International (Ice Cream)delivery truck? from 80's TV show Misfits Of Science???

[crowe-t]

Back in 1985 there was a short lived TV show called the Misfits Of Science.  The main characters drove an Ice Cream truck.

Does anyone know what make and model this truck is? 

I attached some pictures. 

Is it a Grumman?

Does a model kit exist of this make and model truck?

Edited March 17, 2016 by crowe-t

[Ace-Garageguy]

International Harvester Metro Mite / M700 / M800 / M1100, circa late '60s, '70s. These have steel bodies. The somewhat similar looking Grummans have aluminum skins.

    

This is the familiar Grumman...   

Edited March 16, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[crowe-t]

Thanks for the information Bill!

If only I could find this in a 1/24 or 1/25 scale model kit???

Mike.

[Ace-Garageguy]

If only I could find this in a 1/24 or 1/25 scale model kit???

With all those flat panels, it shouldn't be too hard to scratch-build, and there are sales brochures available cheap that have all the specs and dimensioned drawings.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-International-Harvester-METRO-Step-Van-M-1100-Brochure-Specifications-/380857812803?hash=item58ace50743:g:LkMAAOxy0bRTGLV6

 

[crowe-t]

With all those flat panels, it shouldn't be too hard to scratch-build, and there are sales brochures available cheap that have all the specs and dimensioned drawings.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-International-Harvester-METRO-Step-Van-M-1100-Brochure-Specifications-/380857812803?hash=item58ace50743:g:LkMAAOxy0bRTGLV6

 

Thanks for finding this.  It's almost like having a blueprint.

You're right this should be hard at all to scratch build.

BTW do you have an idea of what I could use for the engine, rearend, front axle...?

I found this auction with some good pictures of a real truck.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/International-Harvester-Other-Right-Hand-Drive-/111933435292?forcerrptr=true&hash=item1a0fc0ad9c:g:IWgAAOSwZ8ZW43R-&item=111933435292

Mike.

Edited March 16, 2016 by crowe-t

[Ace-Garageguy]

BTW do you have an idea of what I could use for the engine, rearend, front axle...?

The spec sheet for the M1100 calls out the IH 4-152 engine as standard equipment. This engine is a "slant-4", essentially the IH 304 V8 with one bank of cylinders removed.

A good place to start would be the 345 V8 in the old AMT IH Scout kit...and cut the driver's side cylinder bank off. There are lots of pictures of the IH 4-152 engine on the web to work from.

Though I don't really know, the AMT Scout frame MAY be a good place to start too, with the upper panels removed. Though the Scout kit is 4WD, it would give you leaf springs front and rear, and a rear axle. You'd probably have to de-arch the springs some for 2WD.

The spec sheet also calls out a T7 3-speed as standard trans. This is actually a Warner T-87E, also used in Ford trucks and other vehicles.  Again, lots of reference material on the web.

If it turns out that the Scout kit frame will work for you, all you should need for a front axle would be a straight or dropped I-beam type, like something from the AMT '53 Ford pickup kit...IF the Scout frame is actually close enough otherwise.

EDIT: The engine shot in the photos you found is a six inline, and looks identical to an AMC engine of the same period. I don't know if any kits or resin sources exist for that one.

 

EDIT 2: AHA!! YES, the Metro Mite WAS based on the Scout frame and drivetrain, so that gives you a complete chassis to start with. The AMT Scout kit frame has some vertical panels that would need to be removed, but the rails are there.

 

 

Edited March 16, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[crowe-t]

The spec sheet for the M1100 calls out the IH 4-152 engine as standard equipment. This engine is a "slant-4", essentially the IH 304 V8 with one bank of cylinders removed.

A good place to start would be the 345 V8 in the old AMT IH Scout kit...and cut the driver's side cylinder bank off. There are lots of pictures of the IH 4-152 engine on the web to work from.

Though I don't really know, the AMT Scout frame MAY be a good place to start too, with the upper panels removed. Though the Scout kit is 4WD, it would give you leaf springs front and rear, and a rear axle. You'd probably have to de-arch the springs some for 2WD.

The spec sheet also calls out a T7 3-speed as standard trans. This is actually a Warner T-87E, also used in Ford trucks and other vehicles.  Again, lots of reference material on the web.

If it turns out that the Scout kit frame will work for you, all you should need for a front axle would be a straight or dropped I-beam type, like something from the AMT '53 Ford pickup kit...IF the Scout frame is actually close enough otherwise.

EDIT: The engine shot in the photos you found is a six inline, and looks identical to an AMC engine of the same period. I don't know if any kits or resin sources exist for that one.

 

EDIT 2: AHA!! YES, the Metro Mite WAS based on the Scout frame and drivetrain, so that gives you a complete chassis to start with. The AMT Scout kit frame has some vertical panels that would need to be removed, but the rails are there.

 

 

I was talking with Bill Spencer(spencer1984) today and he also mentioned using the same AMT Scout kit and cutting the engine in half.  

I bought the sale brochure you gave me the link to above.  I'll scan the drawings and scale them to 1/25 and they'll be a perfect blueprint.  I'll have to locate the front I-beam axle.

I think this will be a fun build.  I like scratch building.

The truck from the TV show in the pictures I posted above is actually a few different trucks that were used.  My favorite look is the 1st picture with the round rear wheel openings, no red light on top and the higher black refrigeration unit on the roof.  It also has the squared off front windshield(s) in all 4 corners which will be easier to do.  

The real truck in the auction link I provided above is the version of this truck I want to make.  I saved the pictures for reference.

Mike.

Edited March 16, 2016 by crowe-t

[Chuck Most]

The Scout II kit has the frame/engine bay/interior tub molded as one piece- it may be a better idea to make your own chassis or adapt an existing one.

[crowe-t]

I can probably use the front part of the chassis and scratch build from the front doors back.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

The Scout II kit has the frame/engine bay/interior tub molded as one piece- it may be a better idea to make your own chassis or adapt an existing one.

I think all you really have to do is cut the vertical parts off of the floor. 

I have the kit on the bench, and that would appear to be a much easier solution than fabbing rails, floor, etc.

This is Mr. Most's photo. it doesn't show the underside of the frame, but does show the vertical walls extending upwards from it. Cut 'em off and you're halfway home.

Here's a partial look at the underside of the frame. Though this has a large trans hump for the 4WD transfer case, you can see the walls sticking upwards that, once removed, would give you a more or less complete frame. Presto.

Still better shot of the bottom. take the side walls off, you have a nice frame. That's how I'd do it, anyway. 

Edited March 17, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Chuck Most]

You know, that idea seems workable, now that someone has proposed and explained it. I'm sure I'd have thought of it eventually. 

[crowe-t]

I have to pick up an AMT Scout kit and see how the chassis fits.  However in this picture from the sales brochure the floor looks flat from behind the front doors back and even in the middle area in the cab.  I'm sure the wheel base is longer in the Metro Mite.  I'll most likely have to scratch build the chassis from the doors back and incorporate the front of the Scout chassis.  The frame rails and floor should be mostly flat.

Here is a picture from the sales brochure showing the inside. 

Here is a picture of a Kurbmaster Step Van kit from Motor City Resin Casters that shows the type of chassis I'll need.  This build needs a flat truck/van chassis.  The funny thing is the Kurbmaster Step Van almost looks like what I need to build but looks to be a much larger truck.

Depending on the width, I'm thinking maybe the chassis from the AMT Phantom Ford Econoline might be a better choice to start with.  However the motor wouldn't be accurate.

What do you guys think? 

Edited March 17, 2016 by crowe-t

[Ace-Garageguy]

The load-floor in the Metro Mite van being flat doesn't necessarily prove that the frame rails are straight. Part of the production economics of basing the thing on the Scout mechanicals MIGHT have been to save the cost of stamping a different set of frame rails for it. Large, heavy press tools capable of stamping frame rails are expensive. Spending money unnecessarily isn't good business and eats profits.

From the point of IH's engineers and accountants, it would certainly have been cheaper to put floor spacers on top of the dropped section of regular Scout production rails than it would have been to set up an entirely different press-line to make a dedicated set of frame rails. And, putting spacers between frame rails and truck bodies is common practice, industry-wide.

But I don't KNOW that's what they did, and any opinion or conjecture or specific advice without supporting photos and facts is useless.

I think it would be prudent to hold off on deciding exactly which frame to use until you know what the frame under the real Mite actually looks like, and whether it is (or is not) actually a Scout frame.

The first-generation Metro Mite built from '59 through '63 apparently had a unitized body-frame construction, and this could possibly have facilitated the flat floor design. The one you want to model was a newer design and MAY have been built on a conventional ladder-type frame.

Additional lines of relevant research would include the Metropolitan Body Company, the division of IH that built bodies on IH frames.

Here's a start, with some interesting photos that, among other things, show the relative sizes of the Mite as compared with the larger line of delivery vehicles from IH. One photo appears to show the earlier unibody version of the Mite being lowered on to its running gear. Happy hunting, and good luck with this very interesting project.  

http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/m/metropolitan/metropolitan5.html

 

 

Edited March 17, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[crowe-t]

Bill,  I've been searching for pictures of the chassis and so far came up with these from a 1966 Metro Mite.  The chassis doen't look very different from the Scout except it's flatter and seems to follow the flat floor.  The Scout chassis' frame rails curve up and down with the floor.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

Great job with the photo hunting. This is really a neat little truck. It appears from these shots that it's still a unibody, like the '59-early '60s version, so probably would be very close in structural design details. The apparent light gauge of the frame-rail material would indicate a unitized type construction. Heavy conventional rails aren't necessary when the body of the vehicle is designed to absorb the major bending and torsional loads, and the structure only requires heavy local reinforcement where high point-loads are fed into it from things like spring shackles...and these photos appear to indicate that this is exactly how this truck is built. The bottom shot, and the third shot from the bottom look particularly like the frame and body are of unitized design, and NOT utilizing the Scout or any other separate frame.

That construction method could have manufacturing cost benefits from the standpoint that all the major components would be made on relatively simple machinery like bending-brakes and shears, without having to resort to heavy press-tools. And a body-building company could deal with the entire fabrication operation. A unibody design could also make sense from a weight standpoint, as the body is made to do double duty as a structural member, weight can be removed from the rails, and the vehicle payload is raised without having to beef up the suspension. 

It would also be relatively easy to scratchbuild from flat styrene, obviously. 

Speaking of suspension, the front axle looks to be very similar to the Ford F100 unit of the early 1950s. 

[crowe-t]

Thanks Bill and thanks for posting the Illustration of the Ford front axle.  I saved it to my research folder.   

I agree it looks like a unitized body.  The chassis rails that run the length look to be straight with no bends up or down.  I'm still trying to find more pictures of the chassis but I'm starting to get a good idea of how it should look.  

Right now the only components of the AMT Scout I'll need are the engine and rear end housing.  As far as which exact engine(i.e. - 4 cylinder, 6 cylinder, 8 cylinder...) it might not really matter too much.  I've seen pictures with all types and both standard and automatic transmissions.  The one in the sales brochure shown above has a standard transmission but that isn't the model year I'll be building.  It's the closest brochure and has the same basic body shape.   

I'm looking forward to seeing the sales brochure when it arrives.  I'm starting to like this truck a lot now.  

Edited March 18, 2016 by crowe-t