BK9300

It’s very cool to see all the details, like the drilled disc brakes and that beautiful engine. Also, did you highlight paint the chrome carriage bolts on underside of the frame, or did you use dress pin heads? Looks very convincing, in any event!

I was going through the parts tree for the Alaska Hauler and found a pair of chrome, Donaldson air cleaners, marked on the instructions 'Not for use'. They were definitely smaller in diameter than the non-chrome one from the kit I did the earlier work on. After a few trial fits and and removing about 1.5 mm from the overall height, I think this air cleaner will be able to be used and the hood will still open and close without hitting it. While the air cleaner modifications set up, I prepped some of the small cab pieces for priming and painting and spent the afternoon painting. Also got second coats on the floor pan underside and on the dash The windshield washer reservoir still needs a coat, or two, of dull or satin clear to give the illusion of reservoir itself - hoping to get it to look a bit more like the filler hose portion. Also, two short tubing extension have been added, positioned below the control tower, for wiring runs to exit/enter the cab floor. The small, rectangular box on the upslope of the footwell is another receptacle that part of the front wall harness will hopefully plug into Might not show up well in the pic, but the control tower and the mast have been painted using Alclad 'Steel' - it is not as dark as the satin black underside of the floor pan and should be a nice contrast to the rubber black floor mat which is getting painted tomorrow The hood supports, overflow tank and the fuse box are temporarily in place so I could see what size of Wave spring would best suit an attempt at the basic wiring harness(es) I want to do. This size spring looks to be a bit big, so next size down (2.0mm) should do it. I'm planning to insert an appropriate gauge, normal wire with a copper core, into the spring which can be formed into curves and will hold the shape needed for the harnesses. I test fitted the door cards into the cab today. Once the cab is painted and the door cards glued in, the goal is to lay out some of the wiring harness, attaching the ends at a nearby point inside the frame, then set the floor pan/dash assembly on the cab mounts, and get the wiring from the sander tucked up under the cab in one tube, and add the few wires leaving the cab, out to somewhere along the frame. Then the glass can be put in the cab and the cab can be lowered down over the floor pan and glued, the wiring harnesses 'plugged' in and hope that everything still lines up to have the hood work properly! All this is several days off but, that's part of the plan for the next week or so. Take care!

Fine looking addition to your 'shelf' fleet! Subtle dust weathering is just enough and adds lots of character to the truck. Great job, Jeff!

I'm heading over there now - will be good to see the finished project!

Well, I don't think I'm doing anything that others haven't already done, so have at it!

This is exactly why I have followed your builds for a few years now - excellent details and paint, just a pleasure to look at! Going great, Gary.

Terrific work on the firewall detail and wiring - very tiny bits to work with!

Beautiful truck - very striking paint scheme!

I blistered my finger bending something that small once - hope all your fingers survived. Nice smooth bends - was worth the effort!

This truck must be a favorite of yours - you always do great work, but the fit and finish on this one seems like you went a tick extra with it. Beautiful truck in a terrific setting!

In a way, the earliest pic of the body could have been a good beater just as it was! Should be a good project.

I agree with you about the kit manufacturers - making master molds for parts that fit well must be very difficult! Thanks for the encouragement, Steve - it will get sorted, for sure.

Got started on a sketch for my attempt at some level of wiring for the firewall (it's a bit of a messy thing so not going to bore you with it), and started thinking about all the 'how to' things I need to overcome. While thinking about that, I decided it was time to see how the single air cleaner, on the driver's side, might impact the planned firewall detailing, given the limited space available. I started by modifying an air cleaner body from the Alaskan Hauler kit - it appeared to be of the shorter kind that was on the real truck. I drilled a couple mounting holes for it and mocked it in place, and topped it off with a machined air cleaner from 'Off the Sprue'. I set the cab on the truck and discovered I had another problem to deal with! I removed the molded in straps on the air cleaner because I need to make an outlet lower, closer to the middle of the air cleaner body to line up with the hole through the skirt I will also need to do. I will add straps back once the air cleaner is all one unit and ready for chrome paint I put cab and hood on the truck and discovered that the back edge of the fender won't clear the bottom of the air cleaner body. The red arrow is pointing to the hinge bolt, not yet glued of course, but in its final position, so no relief there. This pic also shows no room left for me to move the air cleaner back towards the driver's door. When I compared the real truck's air cleaner set up with the model, I can see that I may not have started the cut into the front of cab close enough to the leading edge of the driver's door frame... and, in the pic below, the body width of the kit air cleaner appears to be slightly thicker than the real truck as well. So, I'm not going to re-do the cut-in, but I could make a slightly narrower diameter replacement cannister/body, mount it that much further back towards the cab and perhaps raise it a 1 - 2 millimeters, and failing all that, maybe remove 1 - 1.5 mm from the bottom edge of the fenders (and there are mud flaps to make allowance for?!). I'm hoping all that will work and I can carry on with working on the wiring! Just like the list, this has been one of those 'one step forward, two steps backward' days. Such is, I guess and it needs to be dealt with. Next time at the bench, right?! Take care.

I appreciate that, Steve! I've tried to repair the windshield support brace once, but very quickly broke it again, thankfully in the same spot. Hence the tape and I'll leave the final repair till very near the end!

Thanks, Francis - hardly made a 'dent' in the list - at the moment, for everything I get done on the list, I seem to add two more!

Looking good, Jeff! The work platform fits in well - is using the work platform another reason for going with the lower headache rack? Going to look great, when all the parts are finally in place!

Apologies, Jürgen - I shouldn’t have missed this - thanks for your comment!

You pay great attention to parts detailing and to prepping your truck for paint - I'm certain it will turn out as you expect and will likely look amazing!

Very nice build - really like the colour! Lots of extra details like the A/C lines add another layer of interest. Good looking combo!

double post !?

Very rich looking interior, Steve! (love the shifter, too)

I'm sticking to the model's 'punch' list for the time being but still waiting on some fasteners from Model Motor cars (Scale Hardware). A while back, I broke the center windshield brace - and in keeping with the list, I have to do work on the firewall, so, to minimize handling the cab, I reproduced the shape of the firewall on a piece of similar thickness styrene and began making the parts I want to add to the firewall. I am going to be pinning the items I add and drilling holes for some others, so the temporary firewall will also allow me to use it as a template for drilling the holes into the cab's firewall. I then won't have to handle the cab very much, once it's painted (and repaired!) when I add the pieces to the cab's firewall. Temporary firewall - looks distorted a bit, but think that's just the two different angles of the firewalls Modified an air tank to be a smaller, rad overflow tank - two 0.5mm brass pins were added to the brackets on the back side This is the cover for what a Western Star Body Builder bulletin calls the MEGA fuse box - I'm also going to see if I can add the Power Distribution box that feeds this fuse box Holes for the tank mount pins and the fuse box flange bolts have been drilled into temp firewall Temp firewall mocked up in place - I know I said the temp firewall was so I didn't handle the cab as much, so this mockup really won't happen often anymore! Going to have a go at using some more of the Wave springs, different sizes, to make a highly simplified version of the harnesses between the power distribution box, the fuse box, and also make the harnesses to the three connectors that are on the driver's side of the firewall. If this actually turns out, in theory I should be able to move the tank and fuse box, and 'unplug' the harnesses and connectors from the temporary firewall and 'plug' them into the cab's firewall. Or, it might end up as a 'maybe next time' project! More slow going, but still getting further along - take care!

Good job on the air cleaners - they look good painted the body colour and not all chrome. Really like the ‘dusted’ up look, too - your weathering always turns out well!

Great looking engine and I like your headache rack and winch cage setup. Whatever you're using for winch line sure looks the part, too. Very nicely done!

My Dad had one of these as a company car - ‘armstrong’ steering, plain inside, but a good looking car to me.