leafsprings

"62-'63 Chevy pickups look very similar to most people, they'll say the grill and emblems are different, which is true, howvever the '63 went thru an extensive chassis improvements, GM dropped the torsion bar front end for coil springs and the frame was replaced with a ladder type over the previous X design. AMT left the old incorrect suspension under the new '63 truck kits. Too bad AMT dropped the pickup kits in '64 , '65 and '66. Any body have any explanations on why?

Really like this one, everything blends together very well.

I'm sick of the car style full wheelcovers that came with most 70's MPC, AMT Chevy, Ford and Dodge 2WD pickups. Their definition of stock, was the top of the line optional full wheelcover. Thanks Moebius for breaking the mold, by actually offering HUBPCAPS on most of your pickups. We need Dodge 3/4 ton hubcaps in resin! IMO, the '72-'73 grill was the best looking, followed by '74-'76, went downhill '77 +

MPC was cutting tooling costs. They took the 8 lug wheels off their 1/20 Ford Van, widen them and modified the hubs. No explanation of the low profile street tread tires, which, IMO, were a joke. Here is one built back in the day, but tires were upgraded to Formula Desert Dogs that fit the 8 lug rims very well.

The term "Big Rig" is very subjective, I been having problems with it since many of my builds are in the heavy straight truck class. If a heavy wrecker does not belong here, were does it belong? Light commercial trucks ( beefied up pickups) and many medium trucks do not require special license, but heavy trucks (over 26K) do. AMT screwed up the series designation on most of the Ford tilt kits, C 600 was a falsehood, it was a C 900, top of the line for 2 axle tilt cabs. GVW for the AMT C 900 is around 36K, a whopping 10K over a non CDL vehicle. Here is something I was experimenting with.

Well if Moebius is making a nice profit with the never done before Ford pickups, I am sure they will have there sites on the Dodge pickups next. Personally, I would like to see the '65-'71 offered first.

As you probably already know, there were a 2 or 3 different Peterbilts used in the full movie. Your dual drive Pete with mid 60's cab and one piece rims is correct for the add on scenes ( railroad track push scene and bus push scene - see link below ) I believe it was a '64, the rest of the trucks were mid 50's, with older style cab, 2 piece rims and single drive with tag axle. I agree the mollenium wheels are great, the AMT steel wheel discs used on the ALF pumper were a disappointment, not enough offset. Looks like you got the right pieces for a fantastic Duel truck. IMO, the best thing that ever happened to the California Hauler is the availability of 281 front end in resin. http://moparblog.com/movie-mopar-of-the-week-the-1971-plymouth-valiant-from-duel/

Incredible! I'm speechless at this point.

Excellent job on the slightly weathered chassis and engine. Too many of my builds are too shiny and clean, like they just rolled off the assembly line. It takes a lot of skill and patience to do a 20 to 50 thousand mile truck.

Thankyou for the update Repstock. Your Explorer looks great. Factory colors, paint stripe and molding deletes are right on target, can't wait to see the special plaid bench seat!

Not shown on their website, only shows the Chevy Longbed being available.

I thought we would have a good quality regular '73-'79 8' F 100- F250 bed readily available in resin by now.

Grill just about done, decided to go with the '59-'60 grill, needed a little reworking from what came with kit. Cab is now in primer sealer.

Thanks for the info Chuck. These are older built pieces like you say, but they were the best you can do at the time. Dan Models of Romania has recently offered a high quality and super detailed version with several separate pieces of the '61-'62 F 500- F 750 medium class cab plus the much heavier " Super Duty" '65- 69 F850- F 1100 class cab which I have both purchased and will built at some point in the future. The price of the Dan Models Ford cabs is right in line of what you expect to pay for an older Modelhaus offering of the '64-'66 Chevy C50-C80 cab on ebay.

Here is the 4th example. Got the dump body from AITM recently , just have to paint and install mud flaps, "Bloomfield Construction Co" decals already on doors. I'm curious who originally made these, and wonder why the hood never opened and why the grill was not a separate piece? When finished, I'll put this medium-heavy class truck in the Big Rig section?

Excellent work! As they say, the devils in the details, and you nailed the details with these wheels!

Nice low cost hauler. The dual headlights immediately set the tone for a more nostalgic era. Looks like Mr. Wolfe bought this C series from a government auction in the late 70's showing about 20 years of oxidized original U.S Army green paint.

Thanks for posting. Those light duty tractors and small trailers were popular in the 30's-40's-50's, even though they many never be restored, it's nice to see history preserved as is.

Hopefully someone does a quality resin of photo #4 , now that the re issue donor kits are plentiful.

Here's another of the resin 1963 Ford AITM offerings done up as a medium-heavy duty tractor. This is another older build I never showed till inspired by seeing Chuck Mosts F 750 recently. I opted for 10 hole Buds, air brakes and resin saddle tanks. I was thinking about converting to a Custom Cab by installing a chrome grill off a vintage AMT '63 Ford pickup, but didn't have the correct tool to chisel out the resin grill. This F 750 would have the big Y block 332, but the hood doesn't open unfortunately. I believe Force mentioned in another trailer thread that the AMT Haulaway trailer is from the early 60's, which seemed to be a perfect match for this era tractor . A load of brand new '64's would be appropriate behind a '63 tractor. Hope to see more under represented 50's thru 70's medium duty trucks on this forum! Maybe this should have been posted in the Big Rig section?

Thanks for the positive comments! It's actually a pretty simple build, no body work was necessary, thanks to the excellent '57 resin pickup cab that came with a chrome front grill. F 500- F 600's in these years didn't have the larger fenders and running boards used in later 1 1/2 and 2 ton Fords.

1957 F 500 Custom Cab . Light weight local tractor converted from the pickup resin offering a few years back. Frame is from the Dodge L 700. Wheels are ebay resin. Period 272 V8 from a '56 pickup. Last photo was my inspiration from a Ford brochure.

Nice to see this aitm 2 ton cab build. Grill detail is impressive. These trucks are very versatile as a dump, wrecker, tractor and flatbed as well. Great job on the 9' Flareside which I believe was used up to '72 on single wheel F 350's..

Great job! Using a GM frame with a GM cab really adds to the authenticity.

How about a Moose and Benji ( Movin On series ) build?