Force

Nice job on this. When I look at the rear suspension and axles it looked a bit strange to me...it took a while to see what it was, but it's too late to do anything about it now tho'. It looks like you have put the front differential carrier section of the rearmost drive axle at the back of the forward drive axle and upside down, and the rear "pumpkin" part of the forward drive axle is at the front of the rearmost drive axle. Hard to explain but the axles should look something like on the picture below, the round "pumpkin" parts of the axles goes to the rear on both axles, the forward axle has the drive shaft between the axles going out on top of the "pumpkin" and it goes down to the rearmost axle differential carrier. Well Peterbilt introduced the Stabilaire air ride suspension as soon as 1964 so it would have been available on the 351, same suspension that later ended up with Freightliner as the FAS Airliner. But I also like the Reyco style four spring suspension.

Nice race truck. Talking about Wayne Talkington, he used to own Tyrone Malone's Hideout Truck transporter before Gary Reis from Hastings MN who has several of the Malone trucks bought it.

Looks good. The 2 season 1 trucks were 1974 models, not 1973, because the V.I.T. package with the luxury deep button diamond tuft interior, the 60 inch sleeper and the gull wing bumper didn't come until the 1974 model year and the trucks used in the series were as far as I know regular production V:I.T. trucks, but the 2 trucks in season 1 had gold KW bug and KENWORTH emblems anyway even tho' the gold emblems was for the 50th anniversary in 1973, and it's the same on the 1974 V.I.T. trucks on the promotional pictures I have...I don't know why but they did...maybe because the V.I.T. was a new special "top of the line" truck series, V.I.T. stands for Very Important Trucker and 1974 was the first year this package was available on the option list, I don't know but it's my guess. The 2 season 2 1975 trucks had regular chrome emblems. As we have discussed before I can't really tell what color the season 2 trucks were as information on them is scarce, I know for sure the season 1 trucks were painted Ivy Bronze and I do belive the season 2 trucks also had that color as the paint scheme is the same on them...but I have nothing to prove that as I have not found any information on it. And to try to compare and determen what color it is looking at old photos or movie stills in different lights is not that easy as a color can look different depending on light, shades and quality of the photos. To make it even more confusing the color name Ivy Bronze was available on 1971 Mercury and 1972-73 Fords except Mustang, the same color also go by the name Ivy Glow on 1972-73 Mustangs and Ford pickup trucks, and Ivy Glamour on 1973 Mercurys, all of these has the same color code M5072 and are the same color shade. But the 1974 Ford pickup truck Ivy Glow color has a different color code M5396 and it's a different color shade from the earlier. Never the less, it's your model and you do as you please and it will for sure look good ether way, so keep up the good work.

It's called kitbashing. You take parts from one or two kits and put on another to accomplish what you want to do with your model. But the only things AMT has offered as parts packs for trucks are the PP 012 Mercury Sleeper, PP 028 semi tractor "tall tires" and the PP 029 turbine engine. Most of the other things for customizing you have to rob from other kits or from the aftermarket. Well back to the normal program. I really like your build so far, keep up the good work.

I have nothing but good to say about Jamie Rehmoeller and Mo'luminum, nice clean products and I have allways got my orders. One way is to try to contact him on facebook messenger if he doesn't answer emails.

It came out very nice David.

You don't have to guess, it's just basic mathematics. 1:25th scale, the obect is 25 times smaller that the real object. 1:24th scale, the object is 24 times smaller that the real obejct. Inch to mm conversion, 1 inch is 25.4 mm so 1 inch in the real world is slightly over 1 mm in 1:25th scale, 1.016 mm to be exact. So if you have a wheel that's 19 inches in the real world, that's 19 times 25.4 = 482.6 mm, divide that with 25 and you will get 19.304 mm.

Yes, Round 2 did the retro boxart based on the "blue version" even tho' it wasn't the exact same kit, the "blue version" has never been reissued. But if you want to it's easy to use the California Hauler and the wrecker body (wich are the same for both kits) and do a Unilite small window wrecker.

The MEL and FE may look similar at first glance but they are very different, first of all the MEL is physically larger as it has larger cylinder bores and wider bore spacing, on the MEL the intake manifold doesn't go in under the top of the valve covers like it does on the FE where the push rods go through holes in the intake manifold, the MEL heads doesn't have any combustion chambers like the FE has and are totally flat on the under side and sits angeled on the block to make a wedge shape for combustion at the top of the cylinders, the MEL valve covers have 6 bolts each, 3 upper and 3 lower, the FE only have 5, 3 upper and 2 lower, the spark plugs are differently placed and are exhaust port, spark plug, port, plug, port, plug, port, plug on the MEL heads, the FE heads has port, plug, port, plug, plug, port, plug, port. The MEL was available from 1958 to 1968 and was fased out and replaced with the 385 family 429-460 from 1968 when the 460 was introduced in the Lincoln Continental Mk III and the 460 was only available in Lincolns up to and including 1971, Ford and Mercury could only have the 429 those years and didn't get the larger 460 on the option list until 1972-73. But everyone does as they please and if one wants to use the FE in a Lincoln it's fine by me.

The blue and white version of the wrecker is based on the Unilite small window cab kit and came 1972 as kit number T-522 and as I said, the 1100 series cab kit did not come until 1976 and the red and white version of the wrecker is based on that 1100 series cab kit and it first issue was in 1977 as kit number T-533, it has been reissued at least 3 times before the latest wich is the red and white version and it came in 2019. The wrecker body and parts are the same between both kits but the base kit is different. The first California Hauler 359 with the unilite cab had kit number T500-500 and came 1969, the later brown version with the sleeper had kit number T-500 and came in 1973, and the wrecker had kit number T-522 and came 1972, both the T-500-500 and T 500 has recently been reissued (2014 and 2022) but with different kit numbers, and nothing before that. The first 1100 series cab kit had kit number T-501 and came 1976, the wrecker had as I said kit number T-533 and came 1977, these has been reissued several times from those dates with different kit numbers, I do have the T-500-500, the T-500 and the T-522 original issues from back in the day, I also have the recent issues of these kits including the red and white wrecker and a couple of the 1100 series kits.

Here is the AMT version of the 1100 series cab kit and it came on the market 1975, this kit is different from the Unilite cab kit and nothing is shared between them, on later issues the "California Hauler" went away. The latest issue of this kit was the wrecker.

It's because they are different cabs. The AMT cab is the early Unilite "small window" cab also used for 351's made up to 1972, the cab in the Revell kit is the later 1100 series cab with larger windows and it's also taller, and that cab came 1972 and after the end of 1972 Peterbilt replaced the Unilite cab on all conventional trucks, AMT also has a kit with the 1100 series cab but this is not it. The AMT kit was the first truck model kit made and it first saw daylight in 1969 as the California Hauler as a day cab truck, and the California Hauler with the sleeper came 1973, this kit was later replaced with their 1100 series cab kit in 1975 and the earlier Unilite cab kit was forgotten until 2014 when it came out again. The Revell kit on the other hand first came in 1982 and your kit is the latest reissue..

Yeah tell me about it. An easy job like putting in the starter wich should be a quick job took about 3 hours to do, bolts that were wrong size, helicoil threads in the bell housing that didn't reach all the way and 1 of 3 was put in crooked, the hole for the starter in the brand new block plate was about a millimeter too small so the starter wouldn't sit properly against it, and grind out the hole with the engine in the engine bay and the transmission mounted wasn't easy...so everything fights you sometimes. I don't know how many times I tried to put in the starter and took it back out again....and that was only one thing.

Thanks guys.

My project wich has taken up much time the last couple of years. Built a new 390 based 445 stroker engine and changed it and I also swapped to a new rebuilt TCI C6 automatic trans...things that never have been together will not go together without problems, so it takes time. I also upgraded to disc brakes in front with spindles, calipers and discs from Ford full size 1968, a direct bolt on kit. Everything is in the car now and it's close to take it out for trials and adjustments. The car, 1963½ Galaxie 500XL wich originally had a 390 4 bbl and Cruise-o-matic trans built at the Pico Rivera factiory in Los Angeles...don't worry, I still have these things. The engine, 390 based 445 stroker with a new balanced Scat rotating assembly 4.25 stroke, H-beam rods, flat top pistons, bored out .030, Edelbrock Performer RPM heads and intake manifold, Comp Cams hydraulic roller cam and Harlan Sharp roller rockers, Holley 850 double pump, Sanderson coated headers, MSD ignition. The trans is a prepped C6 from TCI and a Huges 2 500 rpm converter.