Chariots of Fire

Watched the progress on this build from almost the beginning. Weathering is top notch and the craftsmanship is clean. A super job on one of the toughest old trucks around. Thanks for sharing, Daniel! Much appreciated!?

No, I know you weren't and I didn't take it as a criticism!? Meshanticut Fire Company in Warwick, RI had a blue Hahn back in the 1970's/80's that was pretty sharp. They are unusual, that is for sure.

I know, Peter but that's what the real one's color was and it just looked right. It's a close match. Lot's of things like that in the area it is from.

Believe it or not, masking tape works for a canvas roof. I have some wide painters tape that I used on a couple of projects. After painting it with some flat black and doing a bit of weathering, the texture looks just right. At least it does to me.

I think that is what attracted me to it, Bob. The styling. So classic for that period. It could have been built on a Mack chassis as well either a B model, L or LJ!

One thing to consider when soldering the brass would be to use a piece of aluminum rod or some other non-ferous material that would not become soldered to the hinge itself. After soldering is complete then the rod could be removed and be replaced with the rod section of brass or other material for additional strength.

I recently made some seat covers on the Reo project I was doing. The seat came from a Chevy p/u and had to be narrowed up some to fit in the cab. I sprayed the seats primer gray and then made an alternating blue striped decal leaving a clear space between the blue stripes. The entire seat was then sprayed with Dullcote. And a similar thing was done for this 1953 Ford Victoria hardtop.

That's nice work, Daniel! I used to get some real fine piano hinges from Great Britain but then the manufacturer stopped making them. Been out of luck ever since. Best I've been able to come up with is some real small brass tubing and some stainless steel wire.

Amazing what some masking tape, some weathered black paint and some powders will do!?

Any plans for a combined show like what you contemplated last Sept.? Or will you just wait till next year?

Work is done on the 1953 Reo Gold Comet Rescue. It's full size protégé is the rig from Port Vue, PA. But I took some liberty with the build to put my own livery on it. The outside styling is close but the cab interior and what I put in the compartments is my own idea since I had no idea as to what Port Vue actually carried. Anyway here it is in photo form. The rig is now in the display case. On to the next one, whatever it may be.

Can anyone read the small letters that are above the red Mack logo on the yellow truck above? C85? C95? That's a cool rig!

We are almost there. The flood lights are finished and some detailing has been added to the compartment interiors. Still thinking about what will go under the roof area.

Lookin' good, Daniel!

Got the flood lights done today. Still have to "wire" them up but the construction is done. I put BMF on the lens to cover it and then sprayed the entire light unit silver. Then the BMF was removed leaving the white resin as the lens. Common pins were used for the clamps that hold the lens cover in place. The mounting platform is made of strip brass and a thin section of PVC pipe.

A little more progress on the flood lights. Two more to go!?

That's a great restoration job! Thanks for sharing the work. How about showing us the bumper! Maybe we can come up with a way to get a new one.?

Got started on the flood lights for the top of the body. The first thing was to make a master that could be copied so that all three lights are the same. I found some light images on line along with general dimensions. This helped me to turn a master from aluminum and then do the mold. In the photo below is the master in the middle, a first resin casting to the right and a second casting in the clamp that has been sprayed silver. The unpainted casting is no good as it has a bubble in the middle of the lens but that is easily corrected with two more like the painted one. I kept the face of the light in the white resin as it seems to look like a translucent lens that these lights had. The lights will be mounted as seen in the photo below after mounting brackets are made for each one. They will be "wired" through the top of the body.

This has been a great project to follow. Lots of interesting detailing all the way along. Is the cab roof going to remain dark faded paint? Any plans for a canvas overlay? Just wondering.

Latest pix. Finished rear view mirrors and fender directional lights.

NO need to save the dust, Roy. Just wipe away most of the CA leaving the rest in the void. Let the sanding stick or file make the residue and in doing so it will fill and harden the void. The mixture sands away fine and it does not shrink.

I agree with what Alan said about filling gaps first. I use CA a lot and when the gaps are small I just sand them and let the CA capture the sanding dust. It is a good filler. Then I can use the Tamiya putty sparingly. It does tend to shrink and it takes a bit of patience to work with it. Let it harden really well and then sand the extra putty away. If you still have gaps try filling them at that point with glue and/or styrene and then reputty.

More work on the project. Bell and siren/light combo on the front bumper, steps, spotlights, rear tail and direction lights and body grab rails. The latter were a pain to bend. The aluminum rod tends to bend in one spot rather than take a nice radius. Perhaps because it is soft. Stanchions are crimp beads along with common pins and aluminum flashing for the mounting points.

I went to a show a few years back with my '37 Seagrave tractor drawn aerial. Before the show actually got underway I was putting things out on the table and two guys came up to me and said "boy those ladders look just like real wood". I said "Yes, I guess they do! That's because they are real wood"1 ??

Now I see how you did your raising mechanism. Here's a look at how Mack did the similar thing for their AP's that were used in the construction of Boulder Dam. I don't know exactly what the lifting capacity of the system was but these were 12 cubic yard dump bodies. Rock fill weighs about 140 lb/cubic foot and there are 27 cubic feet to a cubic yard so when we tally it all up the weight of the payload alone is about 45,360 lb. or about 22.7 tons. And that does not include the body weight. Later versions had bodies made of aluminum which cut down the overall weight that has to be raised.