Force

I was going through the MTDG Facebook group just now and noticed a thing regarding the Malone trucks in a thread where Ben Wicker shows the correct style 5-hole Truck Mate wheels he has done the master for and sold by Jamie at Mo'luminum, I'm not a member on Facebook so I give out the information I have here. Someone there said the Hideout Truck had Alcoa 10-hole wheels at one time when Malone had it and they were covered up with Truck Mate stainless steel wheel covers...that's not really the case, Malone was sponsored by Truck Mate (wich is still around) and the Hideout Truck had the stainless steel wheel covers at one time, but under these wheel covers it still has the Truck Mate chromed 5-hole wheels with the same tube tires as before, even the Bandag Bandit had the same wheel covers on the rear wheels at that time...the wheels on most of the Malone trucks was later changed to chromed 2-hole wheels and 24.5" size tubeless tires. I don't think Truck Mate had any 10-hole aluminum wheels at that time and the only pictures I have seen where the Hideout Truck has had 10-hole Alcoas are from after Malone himself had passed and the truck was sold and when the truck was found again not that many years ago. Bridgestone who now owns the Bandag Brand was approached and offered to buy the truck so they could pair it up with the Bandag Bandit they allready have again (sits at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop Museum), a representative from Bridgestone came to California where the truck was and looked at it, they considered to do it but they changed their mind and finally declined...Gary Ries from Hastings MN has since bought the Hideout Truck and is going to restore it like he did with the Papa Truck Transporter he had bought earlier, he also owns the Super Boss, the Whale Truck and trailer, the Hurricane, the Defiance wheel stander Freightliner and the Smokey Bear Corvette from the Malone stable...Gary also tried to buy the Boss Truck Of America some time ago, the truck sits in Texas somewhere but that deal didn't go through, it's in pieces and the owner wants too much for it. Here are some pictures to show what wheels the Hideout Truck has had over the years. First the early Bandag version from approximately 1979-80 with the chromed Truck Mate wheels and tube tires, the first Thermo King version from 1978 did also have these wheels and I have posted a picture of that version earlier in this thread. A version with the Stainless Wheel Covers some years later, around 1981 or so, note that the Bandag Bandit has the same wheel covers on the rear wheels and that truck hasn't had anything else than tube style tires under it's life and it still has. An even later version some years later 1988-89 where Malone had changed to 2-hole chromed wheels with tubeless tires and a different paint job. This picture shows an even later version with the 2-hole wheels and the paint job is changed slightly again, more texts and the outlines of the white yellow and blue stripes on the cab are white instead of gold. Finally the version when the truck was found again in 2009 before Gary Reis bought it, the paint job is still nearly the same as in the picture above but now it has 10-hole Alcoa wheels.

Wasn't the torsion bar suspension obsolete in 1979, I mean Kenworth came with the 8-bag Airglide 100 the year before in 1978. But I have read the Peterbilt Air Leaf offered a smoother ride that the Kenworth AG100 and I have seen lots of pictures of Kenworth's with Peterbilt suspensions.

The Revell AG truck kits are the most expensive truck kits on ebay and the "Can-Do, "Will-Do" and the Bill Signs "Clydes II" kits tops the list and has done for a long time. There are two 1992 issues of the "Can-Do" there right now with asking prices of $575.00 and $720.00, and two 1993 issues of the same kit with asking prices of $460.00 and $475.00. There are also two of the "Will-Do" reissue from 2013 on ebay now wich is the same kit as the "Can-Do" except for the decals, and they have asking prices of $430.00 and $450.00. There are two 1994 issues of the Bill Signs kit there right now too and asking price for them is $350.00 and $500.00, I also saw one 2010 issue of the same kit and asking price for that is $325.00. So they are not cheap...but these are asking prices and if they will sell for that is questionable. What a realistic price is for the first issue of the "Can-Do" I don't really know, it depends on what the buyers are prepaired to pay for the kit and how desirable it is...and they are for sure desirable. I have two of the "Can Do" kits and one "Will Do" kit and I can say I didn't pay nearly as much when I bought them...for the prices they ask now on ebay I'll pass.

Very nice. Where do you get your slicks, they look just right with the wrinkles?

Yes it's not an uncommon thing, kits has come and gone all the time since they started doing them. The tooling is still there but when they don't have anymore in stock of the last batch of a certain kit it's discontinued until they some years later decide to do another batch of said kit, and it will come back again.

Great model indeed.

Very nice build of a difficult model, good work there.

The Revell kit from 2012-forward if I would choose. The old AMT kit is a lot older and may be the one you have seen.

3D Model Specialities on Shapeways has an AJPE (Alan Jonson Performance Engineering) 500 cui Hemi for modern Nitro cars as well as a Donovan 417 if you want a nostalgia engine, and lots of other neat stuff. TRD Inovations also has some decent parts.

The aluminum colored cover w/four bolts is where the oil filter adapter/housing usually are as it's a separate piece on the FE, and this plate seems to be just a block off plate, behind that plate it's only two oil passages, one comes from the oil pump and goes in to the filter and the other one goes back into the oil gallery inside the block...so it's just like a loop and nothing more fancy than that. Sometimes remote oil filters are used and there are a couple different adapters for that, and they are bolted at the same place as the reguar filter adapter/housing. You can't put an external oil pump at this spot (like on a Mopar 383-440 RB and Hemi) as you don't have any way to drive it, the oil pump on a FE is internal and driven with an axle from the cam shaft and distributor right above it. The Mopar RB oil pump are on the outside of the block and is also driven from the cam shaft and distributor but the axle for the pump goes all the way through the engine block to the outside pump. Here is a picture of the 390 engine I'm rebuilding right now for my 1963½ Galaxie to explain how it looks like behind that block off plate.

I just wonder who they are going to blame when it goes south and an accident has happened with a self driving car...the manufacturer who made the car or the software, or the person in the car...I mean, if the car is self driven none of these parties drove the car when the accident happened...and how will the insurance companys do in such a case...who has responsibillity.

Yes they were appearently available both ways, according to my references it looks like Sox & Martin used the black version on most of their cars. But I understand it's a bit late to change and the build looks fantastic anyway.

Yes BNL intake is slightly better than the old MPC intake but it still doesn't really capture the look of the real thing. The one Mark scratch built is one of the better ones I have seen so far.

Very nice build.

The axles in the AMT 68-69-70 Mopar B-bodies are Dana 60 wich were used in 4-speed big block and Hemi cars, the Dana 60 is very strong but it's heavy and hard to change gear ratios in as you have to do it on the car. I don't know exactly when all teams started to use the Ford 9 inch but I know the Mopar NASCAR cars used the 8 3/4 inch rear end back in the day, this axle is similar in construction as the Ford 9 inch and it's easier and much quicker to change the gear ratios in that axle as the 3rd member is a separate removable piece, so if you have several 3rd members with different gear ratios ready to use it's just like pull the drive shafts and swap the 3rd member to another one with a different ratio...much like they do with the Ford 9 inch. Regarding the "Bathtub" intake manifold, the only ones I know of from a kit is the old MPC intake wich can be found at some aftermarket resin casters, and as Tim says, they are not good representations of the "bathtub" intake...the best "bathtub" intakes I have seen has been scratch built...I'm curious why no one from the aftermarket has done and offered a better more accurate one, it can't be that hard to do with CAD and 3d printers we have today.

Normally the Ford FE as well as most of the other Ford V8's has the deep part of the oil pan at the front of the engine as the oil pump is located there, but with a longer oil pickup you can put the deep part at the rear, as long as the front part of the pan is deep enough for the oil pump to fit in there it will work just fine. Another solution to get more oil volume is to make the deeper part of the pan wider instead of making it deeper and modifying an oil pan is not exactly rocket science. The pictures below are of 427 SOHC dragster engines and one type of oil pan pan used, the SOHC is FE based so it can for sure be used on regular FE engines as well. It doesn't seem like they use a dry sump system as I can't see any scavenge pumps or oil lines, Ford had dry sump oil systems on the FE 427 for the GT40 Mk II and Mk IV in 1966 and 1967 and the NASCAR and Can Am 429 Boss for 1969-70-71-72ish but none of them looks to be in use as the scavenge pumps were integrated in a special timing chain cover for the FE 427 and in the front of the oil pan for the 429 Boss, so I believe they used regular oil pumps in the dragsters with FE engines. It looks like they use a girdle to stabilize the bottom end tho'

Very nice replica. As Bills72sj said, the Keystone Classic wheels needs some black detailing, otherwise it's very good.

Why would I want a self driving car, if I want to just ride in a car I can call a cab...you can pay many cab fairs for what a self driving car costs. I can't understand why they waste money on this. I want to drive my car myself and enjoy it.

It's not that uncommon to move the oil filter on race cars, usually on a 426 based Hemi the oil pump is on the lower drivers side and the oil filer is pointed forward from that, but due to cramped spaces they often use either remote filters or adapters to move the filter to where it's more room and easier access. On modern Nitro burning engines the filter are sometimes mounted upside down in front of the drivers side cylinder head or somwhere on the chassis near the engine.

I couldn't agree more, I hate those small metal pins they started to use about 15 years ago, you almost have to crack and destroy the suspension parts to get the wheels on there, I never use these pins and find my own better solution to the problem, one thing is that I allways glue my wheels on the models as I don't want them to roll...I mean my models are not toys, they are static replica models that's going to stay put on the shelf and not roll around. I also think many of the wheels in later Revell kits look too small...they might be scaled right but they still look too small when you use them on the model, I read somewhere that if you scale down everything exactly on a model the result of some things may not look right and have to be slightly overscale to get the right look. So for me they can return to what they had before and skip the system they use now as I think it's c*ap.

The AMT 1965 Buick Riviera has nice wire wheels and the spares kind of looks line them.

Auslowe has several of them.

Yes, the real Papa Truck transporter is a 1976 V.I.T. 200 Bicentennial Edition and that truck has torsion bars and a Bicentennial interior in red, white and blue (no diamond tuft), the wheels should have been Truck Mate 5 hole wheels and the front bumper should have been a smooth Peterbilt style bumper without any holes. The Hideout Truck Transporter on the other hand was as you say a 1978 and the kit is quite correct with Airglide 100 suspension and diamond tufted interior, the wheels should have been the same Truck Mate 5-hole wheels as was used on the Papa Truck and a Peterbilt style bumper with holes for 2 fog lights. The transporter beds are the same on both trucks in the kits, the Papa Truck has small round holes for a square key to unlock the side compartment doors and the Hideout Truck has chromed paddle latch handles for these doors, the Papa Truck has a winch at the front of the bed, the Hideout Truck doesn't have that. So both kits are the same except for the decals but the real trucks are quite different in several places so the kits has to be modified some to do correct replicas of the transporters. One more thing wrong with these kits is the dash panels, because the K100 Aerodyne has a different style dash panel than the flat top K100 and the kits has flat top K100 dash panels, all K100's got the Aerodyne dash panels but as far as I know it was in later production cabs.

If you want a 1932 Phaeton you have to go for the AMT kit, Revell has only done Tudor Sedan, Roadster, 3W Coupe and 5W Coupe body styles and the MPC 1932 kits aren't that good and they did not do a Phaeton either.

If you want to go the easy way the same exact carburetor can be found in most of the Revell/Monogram Pro Stock kits and there are several resin casters casting them, so these are not difficult to find. I have been around the real stuff for many many years and these are definately not the best representation of a Holley 4500 Dominator by any means as a real Dominator doesn't look like that at all, so I don't know why so many still use them on their builds because I think these model "blobs" look awful, the Jo-Han 4500 carbs from for example the 71 Sox & Martin 'Cuda looks a lot more like the real ones. Unfortunately Fireball just have the 4150 and 4160 styles for Holley's and they are great but no 4500 at all, so the best Holley 4500 I have seen so far from anyone is the E-DOM-2N from Futurattraction, so if you want to skip the model carb and get a more correct look, use a couple of them.