43 replies to this topic

[Tony Bryan]

Yes, approximately.

The originals are 12mm high, my own casted are 11mm high, but I will lower them accordingly.
I hope to lower the truck about 4 - 5 inches. Is that O-key?
Tony, thank you for your thoughts.

Sergey

Dropping a truck like this 4-5 inches is ok, and really doesn't seem that much, the truck that I am building in 1/16th has been dropped 16 inches
efectively it is 16 inches when parked, but raises 5 inches when driving, so therefore it has a dropped height of 11 inches from standard
The set up is much the same as yours, just a little lower, my theory was to use the peterbilt rear on the KW, but turn the bags and shocks to the outside to give the illusion of a neway rear end, in theory this should work, it is yet to be proven if it will, I will be starting the suspension next week, it still may turn out that new arms may still have to be made and the various other parts to go with it

I like your idea of trimming away, the underside of the arms, and it appears that you have trimmed a little off the axles,

Really it doesn't matter how much you have dropped this truck, it will still look great with the paint that you have chosen, so keep up the good work, I am looking forward to your next update

[Sergey]

Hello, friends.
Here are 379's resin hood and single headlights form Bobby Griffen:

Here I decided to reinforce middle axle, as Italeri's one (see above one) are hollow. I'd rather used some steel rod or tube, but couldn't find suitable one. So AMT's sprue was used for solid axle.

When I had built "Can Do" wrecker, I noticed "Peterbilt" logo on rear axle brackets, which doesn't exist on Italeri's one:

To copy that I used technique recently described by one of the AF-forum members. Here are materials needed:

Take a piece of foil and fix it over the detail to copy:

Using rounded toothpick smoothing the foil down. Very small details (my case) can be picked out with sharp end of toothpick later:

Our mould:

Casting the resin (marked with red circles):

Here are our billets after an hour:

A little sanding from back side and we have a logo. It turned out so thin, that can be glued on curve surface:

Now I'm asking my self: to glue the logo on axle bracket or on air balloon?
Actually the logo is so small (about 3mm whide), that details are hard to see (and hard to reproduce in fact) Even in "Macro" I couldn't focus my camera well.
Feel free to ask questiones.

[mercer01]

The logo should be on the bracket, not the airbag. I've never seen a Peterbilt logo on an airbag as they are usually made by different companies such as Firestone.

[mackinac359]

The airbags used to have the logo on them.

Tim

The logo should be on the bracket, not the airbag. I've never seen a Peterbilt logo on an airbag as they are usually made by different companies such as Firestone.

[Sergey]

Thank you, David & Tim.
Let's continue
I was have to lengthen the cardan shaft. The best thing found was brass tube 4mm.

There is original cardan shaft in the middle and modifided one below.

There is front half of cardan in the middle and rear half - below. As the shaft was lengthen and Angle of slope changed, I was have to make a crosspiece movable to simplify the assembling.



Tell me guys: should I repeat this thing with the rest 4 crosspieces or should I leave them as is?
It is great feature, but time consuming.

Edited by Sergey, 16 October 2010 - 11:46 PM.

[ewaskew]

Sergey
That truck is very nice and the way you show the photos it's like a
how to forum on building parts please keep us up dated.
Thank you
Earl

[clayton]

Thank you, David & Tim.
Let's continue
I was have to lengthen the cardan shaft. The best thing found was brass tube 4mm.

There is original cardan shaft in the middle and modifided one below.

There is front half of cardan in the middle and rear half - below. As the shaft was lengthen and Angle of slope changed, I was have to make a crosspiece movable to simplify the assembling.



Tell me guys: should I repeat this thing with the rest 4 crosspieces or should I leave them as is?
It is great feature, but time consuming.

You make the drive line/shaft the way I do using tubing and cutting the kit shaft in half. The u joint that is a new idea too me.Off hand I would think The short shaft between the 2 driver's I think it will be covered by the 5th wheel plate so as is maybe OK . the long drive shaft, try doing a mock up and go from there.

Edited by clayton, 17 October 2010 - 12:57 AM.

[Sergey]

The short shaft between the 2 driver's I think it will be covered by the 5th wheel plate so as is maybe OK . the long drive shaft, try doing a mock up and go from there.

Thank you, Earl and Clayton.

Edited by Sergey, 17 October 2010 - 11:28 PM.

[stewart]

Wow Sergey. This is amazing work. I want to do a custom semi sometime in the near future and you have given me some great tips.
Did you get my private Message about the "Taylor Wing?"
STewart

[b_lever1]

your building is just awsome everything is over the top

[Sergey]

He's building a short hood 379, so the hood has a slight slope. If it were the extended hood like my truck(see my avatar pic) then the top of the hood is parallel to the ground pretty much.

O-key. Thank you, Ray. As I'm building 379-th (like yours) too, I should hear your words. As I see - the cab should sit lower then on 378-th? How much lower it must be? I just replacing cab support brackets with scratch built one.

[Danno]

Enjoying this buildup; very clever ideas displayed here. Keep it up, Sergey!

[Sergey]

Thank you, Dan.
Hi, friends. It's me again. Much time passed since my last update and I have nothing to boast of …
New cab mount brackets were made:
For new hood I was have to lower the cab about 3-4mm. It was easier to scratch build one, then adopt existing brackets. Here the cab on original mount:
Here - on new one:
Extended frame:
The front half:
Cab to hood adjustment:
I was have to tear away right front fender and glue it to the hood again 4 times (!), until everything was truth and level. So resin parts without markings are evil things.
Filled up hollow chassis parts:
There is a fail, I guess. When the hood is lowered, fenders look bigger then on picture of original (the last photo of this thread):
Can anyone explain: the front fenders for custom, lowered Peterbilts have smaller radius then originals? I tried to put super singles on front discs, but they look wrong here, though the gap between wheel and fender became smaller:
Looks like I should tear fenders off again to bend them slightly and reduce radius. I see the beginning of depression...
Can anyone help me to find more photos of this rig?:
I know there was a galery somewhere, but I've forgot to save it.

Edited by Sergey, 07 December 2010 - 02:38 AM.

[cowboysevens]

hey sergey i found the article that truck was in, but it has the one picture. if youll notice 95% of the trucks you see lowered have the same issue you have. the only way i can think to fix this is go to a smaller rim and tire, look at the pic of this truck it has the same problem you do and it has either a 19 or 22.5 inch rim, i believe you have a 24.5 rim with tall rubber ( 11r24.5 ). maybe you can try a set of fenders off of a 1/25 scale, that will give you a smaller diameter. your truck is looking good so far, i like what your doing. good luck finding the other pics. it was in 10-4 magazine from a show in famoso california. heres the link : http://www.tenfourma...c/2005/12c.html

dennis

[Sergey]

Dennis & Leo, thank you. You helped me a lot.

[clayton]

Thank you, Dan.
Hi, friends. It's me again. Much time passed since my last update and I have nothing to boast of …
New cab mount brackets were made:
For new hood I was have to lower the cab about 3-4mm. It was easier to scratch build one, then adopt existing brackets. Here the cab on original mount:
Here - on new one:
Extended frame:
The front half:
Cab to hood adjustment:
I was have to tear away right front fender and glue it to the hood again 4 times (!), until everything was truth and level. So resin parts without markings are evil things.
Filled up hollow chassis parts:
There is a fail, I guess. When the hood is lowered, fenders look bigger then on picture of original (the last photo of this thread):
Can anyone explain: the front fenders for custom, lowered Peterbilts have smaller radius then originals? I tried to put super singles on front discs, but they look wrong here, though the gap between wheel and fender became smaller:
Looks like I should tear fenders off again to bend them slightly and reduce radius. I see the beginning of depression...
Can anyone help me to find more photos of this rig?:
I know there was a galery somewhere, but I've forgot to save it.

Looks like too me you may need a filler plate on the hood between the fender and cab(I see a BIG gap there). But for custom hoods no idea.

[J Smith]

Surgey,
Just like you I was having the same problems. I did what Dennis said, look into a 1/25 scale
The fenders I got are from an old amt peterbilt kit. To me the italeri tires fit the fenders better.
1st pic is the amt
[attachment=10240:Picturese w005.jpg]

2nd pic is italeri on left & amt on right
[attachment=10241:Pictures 0m04.jpg]

I also measured the radies the difference is the italeri is 1/8 bigger then amt
There is also the fenders from the snap kit of the peterbilt that might work also?

[truckman1981]

The logo should be on the bracket, not the airbag. I've never seen a Peterbilt logo on an airbag as they are usually made by different companies such as Firestone.

If you have original oem air bags they will have the peterbilt logo on them. my truck did.

Edited by truckman1981, 08 December 2010 - 12:55 PM.

[Sergey]

Looks like too me you may need a filler plate on the hood between the fender and cab(I see a BIG gap there). But for custom hoods no idea.

Thank you, Clayton. I have filler plates, but didn't glue them down jet. They coul be torn away while fiting all the sub assembly.
Thank you, Leo. You already helped me to find this: http://www.supershow...ustinFoster.htm
Thanks to everyone for your comments and interest.

[highway]

If you have original oem air bags they will have the peterbilt logo on them. my truck did.

Come to think of it, I've had a couple Freightliners that had "Freightliner" on the OEM airbags.