BK9300

Continuing with work on the cab and hood, I was looking at pics of the real truck's firewall and noted, for the first time, the two hood support platforms. The mating sections of the hood supports are mounted on the inner hood brace and I thought about how they could be made. Seems I can't just sit down and make anything out of my head, so I made a 3D model to visualize the supports. With an idea of how the parts go together and pics of the real truck supports, I had my day set out! The real truck hood support - My 3D model - invaluable to me, because its built to scale of the model and I can get precise measurements from the digital model - thankfully! Support platform brackets assembled and platforms about to be put together - The temporarily mocked up brackets and platforms are pinned together so the platforms can swivel to line up with parts of the supports to be mounted on the hood brace (not made yet - hopefully, tomorrow) - Black mark for locating the other part of the hood support - I did go back and check some different pics and the steering rod will come out of the firewall between the hood bracket and the white, repaired patch on the firewall Calling it a day - really appreciate all you who've had a look along the way and for all the generous comments, too - thanks!

I agree - going to be a good build!

Very enjoyable to follow along with, Steve - lots of explanation of your issues and solutions.

Beautiful modifications to your exhaust system - big improvement, Pierre!

Delicate surgery and cleanly done! Good idea to be able to tuck the tires more.

The valving system you've created looks like my floor's hot water in-floor heater manifold! So very intricate - can't wait until you get to your sprayer bars! Well done.

More awesome creations, Francis. Glad you were able to get past your posting problems - would be a shame not to witness these pieces being made! I've always marveled at your end results - to be able to machine the pieces is one thing, it is quite another to imagine how you hold these little components in place, at the right angles, to solder them into a whole!

Luke, I've heard that 'Chameleon' paint can be difficult to work with. Looks like you've mastered it - paint came out awesome!

We just about made it through this winter without snow - decided to all come in one snowfall! Thanks for the compliment, Steve! I'm fortunate to have taken a lot of decent pics of the truck way back when, so, been doing my best to make a good representation of what I'm able to. And I've only got one (or two) pinholes left!

Very impressive angle shot of your emergency light pylon, too! Meant to ask you earlier - what did you use to bond the brass frame to the checker plate (plastic?)? - looks very sturdy.

Yes, I'm very pleased with how well the small pieces turned out! They are of such small size that I needed to get some of the hydraulic valve handles/switches printed separately - I was messing the surface of the tower up, trying to paint them when they were initially part of the tower. 3D parts certainly have a place as far as I'm concerned, because I simply cannot make items that small any other way.

That’s a nasty (in a good way!) looking engine compartment, Daniel!

Your latest decals are a huge improvement over the earlier ones

Thanks, Jeff and Scott - it's a bit made up, although I did see one pic online of a Western Star dash with an Allison shifter - just filled in the space to the left of the shifter with as many switches as looked appropriate!

Another package of my parts, printed by @Bren , arrived today, along with a few bonus items thrown in to check out! - Some small valve handles for my plow control tower (so I can paint them more easily), plow light housings and lenses, crankshaft pulley driveshaft, hydraulic hose connections, electrical connectors, and a sampling of clevises with separate pins. Hydraulic pump drive shaft Plow light housing Right hand dash board panel - made this panel because I wanted a dash mounted shifter for the Allison automatic transmission. May need to make center and left hand panel sections as well because the kit decals won't look very good along side the right hand panel. Will have to carefully cut out the kit's flat panel to fit the right hand panel in place and add the shifter handle. Should be ready to work on the cab/interior early next week.

Your patience (and skill) with such tiny PE is beyond me - I look at that little stair section crossing over from the platform on the stack, and wonder how you ever held on to it to place it, never mind glue it! Well done.

Not much to post today, but did want to pass on a little tip, new to me, that helped me out today. Wanted to glue a thin piece of plastic sheet to the back of the inner hood brace, and trim it to look like the mounting flange around the edges of the brace. I have to brace my hands quite steadily or I can make a very 'shaky' and messy glue pass. Didn't want a much of a mess, because flange is so thin, so, made a quick guide for my Revell liquid glue dispenser. Needed a 'non-messy' application of glue along outside edges of brace to glue a section of 0.2 mm sheet to backside of brace. I taped a short length of brass rod to, and extending past the end, of the dispenser tip - I could then lay the applicator tip along the edges needing glue, and using slight pressure against the brass rod, apply the glue without the slop over I sometimes get with hands that shake a bit! The 0.2 mm sheet set in place and trimmed to width - Only a little bit of cleanup needed along the flange area - saved myself some extra work! All for now - off to do some work on the cab - thanks!

Your wrecker looks ready to haul that stranded pumper back to the garage! Any chance your light bar lenses can be painted with red clear?

Definitely happened to me, too - very frustrating! I let Dave Ambrose know, but others continued to have problems. All I could do was keep trying to post and eventually got through. Hope they find their way to a resolution soon!

It already looks well used and worn - nice start to your weathering!

Appreciate the heads up - I'd have to try it on my old WS hood first - seems its a 'test bed' for my body work!

Your 'prep' work looks like a very expensive matte wrap on a real car!

Thanks, Jeff! Like I mentioned to Ken above, new ideas about what to add keep popping up, but just doing the ones I think I can actually complete!

Thanks, Francis, this made me smile! My youngest brother used to work in a body shop and your comment reminded me of that and some of the problems he had to overcome with some of his jobs.

I appreciate the comment, Steve and I agree about the body work - I'm thinking I've made good progress and then I discover all the putty pinholes in the top of the hood that need fixing. Hoping the second go round of putty will solve that - might just need to fill them with primer!