PettyKW43

Good trailer choice , including the markings .

I had completely forgot about this post , thank you Doc , gives me exactly what I need to know! Do you still need the Peterbilt stuff?

What size rivits did you use on the Pete cab

I like your 1/32 chassis, and I hate this website , it helps perpetuate modellers ADD!

If one wants to build a U Series Mack swap in the the chassis from the AMT R600 kit !

I forgot to mention as well, the correct chassis under the Duck’s truck is going to have to be fabricated, Mack Western series trucks have a deeper frame rail than the AMT R series is too narrow, best thing kit wise is to get a set out of the Ford Louisville Short Hauler kit and use the Mack cross members and components.

Thanks Force for posting the pictures of the tires , I agree the Paystar tires look like military issues and I don’t think I would use them even on the Paystar . And since I like to use what’s on hand (probably 250kits) so a wide variety to pull from, I think I will stick with the MPC 11:00x20.

Glad Moebius is listening to us truck builders!

This was such a fabulously designed kit , MPC knew what they were doing back in the day , way too much Chrome but a bath in Castrol Super Clean and it’s gone , I have way too many trucks to build but I will have a few more now! I always wanted to do one of these as a wrecker!

No , the trucks didn’t have any front brakes and that’s why I will be modifying a Peterbilt front hub . As for the tires I guess I am being too fussy . The MPC tooled tires do look good on the Freightliner wheels, so I probably will go that route on the front however I still need to think about the rears , if one looks at the trucks sitting still you can see a rather aggressive tire lug, I haven’t seen the ERTL tires on the Paystar kits yet to know whether they would be what I would want to use. Paystars are probably the only kits I have never had yet , but I will at some point.

The Center hub will be a modified Peterbilt hub

I love those wheels but for my Movin’ On builds I am using the Freightliner kit wheels front and rear with the Kenworth hub and drum and making the the fronts with a couple of inner rears and adding the bolt detail to get the correct look . Tires are the issue, 10:00 x 22s? Not sure yet which way to go on this , MPC tooled 11:00x 20 pressed onto the 22 in rim will give the right diameter but it will still say 11:00x22.

Thanks for the info guys ! The Australian Kenworth and the Freightliners I have going can use them !

As has been stated , the ERTL kit is not much good as far as building an accurate Duck truck , in 1978 I scratch built a reasonable facsimile of the truck using the AMT R 600 and the engine and air cleaner out of the AMT Cruise Liner . I had almost all of the truck done when the Duck kit was done. What one must remember is that they used 4 trucks plus a glider during filming. The 1st unit truck was a brand new 77 RS700 L with the TipTurbine diesel coupled with a Fuller 10 Syd transmision and Mack’s camelback suspension and axels. The info I had received from writing a letter to Mack trucks. When Dan Bruno restored the second unit vehicle it was a combination of several trucks . If you look at it closely you will note the late style hood (the earlier hood was not as tall) the shorter cab shell, (cab was redesigned in the early 70’s ) as well as the sleeper box with the doors more centred . Also the shorter fuel tanks . It has a White trucks rear suspension ( spring similar to the White Freightliner kit springs) . Overall I think the resin kit looks good but really to be really accurate you would want to source the AMT kits and the stupid price ERTL kits to be bang on ! Aftermarket decals as well ! As for engine colour , the Tip Turbine was found in red , but mostly copper and some were gold. A friend of mine used to work as a mechanic at the local Mack dealer, he was my reference! Any questions on this one feel free to ask ! Studied the movie while watching over 200 time and I still pick up things.

I had to chime in on this in regards to the Petty references. In 1978 when Petty decided to make the switch to Chevrolet he did buy a Monte Carlo from Cecil Gordon , they did NOT buy an Oldsmobile, the Olds was built in house at Petty Enterprises for the Daytona 500 in 1979. They used components that they were comfortable and experienced with, and by that time in NASCAR, it didn’t mater what suspension type was used as long as it was production based. In regards to the upcoming kit I will wait to pass judgement on it , and I will modify and Model it accordingly as I have done with any kit . Since I don’t like working with resin I would rather correct a plastic kit than pay twice for a body in resin that usually needs work as well . Let’s build some plastic boys!!!!

I love this forum, the amount of information one can glean on a subject is fabulous! In regards to gold emblems yes they were in fact a nod to Kenworth’s anniversary year and all trucks that would have been built in 1973 would have been fitted with the gold emblems. But anyone who wanted to add them to their truck could have by walking into a Kenworth parts counter and ordered them. Again the point being for us wanting to build an accurate model of Sonny’s truck is to pick an episode or scene from an episode and build accordingly. Keep the info sharing going and build some trucks!

Also as an aside to the years of the trucks used , Model year of commercial trucks is determined by when the truck was titled. The truck could be built in 1972 but sold and titled in 1973 and as such it’s a 73. My guess as to what year the trucks used were would be dependent on when purchased and titled. Nevertheless for modeling purposes who cares what year , pick a truck with all known components and build accordingly, it will be great . I’m thinking of maybe Sonny’s first truck , a 62 Kenworth with a Mercury box and a two stick behind a 250 Cummins?

Actually the Oregon plate is correct on at least one film shoot , if you look at some of the photos of the truck you can see the two numbers taped over for some reason . The website for the license plates is three inches under.com (not sure about spacing in the title ) . I haven’t purchased from them yet but plan to as they have a lot of interesting plates of many years and locals!

I agree with Force on all the here say , I grew up watching the show ( although short lived on tv) and I have studied the pictures of the real truck from the net as well and anything that I have said about the truck is from my observation from all of these sources ! You also have to be careful because the truck that’s known to survive that is owned ( actually was owned, recently sold) by Paul Sagehorn is also heavily modified, drive line , rear suspension ( has a Peterbilt Airleaf) and tubeless Alcoa wheels . Still with all the info out there now we can all build a pretty accurate replica of Sonny’s truck! Can’t remember where but on a website selling license plate decals they have a ste for the Movin’ On truck and is very correct with most of the plate variations!

Also note that two of the Oregon plate are blanked out! Another interesting thing about the surviving Movin’On Kenworth that Paul Sagehorn owned ( recently sold ) was the truck later in life had been stretched and had a Peterbilt Airleaf suspension added . The new owner is planning to restore the truck back to its as filmed state, including the VT 903 Cummins and the torsion bar suspension!

I have to agree with the uninspiring box art ! The kit itself is a good one and actually you could have two complete kits in the box, maybe for a future reissue!

Or maybe one set!

Fabulous to have this back , regrettably I sold off the second issue kit that I had. Do have 3 sets of old AMT stick on decals so hopefully out of the three I can get at least one ste to adhere!

While we all would like to see new releases from Round2, I for one am excited to be able to go back and build the truck kits of my youth without paying unobtanium prices ! This one I will pickup at least 4 for kitbashing as well as A’s finally building up one to match the box art !

One of the trucks used in the series was a 1973 which was the 50th anniversary for Kenworth, it had the VIT sleeper box and gull wing bumper added to resemble the 74 trucks . Another variation from truck to truck was the step bias of the battery/tool boxes , sometimes it was towards the front and other times it was to the back . Also black rubber mud flaps and white plastic mud flaps depending on the truck . CB antennae’s also varied as did the license plates , and of course the engine VT 903 and NTC 350. The nice thing is one can build several completely different projects just on Sonny’s truck alone!