maxwell48098

Stopped by the two HLs in my area, and neither one had any truck kits on clearance. Must have missed them. A.J.

In reading the review, the one thing I noticed is that when he wired the engine, he ran the wires to the back if the engine instead of running them to the distributor (that looks like a blob on many of the AMT flatheads) which is located in the front of the engine, below the generator and above the lower crank pulley.

Charlie, Glad you like my Seagrave Sedan. I got some reference info from Matt Lee, but then living in the Detroit area, there have been several that over the years have been at local apparatus musters. When I moved to Detroit in the late '70's they were still in use all over the city. A friend of mine used to work for the DFD and we spent a day down at "the shops". There were probably 10-15 of them in various states of repair, or going out of service. The rust really took its toll on most of them after being on the streets for 15-20 years. A.J.

Here's the one I built in 1987 from the second set of Mike's castings.

The one thing that you have to keep in mind is that it is your model, so build it however you want. Just have fun doing it to please yourself.

I've been building model cars since 1958, trucks since the late '60's and fire apparatus since the early '70's. I don't categorize myself as I build for the fun of it, and depending on the model, I can go all out on detail or just do a build that looks good on the shelf. This is, and always has been, a hobby for me and when I don't find it fun, I take a brief break, but always end up coming back. I must admit that I have always found it hard to build a model just like the one shown on the box, and have always done something to make every model I've built unique in one way or another. I seldom try and duplicate a 1:1 truck, car, or piece of fire apparatus down to the smallest detail as that would be more taxing for me personally than to build something that is a reflection of what I have in my mind.

Here is a similar conversion that I built in 1984 using a modified 1981 issued MPC Cannonball Run 1978 Dodge van. Body and chassis modified to B300 maxi-van specs, with a second set of rear doors installed on right passenger side to provide windowed doors. Paint is Dupont Chrysler W1 with Testors orange.

Cool. A.J.

Great job. All it needs are some exterior mirrors.

It was actually common for big medium and heavy duty trucks not to have shock absorbers. I used to work as a tech in a Ford full-line dealership back in the 1960's and early 1970's, and once the truck got above the 500 series, shocks weren't even available. And those trucks were heavy, even when unloaded. They'd ride like a buckboard empty, but put 20,000 pounds on the back end, and they rode pretty well.

I've always loved these '25 Model T kits. I've built quite a few pickups over the year as well. Here are a couple that I still have on my shelf. Here's a stock one I built originally in 1970, then rebuilt it after a household move in 1985. Here's a fire chief's buggy built back in 1987 and restored in 2010.

Here are some from the '70's until now. 1970 GMC Long Bed 1971 Chevrolet C10 Short Box 1971 GMC Step Side 1972 Chevrolet C10 - low line 1973 Dodge W200 w/plow 1978 Dodge D100 Li'l Red Express - original 1978 kit 1980 Ford F150 Flareside 1990 GMC 3500 1991 Chevrolet 3500 short cab 1991 Ford F250 1992 Ford Flareside 1993 Chevrolet 3500 1993 Ford F150 long box 1994 Dodge Ram 1500 short box - cut down from 2500 long box 1994 Dodge Ram 2500 1995 Dodge Ram 3500 1996 Chevrolet C1500 454SS 1996 Chevrolet C3500 1996 Dodge Ram VTS 1996 Ford Ranger 1997 Dodge Dakota 1999 Chevrolet C1500

Here are some from the '40's, '60's, & '60's. 1940 Ford Pickup Street Rod 1940 Ford Pickup stock using AAM resin conversion kit. 1941 Chevrolet 1941 Ford stock using AAM conversion kit. 1950 Chevrolet 1953 Ford 1953 Ford 1956 Ford F100 (built in the 1980's before Revell stock version was available) 1961 original Falcon Ranchero

I've got quite a few so I'll start with ones from the '20's & '30's. 1925 Ford Model T Roadster Pickup 1928 Ford Model A Roadster Pickup 1929 Ford Model A Closed Cab Pickup 1932 Ford 4 Cylinder Pickup 1932 Ford V-8 Pickup 1934 Ford Pickup 1934 Ford Pickup 1934 Ford Pickup 1936 Ford Pickup

It is not that hard of a conversion to make if you have an old AMT '62 or '63 Chevy pickup cab to start with. Here's one I did,, but as a '62 GMC pumper. I made the fender flares out of Tamiya putty.

I think you'll find your answer here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/70067-history-of-mpcs-dodge-dw-series-trucks/ A.J.

I'd read this post: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/109703-amt-super-boss-2016/ A.J.

Reminds me of the 6X6 Dodge Ram T-Rex from back in the mid '90's. Neat build. A.J.

You could always get a Lil' Red Express kit which are common and cheap just about anywhere for the standard front suspension. That's what I did when I rebuilt so old 4x4's a couple of years ago. A.J.

Here is a 1977 Dodge mini-pumper that I built around 1980 that used resin castings from the 1/32 scale Aurora 1969 ALF pumper. They look quite good as 1/25 scale wheels and tires for 1 ton duallies.

I'm going to date myself here, but my first big truck kit was the phantom AMT tractor and trailer produced in the early '60's. The model and image shown aren't mine, but this one was a local show last month. The first regular big rig kit that I built was the 1969 issued IMC kit 118 Dodge L700 tractor. The funny thing about this is that I didn't build it as a stock tractor, but instead built it as a box van using half of the IMC trailer kit for the box, and Plastruct to lengthen the frame and aluminum tube for the longer prop shaft. I still have this one after rebuilding it in 1974 to repair damage from a house move. My absolute oldest truck build was built in 1960 from original AMT kit 125 1925 Ford Model T double kit. I never glued the turtle deck with spare tire or pickup box onto that kit, so I could swap it out when I played with it. The picture shown of the car is the 1960 kit, while the roadster pickup is one I built strictly as a pickup around 1970. A.J.

I took one of the R&R kits and lengthened it for this rescue truck. A.J.

Very nicely done. A.J.

Nice job Nick. A.J.

A spectacular work of art. Bravo! A.J.