Jump to content
Model Cars Magazine Forum

AMT La France ladder chief / hauler rebuild


Recommended Posts

The Ladder Chief arrived today. Its a old build thats mostly in bits and the old brittle tube glue thats holding the rest together shouldnt take much to seperate. The old red and silver paint will also be stripped.

Well the other good news is the Revell 92 Caprice will fit (Cop car was to hand) I have another 1 thats due to be built as a Fire Dept drag car. Its the parts left from a 92 / Impala SS kitbash of my 1:1 96 Caprice, so ripe for modding.

Im planning on using the sides of the smaller ladder section as bed rails.

20161018_205817.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've seen a number of 1-1 fire trucks built into car haulers. This one was built on a Ford C / Seagrave ladder truck but might be of some help for ideas.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1395380-c800-fire-truck-to-car-hauler-conversion-is-complete.html

 

and another based on an older ALF 700

http://recoverynut.blogspot.com/2005/07/wierd-wreckers.html

 

If you want something different to haul, you could use it for hauling a drill team "truck" kind of a cross between a dragster and fire apparatus. It's an east coast thing, maybe even just a New York State thing? Nothing like this on the west coast.

 

 

Edited by Aaronw
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Seagrave truck looks good and some good pics but I want to keep it looking like a fire truck. I'll give some thought to the rear though

The 'plan' is to complete this & the Caprice as a set up that's been donated by the Fire Dept and the crew have worked on to haul & race. I did think about using a Fox Mustang but guess the FD wouldn't have many 2 door pursuit cars ? The towns Cops will have a Fox to grudge race / beat the heat style.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used the Ford LN race car hauler as a guide.  If you line up the wheel wells on the ladder chief with the race car hauler body, you will notice that the ladder chief is 1.5 cm longer to the cab.  Of course, I couldn't find the ladder chief side panel tonight for comparison.20161024_224019.thumb.jpg.2734c9a903d8fe Anyway, because of the length change, I used sheet styrene to make my own sides for a new race car hauler bed.   I plan to finish this off with a diamond plate deck and use the ramps from the race car hauler to load the cars.

My build sits higher on the frame, I plan to add a few pieces of strip stock to the bottom of the bed to make up the difference from the frame rails so it looks better.

I don't remember if the ladder chief body is the same width as the race car hauler, but you could clip the two kits at the top of the wheelwells and splice them together with the ladder chief on the front and the ramp body on the back.  Another option would be to use the race car hauler and move the tall compartment forward to make up the distance between the cab and body, then fill in the lower portion with sheet styrene.

If I can find the side pieces for the ladder chief tomorrow, I will post a picture showing the difference between the race car hauler and the ladder chief body.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great idea, I was going to try this one myself  but a while back there was a lot of talk about people doing this I decided on another way of using the fire truck.  I will be watching our build.  By the way where in the uk are you located? I am going to be in Lester next year

Edited by DumpyDan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...