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B.R.B.O BJ and The Bear Custom


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  • 3 weeks later...

looking good matt !

Thank you Gino, and it's that time of the month again, the first update of the month!! 

The boys in the shop have been busy, especially in the paint shop, but the mechanical shop has been equally busy. The monster 16V92 is painted and likes its snug new home. 

The driver's side exhaust has just about enough room between the shift tower and the engine, and both turbos just clear the interior and I'm hoping after I rebuild both broken cab hinges they still clear. 

The exhaust is not staying black, they will be my favorite color, CHROME! The next challenge is getting the exhaust pipes from the turbos to the stacks, and I only have 1/2 inch to connect the two AND widen the exhaust to the scale 10" stacks. The biggest news is the cab and trailer are painted and striped!!!! The trailer just needs a few small brake and suspension pieces painted and it will be ready for something I have not been able to say in many, many years.....FINAL ASSEMBLY!

I did notice uploading the pics to the computer, the top stripe has a dip in it I did not intend, but I guess that is what I get for pulling stripes at midnight!! It will be an easy fix though, instead of trying again with the Pactra pinstripe tape I originally tried, and failing horribly trying to paint the stripes to the point the paint on the cab is fresh, I stopped at Autozone and found 1/4" single stripe black and 5/16" dual stripe gold and it has been much easier to work with and to curve. I did do a little modification to the stripes, obviously they are not exact to the real truck, but since this is a custom and not a replica, they don't have to be exact, and that is also why I have the black and gold at the top border as well instead of the thin gold stripe of the original. That is also why the top stripe now curves, I was going to do the angular stripe like the original, but as I was laying the black trying to figure out how look like the original, I experimented with the curve and liked how it looked. 

Obviously, the cab isn't as close, but I'm hoping next week I might be able to call this one finished, but my big custom Ford needs some attention and bench time too! I'm still hoping the two customs and the other two trucks that also are begging for bench time will all be finished by September 25th for a show in Pittsburgh PA. If and when I do get this finished for that show, as well as the Ford, the only way you will see finished pics of my big, bad customs is AFTER the show! If you want to see them finished before that, you'll have to come to the show in Pittsburgh!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, the midnight idea of the curved stripe failed miserably, the gold did not stay in place so I corrected the top stripe. 

I have made some nice progress even though that progress has been due to some short days or complete missed days at work since I have been having some problems breathing for a little over a week and don't know why other than "maybes" and a breathing test on the 15th where the doctor said everything looked normal, but I have been killing some of the time I haven't been trying to make my way through the day at work at the bench when possible. I do have the exhaust almost completed, starting with this pile 

adding, shaping, and sanding gel super glue 

then adding the "bendy" section of a drinking straw to the end to make reducers to connect the 10" monsters to the exhaust manifolds and turbos and the rest of the exhaust, and a coating of Alclad Chrome to finish everything off. 

The biggest part of this update is big indeed, 53' long big!! The trailer is about 95% complete!! 

I still have the brake chambers and related parts to add to the suspension, as well as the shocks and mudflaps, but the trailer is finally glued together. I also started adding chicken lights to the rear, the small lights are 3MM craft rhinestones and the tail/brake lights are matching 5MM stones.

I have some matching 3MM amber stones to do all of the front and side marker lights, but have to hope I can find more of them that match what I already have or find a very similar 3MM amber stone. I only have 42 currently, and going to use the same look on the front as in the back, and possibly use the same spacing for the top and bottom of the sides, so 42 is no where near enough, especially when the Ford's trailer will be done the same!! 

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I've used those amber and red craft "rhinestones" for years, they work very well. I've bought them at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and even Ebay when I couldn't find what I needed in the stores. All the lights on the 1/16 wrecker I did about 15 years ago, as well as all the other 1/16 customs I did, are stones from Michaels, trimmed down to the size & shape I needed with a Dremel...

 

351-1.JPG

Precision8-print2.jpg

Precision3.jpg

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Well, it's time for an update that I was hoping would be much different but unfortunately issues reared their ugly heads. :( I was hoping to be finished with this and my custom Ford yesterday for the show in Pittsburgh, but instead some scratch building didn't come out quite right. I made these stack mounts instead of the stainless steel mount I used for the stack mock up pics

 

and somehow after I added a cross brace at the bottom to give the mounts some added support for the monster 10" stacks and the matching straight pipes for the air intakes and everything got shifted to the driver's side. 

Before I took the mess off the frame

I tried to add the passenger side intake pipe (which are also from Ryan Mylnek's Rhino's Custom Model Truck Parts) and it was leaning to the rear and would not fit between the rear cab mount and the stack mounts, and the intake pipes have to be angled between the cab mount and stack mounts or they will be hitting the back of the engine, so a complete redesign is needed. I now just have to hope I can save the mounting brackets that come with the stacks or get more off of Ryan after I build another new set of stack mounts. 

I also am hoping I didn't mess up these new cab hinges I had to make since both hinges from the kit are one of the multiple pieces that broke because of aged and brittle plastic that I was planning on saving until one decided to do a disappearing act in my model room, so my only solution was to scratchbuild some hinges.  

What a good idea for the trailer lighting! May have to accompany wifey next time she goes to Michaels!

Actually Dan, I would talk her into going to Hobby Lobby!:lol: The color (topaz) that I got at the same time quite a few years ago at Michael's for the front and side marker lights as the ones I used for the rear lights is no longer offered in the separate packs like the one on the left side of this pic:

Michael's only sells the topaz now in a combo pack of 90 stones along with another color called smokey topaz and 3 different (3MM, 4MM, and 5MM) sizes, and it is $9.99 here in the states. The pack on the right is what I got at Hobby Lobby, the color is smoked topaz and they are only $2.99 for a pack of 112 stones. They seem to me to not have as much brilliance as the ones from Michael's, but for as many as I plan on putting on not only this trailer but also the one for my custom Ford, I would have probably had $50 to hopefully have enough! :o As it is, even with 224 stones in the 2 packs of the smoked topaz I bought at Hobby Lobby, I'm still short 2!:o This trailer and the one for the Ford will be done the same, and I have started the Ford's trailer. 

On both trailers, there will be 9 lights across the top of the front above the reefer unit, 52 amber and 2 red along the top and bottom of the sides, and 9 red across the top and 5 more will be added between the taillights on the bottom, because the area between the tail lights just looks bare with the lights already installed along the top of the rear. That equals a total of 131 lights on each trailer, and if you count the 4 tail lights, it will be a grand total of 135 lights each!!:o

 

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I think by the time I'm finished putting the "lights" on both of my custom project's trailers, I'm going to make sure I have reservations for the nut house! I do have all but the passenger side of the trailer finished because I'm starting to not only get tired but close to losing the little bit of mind I have left LOL!! The two custom trailers will be done the same and here are the stats: 9 lights across the front top, 53 amber 2 red split between the top and bottom of each side, and 9 across the top and 5 across the bottom of the rear equaling a total of 133 lights and if you count the 4 tail lights, a grand total of 137 lights on EACH trailer!!

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Coming along nicely looking forward to see it finished. 

 

 

     Nice work on the chicken lights ! They look really good.

 

 

 

   Be Well

    Gator

Thank you Dan and Gator. Not much has gotten done on either lately, but hopefully I'll get a little bench time this weekend and I'll have some progress to report.

 

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Awesome Matt!!! That is looking really sweet. I've been working on a couple of builds, but I've still got several truck kits to build. You've done a beautiful build on the engine! That monster is ultra cool!!!

 

Thank you Marshall, and long time no talky! :lol: I've got more than a couple going on, including the "never seems it will get done" Ford I started almost 7 years ago, and more seem to keep jumping in my mind and then on the bench! This is just one of two choppers that decided to invade the bench, and of course I couldn't prevent myself from turning it into another major modification project! :lol:

I think I might have a little reworking to do on the engine, the beast's shoulders might be a little large! :lol: After the earlier update where I posted the exhaust painted with Alclad and tried to glue them in place, something must have shifted when I mocked the exhaust up because the turbos cleared the interior tunnel in mock up but now......just a little wide! :rolleyes: I just have to clear the mind and think over how I'm going to make the turbos fit and then also make sure all the air intake tubing will clear from the intake stacks to the air cleaners then to the turbos and without any more interference to the interior. 

Man, this baby's getting there.....Some excellent work going on......Spectacular......

Thank you JT! :D

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