American Graffiti ‘32 Ford Coupé

[Twokidsnosleep]

Hey
Remeber me? I used to do models as a hobby
It is Mother’s Day and wife is out with son’s girlfriend mom and I am convalescing alone at home. This box jumped out of my closet!
If you have not seen this movie, do so. Very young Harrison Ford, Ron Howard and many others.







The kit I have:

[Twokidsnosleep]

So, as Matthew pointed out, I never just make it out of box.
Starts with modifying and chopping stuff up to lower the roofline
The top has 3mm taken off the struts to lower or chop the roof down…it looks so much better than the box stock
I just used Tamiya tape cut 2mm wide, put it around mid roof level and made the saw kerfs on all cuts



Then the bottom cut off fully



Then the top cuts completed



Dry test fit



Glued up

[digger303]

Looks cooler for sure, but now your going to have to make all new windows. Is that a issue ?

[Twokidsnosleep]

Looks cooler for sure, but now your going to have to make all new windows. Is that a issue ?

Yep
All the windows have to be modified
But I knew that going in

[aur0ra145]

George Harrison and George Lucas first film together if I recall right. Same era as Fandango. Great film!

[Stokesy44]

Looks cooler for sure, but now your going to have to make all new windows. Is that a issue ?

Yep
All the windows have to be modified
But I knew that going in

Does a bear s*** in the woods?

[Stokesy44]

Good to see you getting your teeth into something funky!

Its a cool difference with the rood being lowered, makes it look more hot roddy.

American Graffiti - directed by George Lucas. The film was a commercial success, just enough to allow George to start work on a his little space opera...

[cor]

Nice project. Hope the knee issue is resolved soon

[Twokidsnosleep]

Nice project. Hope the knee issue is resolved soon

June 16th is my day if my heart and body don’t fall apart by then…stupid body

Can you believe this car is a Ford with a Chevy engine??!!
So now I need to source or print out a ‘66 era 327 Chevy….Nova kits exist but more $ to spend

[digger303]

Nice project. Hope the knee issue is resolved soon

June 16th is my day if my heart and body don’t fall apart by then…stupid body

Can you believe this car is a Ford with a Chevy engine??!!
So now I need to source or print out a ‘66 era 327 Chevy….Nova kits exist but more $ to spend

In 69 GMH Aust invented the 308 It would have made that Ford a really fast rod.

[Stokesy44]

Nice project. Hope the knee issue is resolved soon

June 16th is my day if my heart and body don’t fall apart by then…stupid body

Can you believe this car is a Ford with a Chevy engine??!!
So now I need to source or print out a ‘66 era 327 Chevy….Nova kits exist but more $ to spend

"The path of my life is strewn with cowpats from the devil's own satanic herd" - Blackadder.

You don't make it easy do you. Great to see you entertaining with another classic thread.

[Twokidsnosleep]

I ordered a 1966 Chevy Nova pro stock kit to donate wider tires and the Chevy engine for this build
Arrives in June
I have a lazy Canada post mailman who won’t bring parcels up into my office, just redirects to the inconvenient pick up site and leaves a notice in the letter cubby hole.
Thanks pal

[Twokidsnosleep]

Nova kit coming for engine and tires


Front windscreen shade cut off…though I liked it on

[Stokesy44]

That's a nice clean cut.

[MrBowcat]

Are you going with the screen accurate colour "Sort of a cross between piss yellow and puke green"?

[Twokidsnosleep]

Are you going with the screen accurate colour "Sort of a cross between piss yellow and puke green"?

I was looking at that. I think I go Tamiya flat yellow with clear coat

[Twokidsnosleep]

I cut the front windscreen shade off and will make a new flush frame for a shortened window






If you think only plane and tank builders are rivet counters, I have a guy flipping, passive aggressively, at me about the 30 vs 32 body use
Apparently some are VERY attached to this car though haven’t built it and the two cars are so different and they would be more accurate in their (nonexistent ) build etc etc etc
I don’t like the just style of criticism and he would have been on thin ice here …but I am a mere ignorant peon on mcm

Maybe not exact, but pretty damn close. I think a true hot rodder would use what he could get his hands on

[Twokidsnosleep]

As per usual, I begin to dive deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole for the build.
I found a really interesting article on a replica 1:1 build. It talks about the car and George Lucas as well.

https://www.hagerty.com/media/entertain ... raffiti-3/



A wonderful painting of the drive in era

[Twokidsnosleep]

Some cartoons of the race in the film



A model car build like I want mine to finish out like

[Twokidsnosleep]

Trying out the fit of frame, floor pan, door cards and body

[Twokidsnosleep]

Wow I am nose deep diving into this car’s rabbit hole.
A good article describing the history and build of the movie car

https://kipsamericangraffiti.blogspot.c ... alley.html

I need to have a stl for the man-a-fre intake and the Rochester carbs

Found the carbs:
https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/1- ... -file-pack

Need this intake manifold


To make it like this

[Stokesy44]

I have no idea what I am looking at but it looks way cool.

That's the kind of ignorance you can be proud of!!

I know what you mean about nose diving into a kit and losing yourself in loads of background info. Its a great part of the hobby. I will feel sorry for the forum if I build a Hurricane again. I may have to indulge myself and set that keyboard burning

[Garion77]

That's a nice project !! Nice following it.
Never saw the film and it's on my watch list since college !
What were you health issues ? if you don't mind me asking. I haven't been on the forum much in the last half year.

Take care !

[Twokidsnosleep]

That's a nice project !! Nice following it.
Never saw the film and it's on my watch list since college !
What were you health issues ? if you don't mind me asking. I haven't been on the forum much in the last half year.

Take care !

Bonjour!
I have a torn meniscus in my L knee needing surgery…June 16
In the work up, I have an atrial fibrillation apparently

[Twokidsnosleep]

Picking away at bits: steering wheel mods and headlights and wheel de-chromed in Gel oven cleaner

[Twokidsnosleep]

Rough out from the front window.
Chopped the frame and trimmed the kit glass 2mm each side

Cut the frame bottom from the top


Test fitting glass behind to determine how much clear plastic to trim. Top of frame is cemented so have a stable reference


Fit with out glass. Cut a good 2mm off each vertical side of the frame


Fit with it all together


Lots to clean up, but this should work

[Stokesy44]

Nicely done.

Steering wheel looks classy too.

[MrBowcat]

If you think only plane and tank builders are rivet counters, I have a guy flipping, passive aggressively, at me about the 30 vs 32 body use
Apparently some are VERY attached to this car though haven’t built it and the two cars are so different and they would be more accurate in their (nonexistent ) build etc etc etc
I don’t like the just style of criticism and he would have been on thin ice here …but I am a mere ignorant peon on mcm

I find a good response to this kind of behaviour is "I really don't care, I'm not that sad". Tends to shut most rivet counters up.

[cor]

Rivet counters...

This is a cool project, lots of off the instructions happening.

[Kevthemodeller]

Love the film, especially the open sequence. Toad arrives on his scooter in the background and crashes into the vending machine, he wasn't supposed to do that, he buggered up the twist clutch/throttle. They left it in it's priceless

[Twokidsnosleep]

Cheers for looking in and commenting guys

In other insane news, I cut open the trunk






I lined the interior of the trunk opening with styrene so the lid has a positive seat and resting point…ála A4Garage’s technique from YouTube. Not sure how I will do the hinge yet

[Stokesy44]

Nice work, good to see the transformation in all the pics and chit chat.

[Stokesy44]

Love the film, especially the open sequence. Toad arrives on his scooter in the background and crashes into the vending machine, he wasn't supposed to do that, he buggered up the twist clutch/throttle. They left it in it's priceless

Lucas leaving a mistake in one of his films? No way!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Love the film, especially the open sequence. Toad arrives on his scooter in the background and crashes into the vending machine, he wasn't supposed to do that, he buggered up the twist clutch/throttle. They left it in it's priceless

Lucas leaving a mistake in one of his films? No way!

[Kevthemodeller]

Skip forward to 1.20

[Stokesy44]

Skip forward to 1.20

Haha, he's got a bright future in the Imperial forces!!

[Kevthemodeller]

Skip forward to 1.20

Haha, he's got a bright future in the Imperial forces!!

[MrBowcat]

Damn, that film came out the same year I did (to clarify, I was born in '73, I didn't come out as gay )

[Twokidsnosleep]

Damn, that film came out the same year I did (to clarify, I was born in '73, I didn't come out as gay )

In a world so crazy you have to cover your azz

[Stokesy44]

Damn, that film came out the same year I did (to clarify, I was born in '73, I didn't come out as gay )

We'd still love you, brother!

[Twokidsnosleep]

So I gotta make some hinges for the trunkski
Like this



And these


Fired up the soldering and made these

[cor]

Very nice

[Twokidsnosleep]

Very nice

Thanks

Glued in and drying

[Stokesy44]

Nice work

It never entered my mind a soldering iron would be part of this hobby. Great stuff.

I bet it fits well too. The usual Scott quality

[Twokidsnosleep]

Nice work

It never entered my mind a soldering iron would be part of this hobby. Great stuff.

I bet it fits well too. The usual Scott quality

Yes soldering is quite a good addition to modeller’s skill set

[Twokidsnosleep]

So next project in this build is the vent in front of the windshield
Reference pics




So I cut out the rectangle and sanded the sides. Had to fill in a couple errant razor saw scratches too




Playing with the front grill/radiator

[MrBowcat]

Neat work on the boot lid.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Vent rough made







New model kit to hunt down

[Twokidsnosleep]

More test fits and a little Bare Metal Foil on the firewall

[barryf1fan]