olsbooks

Super job! I really like the windshield effect you pulled off. Well done!

tick with it my friend. There are tons of guys on here that would be tickled to help. If there is something lousy in the instructions or a missing/unidentifiable part, just post a question. 99% of the regular watchers and posters here are not here to pass judgment. We share our lessons learned (often from our own mistakes) and encourage others. And a few psychotics like me are not afraid to post our misadventures and tell you "well...that did not work....see?". And most of us get right back if you send a PM. I think you are on the right track. And since you like COE's, here is a black and green Freightliiner I built several years ago in a hotel room in Chicago over the winter. Not a prize winner, but turned out decent for a true budget build and virtually no tools. You conquer these things with patience and trial and error....not much else works...been there....done that... Peace.

Well, Lugnut got out the air hammer and mounted some wheels just for a look see. The chrome plating with the kit on the wheels was just "too much" so I used an well worn scotchbrite pad and just made a few quick passes to knock off some shine and also put a bit of a phonograph record texture into them. This is near new early 80's rig. Long before every Tom, Dick, and Harry had a buffing wheel and jewelers rouge to get the mirror effect. Also, we decided to try a suspension test and it seems to do well. One thing is for certain though is the need for some sort of safety chain to keep the rear axle assemblies from swinging out and breaking something (shocks especially) when I go to pick it up. Not that I or Lugnut would ever forget....LOL. Tires were roughed up with 220 grit on the treads and 440 on the sidewalls to take rid the flash and kill the gloss. I will go back over the sidewalls with a bit of used engine oil to finish them off so they have just a tad of shine. While not going for "showroom new", the goal is ALMOST new so there will be some light weathering here and there. One thing I would welcome help on is suggestions on the cooling fan. I want to try and make it look like natural "fiberglass". I cant seem to mix up anything reasonably close and my talents at mixing colors are not the best. White, yellow, brown, and ????? Oh, the brown stick coming out the top of the engine? A coffee straw that will eventually become an upper radiator hose. Kind of put myself in a literal bind though for the left side of the engine with the exhaust piping going to the turbo. What is that famous saying.... oh yeah....OOOPS. "Hey Lugnut! Come here! I got a job for you....." Peace.

Outstanding. VERY clever how you pulled off the larger front tires. Will have to try that when I get some spares.. Keep up the good work.

A quick update. Resourcefulness and sleeplessness are kicking in. We are scratching bottom in the paint dept and budget. We found a leftover can of silver exhaust header paint for the engine. The rest is bits of tempera paint along with a bit Testors bright silver. Decals are out due to lack of access to printer for now so we just wiggled some black, red, and orange blobs for the rocker cover logos and lettering. Illegible obviously...but the effect is there. I say all this not to draw pity but to try and encourage any fence sitter out there to TRY. It does not take big $ to pull of something pretty decent. Look at the shapes you need and hit the second hand stores and Dollar General. The only total failure is when you fail to try. . The more we kick in the brain, the less we have to pull out the wallet. And so, as Bullwinkle used to say "Hey Rocky!..Watch me pull a rabbit out of the hat....". Did not get a rabbit...but we definitely no longer have a kitty. For what was a 3408 and little more than phone wire shield, cutting board feet, and a little filler, it will pass. To which Lugnut concludes... "Now here's something we hope you'll really like". Rocky & Bullwinkle followers will get that line. Peace

Thanks Matthew. It must be my browser (I.E.) interacting with the model car forum site. Your instructions are what I usually am able to pull off hitch free but it wont work on the model car forum. When I go to paste, nothing shows. I got the option to paste so I know it is indeed grabbing the link but it just comes up blank on my post here when I hit paste. Raggafragga. There is an option that will keep Google and its brethren out of my life...just got to find it. In the meantime, I will just go and delete some old pix and posts. So here is the update on the soon to be silver 92 with Lugnuts new beanie hat. Thanks

Nice job on the engine and would be well suited If you got some "spare" cabs laying around, there is a neat youtube out by a young kid that uses thread as a saw to cut out doors on plastic kits. I am yet to try it but is sure seems to work well and plan too try it on my next venture. I'm having trouble getting links to attach but if dig around and you can find it. I really doubt there is any problem with the purple power regardless of temp unless down to like zero degrees F.. I would suspect the bucket or maybe some residue in it. Try a cheap foil pan. Good luck.

HELP! Lugnut and I are caught in computer technobabble! I went and set up a photobucket account and I keep trying to copy and paste the link onto this forum. If I just try to paste it direct nothing comes up. If I use the "link" icon it locks up. OBVIOUSLY there is a death ray from Andomeda or solar flare as certainly it is not MY fault. Lugnut is about to wet himself with excitement to show his new Detroit and beanie hat with propeller made from the cooling fan. HELP!

VERY VERY Nice. I am ALMOST so selfish and arrogant to think you posted the line up of engines picture just to tempt or tease me on the 1/16 General.....LOL Ol' Lugnut is over here is frothing at the mouth and wiping his tears... Poor Lugnut. That "buzzin duzzin" is sweet. Nice job. Look forward to following it. Peace .

Thanks William. I would like to try resin but I have the time to try this and not the $. Seems Lugnut went to the Home Shopping Network and bought 50 sets of Ginsu knives and Chia Pets further blowing the budget. The boy worries me sometimes. Anyway, below is "round 2". Better. The blower I whipped up and Cat turbo were simply too big. The exhaust manifolds are not quite right but should do. The turbo is stick on mounting pads like on the bottom of a cutting board. (Same thing I used for the seats for the air bags) The long runs of pipe are being made out of the outer jacket of telephone wire. The elbows and what not are just scraps of sprues heated and bent. It has potential. The pipes from the manifolds to the turbo and the turbo/blower assembly are still loose fit at this point. Not as good as resin, but just might work for a low budget operation. And for those that have been following this or my other projects, you know it usually takes me twice. Peace

Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into it. OK, the kitty has drifted from Peoria to Detroit. An abomination to some and a sign of divine intervention for people like myself. This is my first go round at this so there will be many more major tweaks but just to give you an idea of turning (no...improving) a 3408 into an 8V-92T. GMC never offered a factory 3408 and I am not up to scratchbuilding an inline 6 so why not?. Besides, after 25 years of working on 2 strokes, it just seems fitting. Budget wont stand some of the resins out there. It wont be exact but I am just going for overall effect. Now I got to get Lugnut to start figuring out how to do the front and back of the engine and the piping. OH, the blower? It is from the same stick on bodyside molding I used for the trailing arms on the Neway air ride. Yet another delusion is taking shape on this project. Since I don't have big front tires, spokes, and all that for a Michigan Train but I have "pretty wheels" and a long frame, well, how about the General from Smokey and the Bandit 2. Never seen anyone try this (at least in 1/16) and Sergey's "Love Machine" just really struck a nerve. I cant even come close to the quality of his workmanship but it is worth a shot. Gotta admit that silver is not a favoriteexterior color but we shall see what transpires. Peace .....

Alclad or BMF is definitely in the plans. After "tooting his own horn" about the bumper success, which cleared the shop for several minutes until the exhaust fans were turned on,, Lugnut got serious on some front end work. Like the 1/16 KW Gold Nugget, a steerable front end was a must. Just drilled a single hole for each "moving point" and THEN made the cut. He dropped in a straight pin and just a dab of CA on the head of the pin to keep it from working up. He will follow thru with the same on the pitman arm and drag link up. If a moment of sanity emerges, we might take a stab at fabricating a more suitable power steering box and placing up front where it should be on a GMC. A dual PS arrangement would be nice with an 18K front axle with "big bologna" fronts on spokes, but just is not in the budget. Next will be hanging brake rigging, lines, and all that. Got to watch him on the air lines though. He about choked himself after getting all tangled up. Peace . .

"Cat is away, mice will play". While out on a motorcycle ride, Lugnut pulled out the grinder. Well he was holding this up in my face with puppy dog eyes and grunted something like "mo' better?". Elongating the pockets seemed to do the trick.. Now for some Alclad or BMF but that is way down the pike. Wound up finding some tiny "half round" solid stock and putting it on the back side outer perimeter. That really made a huge difference versus trying to sand in a "perfect" radius all the way around. Quarter round would have been better but this will certainly do. Well done Lugnut. But it takes more than one "attaboy" to wash out a thousand "awcraps".. Peace.

Absolutely incredible my friend. Congratulations! A work of true craftsmanship and it shows.

Thank you for the kind words. Dipstick stayed with the Gold Nugget. (check that painfully long thread if you haven't) Seems Lugnut got revenge on him for the exhaust stack trick by gluing his gluteous maximus behind the wheel. That, or it may have been the "sit down, shut up, hold on" bumper sticker Dipstick read on a 4 wheeler. Now he thinks he cant move until he sees another one that says "you can get up now". He is bad for that kind of stuff. Years ago, Dipstick saw a sign that said "clean restrooms" at a truckstop and wound up spending the next 6 hours scrubbing toilets there. Now the feds are after him for logbook violations for time behind the wheel. Seriously, I will be going to check on him in a few days and there may be a brief reunion. For now, I probably will stay with the bumper that is under construction honing some skills and not leave well enough alone. Using the KW frame, the front is considerably different than a GMC. GMC was a straight shot C channel full length. KW hacked the C channels off well before the radiator and bolted in a drop down segment. KW is quite wide and low. If I go and put the fog light holes where they are supposed to be, there is no real way to mount the lights. The front spring hangers and frame are right in the way. So there you have it. The most elaborate "it aint my fault/I planned it this way all along" and best excuse for getting out of making another bumper I can come up with. Fabricating a new leaf spring front suspension is far beyond my pay grade anyway....for now. Or Lugnut might cheat and put the grinder on the tow hook pockets and elongate them to make things look a little more balanced. Peace.

Thanks JT. Onto first stab at bumper fabrication for Lugnut. It is two layers to allow the "pockets" for the license plates. The hardest part by far is trying to sand a consistent taper at each hole or recess. Oh, and measuring. What is the saying? Measure twice and cut once? Well I botched that one as the light pockets are not centered between the license plate pockets and the tow hook pockets. Oh well, it is prototype, freelancing, rookie mistake, the dog ate my ruler....whatever..... Truth is truth.. I messed up. But at least the process has been figured out. Peace

From old Sat. Night Live and Mr. Bill...."OHHH NOOO.! Not Mr. Hand!." As you will see in the pix. But Lugnut is keeping a vigilant eye out. As hoped, right around 5 cm / a quarter inch of travel. Lets see, in 1/16 scale that works out only to about 4 inches in real life. Well, though plans are to make it into a Michigan train, it aint a rock crawler. Now onto running wiring and plumbing and last bit of cleanup. A series of (in scale version) hard bottoming outs, frame twists, and grabbing for air did not shake anything loose or break anything. The straight pins work really well at keeping the bags from "squirming" out and aligned properly. But lining the bags and pins up for that first install so it looks right is tricky. A skill yet to be mastered and I stink at throwing darts which is what it amounts too. But it is progress.... Now I realize that flex tubes are going to be required on the driveshafts to accommodate the travel. Like the shocks, they just got to sit in the simmer pot until some more hefty, decent looking, and cheap is whipped up.. Peace.

A few artistic liberties were taken but function was more important than form in my mind. We are pretty much down to fabrication of a lower shock brackets and making pins for the trailing arms where they go into the hangers. A scrap of toothpick will likely be used for both. Then it will just be some minor clean up though the shocks may get relocation. While it does not show in the pix, there is a rigid "cross tube" across the rear below the air bags made out of a coffee straw. Winds up I have a good 1/4" travel. Why did I insist on having it work? Why did the chicken cross the road? Much learned on this which is always my primary objective. The foam bags are held in by pieces of straight pins on the top and bottom to keep the bags in place. They are not glued. I will not glue the trailing arm pins in until the last thing. This will allow Lugnut to "drop out" the whole rear suspension for running air and electrical lines, paint and detail. It will also allow installation of softer or firmer air bags once built if adjustments need to made in ride height. Bill of materials was scrap plastic, straight pins, toothpicks, a foam stress ball, coffee straws and scraps of stick on body side molding. The only real expense was about $3 for the round plastic discs that the air bags rest on. I used a package of "furniture sliders" as my ability to whiddle these round discs out with any precision and quantity was out of my league. Now onto the rear most axle. It was a lot of fun. "Make it work on a shoestring budget and learn some geometry in the process". May not satisfy the scrutiny of everyone seeking prototypical accuracy but that is ok. The mission was accomplished. Peace

Thanks. Depending on how serious the delusions of grandeur (and budget) go, the idea of having this thing crudely motorized so the drive wheels turn on rollers or just a fuzz above the "road" is echoing around like a bad flashback. Getting the front axle to steer was not hard on the Gold Nugget project and I am going to stick with the KW front steering/suspension. "Z" scale model trains come to mind.as they have twin shaft motors if I can get one that has any power at all yet turn very slow. They would fit inside the differential. Or Lugnut might join a road gang and try to hide some powered rollers in the "road" with some bumps of course to bounce the rear end.. Sort of like an old school dyno. Hmmm. I like that better. Why be normal? If I cant make a show winner on appearance (which it wont be between vision and $) then bamboozle them with creativity..

Lugnut has confused the air bag for a trampoline. Only when I applied the whoopee cushion would he stop. But it works. Shaping is indeed very tricky with foam. A $1 stress ball from Dollar General will give gracious plenty material. Scissors work better than anything for shaping and trying to minimize compression during the trimming helps. Tricky indeed, but will accomplish the desired results. I will trade off some looks for functionality. Now to get the 3 others together and mount functioning shocks. Probably will glue the bags to the trailing arms and let them just "rest" on pockets of the frame rails. I have no idea how much this thing will weigh so it seems wise to leave an easy way to add more foam/redo if necessary. Ditto in that it will make an easy way to install axles and air lines. Oh, and yes for the eagle eyes out there. I know the arm is hanging "backwards" on the frame. I just put it together backwards for trial fit and wanted to save the cast in bags and pockets until I was sure a solution was found. Have a good weekend.

While the search for" black marsh mellows" for air bags continues, functioning rear shocks were also on the list. And so while sitting in the local café with a coffee straw and a toothpick.......functioning shock absorbers just sort of happened. Gonna check for a Dr. Scholls shoe insole or perhaps a black stress ball for air bag material. Stay tuned and Lugnut will be back on the job. Peace.

This thing is shaping up well! Nice job on the front extension!

Mirrors, wipers, signals are great "starter" projects for scratch building. A little plastic and wire. Cost of learning and inevitable failed attempts before finally pulling it off is tolerable. I use cheap "chrome" tape that works real well for mirror faces. Certainly not perfect, but was in much the same boat on my Aero Astro project. Not a show winner, but it will pass arms length scrutiny which is better than the city dump. I put some blurbs on that thread if you want to go with the full fender skirts, big grille, etc. For the front "bowtie", consider just "printing" one from a jpg off the net on some thick paper and trimming it. Cutting out that bowtie that small from plastic (for me at least) and to get proportioned correctly despite measuring is very challenging to say the least. With regards to the front axle pins and parts, look in the area of Hobby Lobby where they have all the stuff to make jewelry and necklaces. I think you could find something that would work. Just look for the shapes you need within the bigger pieces. You know, like a dangling charm that will spin around designed to thread on a necklace rope.. A large fishing line swivel might work too. Often times a whack with a blade or nippers and presto!. Think outside the box. Good luck!

And so we begin. Item 1 is ditching the KW 8 bag suspension. Though GM pushed their version of air ride, in the final years they did finally offer Neway if I recall correctly. And so out of some sheet plastic layered up and filled, here is a prototype just for a look see. The trailing arm is actually a piece of stick on automotive body side molding. It is very flexible and seems to hold its shape so bending the arch is not a major problem. I just scraped the adhesive and chrome off and shaped it with a razor blade. Not perfect, but I think accomplishes the effect. Now, where do I find what amounts to black marsh mellows to use for air bags that actually will squish a bit? It is approaching Halloween.....hmmmmm. No, Lugnut would just eat them....Heck, as soon as I mentioned marsh mellow he started eyeballing the cast in bags with a typical psychotic glare in his eyes.... Sorry for the low res but about out of space on this site and must find an alternate space to post pix going forward. Suggestions? Good to be back in the groove after far too long a reprieve. Lord willing, I will be in one place for a while. Peace

VERY SHARP. Is it real or is it Memorex. (Who remembers that). Silver , black, and chrome gain just beg for B&W in my humble view. Back in the day, known as "builders photos" used in service manuals. Oh, WMC? White Motor Co. VERY VERY WELL DONE! Look forward to the trailer.