Old Albion

Paul, Great looking COE. The 362 is a model we haven't seen much of on the forum. Great to see it. Dave

Tim, Yet another great looking truck! You will be running out of space very soon and need to extend the extension on your house. Best regards Dave

Since the weather has been to cold to paint my Autocar A64B. I have been working on the Old Detroit, on and off, for the last month or so. The turbochargers and superchargers are now complete. In the photo's they are just pinned in place not glued yet. The superchargers and turbos have proved the most difficult so far. But those difficulties have now been overcome and the engine is well on the way to completion. There is still a lot of work to do, but it really is starting to take shape. Needless to say I am pleased with the result. http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/116-12v71tta-detroi/ Thanks for looking Dave

Jim, Interesting your comment about the year that Kenworth stopped painting engines white. I wonder if they gave the buyer a choice. White or OEM colour? I have some photo's of a 1978 W900A with a 3408 painted white. It was a truck for sale on eBay last year. The seller said the engine was in original condition and had not been overhauled. I think the original mileage was 300,000+ if I remember rightly. Beautiful truck went for about $ 6,500 or there abouts. I copied all the photo's for a future project. Best regards Dave

Tim, The engine is a Cummins NTC475. Its easily recognised by the twin turbos. Correct colour maybe white for Kenworth at that time. But what ever colour you want. Dave

George, I would say that your about right with the duty rating of the torsion bar. Its important to remember that the air type suspensions were a relatively modern design from the late 1960s onwards. These with their lower maintenence, smoother ride and better handling sounded the death nell for some of the older design suspensions. Kenworths torsion bar suspension was a good light weight robust system. It worked and worked well. If you wanted to go off road a walking beam system, or a Mack Camel back suspension would be the most preferable. When building a scale model truck it is a very important aspect of the build. For example if you are building a Mack DM800 dumper. You would not put an air suspension on it unless you wanted major problems. The Mack Camel Backs are the ones for that duty. Similarly if you are building a truck trailer combination that hauls china, pottery, glass etc, You will not put a walking beam or a camel back suspension on the rig. An air system is the one. Many restored trucks have had the suspensions replaced with air systems to make the ride smoother. Incidently the DM in DM800 stood for Dumper Mixer. Hope this helps Dave

Paul, Great Work! I like the colour scheme and the weathering is very convincing. Dave

Charlie, I like the idea of a used car hauler as the others do. Try the White Freightliner SD with the kit Cummins or maybe a 6-71 or 6V71 Detroit Diesel. Dave

I bought the narrow nose KW conversion and the torsion bar set up from Matt some time ago now, have done nothing with it yet. But I will get to it one day. The torsion bar suspension was a standard option on KW trucks. Not sure of the dates when it was offered but certainly through the 1950s-1970s. It was a good suspension, but required good preventative maintenence to keep it in good working order. To find one original today is getting pretty scarce. Many have been converted to air suspension. I took some reference photo's at the ATHS convention in Hutchison in 2008 for some future projects. http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/aths-convention-08-/trucksatathsconvent-31.html http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/aths-convention-08-/trucksatathsconvent-32.html http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/aths-convention-08-/trucksatathsconvent-33.html http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/aths-convention-08-/trucksatathsconvent-43.html http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/aths-convention-08-/trucksatathsconvent-44.html http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/aths-convention-08-/trucksatathsconvent-45.html http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/aths-convention-08-/trucksatathsconvent-46.html http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/aths-convention-08-/trucksatathsconvent-47.html I have also seen some trailers with Torsion Bar suspension. Revel made a couple of kits many moons ago which I think were about 1/43 scale. The KW tractor had torsion bar suspension and the trailer did as well. (Bekins van lines and Sam II misile or something like that). Hope this helps. Dave

Jim, We have been graced with some superb examples of paint work on the forum before. But this one is amazing. I am lost for words as to how your freind achieved that look and finish. Well no excuses now for not finishing. The only thing is I would be very wary about handling that cab in case the paint work got damaged. With regards to seat covers try the ones from KFS: Look in the decals section: http://www.kitformservices.com/decalpics/Seat-covers-twin-1.jpg Hope this helps. Dave

Bill, Superb! I love the colour scheme it really looks well. The tyres you have used look right to. I don't like the small tyres that come with the AMT Pete 359 kit. The frame next to the Pete looks like an early K100 Kenworth with the torsion bar rear suspension. Excellent work! Dave

Tim, I agree the tyres in the Pete kit are far to small for me. I have always preferred big rubber. If you look at a Pete 359 see how much the tyre fills the fender. The bigger the better for me. rronning84 It looks like your trailer has the tyres that Tim mentioned. I might be wrong though. Have you sorted the stripes out yet?? Good Luck with the build. Dave

Ray, This is looking great so far. I like the rivet detail. I get mine from Scale Hardware http://www.scalehardware.com/ They are expensive. I could do with finding another supplier who makes them in plastic. These I think would be cheaper and easier to work with. Good Luck with the rest of the build Dave

Ben, Just had a look through your albumn. Superb!!! That is a great looking build. I love the details especially the battery box and tool box. You need to start your own thread on this since this is a truly magnificant build. Dave

Ben, Just noticed your avatar. That Cummins looks great have you any photo's of it? I'd like to have a closer look if you don't mind. Thanks Dave

Ray, The hood parts in the kit will be OK to use. The sides are already seperate. You will need to split the top pieces thats all. You may need to thin the plastic down where the hinges will fit, but apart from that its pretty straight forward just a little time consuming. I made new side pieces for the hood and modified the top ones for the Autocar because it has an extended hood on it. If you use the MCG hinges be sure to slightly rough the face that will glue to the hood parts. I found that if you did not do this the glue (Cyanoacrylate) does not "key" very well and the hinge falls off!! Dave

Ray, Many Thanks for posting the photo's. Dave

Sorry About the problem with the link. It looks like when the web site was changed the link was lost. If you go to Youtube and type in this in the search: 1972 Peterbilt 359M with Caterpillar 1693TA, Cold Start, Part 1 You will see the other 6 videos. Hope this helps. Dave.

If your using the V12 Detroit make sure its the 12V71TTA turbocharged model. It would be more in keeping with the type of engine that is used for pulling. The type of wheels is an interesting subject. I wonder why spokes were prefered in the east and mid-west but not so on the West Coast? Perhaps more dificult to clean and more skill required to fit? Were spokes cheaper than the Bud and the Alcoa type wheels? Dave

Kurt, Yet another outstanding build project comes to a very satisfactory conclusion. Superb!! Dave

Chuck, This is a great build. I really like the colour it suits the WF well it does have that 70s look to it. There's too much neutral white colours in trucks these days (Certainly in Europe). Dave

Chuck, Interesting concept. Will the frame be strong enough? Reason I ask is it looks like it would make a good pulling truck! Dave

I have built the butterfly hood for the Autocar. I used the kit hood and modified it to suit. The piano hinges are from Model Car Garages. I was going to paint it last weekend. But the weather is too cold at the moment. So I will have to wait!!! I added some extra photo's to my albumn. http://public.fotki.com/oldalbion/autocar-a64b-with-5/7.html Ben, Chris, I will produce some sketches in the near future so if anyone wants to build one they can. Whether they want to scratch build or whether someone wants to offer it as a kit. Best Regards Dave. PS: Merry Christmas!!!

Chuck, Very nice build, very impressed. The old Mack in its day would have been a big truck. So yes you have posted it in the right place. When you look at the old AC Mack you can see why the British Tommies in the First World War called them Bulldog Macks. Of course the name stuck and thats where Mack got their Mascot from. Great Work Dave