CC In Scale: Hot Rods & Customs – Cruising Woodward

By
– Posted on September 5, 2024

If you follow the modified car scene, even as tangentially as I do, you’ll probably have heard of the Woodward Dream Cruise, which was on in Michigan a few weeks back.

I was only alerted to this year’s one by a friend who suggested it as a daily theme for a Facebook model group I’m in. A frenzy of models appeared over the following couple of days, and I discovered there seemed to be a limit to the number of posts I could make to one group in a day! I probably wasn’t the only builder who pushed FB’s technical envelope that weekend. Daryl urged me to break it; it broke me instead.

The modified car scene seems to have moved on a lot from the old days of pre-’48 and post-’48 and never the twain shall meet. Nowadays it seems that almost anything mobile is welcome, from stock oldtimers to exotics to kei trucks. In the interest of brevity, I’ll stick to modified American iron here, biased toward the earlier cars.

So, sit back and enjoy a virtual car cruise. As always, those terms and conditions. This isn’t every hot rod or street machine kit out there, just a random selection. Others can build them much better than I do; these aren’t my primary areas of interest, and nowadays I tend more toward a stock style. This is just me being a bit more playful than usual.

I think the first really accurate hot rod kit was AMT’s ’32 Ford roadster, dating from 1961. There had been some rods before that but they were rather generic and toylike. When I bought this kit in the early seventies, the optional engine was a Hemi, but aside from the engine and wheels (which I changed anyway), the rest was standard Ford. Not sure how that would handle, and I’m sure the ’32 diff wouldn’t cope with early Hemi power, but it’s only a model after all. Excuse the headlights, they’re just sitting there for the photo.

AMT made other versions of the ’32: 5-window coupe…

…2 door sedan and phaeton, with different optional engines and wheels. This coupe has a hot flathead. The sedan and phaeton offered a six-carb Ford 427; more of a drag engine than street, but it certainly looks impressive, though dual quads would probably work better.

This is a ‘26 Model T Ford sedan, with a 289 and Jaguar suspension. It’s an old Revell hot rod kit patterned on a real car built by John Buttera in the seventies. This is the colour the kit was molded in, just clear-coated. Different. Revell did a series of kits using this chassis.

Another Ford, this ’29 Model A roadster pickup is a sixties Monogram kit showing the older approach; largely stock suspension design with a modern V8 showing plenty of sparkle, more than AMT gave you. It’s all about the visuals.

This is an old MPC kit also from the sixties, with what appears to be an airbag suspension and a dual-quad small-block Chevy for power. Molded in black, which is never my favourite colour, but dark blue covered it and still showed off all the sparkle.

We have to have a deuce coupe on our cruise. This one’s a Revell kit from the nineties, beautifully detailed. Amazing to think back in those days Ford had the 3-window and 5-window coupe styles, quite different visually, yet seemed to sell plenty of both. This has also given rise to a variety of body styles I haven’t built.

A nineties AMT kit, also with small-block Chevy power. Long story here; they started in the seventies with a ’34 3-window coupe and added a sedan later which were panned for body inaccuracies. Finally they tooled up this accurate 5-window coupe body in the nineties to go with the existing good chassis. Building this made me aware of how different the American and Australian bodies were; ours has a higher roofline like the ’32, and the moldings under the windows are different.

This one’s a nineties Revell kit also with SBC power, but a more modern chassis setup. I knew someone with a ’38 coupe many years ago, so I painted this ’37 to match his but didn’t swap the engine; his ran on 302 Ford power.

Another version of the Revell kit, this time with a sedan body, here in eighties Ford Jade Green. Also produced as a convertible with trailer.

Of course you can mix and match parts from the various kits, and swap in parts from other kits; nowadays there are aftermarket parts too, but the aftermarket was very much in its infancy then.

This ’39 Chevy is a seventies Monogram kit, with dual-quad big-block Chevy power, and (for some reason) Pontiac snowflake wheels. I swapped out the wheels and engine on the red one above.

They did a sedan delivery too; same chassis but with a blower on the BBC, and different wheels.

This Willys coupe was AMT’s replica of a popular sixties drag car, done when they were at the top of their game, later modified to a street rod. Barely streetable, but it takes all kinds…

Another old MPC kit, probably just meant to represent something typically assembled from oddments with a fibreglass body. This was part of a short-lived ‘Switchers’ series, which enabled you to swap details like induction setup on the finished model. It’s a bit rough and ready, Revell had a better T-bucket kit.

Another nineties AMT tool, here we have a wildly modified sedan delivery body on a custom chassis with LT5 four-cam Corvette power. And interior, for good measure. Weird but cool. Imagine seeing this on the street!

This AMT 1940 Ford dates back to the early sixties, and was built only using the kit parts. Has nailhead Buick power in a stock chassis with most detail molded in. Or you could build the coupe stock with the flathead V8.

This 1941 Plymouth custom coupe is a version of an AMT kit that dates from around 1980. They weren’t at their best then. Some of the details are a bit odd; the engine’s ostensibly a 360 Mopar but looks a bit off, and it has wheels patterned on those from the Chrysler Atlantic concept car. The stock version is more convincing.

A Revell kit from (about 2000), this represents a chopped ’48 Ford coupe with a custom grille and lights. The kit helpfully offered several alternatives for each, and had optional panels for that fade-away fender look. I wanted a different look from the ones I’d seen built, so I went with a dark Mica blue.

What, you thought I’d show a knockout lede photo and not comment on it? This is the AMT ’32 Phantom Vickie kit from 1999, based on an actual rod but slightly modified both in body and chassis for legal reasons. At least so I’ve heard from industry insiders; I forget the actual details. Built stock from the box and painted plain Mica Red with a cream interior, without the graphics. I usually prefer a clean look.

There are other kits of this genre; either they don’t appeal to me, I haven’t built them yet, or I’ve only built them stock.

And we’ve only reached 1948! Might have to continue this one next time. Across 49th street, to pinch a title from a Pat Ganahl column. See you then.