BK9300

I really enjoy watching the precision on display in creating your parts, Francis! When drilling holes in your calipers or wheels, is your chuck able to be rotated in specific degrees or are you determining new drill locations by hand? And, maybe its been done on elsewhere on this forum, but a tutorial on resistance soldering such small items would be very interesting!

Do you think a coat of clear over your decals might have made the decal background be less visible or disappear? Have any decals left over you could experiment with on a spare piece of painted plastic?

Thanks for this, Greg - no layers to build up, just an area, part styrene and part filler, that needs a strip of 1mm styrene added on top. Likely need two glues, like you suggest.

Thanks for this link - might not suit me immediate purpose, but is very interesting!

That's quite the accomplishment, François - so much detail to take in!

Good technology for its day - sure would have been a rough ride! Good looking truck, Ron.

I got the hood to fit in place on the cab today. I need to remind everyone that my hood to cab join is lacking some geometry of the full size truck, but I went as far with it as I think could reasonably be accomplished. It looks good - I just know its not 100%! I taped the hood in place and scribed the cutline needed - used back of X-Acto blade to make the cut Firewall and dashboard back in place to check for filler pieces that will be needed to mate firewall up with cab on three sides; a new lip, around the left fender skirt and across the top of the hood opening, will need to be added for hood to close against - the skirt on the right side needs to be extended to cover the air inlet opening in that side of the hood. I now need to keep all this in alignment when I make the new hood hinge assemblies and have the hood open and close this tight afterwards! (the black markings on the hood roughly border the area that I need to address with some Tamiya putty) Starting the finishing work on the hood tomorrow - take care!

Thanks, Jeff - gray hairs are all done for me a long time ago! I read an article a long time ago, about using a 3D scanner and importing the scan mesh into Sketchup - never pursued because I didn't have anything I needed to scan (plus I don't have a scanner!). Might be something to look into

Never worked with Tamiya putty other than to fill small holes/gaps. I need to cover part of an area of a hood to maintain an curved profile and then add a strip of styrene down the center of the hood. The strip will cover an area made up of bare styrene and some Tamiya putty. I've always preferred using solvent glue to bond styrene to styrene - does solvent glue bond with Tamiya putty or do I need to use a different glue (CA, epoxy, ?) to attach this strip? Thanks for any suggestions!

Great looking restoration, Lewis - such a familiar site when I used to live in the interior of British Columbia.

Your tribute has inspired me to check out some of his threads - and looking forward to following your work here.

More surgery on the cab and dash today; carefully cut out the firewall, removed 1/4" from the interior floor pan as well as the support piece behind the dashboard. Net effect was to leave dashboard in same position relative to the windshield, and move the firewall inward by 1/4". Now I have the side skirt effect that is on the real truck. Firewall removed - Cut lines defined by 1/4" tape strip - this is just empty space between the dashboard and the firewall Floor pan and dashboard support glued back together and ready for a mockup to check result Front edges of cab now form the desired 'skirting' around the firewall Now I need to cut out above the firewall, in the shape of the back edge of the modified hood; then, a thin filler piece needs to be added behind firewall as the cab is wider at the firewall's new position. Just about there!

That’s a would be a great project - didn’t know some fire departments had their own plow trucks, but makes sense - great pics!

Hope your research pays off - always nice to know what the real thing looks like!

Made good progress on hood and cab this morning - got the lower cab apron filler pieces smoothed out somewhat and took the big step of making more cuts on the hood. I now have the shape of the hood defined and I can get to the even more fussy business of puttying and sanding these next few days. Finally, couldn't resist an early mockup of the cab/hood on the chassis! The lower cab apron gaps have been filled and roughly matched up with the existing body lines; had also trimmed the rear, vertical edges of hood - may still need a little refinement and the hood will need to sit a little lower yet once the firewall has been moved back and a new lip for the back edge of the hood to sit on has been made This is as close as I think I'm going to get to the 4900FA hood profile at the back edge - now it can be used to outline the cut I need to make in the cab, just in front of the base of the windshield; also need to do the finishing puttying and sanding (not fun - reminds me of doing gyproc mudding, which I don't do well with either!) Hood is very close to final position so, now I can scribe a cut line on the cab and rework the firewall This hood, air plenum cutout was made using a side view from a real 4900FA - may need to modify it a bit when the air cleaner is held up in place; also, once the firewall is moved back, an additional inner cab panel will be added to overlap with the inside of the hood on this side; the hood will eventually sit about 1/8" lower than it is once the other modifications are made Had to take these next couple pics - good feeling to get to this point and imagine it finished. Cab/hood assembly will be forward a bit further than this once they are fixed in place. Slow going - as I said earlier on, I find this body work stuff to be difficult, but still making progress so that's good. Take care!

That's an intense colour, Jeff - looks great! The Alclad went down nice, too - very smooth finish.

Thanks, Francis - I appreciate the observation! I think making all the scratch built parts has been the most fun (and satisfying), while the body work is one of the most anxious parts for me. If its not done well enough, the primer/paint is sure to show all my shortcomings. A lot of firsts in this build for me and I've never done any body modifications before, so we'll all see how this turns out - for better or worse!

Never knew that about injector lines - sure makes sense. This engine is going to look great in primer/paint!

More great scratch building, Charles. Never having been around any kind of pumper trucks, how did mechanics access the pump for any needed repairs? Looks like close quarters all around the pump enclosure.

Good looking restoration, Germán - well done!

Incredible detail work on your pump panel! A standout look compared to the mostly chrome look of the panels in your pictures of real trucks - looks very good.

Terrific looking progress, Victor - its going to be quite the rig when you're all finished. What a wonderful way to travel around if you had a 1:1!

I've spent a lot of time during this build looking at old pics, and new ones, trying to get my head around how things go together. Spent the past few days looking for better pics of hood profiles; lots of used hoods for sale on the internet, but always missing just the right angle that I needed. So, sticking with pics I already had, and having made the decision to re-work the firewall and modify the hood further, I had to extend the back edge of the hood a bit to accommodate the top down profile. Will be moving the firewall back just shy of 1/4" - that should achieve the effect I need and not create too much work. Moving the firewall back will give the 'look' of the firewall being skirted in by the remaining side panels of the cab. I laid out a hood profile pic on the hood to confirm what else I need to do still. Not a lot of progress to add, but gives me the comfort my process going forward is ok! Extended outside parts of back edge of hood to allow for the curve profile I need to create; some initial sanding done on the filler pieces and shouldn't need a lot of Tamiya putty to blend in all the curves; need to do a bit more work where fenders meet hood side panels, too Scaled down one of my top down hood pics and taped it to cab to determine how much firewall needs to be moved back. This still isn't going to be 100% like the real truck, but visually, it will look much closer to the real thing - hopefully! Same scaled down pic laid on top of my hood showing the adjusted cut lines needed to be made - no air cleaner on this side of truck, so no cut out at back edge Slightly better look at outlined, curved profile matching the cab profile at base of windshield, and the side cutout for air cleaner that needs to be made. Cutout was also roughed in from a scaled side view photograph of hood for sale online. Once the hood extensions have set overnight, I can start in on cutting out the hash marked areas, get a few, thin layers of putty applied on top and see what is going to be needed for the inner hood support brace. Also, once back edge profile of hood is set, I can use it to layout the cut I need to make on hood in front of windshield to modify firewall. Back at it for a bit more today, and thanks, as always for your thoughts and comments along the way!

Now that's small, Lee - the retouched interior and frame look great!

Never been successful with BMF - wouldn't stick well for me. Great job with your grill!