Li’l Deuce Coffin started out as an idea that I wondered what the Li’l Coffin would look like without the wild roof. As a show car it is one of my all time favorites. I wanted to try to build something with the same look, but might be drivable.

I sawed off the front half of an AMT 32 Ford and the back half of the Coffin. The first thing I noticed was that the Coffin piece had to be narrowed to mate up with the Deuce. I also fabricated some new rear fenders from a Revell Deuce, mounted backwards. The roof opening was also filled in.

The chassis had to be narrowed too, to fit up inside the body. A long time internet friend who does amazing machine work in aluminum named Bob Dudek supplied the slotted mag wheels. The Buick Nailhead engine is an AMT Riviera part. When I was building the engine I used the kit fan belt and pulley part and an internet friend on a model car list challenged me to make an assembly a little more convincing. All the pulleys are plastic from other assemblies and the belt is a trimmed mylar hair tie. The headers are custom made.

All the floor and interior upholstery are made from papers and cloths from the craft store. The actual floor itself is aluminum roof sashing trimmed to fit. The door hinges are made from aluminum telephone wire. The flamed grille and the polished headlites are aftermarket parts.

The paint is a blend of 3 Duplicolor touch up shades of red, mixed and shot through my airbrush.

This model was at least two years in the making and the mad rush to finish it was for the 2007 Toledo NNL, where it was photographed by Model Cars and Scale Auto magazines.