Something old, something new; something borrowed, something blue. Part 1 - The Allard J2: by Mike Sells
The ancient wedding doggerel above is most appropriate to the batch of model cars I'm going to be writing about; I hope you like them. All are very early ‘50’s cars; one is Italian, one English, one German and one American. Two are new bodies on older static chassis, one chassis is completely scratch built; two are blue, two use American V-8 engines, two were intended as comfortable touring cars, three of them were very successful racers in their time and all have become extremely desirable classics today. Here is the first one:
1950/51 Allard J2X (Something blue)
Allards were the Cobras of their day: an English chassis and body fitted with a large American V8 engine. In England, the engines were nearly always Ford flathead V8’s but they were shipped to America with empty engine bays to be filled with Chrysler, Cadillac or Mercury engines. The suspension was a little crude: the “independent front suspension” was a standard Ford beam axle cut in half with each half bolted to the chassis at the inner end. Coil springs, shocks and a radius arm allowed for individual vertical travel. Light, quick and fast, they were best suited to fast, wide open circuits: the handling and brakes were not really up to short twisty courses. The J2 and J2X were the out and out sports racing Allards; built in two separate series, they won more than their share of races in the early ‘50’s and command high prices today as vintage racers.
This
resin body was mastered and cast by Greg
Petrolatti and I was very impressed
when it arrived: it captures the look of the J2 very well. As all Allards
were hand-made, they differ somewhat in detail. I made two changes to
the body. First, I replaced the cowl panel with the same parts from the
ancient Revell MGTD; I thought the “humps” on the original
were a little low and to the outside. The Revell humps are closer together
and more upright and the cowl fit the Allard body very well. The MG dash
was sanded flat and the lower edge re-shaped to match Allard reference
photos before it was glued to the resin body. I also rounded the tail
off a little more just because it looked better to me.
The static chassis was converted from a Pyro/Lindberg ’34 Plymouth. The frame side rails were separated from the floor and the X member; a new transmission mount/frame cross member was added in the center of the chassis. The frame rails were shortened and narrowed at the rear to be parallel at the rear suspension and a new floor glued on top to hold everything together. The front axle is from the 1/35 Tuco Ford AA truck kit modified to accept coil springs and lengthened 1/8”; the rear axle is a parts box piece fit with coil springs, a DeDion tube, in-board brakes and radius rods. Finding some excellent restoration photos of an Allard chassis on the Internet, I got a little carried away adding front and rear suspension details and the rather complicated firewall/cowl structure. Things were going so well I couldn’t stop!
I made a survey of static engine parts available in 1/32 scale that might suit this car and here’s what I think. The Revell “Hot Rod” flathead has some nice finned heads but it’s a very large unit with a strange clutch housing; it needs quite a bit of detail work, including intake and exhaust manifolds, fan belt and carburetors. The 1/35 Tamiya “Gun Carriage” kit has an excellent standard Ford flathead engine but it’s little small for this use. There might actually be some 1/25 scale flathead engines that would be suitable but I don’t have any on hand to look at. I really thought that the re-issued Revell 1950’s Lincoln, Cadillac and Chrysler kit engines would fit the Allard but the multipart construction and inadequate detail make them poor choices. However, the current AMT Ala’ Kart kit has a small-for-1/25 scale Chrysler engine with several beautiful induction setups and that’s the engine used here. The block was modified to be narrower and shorter: the original Ala’ Kart parts were a little too tall. The pulley system was shortened so the generator would fit inside the body.
Dash
gauges are decals with surrounds cut from aluminum tubing. I covered the
dash with flat aluminum from bare metal foil but couldn’t figure
out how to do engine turning on it. The seat is a styrene sheet construction
as I couldn’t find anything else to use. Wheels are by NINCO but
I replaced the tires with Carrera D Jaguar rubber: they are about the
same diameter but are a little narrower and have more realistic tread.
The body was finished like any other; the Smooth-on resin Greg uses sands
and paints very well. The hood was cut from the body and a 0.020”
styrene strip glued inside the opening to reduce the gap. The portholes
disappeared during the process so they were replaced with very narrow
rings cut from aluminum tubing “squashed” to the right oval
shape glued to the body after final painting: a wasted effort as I had
to use bare metal foil on the outer edges anyway. The grille and rear
fender plates behind the doors are also covered with bare metal chrome
foil.
The
racers are very starkly finished but the road cars are often a little
fancier: two spares (one on each side of the cowl), whitewall tires and
a luggage rack on the tail are frequent additions. I tried every kit I
have on hand for windscreens, finally settling for Matchbox Aston Martin
Ulster pieces but I’ve seen photos of at least one car with an ugly
full-width screen. 
This
model is a dual-purpose touring/vintage rally car, not a dedicated vintage
racer, so it carries a single spare tire, full-length exhaust with mufflers
and license plates. The headlight screens are Detail Master etched speaker
grilles. Krylon’s “Short Cut” Ocean Blue was chosen
to highlight the chassis and body detailing; the engine is light grey
with various metallic colors for the intake, exhaust and carburetion.
One
problem cropped up during construction: not, I hasten to add, with the
body but simply because of the construction of the Allard itself. The
front fenders as provided look great but the location and fastening is
left to the builder. I used 1/32” brass rod drilled into the top
and back of the fender casting and then tried to fit 
the
assembly
to the body after painting. The chassis
and wheels have to be far enough along 
to
so you can get the correct relationship: the fenders are quite high over
the tires. It took several tries before I was satisfied
with the appearance so be aware of this; there are several “extra”
holes in the body behind the fenders! I don’t have a suggestion
on how to make it easier. Despite this, I think the Allard builds up very
well and it would certainly make a glorious slot car. Greg provides instruction
for converting the Scalextric Caterham chassis.
I made a mistake with this one in trying to keep the exposed hood hinges while making the hood operate: I should have either made the hood a separate lift-off piece or removed the exposed hinges. The hood as built does not open far enough to show off the engine; not a huge problem because the body lifts off anyway but not very satisfying either. I haven’t decided if I’ll try to improve the situation or leave well enough alone.
Would you believe it that this Allard J2 is Greg Petrolati's first major scratch built project! What a result. Here are some pictures of Greg's "work in progress" as well as the final result as a slot car. Superb!
The real deal (pictures taken at the 2003 Goodwood Festival of Speed).
and "Eight Ball" at Watkins Glen in the early fifties
