RoninUtah

Just noticed that those are White Freightliner instructions... Of course! I could also adapt the plumbing from an AMT White Freightliner kit- I have about 4 or 5 partial WF kits left over from being donors, so I might have most of the parts I need. I'll look at it more carefully, but I'm still leaning toward the Detroit.

I agree, I think I'll go with the Detroit; I'll paint it white and it will match the engine in my (new) California Hauler.

It must be Peterbilt cabover season! Looks like this one will be a worthy addition to your fleet. Nice clean job cutting the cab. I'd leave the chassis long, it looks like a West Coast rig of the early 70s.

I found it, thanks! That will work just fine with my new flat dash. Appreciate the help!

Continuing on... the cab is pretty close. I decided to add styrene strips below the headllights for some extra room for when I install the headlight surrounds. Maybe one more round of putty and sanding before the first coat of primer. I have a bit of a dilemma with the engine, though. I built the Cummins 250; it does't fit quite as nicely as the Detroit. I can make it fit, of course, but then I'd be faced with having to improvise the air and exhaust plumbing, when I can probably just use the kit plumbing with the Detroit. And the Cummins engine is much longer, so the transmission will stick out behind the cab, although that will be hidden beneath a step plate. I'd have to do some major surgery on the driveshaft, too. Either engine would be period appropriate. What do you guys think? I'm almost embarrassed to show the chassis after seeing Jeff's work! Now I'm thinking about the interior. I discovered, to my surprise, that my kit (the newer CocaCola version) came with a California Hauler 359 dashboard instead of the 352 dashboard! Did that happen to you, Jeff, or anyone else who has done this kit recently? It's probably okay, though, since I'm making a flat dash; I can graft the part with the dials and such onto the styrene strip I'll be using. AMT always makes it interesting!

I built this kit, the first AMT big rig kit in 1969… I still have it, green glass and all! See “A Tale of Two California Haulers” in the Under Glass section from August of last year.

Great C series workin’ truck, I like your choice of wheels. First civilian tractor I ever drove was a Ford C series!

Putty #1- I put it on a little thick for the first layer: Sanded this morning. I need to add reinforcement to the lower front corners. It looks like at least two more rounds of putty and sanding before I can test the surface smoothness with primer.

Back in the mid-seventies I drove a GMC 9500 10-wheel dump truck, with a Detroit Diesel 8V71 and a 10 speed Roadranger. Even though it wasn’t necessary, I loved to split shift up and down between the gears and the hi/lo ranges, double clutching all the way! That was the closest I ever got to driving with a brownie box. The chrome looks great, I would think that duct tape would be too thick. Maybe you guys get a different kind over there. I never liked bare metal foil, and so I’ve been using Motlow. I just bought a can of Revell chrome spray and was very pleased with the results. Keep it up!

Incredible build, that turned out beautifully! Very realistic and accurate, and a unique version of this classic truck. Very well done; if mine turns out half as good I’ll be happy!

More work on the cab... first, the exhaust stack cutout. I cemented the corner of the cab that I had cut off earlier to where the new corner will be: And then attached a piece of cut and sliced plastic soda straw to form the curve to close it: Plastic soda straws can be very useful. I've made many an exhaust pipe with them, using the bendy part to line it up where I want it! Anyway, now for the headlight bezels. They should be slightly inboard and slightly lower than stock, so I cut out openings in about the right places. I then flipped the stock headlight surrounds backward and cemented them in, using small round and strip styrene to fill the gaps. These also have tabs on the back to make sure they're rigid when I apply the putty. They'll take a little grinding and smoothing to make them flush before I apply the putty. Hopefully, tomorrow!

Sadly, I haven't seen much on Cults in the way of old iron that is of what I'd consider good enough quality to build. Hopefully designers will see the void and fill it. Now that AITM is gone, we really don't have many decent sources for older truck conversions.

Thanks, Gary! Thanks, Dave! Thanks, John! Thanks, Steve- yeah, you got that right! Soon everybody will have a 3D printer on their workbench, and it will be just another tool. Thanks, Jim! Thanks, Brian- it's been discussed before, but the "big plastic" kit manufacturers seem to think that the market for these new trucks is too limited for them to invest in the cost of licensing, tooling and product development. Based on Moebius' experience with the ProStar and LoneStar, they may not be wrong. But that sucks for those of us who want to build something more recent than the 70s! Thanks, Jurgen, your wheels make the build!

Thanks, Jeff! 3D printing definitely does open up a lot more options... I'm planning to do a Kenworth T680, as well, to go along with this Pete and my Freightliner Cascadia. Also in the works is an older (2010) style Cascadia, and eventually a Mack Anthem and a Volvo VN 860. With those, I'll have models of about 95% of the trucks I see on the road around here! The only drawback for me so far is the time it takes- some of these print files are humongous and it takes all day just to print out one part. And then a print will fail and I have to start over... patience was never my strong suit, but I'll learn!

You’re right, of course! Brain fart in my old age. I’ll try to edit it.

Those who have been following my Peterbilt 352 pre-Unilite conversion topic in the WIP section know that I was sidetracked by another build- this one. I've been playing around with 3-d printing, and it's opened up all kinds of new possibilities. One of which is the chance to add newer trucks to my "fleet." This is a new 2024 Peterbilt 579, just like the hundreds you'll see on the freeway on your next road trip. The cab is one that I downloaded from the Cults site, designed by Hora80. As you can see, it's reasonably accurate. I had to deepen the seams between body panels, but other than that it was a matter of printing it and building a chassis. A few months ago I bought a ton of parts that a collector had accumulated, almost all from Revell kits; mostly their Kenworth and Peterbilt wreckers. I don't have any complete kits left, but there are a ton of various chassis and chrome parts to play with. So, for this one, the chassis is mostly a leftover Peterbilt chassis, improvised and augmented by Kenworth parts where necessary. I scratchbuilt the rear crossmember to resemble the rear of an actual 579. A special shout-out and thanks to Jurgen, who designed the front wheels and sent me the files to print them. Overall, it was a fun learning experience- the cab might be a touch to small for 1/25, but close enough and don't want to re-do it after all that work! A Pete is born! The chassis of many colors And now, the finished truck:

Nice clean build, well done! I built one of these about 50 years ago, when the kit still had the Unilite cab. I probably bought a dozen or so since, for use as donors for resin conversion cabs. Nice to see one done well.

Thanks, Steve, yeah, there are quite a few differences... I'm trying to hit the big ones, but there will me some that I inevitably miss. If I can get it reasonably close I'll be happy. Anyway, a little progress, since I did finish the 579. As soon as the weather clears up and there's a little sun I'll get some pics and post it "under glass." It did turn out pretty nicely. Anyway, back to this one: I decided to tackle the lower body panels. Since the step is much different, along with a few more subtle things, I decided to cut out the old ones and replace them in sheet styrene. First step is to trace the overall shape by placing the styrene against the bottom of the cab to trace the contour with a pencil: And then carefully cut it out. This is when I can draw the cab step opening and the wheel cutout based on my reference material: Test fit with tape on the backside, looks generally okay- Then do the same with the other side. Here I've overlaid the two to make sure the wheel openings are similar: And then cement strips to the back to mount it. It has to be solid, with no wiggle, or the putty will crack. And finally, install them, trying to keep the plane of the new pieces even with the existing cab, so it can by puttied and sanded smooth: Looks like I might have to widen the wheel opening further to the front on the right side. I'll look at it more closely tomorrow. Next is the the exhaust stack cut out. Then more filling, putty, sand, putty, sand, putty, sand... Thanks for following!

I'd like to something about the rivets on my 60's 352 build as well; I sanded off most of the kit rivets because they were in the wrong places for a pre-Pacemaker cab. I saw something on YouTube about doing them by hand with tiny drops of white glue, but I'm not sure if I can get consistent results with that. At the least, I'll score lines for the cab seams.

Hi, Jeff, thanks for asking! Unfortunately, not much has happened on this build. The demolition phase is about done. The interior is getting a flat dashboard so I had to clear space for that. The doghouse will be about the same; the gap/ scar will be covered by some padding ( which I’m not sure how I’ll make)… The modern Peterbilt 579 build somehow jumped in front. It’s getting close to done, so I’ll be getting back to this one soon!

Yeah, that’s starting to get out of my league!

I'd be happy with that! Looks good.

Yes, that was made by Dave Natalie from a master created by Tim Ahlborn. It was in production for only a short time before the molds were damaged, and Dave never brought it back before he passed away. it was gone from the AITM catalogue by the time I started buying from Dave a few years ago. Tim sent me detailed photos and notes of the master, which is what I'm basing this build on. Needless to say, my scratchbuilding skills are far more limited than Tim's, so this won't turn out nearly as nicely as Tim's models. But I'll do what I can with it!

No, there's an eBay seller called Modelsbysimon who sells parts of various kits. I've bought a bunch of stuff from him over the years. Yeah, it will take some adjustments for sure, but nothing too major I hope!

Thanks, Jeff, for the tip on the Cummins! I think I’ll go with that, I went ahead and ordered one off eBay. It looks like a NH 250, which would be right for this build.