. Then I removed material from the underside of the crossmember to allow the spring to slide up inside it, and cut small C notches in the frame rails to allow clearance for the spring to move in real life.