Alcuni echi della passione per gli hot-rod: John Rybicki e una Ford 34 di ERTL

Ford Deuce Hot-Rod di Monogram, scala 1:24

Avere a che fare con un'abbastanza ampia collezione di vecchi kit montati in plastica (per lo più americani) mi ha inevitabilmente portato a contatto con realtà che di solito non frequento. E questo non è stato certo un male. Troppo spesso si tende a chiudersi dentro la propria nicchia, che spesso è a sua volta una nicchia della nicchia, finendo per perdere di vista il senso generale di quello che alla fine dovrebbe restare un hobby. In questo senso, alcuni personaggi che ho avuto la fortuna di conoscere, come il nostro Alberto Sarti di Prato, interpretano al meglio un certo eclettismo di interessi (e di conseguenza, di tecniche) che sovente va perduto annegando magari in troppe discussioni sterili. All'opposto sta la concretezza di fondo di molti di coloro che si occupano di questi vecchi kit in plastica. Negli Stati Uniti sono ancora a migliaia, testimonianza ancora molto vitale di un'attività che per almeno un paio di decenni ha costituito le fondamenta dell'automodellismo, non solo laggiù ma anche qui da noi.
Ecco una storia, raccontatami fra ieri e oggi da un collezionista che proprio di recente aveva acquistato un paio di questi modelli; non so come, ma il discorso è caduto sugli Hot-rod, forse ispirato da un altro modello messo di recente in vendita, una Ford Deuce di Monogram. Un pezzo piuttosto ben fatto, praticamente integro, realizzato secondo una delle molte opzioni che kit di questo genere permettevano di ottenere (nota a latere, nel pieno della mania "custom" non erano rare le scatole di montaggio che offrivano la possibilità di montarsi la vettura sia in configurazione normale, sia in versione modificata, con una particolare predilezione per le Hot-rod derivate da modelli anni '30-40).
Ecco il contributo di John Rybicki (Colorado), in pieno tema Hot-rod. Spero che il discorso possa essere approfondito presto, con altre foto e altre notizie.
Intanto buona lettura.

BACKGROUND :
My best friend Jerry Poniatowski and I met in 1957.  He is like a brother to me. We went to the same junior high and high school together and have been involved in the same automotive pursuits for over 50 years. In high school, he drove a 1947 Ford Coupe and I drove a 1940 Chevrolet Coupe. We have always been into hot rodding and restoration of classic cars and Corvettes.  Both of us graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Jerry, who is now retired was a high school Spanish teacher. I am still working.  I'm a mechanical engineer.  I work for a company called United Launch Alliance, a company formed from Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Space Systems.  We design, build and launch Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, putting into orbit commercial and classified payloads for commercial customers, NASA and the National Reconnaissance Office.  I am a propulsion consultant, working cryogenic rocket engines for classified missions.  The company is located here in Centennial, Colorado, but all manufacturing is done in Decatur, Alabama.  If you Google United Launch Alliance, you can get information on the company.

Regardless of our different career pursuits, we have always had an automotive passion, having grown up together in Detroit.  As an engineering intern, I worked at the General Motors Technical Center in the Fisher Body design studio and Chevrolet Engineering.  As a student, I designed the first car seat for kids, called the "Child-Infant Restraint System," a fancy word for a car seat. I have worked in an engineering capacity for Chrysler, GM and Ford Motor companies.

Jerry's current street rod is a 1937 Ford Slant Back Sedan, running a small block Chevy and drive trains.  He did all of the construction work on it himself, engine installation, paint and upholstery.  He is the most talented person I've ever known. He scratch builds American Flyer train engines and rolling stock that were never made before, including all of the electronics, motors and lighting and has won numerous national awards.  American Flyer electric trains are called "S" gauge and are Hot Wheels Scale, or 1/64th scale. I was and still am into Lionel trains, which are 1/43rd scale. Both Jerry and I have extensive toy train collections and are involved in the major toy train clubs in the United States, but our main passion is cars.

We started to build models in 1957.  Originally, we were into custom car models, but shortly branched into building hot rod models in 1/24th scale.  We pioneered hinged opening doors, hoods and trunks, working steering and sprung suspensions and working head lights using grain of wheat light bulbs, long before any company provided such features.  Back in the day, we won every major national model car competition sponsored by Revell and AMT.  From pictures I took at the Detroit Autorama in 1958, Jerry scratch built Ed Roth's Beatnik Bandit, two years before AMT came out with the model.  Most of Jerry's models from back in the day, survive to this day. I scratch built Bill Cushenberry's custom 1940 Ford Coupe, called the El Matador.  If you Google these cars, you will see what they look like, if you are not familiar with them.

My friend Roy grew up in the Chicago area.  He was a manufacturers representative for company I was doing some engineering development work with. His father had a Jaguar XK-140 that was powered by a 1953 Cadillac V-8. It was called a Jag-I-Lac. Roy raced it at Meadowdale Speedway against Augie Pabst who drove a Corvette powered SCARAB, built by Lance Reventlow.  Two years ago, I built that model for him in 1/18th scale, using a number of donor cars.

I had been thinking of building Roy's high school car, a 1934 Ford three window coupe that was powered by a 1957 Corvette motor and dual four barrel carburetors. Jerry and I collaborated on it and he agreed we should build it, since no model company has built an unchopped top 34 three window coupe.  Jerry works part time at the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.  He has access for archival photographs, so that's where we obtained pictures that we scaled down for the correct height of the stock 34 Ford three window top.  I will send you a digital of the picture we used for dimensions and proper contouring of the roof.

I purchased a number of ERTL 34 Ford hot rod bodies on Ebay to be used as donor parts cars.  I also bought a full fendered ERTL 34 Ford hot rod model for the fenders, since Roy's car appeared to be completely stock on the outside, but was Corvette powered.  His Ford had a number of different engines in it and tire/wheel combinations.  He wanted it built in its final configuration.  Roy has always been a "car guy". Presently, he has a 40 Ford Coupe street rod and is building a 1951 Ford pickup on a Ford Explorer 4 wheel drive frame.

Jerry completed all of the metal work and primed the model and hand carried it to me from his home in Wayne, Michigan last weekend. My job is to do all the finish detailing, build the engine and do the final painting in gloss black lacquer.  I hope to get started on that phase of the project in the next few days, but work travel always takes too much time away from my hobby interests.

I have restored classic cars and Corvettes. At one time I had a collection of about 17 cars. At this time in storage in Illinois, where my wife and I formerly lived; in my olde car shop are : a 62 Corvette, 327/340 horse restored car, a 41 Buick Sedanette with 37,000 original miles on it, two Model T Fords, a 1920 coupe and 1923 four door sedan, a 100 point restoration of a 1928 REO Flying Cloud rumble seat coupe (REO stands for Ransom Eli Olds) who was Oldsmobile before he left GM and started his own company, a 1957 Chevrolet and a 1937 Ford four door sedan, both of which need to be restored.

Here are some pictures describing the process to unchop a top. As I mentioned, we are trying to duplicate my friends high school 1934 Ford hot rod from archival photographs taken in 1956. We started with two ERTL 34 Ford three window coupe bodies with chopped tops. Two models were needed.  No one has ever made an unchopped 34 Ford three window coupe in 1:18th scale.  The models sold have all been chopped.

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Using pie cuts and other metal bending techniques and two tops, we obtained the correct top height and profile and then filled the cuts in with JB Weld, an epoxy filler.  To get unchopped doors, the donor model's doors were cut and pinned and a copper wire used to outline the door's window, epoxied in place for structural rigidity.  You can see the rough filing marks that were later filled in with automotive primer surfacer, a very thick lacquer primer.

A new unchopped windshield frame was made by bending and soldering and polishing two pieces of brass "N" Gauge model train track.  The finished in primer model is shown in the next picture with grille installed, but no windshield frame.  All of the body work is flawless.  Archive photos of a 34 Ford from the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village was scaled to get the right proportions and top contour.  The separate deck lid that maybe ERTL thought to use as a rumble seat was rotated 180 degrees and made to open as a trunk.  The tires and wheels are from ERTL's 1940 Ford 1:18th scale model car, since those were the tires and wheels Roy had on his car in its final configuration.

The early hot rod ran a small block Chevrolet engine with two four barrel carburetors, which I have built and wired for detail. It will be installed shortly.  The hot rod was virtually a stock looking 34 Ford on the outside, so all the door handles and other trim will be installed, along with bumpers.  The donor model had a dropped front axle.  We had to raise the front wheels to stock height.

In this last picture, 2 mm plastic stock was heated and bent for the frame outline of the fabric top insert. It will be precision masked and painted flat black after I paint the model in a gloss black color.