Force

The latest Multi Maverick kit was a Hobby Heaven (now Spotlight Hobbies) special issue. The car was real but didn't look exactly like the kit as it had a much nicer paintjob, it was in the January 1971 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. As far as I know Ohio George didn't race the car that much and sold it later.

Well it can't get any cheaper than free and they don't even have to do anything to get exposure of their brand...how can you beat that,..but of course, in this case Good Year or Caterpillar might not sell more because of this but their name for sure gets out there for nothing, I understand that Companys wants to have control over their brand and trademarks but if their names not are used in the wrong way and it's a good representation of the tire, engine, dozer or whatever I can't see the harm. There are most likely other ways to get exposure in our modern day and age, but all advertising has a price and the companys mostly has to pay for their comercial spots and adds...in this hobby they have got exposure for free...and now they wants money for using their brand names...it should be the other way around.

It's unfortunate that companys don't see the value of the "Free Advertising" they get from this hobby, they don't have to do anything and their product and name gets shown for free in the model kits we build. No today they are trying to get out every cent they can from their brand name but if the licenses gets too expensive they don't get anything at all. A good example of that is Revell and their no name tires...Good Year wanted a lot of money from Revell to allow them to continue to use their name on the kit tires, instead of paying Good Year Revell stopped making tires with Good Year names...What did Good Year get out of that???...Exactly Nothing...and they lost out on the free advertising they had before at the same time...kind of a bad business decision if you ask me. I for one learned of the Good Year brand and what they did from my model building when I was a kid...long before I was involved with real cars. It isn't like Revell misses out on any sales and have to pay the licensing fee to be able to sell their kits as we don't stop buying kits just because the Good Year name are missing from the tires...as long as it has tires we buy... but it would have been great if the name on the tires still was on there for authenticity. I don't mind if the companys wants to have a say in how their products are presented when model companys does a model using their name, they have to take care of the brand and how it's used...so that's understandable...but taking out horrendous licensing fees for that I strongly disapprove of...this business doesn't have that margin and the kit prices will go up even more if this continues...or the model companys will stop doing things that's has too expensive licensing fees...that's a fact. Caterpilar is probably a company that has very expensive licensing so that's why we don't get anything with the Caterpillar or CAT names anymore...the last issue of the AMT Caterpillar D8 dozer had no Caterpillar or CAT name what so ever anywhere...and that's sad as the model IS a Caterpillar and has always been. Caterpillar has also chased the small cottage aftermarket industy so we can't get many resin Caterpillar engines for our truck models either...and a more modern CAT 3406E, C15 or C16 engine would have been nice to be able to get for our builds. The only available CAT egines right now are the older 3406A-B from the Revell/Monogram KW W900 and Pete 359 snap kits and the 3408 from Revell Germany KW K900-T900...and the old 1693TA.

The only thing different from the Jo-Han Rambler S/C and Jo-Han and Testors Rambler Pro Street kits is the decals, everything else is the same, except the Testors HSO Rambler Pro Street kit has a photoetch fret for emblems and side markers. I did a "clone" myself for a friend some years ago, I painted the red on the sides and the blue stripe over the top, I also made the 390 cu in and AIR decals myself...it came out fairly good....I don't have any pictures of it tho'.

NOOOO!!! I was just kidding.

Well the reason I need a set is mostly your fault ...I got inspired from you Boss Truck Of America build and thought I would give it a try sometime...and I like to plan ahead.

The model kit and the real S/C car are from different years, Jo-Han based their model kit on their 1966 Rambler and the real S/C cars are from 1969, that's why they don't look the same, the basic body are the same but there are small detail differences between they years. One example, the sidemarkers came for the 1968 modelyear and were required on all cars from that year and forward...and the kit is a 66 body so they are missing, the tail lights are also different between the 66 and 69 model.

Well the mold material and resin needed to do the casting isn't readliy available around here...otherwise I might have tried to cast myself.

There is one guy who sells truck parts on ebay from time to time, he usually sells complete Cat 3408 engines, Cummins NTC 475 engines, exhaust stacks, tanks, battery boxes and such , he's from the UK and I have done some business with him a couple of times and he's great to deal with.

The Revell 1:25 69 Yenko, and COPO ZL-1 kits has only the standard grille, the Baldwin Motion and Convertible kits has only the RS hidden light grille...and the Z/28 kits has both.

If they have found the tooling for the body they can if the want to, the rest of the kit is the same as the 67 Malco Gasser Mustang. Yes the resin body I have looks to be a Wendell Sowers casting but I don't remember who the seller was as it was quite sometime ago.

I fully understand Alan, times are hard right now. I'm impressed with what you have done with what you had and the truck looks great...I'm eager to see you start the Mama Truck now.

I also have a resin copy of the Mr Gasket Gasser 69 Mustang body and it's very nicely done, it's a one-piece as the one in the old MPC kit but casted in white resin, I bought it on ebay a while ago but have seen more of them there from time to time and one quite recently. But hopefully Round 2 also will do the Mr Gasket kit, I don't care if it's a clear body or a solid white one, as long as we get it I'm satisfied. Ohio George had 2 versions or you might say evolutions of the Mr Gasket 69-70 Mustang, one with the same SOHC engine as the 67 pictured in the first post above, and one with a twin turbo injected 429, I have also seen this car with 2 different front clips, one 69 and one 70, and 3 sets of rear wheels, 5-hole slot mags, 8-hole ET wheels and American Racing Bear Paw wheels, the fronts has always been spindle mount "kidney beans".

Yes it looks really good. It might be that the sleepers are slightly too long, or as you say Sean, the frame could have been stretched some...but not much...just enough to get some space between the sleepers and the rear fenders to get the right look. Other things I would have done if I would have built it is change the engine to a Detroit 12V-71 instead of the kits Cat 3408 and the wheels to either 5-hole Truck Mates or 2-hole Budds from Ben Wicker depending on wich version I did, I would also probably have tried to replicate the older 4-bag air ride suspension the real truck had instead of the Air Glide 100 that's in the kit, and add an auxiliary transmission...but that's me, As for the gold KW "Bug" emblem it's only gold on the last two versions where the truck was Orange with white-yellow-red stripes and white tops or black tops, the other versions where the truck was white with blue and red shadowed panels on the sides and fenders, orange with white tops, white pinstriping and blue panels on the fenders, black (or if it's very dark blue) with light blue pinstriping and blue and white panels on the fenders, or the red with gold-blue-white large stripe on the sides and panels on the fenders and tanks the Bug emblem is the regular chrome and red.

Does anyone know if someone is casting the Tyrone Malone Bandag tires from the Papa Truck and Hideout Truck transporter kits...I need some for an upcoming project...at least 10.

According to Chuck's website: Welcome to Scale Racing Replicas We apologize, however we have had to close down Scale Racing Replicas. We do appreciate your business.

He has exceeded his allowed monthly traffic on his free account. The pics will return soon.

Looks good so far Alan. I might have to put the Boss Truck Of America on my build list as well.

Here is a picture explaining this. The Wheelbase on a 3 axle dual drive truck is the distance between the center of the front axle (or the center point of the two if it's two steer axles) to the center point between the rear axles. If it's a 2 axle truck it's the center of the front axle to the center of the drive axle. And if it's a tri-axle bogie it's the center of the front axle to the center of the middle axle. And another picture explaining how we specify a truck over here in Sweden. We have different load regulations than the US so the way we do it is slightly different. The wheelbase (A) is the distance from the center of the front axle to the center of the first axle in the bogie (in this case measured in millimeters), and the next measure is the axle spacing between the rear axles and depending on those measures and what type of suspension the truck has they calculate the "theoretical wheelbase" wich is sligtly closer than how the wheelbase is measured in the US if you only have single drive with a tag axle, if the rear bogie is a dual drive the "theoretical wheelbase" and the way you measure the wheelbase in the US are the same. Over here the center of the weight of the load when the truck is fully loaded must be where you get the maximum load evenly spread on each axle and bogie and not go over on any of them, if the load is placed wrong you'll go over somewhere or can't take advantage of the trucks maximum load capacity. Where this point are depends on how the truck is built, where the axles are and how much weight is on the front axle when the truck is unloaded. Over here they allow a maximum gross weight of 60 metric tonnes if the truck-trailer combination has at least 18 meters between the first and last axle (maximum overall length here are 24 or 25.25 meters depending on combination) and has enough axles to spread the load on. Well this was very technical but it's hard to explain in any other way.

Well that's not entirely correct either, these tall deck engines aren't larger in every direction, just higher and wider...not longer as the bore spacing often are the same as the engine they are based on. But of course if the bore spacing is wider the engine gets longer, and with a wider bore spacing you can bore out the cylinders more, some have the cam shaft moved upwards also to allow for even longer stroke.

Very nice. The only thing you missed are the gold background color with silver letters on the KW "bug" on the grille, 1973 was Kenworth's 50th anniversary and the trucks had gold KW "bug" emblems that year instead of the regular red/silver. I have seen the Smokey And The Bandit movie about a gazillion times since it first came 1977...well at least once a year...and on most of the exterior shots of the truck it has the gold "bug" emblem...even the yellow and white KW in the first scene when "Tod Engels" gets busted by the cops for bootlegging has a gold "bug" emblem.

That's how they measure the wheelbase in the US, Canada and some other countrys, and here in Sweden and several coutrys in Europe measures the wheelbase from the center of the front axle to the center of the first rear axle. So both are correct depending on where you are.

Well it's not exactly true...yes the large cu in engines are based on the old 396-454 design but if an engine has a taller deck it means that the engine gets both higher and wider as the cylinder heads are mounted higher up and furhter appart, so the physical size are not exactly the same. But it's not that hard to do yourself, add some material to the deck surfaces on the block of a regular 396-454 and widen the intake manifold to fit between the heads and you have your tall deck "mountain motor".

Yes the doorhandles are different and the later cab has narrower vent windows...but that can be fixed if you want to do an older cab from the Revell Germany kit. After what I have found out the W900A came around 1968-69...like the AMT kit...and the latch type low mount doorhandles came around 1972 together with the smaller vent windows, 1973 all Kenworths had hood emblems with gold bottom color instead of red to celebrate Kenworth's 50th anniversary, 1974 came the V.I.T. 60 inch sleeper on the W900 (108 inch V.I.T cab for the K100) and the Gullwing Bumpers...like the Revell Germany kit has... 1976 came the Aerodyne high rise sleepers and the Bicentennial V.I.T. 200 edition trucks...same as the Revell/Monogram W900 snap kits..., and the W900B with the more square hood, square headlights and square air horns came 1983...to my knowledge not done by any model manufacturer so far.

I would say the AMT cab from 1968 to 1971 and the Revell Germany cab from 1972 to 1982. The hood is different but I don't know how much difference there are between the W900A and W900B cabs and the B model came 1983. Oh, you did beat me there James...I'm no Kenworth expert but I wasn't that far off.