Chariots of Fire

We are almost there. The flood lights are finished and some detailing has been added to the compartment interiors. Still thinking about what will go under the roof area.

Lookin' good, Daniel!

Got the flood lights done today. Still have to "wire" them up but the construction is done. I put BMF on the lens to cover it and then sprayed the entire light unit silver. Then the BMF was removed leaving the white resin as the lens. Common pins were used for the clamps that hold the lens cover in place. The mounting platform is made of strip brass and a thin section of PVC pipe.

A little more progress on the flood lights. Two more to go!😆

That's a great restoration job! Thanks for sharing the work. How about showing us the bumper! Maybe we can come up with a way to get a new one.😎

Got started on the flood lights for the top of the body. The first thing was to make a master that could be copied so that all three lights are the same. I found some light images on line along with general dimensions. This helped me to turn a master from aluminum and then do the mold. In the photo below is the master in the middle, a first resin casting to the right and a second casting in the clamp that has been sprayed silver. The unpainted casting is no good as it has a bubble in the middle of the lens but that is easily corrected with two more like the painted one. I kept the face of the light in the white resin as it seems to look like a translucent lens that these lights had. The lights will be mounted as seen in the photo below after mounting brackets are made for each one. They will be "wired" through the top of the body.

This has been a great project to follow. Lots of interesting detailing all the way along. Is the cab roof going to remain dark faded paint? Any plans for a canvas overlay? Just wondering.

Latest pix. Finished rear view mirrors and fender directional lights.

NO need to save the dust, Roy. Just wipe away most of the CA leaving the rest in the void. Let the sanding stick or file make the residue and in doing so it will fill and harden the void. The mixture sands away fine and it does not shrink.

I agree with what Alan said about filling gaps first. I use CA a lot and when the gaps are small I just sand them and let the CA capture the sanding dust. It is a good filler. Then I can use the Tamiya putty sparingly. It does tend to shrink and it takes a bit of patience to work with it. Let it harden really well and then sand the extra putty away. If you still have gaps try filling them at that point with glue and/or styrene and then reputty.

More work on the project. Bell and siren/light combo on the front bumper, steps, spotlights, rear tail and direction lights and body grab rails. The latter were a pain to bend. The aluminum rod tends to bend in one spot rather than take a nice radius. Perhaps because it is soft. Stanchions are crimp beads along with common pins and aluminum flashing for the mounting points.

I went to a show a few years back with my '37 Seagrave tractor drawn aerial. Before the show actually got underway I was putting things out on the table and two guys came up to me and said "boy those ladders look just like real wood". I said "Yes, I guess they do! That's because they are real wood"1 😆🌲

Now I see how you did your raising mechanism. Here's a look at how Mack did the similar thing for their AP's that were used in the construction of Boulder Dam. I don't know exactly what the lifting capacity of the system was but these were 12 cubic yard dump bodies. Rock fill weighs about 140 lb/cubic foot and there are 27 cubic feet to a cubic yard so when we tally it all up the weight of the payload alone is about 45,360 lb. or about 22.7 tons. And that does not include the body weight. Later versions had bodies made of aluminum which cut down the overall weight that has to be raised.

This one was done back in 1998. I had photos of the actual rig and went from there. Snap kit Chevy was a real good base to work from.

I like those wheels and tires as well! Just might have to pick up a set!