BK9300

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!

Good to see the display case - better access to viewing your builds than when they were up on the shelf! How long ago was your Cruiseliner built, that the glue was failing?

Beautiful polishing job - finish looks great!

Your truck is really looking dressed up, Gary - very sharp indeed! Hope you get rid of what's ailing you soon.

Well, Jeff, you’re probably right about being annoyed if I didn’t take it further! My wife also asked me if I’d be happy if I didn’t make the hood better. So I guess I need to figure out a way to get the cab/hood closer to the real thing. Small steps is definitely the way to go, and the support (or sarcasm!) along the way is appreciated! Thanks, Jeff.

Yes, Lee, I made a lot of work for myself! Like I said earlier, was reluctant to start cab and hood, because I knew how much would need to happen to get it close to the real truck. No turning back now, and I appreciate your compliment!

More from the 'never ending pile' of Macks! You may have set a bunch of these kits to the side way back, but you certainly are catching up these days. A person might think you have a plan in place! Good start (resumption) to another build, Lee.

Pressing on with the hood, managed to get the hood back in one piece again - just need to let the styrene glue set up overnight before starting on some cleanup sanding prior to more work on the hood. Then, I created another problem for myself. . . Yesterday, I started this particular round of work by adding in the two, triangle pieces at front edge of hood. Was able to use these pieces as wedges to bring the front edge of the grill opening back to true. I also temporarily glued in another profile piece in the middle span of the hood, so the filler pieces would better follow the slight curve in the hood, front to back The original hood plastic is 1.5mm thick - I didn't think I could get a filler piece that thick to lay along the hood curve I needed, so I used two layers of 0.75mm thick styrene, cut to shape. The lower portions glued in first and the upper sections glued down after, allowed both layers to better conform to the profile pieces and the back edge of the front grill. Glued and clamped in place, the filler pieces are, thankfully, following the line of the hood, front to back. I taped the hood down to this box so all four corners were on the same level as the filler pieces are setting up. Side shot shows how the two, 0.75 mm filler pieces had laid in nicely and are following the curve by sitting on top of the profile pieces I added. Once all this has set up overnight, I will prep and finish the top of the hood for the addition of the raised, center portion characteristic of this year's 4900FA hood. So, as mentioned earlier, this is my problem - more work maybe needed on the back, side and top, edges of the hood. If I had paid better attention to my pictures of the real truck, the 2010 hood flares up slightly at the cab, has a curved side to side profile and had indentations at the rear corners to clear part of the cab's body work. This is the top profile of the hood like the one from the real truck Also, the Constellation model's cab has a firewall that is extended further away from the cab than the truck I am modeling - I looked again at my temporarily assembled dash and cab floor pan and, given how the Constellation kit goes together, the only way I could modify the exterior cab's firewall position would require that I cut back on 'cavity' between the dashboard and the inner cab wall against the firewall, and move the doghouse inward a bit as well - Not sure I'm up for all that extra work at this point in the build. Need to think about it for the next couple days, to see if there is an acceptable way to do a reasonable job of that. Lots to think about, but need to keep moving forward - will let you know in a few days! Thanks for having a look and always appreciate your comments.

It may look 'easy' but like I said, there was lots of 'sweating bullets' while cutting apart the hood - I don't have any more left if I screw it up again! Thanks for the kind words, Jeff.

Thanks for the compliment, Gary! Hopefully, not too much more to do, but still some!

You build amazing pickups, Chuck.

Lee, I bet it feels great to have this build off your bucket list! Looks very convincing in your photographs with an actual winter background. Good looking truck - great job!