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Ford C-600 Flatbed


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I've started on AMT's Ford C-600 Stake Bed kit, and I'll be substituting a flatbed in place of the kit-supplied stake bed.

I've got the frame assembled:

c600frame.jpg

...and the cab's underside parts glued to the bottom of the interior tub:

cabfloor.jpg

The fit between all of the underside parts was surprisingly good considering there are only very slightly raised guidelines for locating the various pieces, but I was satisfied, save for a slight twist in the LF stepwell. I filled in the gaps at the corners of the floorboards, too, so there's still some white putty visible:

LFcabcorner.jpg

I just got an AMT '53 Starliner, so 'm going to see how the Stude's 289 V8 looks once placed inside the frame. It looks puny compared to the kit's Ford Super Duty(?) V8, so I may forgo that idea:

SDvs289.jpg

I received some '53 Ford custom headlight buckets/grille from two forum members, so the cab will be backdated to the earlier quad headlight nose. The Ford nameplates have already been removed, so not sure which direction this is headed at this point:

cabnosewdualhls.jpg

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Nice start on and great idea. Are you going to scratch build the ramp bed ?

You tell it is going to be a fast one - it has the "Remove before flight" tabs on the windshield area. ;)

Yes, I am going to make my own ramp bed. I have an idea in my head, so we'll have to see how that translates to styrene. :unsure:

I figured I should keep those support bars in place until I was ready to prime the cab, but I do want to fill in the wiper motor access panels/gaps, per Chuck Most's reference pics of a '59(?). Some p/e wipers would probably be a good idea, too.

Here are a few pics of the mostly assembled engine:

sd1.jpg

sd2.jpg

sd3.jpg

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Thanks, all. This kit has kept me very motivated, despite having to remove the mold seams on both sides of the multi-leaf rear springs. <_< Here's the second rear leaf spring, still in the process of having the seams flattened, but there's no saving that sink mark between he u-bolts. :huh: Fortunately, it will be almost completely hidden when the tires, wheels, and flatbed are in place:

Cseriesrrleafsprings.jpg

Here's the finished spring up close. We'll see how it looks after a coat of primer and another round of sanding...:

Crearleaf.jpg

I assembled a few more parts and added a piece of .125" tubing inside the rearend housing to better keep the metal axle rod centered. The brake cylinders/chambers were a pain to clean up, due to their small size, and I'm not sure I'll stick with the stock air cleaner assembly, but they're at least ready for primer:

Cseriesparts1.jpg

Looking at the 1:1 reference pics, it seems there are at least two different ways the cab meets the body support, but I think the kit's version is the most supportive, so no need to modify it:

Cseriescabsupport.jpg

I also glued the second cab pivot to the underside of the cab's floor since there's plenty of space to allow the pivots to slip into place easily over the pins. That extra space may have to be taken up by some spacers, but for now, I can at least "install" the cab and get going on the ramp bed:

Casof22814.jpg

I filled in the wiper motor access panels, too, so the cab is almost ready for some primer:

C600platefilled.jpg

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Thanks JT, and Mike, I should've traded for one of these long ago. :D

I did some measuring for the flatbed and realized the rear track width was a bit too wide, and if left as is, the rear tires would stick out past the bed, so that needed to be fixed. Unfortunately, I had previously assembled the rear wheel parts, so cutting them apart wasn't a reasonable option, even though thinning the outer rim section on both outer wheels would've worked to correct the track width. Since the brake drums don't need to rotate independently from the backing plates on the model, I removed some thickness from both pieces on both sides, glued the drums and plates together, then removed some additional thickness from the drum's outer face, which got everything within the necessary width. The inner lip of the wheels is a bit closer to the leaf springs now, but the tires don't rub on the springs, so it should work just fine:

5f19f1df-396a-4932-98b9-1d5c3c9aaa06.jpg

I didn't care for the way the rearend slips through holes in the spring perches, and I wanted to be able to assemble the brake backing plates to the rearend before installing everything as one assembly, so out came the razor saw. The way the backing plates, brake drums, and rear wheels all went together with the rearend was a bit of a mess, too, so I decided to use one single piece of styrene tubing to connect everything, which led to new axle tubes for the rearend. ^_^

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How about a bullet nose between the headlight buckets? Nothing says Studebaker like a bullet nose.

The 289 would not be an inappropriate engine for this truck. Until 1965 the base engine in the C-600 was a 223 cid I-6, with a 272 cid V-8 as an option.

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....but I do want to fill in the wiper motor access panels/gaps, per Chuck Most's reference pics of a '59(?). Some p/e wipers would probably be a good idea, too.

Those would be consistent during the "Four Eye" years of the cab.Those wiper motor access panels came for 1961, along with the reversion to single headlamps per side. Budd Manufacturing built this cab to Ford's specs, and other manufacturers used it, so a COE Stude with the Budd/Ford cab might not be too farfetched. Using the Super Duty engine might even be workable, too- I doubt Studebaker's pockets would have been deep enough to finance a medium truck V8!

And Mike... he's not using all of it... the spare tractor frame rails ended up elsewhere, I'm thinking...

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Here's where I picked up today, and you can see how I split the rearend halves at the seam while boring through with a drill bit. There was literally only a few thousandths of an inch or material left on the housing after boring, and probably a little extra due to stretching, but the styrene tube is permanently glued to the housing, the gaps filled and sanded, and the entire rearend ready for some primer:

rearsusp2.jpg

Hopefully you can see above how I thinned and glued the brake backing plates and drums together, bored out the center hole to accept another piece of tubing, filled the inside of the drum with resin, waited for it all to cure, then re-bored the center hole to accept the smaller (new) axle tubes. The axle tubes run from one wheel to the other, and provide a very snug and secure attachment for the drums and wheels, as well as allowing me to take them on and off as necessary for future test fitting.

Here's a close up of the rear end in place and it's relationship to the brake drum/backing plate:

brakedrumdetail.jpg

Here is the rear end resting in place on the springs or riser blocks(?, not sure exactly what they're called on big trucks), with the everything from wheel to wheel in position:

rearsusp1.jpg

I have to admit I probably should've held out for the longer wheelbase framerails found in the City Delivery version of this kit, but after some test fitting with the intended bed load, the medium wheelbase should be fine. I think a little bit more length with look better, so I will keep that in mind the next time I build another C-series Ford.

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The kit's bucket seats looked undersized to my eyes (ironically, similar to Avanti bucket seats), and I felt a bench seat would be more appropriate anyway, so I housed the bench seat from an AMT '60 Chevy Fleetside and modified it a bit to fit the interior tub. I shortened both the seat base and backrest 3/16" or so, removed most of the hinges, added a styrene strip to for the seat base to butt up against, and filled in the upper 1/4" of the backrest's backside with another styrene strip:

Cseat2.jpg

Cseat.jpg

Cseat3.jpg

The seat will be permanently affixed and the backrest won't hinge, but the upper part of the backrest is visible through the rear window, so I had to at least fill in what could be seen. Even though the texture/fabric covering on the seat runs a bit crooked (maybe that was intentional on AMT's part?), it's a nice mid-level '60s truck bench seat-- not too plain, yet not too fancy. Pay no attention to what looks like an errant scribe line on the seatback... :unsure:

I had the remnants of a Revell Mickey Thompson Attempt 1 trailer I received in trade last year, so I decided to mock up the LSR Turbine car (the intended bed load) on the trailer's deck rails/planks/whatchamacallits:

testfit1.jpg

testfit2.jpg

Sometimes you get lucky. ^_^

I was planing on using an angled ramp bed, but after some test fitting, I think I'm going to use a flat deck with a small/short beavertail at the end of the bed/deck instead. A full-out angled ramp bed with multiple storage bins just doesn't seem to fit with the limited budget Studebaker was always working with, so simpler and cheaper wins this time. I was also planning to park the car nose up on the ramp bed, like so...:

testfitno1.jpg

testfitno3.jpg

...but decided to park it backwards instead. It just seems to flow better visually this way:

testfit3.jpg

testfit4.jpg

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Casey, I know little to nothing about trucks and I'm not sure if it would be appropriate but if you are looking for a nice 289, Monogram's Mustang GT350 (all versions) have a really nice engine and being 1/24 scale it might help fill-up the engine bay. That's the engine I like to use in AMT's Cobra.

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Casey, I know little to nothing about trucks and I'm not sure if it would be appropriate but if you are looking for a nice 289, Monogram's Mustang GT350 (all versions) have a really nice engine and being 1/24 scale it might help fill-up the engine bay. That's the engine I like to use in AMT's Cobra.

Studebaker 289, not a Ford. Completely different engines. ;)

That '60 Chevy bench looks pretty good once it's adapted to its new home... gonna have to file that one away for future use.

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Casey - what is the width and height of the seat you put in ?

The seat is the box stock width...which I didn't measure. :unsure: I will update this post with the backrest and bottom widths once I do. Here are the seat specs:

60Chevybenchseats4.jpg

60Chevybenchseat.jpg

60Chevybenchseats5.jpg

60Chevybenchseats6.jpg

60Chevybenchseats1.jpg

60Chevybenchseats2.jpg

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