Force

Clayton...the Peterbilt 352 don't have a hood. I believe two breathers were more for looks than necessity. Here is a picture I found probably on Hanks Truck Pictures site of a 12V71 in an International COE truck and it has a manifold connecting the two blowers to one intake tube and one air cleaner/breather...so it's for sure something they did. The P&P 12V71 kit doesn't have that part or the intake elbow so you have to make them yourself.

I meant 8 3/4 inch rear end, not 8 1/4 as my fumble fingers accidentally wrote. I think the rear end would look a bit beefier than that, but it might be the picture.

Well the world is small...I have been to the So-Cal area 7 times so far, 1998, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014, and I'm planning to go over again this upcomming fall...but nothing is decided on when, where and how yet but I think we'll end up in the So-Cal area somehow...we usually do. Yes I know, I PM'd you about it a little while ago, I haven't had the time to do any more about it yet. but I'll look into it soon.

Both Peterbilt and Kenworth had white engines, Kenworth had them until 1975 and Peterbilt until 1984 as I said...but I have seen white engines on pictures of trucks newer than that and engine factory colors on trucks older than that, so there are exceptions to the rule. Caterpillar was appearently the last manufacturer to deliver white engines to Peterbilt. I will for sure follow your progress on this build. I bought this kit myself a little while ago on an auction site...in fact I had to buy two as the first one I bought wasn't what I thought I was bidding on. When I got it home I eagerly opened the box to look and found...the T-501 and later 359 1100 cab kit in the old T-500 box...so someone had changed the content and I had to take it up with the seller and he didn't argue and gave me a discount on it. I still wanted one so I ended up buying another shortly after and that had the right kit in it...and I have managed to find one each of the three old T-500 based kits for reasonable money, one T-500-500 California Hauler, one T-500 California Hauler (this one) and one T-522 Wrecker. The main reason I wanted them is that I think the "small window" Unilite cab Peterbilt trucks are very cool, and that when Round 2 broke the news that they found the old T500-500 359 tooling they said the sleeper and visor from the old T500 kit wasn't usable or found..these things can be found in resin tho', Auslowe has the visor and AITM has the sleeper.

Me too, now you know why I want to do a race car hauler.

Yes Peterbilt had mostly white engines up to 1984...even the Detroit Diesel's...that's quite funny tho' as the Detroit Diesels are known to leak oil almost everywhere.

More photos from my travels to your country. We are still in the year 2009, my friend Joe in Hesperia Ca also had this Ford F6 COE...kind of cool if you ask me. Now we skip ahead a couple of days and a visit to John Force Racing in Yorba Linda Ca...here are his daughter's Brittany and Courtney's race car hauler from when they competed in Top Alcohol class with a couple of A/Fuel Dragsters, I believe the tractor is a Peterbilt 387. The same day we went to Irvindale and looked at the the practice for the Formula Drift series invited by Samuel Hübinette, and I shot a few trucks there. First a Kenworth W 900L. Team Falken's Volvo VN 670 and a Freightliner Cascadia. A Peterbilt 387 also at irvindale Speedway. More later.

Here is a good site with AMT release dates, I don't know how accurate it is but it's in the "ballpark". If you browse the website you find most of the other manufacturers too. http://www.eddylenders.nl/amt-ertl-matchbox.htm

I got my package from Strada Sports now and it was only one order, the other is still pending and no information what so ever about it.

This is a generic truck with an imaginary name so real references for it can't be found anywhere...the model kit itself was when it was first made originally intended to look like Stepp's Towing Service's Can-Do Pete 379 from Orlando Fl, but Revell didn't go all the way and made it correct as the kit is a 359 and the real truck is a 379, the kit has a Cummins NTC 475 Twin Turbo and the real truck had a Caterpillar 3406...and this kit is a straight repop of that one with different decals. As for the frame...lots of trucks has black or grey frames but they can be any color you like as customs are plentiful...some are even the same color as the body.

They didn't only use Talladega's in 1969, they also used regular Torino Cobra's at some races where the streamlining wasn't that important, the first race Richard won for Ford wich was the 1969 Riverside Road Race was in one of those, and that had a 427. Allthough the Torino Talladega was named after the Talladega Superspeedway none of them participated at the first race there wich took place September 14 1969 as many drivers boycotted that race as they thought it was too dangerous with the high tire wear on the track.

I have driven Route 66 from Topock via Oatman and Kingman, to Seligman and boy was that cool, lots to see...but after Hackberry it got too dark to see much so when we came to Seligman we continued on the I40 to Flagstaff, the day after we took the I 17 down to Phoenix, unfortunatley it was too dark when we left Flagstaff in the early morning so we didn't take the route through Sedona...well maybe next time. Here are some more cool trucks seen under a couple of my other trips to your country. We'll start with these taken back in 2006 and a Kenworth W 900L I saw near Venice Beach CA outside a car dealer. Another truck, a Ford F650 shot on a parking lot near Venice Beach CA. Now we skip ahead 3 years and land in the year 2009 and a couple of trucks at a friends property in Hesperia CA (your hometown Clayton). . Two Peterbilt's...the black 379 he had just sold when I took the pictures and the green 359 is most likely still there...he has had that one as long as I've known him...wich is about 16 years. He also had a 63 inch Peterbilt flat top sleeper when I was there last. I have more pictures taken under my trips and I'll continue with more of them another day.

I just looked at the underside pics again, doesn't the center section of the 8 1/4 inch rear end look a bit undersize.

The Ford racers started out the 1969 season with the 427 Sideoiler FE engine and I have seen pictures of one of the restored Petty 69 Torino Talladega's with a 427 in it, but they used the 385 based Boss 429 later in the year as it became available so you can use the wichever engine you like as both are correct. I don't know wich engine Richard Petty had the most wins with but he won 10 during the year and David Pearson beat him with one and won 11 and they ended up second and first in the series that year.

Well it's a very possible evolution of the 70 'Cuda kit, not that many changes to make it happen so I hope they will do it.

Looks good and it's a for sure buy when they hit the store shelfs.

A couple more trucks seen back in November last year. These were shot in mid traffic on Norwalk Blvd in Santa Fe Srings CA. North bound on the I 405 in Long Beach CA. On Cherry Ave in Long Beach CA.

Looking good Chris.

We need more modern trucks and I would love to see a Cascadia made...it seems to be a popular truck amongst the drag racers and others...but I would prefer a complete kit before transkits. Yes Italeri doesn't do many all new tooling trucks, they mostly update existing tooling to a newer model...and not allways enough for it to be correct either as they often use outdated engines and sometimes even wrong suspension and frames. But the Prostar is done by Moebius...not Italeri...and it's based on the Lonestar tooling, but not exactly the same...and I hope they will do more trucks, something else than a Navistar product this time and why not a Cascadia,

That type of Cummins engines called NTC (the kit engine is a NTC 475 Twin Turbo) were usually sand beige when they left the factory, the later N14 are black with sometimes red rocker covers and the even later ISX/Signature engines are red. But if you're doing a custom truck the engine can be whatever color you like.

One can wonder why RoG decided to do that one when they have lots of other better more correct trucks in their lineup such as the different versions of the KW K100's, T 600 and the Pete 359...I think I'll pass on this one.

Yes the Big Boy is huge, it's 132' 9 1/4" (40.47 meter) long including tender, 11' (3.4 meter) wide and 16' 2 1/2" (4.94 meter) high, total weight 1.250.000 lb (556990 metric tonnes)...so it's bad a**.

Very nice builds indeed.

Okay...that's what I got also...I bought mine from P&P while he still carried them.

Yes the roof spoiler is a separate piece on the AMT T-600 so you can leave it off...but you have to do some puttying and sanding as the sleeper top is designed to have it on and it's an edge there so it will blend in easier.