BK9300

I think your choice of colour made the detail in the boom show up better - looks great on the deck.

Thanks, Dan - I appreciate you having a look!

Thanks, Lee - yes, the lights turned out ok - hard to find specific parts like that for a build, otherwise.

David, its hard to know for certain without having a tire in hand, but would a carefully placed cut(s) in the warped area, where rim meets the tire, help alleviate the warp and allow the spacer to function properly? If they are all warped similarly, might just be bad molding and another set of tires are in order as suggested earlier!

Scott, your engine detailing is getting very intricate - complicated as looking under the hood of the real thing! Good to see the truck up its rubber, too.

Too kind, Jeff - just trying some things out to make this part of the build a bit easier!

I agree - looks like that truck could pull over a building - tough looking workhorse!

Beautiful truck - nice, clean build - looks great with your trailer!

Bit of boring body work going on today, but did try something that made puttying the hood a bit easier. Been worried about how the do the join of the fenders to the sides of the hood, and get a decent curve to the putty line. As a sidebar, we had some renos done awhile back and the countertop guy had a fellow who was a magician with a caulking gun. So, could a 'tool' like that be used here? Made a decent go at at mini 'putty gun' and it turned out ok. I had some Lee Valley, plastic syringe nozzles left over from a furniture, glue repair kit Scotch taped the nozzle to the putty tube as best I could Using the old hood I screwed up as a test, was able to do a decent line down the fender edges - never knew this but countertop guy said to always push the caulking gun forward and the nozzle will shape the bead line for you, so that's what I did - worked well! Fender edges and other areas of hood have a first go at putty - might be set enough to sand a bit tomorrow While this is setting up and some small repairs to cab are drying, going to spend some time thinking about interior control tower and how the rest of the interior needs to be finished. Take care!

Brilliant work, Steve! (hope the storm doesn't knock out your power)

Jürgen, you're getting very proficient at producing your 3D modeling and, I know I've said it before, but a resin printer might be a great add to your modeling 'toolbox". Good work!

Steve, glad you found something useful here! Hope my luck with the hood holds up during the puttying stage. Thanks for having another look and for your generous comments!

Scott, just recognized the plow lights on the truck in your pic. 2,800 miles between Prince George, BC (home base for the YRB truck) and the Township of Algonquin and both use same plow lights. Must be good lights for both mechanical shops to use same ones!

I agree - looks great to have the cab set in and lots of your plumbing finished - each time I look it seems like you've added more plumbing along the frame, too. When do you hope to have the truck on its wheels and tires?

Hey, Scott - maybe you can do something similar as well! I've attached a pic of the WS hinge set up - I hope to make something that at least works with the same hinge point. I had the hood open for this pic and in the background and you can see the right set of ears for the lift arm support bar and other parts of the front plow lift through the grill surround opening. If the angle of the pic was taken a bit more to the right, you would see the lift arm itself sticking up through the opening. Should be fun to try and get all that lined up and have the hood close ok!

In between working on the cab and hood, other items have been getting some attention. The hood needs a set of extra lights - plow lights - that are mounted high up, at the front of the hood to clear the plow. Also, the issue of a short driveshaft to power the hydraulic pump needed resolution. Wasn't able to find anything suitable online, so I turned to Sketchup again, and, again, many thanks to Bren for printing these items for me. Finally got the firewall filler in and the firewall glued back in place, and extended the firewall skirts slightly to complete the area surrounding the firewall 'Plow light" on real truck I modeled the lights in Sketchup Bren was also able to print the lenses I made, using clear resin. Crankshaft pulley drive shaft to run hydraulic pump on front bumper. I get that this is not an ideal operating angle for these type of drive shafts - I guess that when I installed the engine way back, maybe it sat a little high in the frame (but fan lined up with rad opening, so?). Not enough thought was given to a better line up with pump that would have been required in real life. As it is, it will be a little topic of conversation, should anyone ever notice the drive shaft's angle on the finished model! Made a paper template, then cut out the filler piece that needs to go between firewall and dash board support bracket Filler piece glued in place Firewall glued back in place - top edge of firewall was replaced with a strip of 1mm plastic and scribed to match (mostly!) the curve of the cab - the small remaining gaps will be puttied; also, extensions added to side skirts to form a lip for the vertical sides of hood to close into. Rectangular hole in firewall was for the Constellation kits's under hood air cleaner to mount - needs to be filled in. Now that the firewall has been fixed in place with the filler piece in behind, the interior floor pan now has location points on the filler piece and the back wall of the cab to keep it in its original position - it can be removed, worked on, and the fitting retested fairly easily before it needs to be glued in place. Skirt extension on driver's side still needs to have hole cut out for air intake plenum to pass through from air cleaner, and some finish puttying and sanding Like Steve said above, one modification can affect many other things. Because I made the front plow bumper mount with lift arm, the kit's hood hinges, which are a bit oversized and have a very low pivot point, wouldn't let the hood tip very far before the front of the hood hits the front bumper. I will need to make hood hinges that are similar to the real truck, so the hood pivots higher, just at the base of the front grill surround. I'll need to detach the grill bars from the surround and mount them on the rad, so the grill surround will allow the hood to open fully and not impact the lift arm on the front plow. Still lots to do, but, if the hinges can be sorted out ok, the rest of the work on the hood should go quickly! I appreciate you looking in and thanks for commenting.

Thanks, Steve - been slow because not my favorite thing to do! I've given in to that 'knock on' effect a lot in this build - especially when, like you said, I miss things right there in my photo research. About the old days, those talented at hand drafting must have been in high demand. I hope to get the cab all sorted in the next couple days, then more on the hood. Thanks again!

Thanks, Scott - but I don't know about that - your fabrication's looking top drawer these days!

Very cool to have discovered what so many of you already knew - a seriously talented, and innovative builder - thanks for posting the link.

It's quite a testament to your metal working abilities, that the body should look so good after the initial coat of primer. A truly amazing achievement in craftsmanship!

Your paint job is really shining - reflecting! - in these pics. Looks great put together, even if some is just sitting in place at the moment! I may have missed it, but did you clear over your decals (guess I could go back and check!)

Thanks, Francis - very complimentary! I think a count of the puzzle pieces might..., well, maybe not!

Thanks very much, Gary - appreciate your comments, as always!

Thanks, Jeff - the pictures always show up the worst parts of my efforts, but some cleanup will make the parts better. Looks good when I'm sitting looking at it, though!

Maybe you could keep the painted battery box and make different support braces for the sides, to mount the PE steps on, rather than re-making the whole battery box? Going to look great once you've got it sorted!