highway

Well, I learned something new tonight starting this, I always thought the standard AMT K100 Aerodyne kit had a long frame because it shared was the Tyrone Malone haulers without the race bed, but I was WRONG!! I compared my Papa Truck frame to the frame of a regular Aerodyne rebuilder I have, and found that the frame in the Papa Truck is a scale foot and a half LONGER!! The first thing I decided to work on was the interior, since I have to spray paint outside and being a balmy 11 degrees out at this time, most body and frame work will be closer to spring when it warms up. I didn't get five minutes into this and already the first modifications are being made. I really don't think BJ McKay would like an automatic, and according to a pic I found at http://www.tvtruckin.com/index.html that has pics of Paul Sagehorn's rebuilt original BJ and The Bear truck, the original had what appears to be by the shifter's shift pattern a 9 speed, I'm mating a manual to the kit's Detroit. This meant also finding a new shifter, thankfully I had a parts Pete 352 Pacemaker that was more than happy to donate the shifter and a better fitting floor piece. I'll have to figure out a different way to make the linkage appear to link with the shifter since I don't want a huge hole in the floor the way the kit was, but I'll figure something out. It appears as if everything will fit together well with the new shifter though. I also started to flock the floor.

I hear that driver!

Clayton, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!! That is almost exactly what I'm thinking, but probably without a spread axle and a little more chrome and more chicken lights, but that is the general idea. Thanks for the pic too, it has a couple other ideas I like that I wasn't thinking of like the Texas bumper and full fenders.

This is going to be my entry into the BRBO, a BJ and The Bear inspired custom KW K100 pulling a 53' Great Dane. The paint will be the same as the original truck, but this is sort of my vision of if BJ Mckay was a modern day "chicken hauler", but able to put the money he isn't spending on fuel and normal upkeep into making the old girl into a chicken truck. The kits I will be using are an original "Papa Truck" because I want the long frame look to the truck and a Moebius Great Dane. This is sort of the inspiration for the build.

Yep I did. My idea is going to share the paint job, but be a "what if BJ McKay was a modern day chicken hauler" using old school iron.

Can't wait to see it! We're kinda thinking along the same lines, one idea swimming in my head is a BJ and The Bear style rig, but a little custom too.

And I just found the website with the rebuild of both trucks: http://www.tvtruckin.com/index.html

Nice work Angel. Jim, the one that Angel posted the pic of is Paul Sagehorn's. Here is a pic I have of it I found online. I looked to see if I could find the bookmark I had to his site documenting the rebuild of not only this, but one of the original "BJ and the Bear" trucks as well, but I can't find it at the moment, but I did have this saved from his site when it was redone with the 8 bag suspension. And, who's up for two wonderful TV icons in one pic!?!?!? IIRC, the "BJ and the Bear" truck was found by Paul in GA, and this was another pic from his site when he went to pick it up. EDIT: I just noticed in the pic of the suspension, it is NOT an 8 bag, but a standard four bag setup!

???? I don't really see how they could be a close match, because from what I remember the Watkins trailer was 1/25 scale and the Revell snap kit is a 1/32 scale. If the pieces are nearly the same size, one of the kits seriously missed the scale!

You must have had a high horse one then to call them great! I had a 330 in a mid 90s FLD 120, and that thing slowed down when it seen a hill, I think it got scared! I had a similar truck with the same company, only difference was the big mean, green 470 Detroit under the hood, and that truck would pull a mountain like nothing and get to the top and ask for more! I do have to give older Cumaparts credit though. I drove a 74 White/Western Star wrecker that had a 444 Big Cam under the hood hooked to a 15 speed deep reduction, and that thing would pull almost anything it hooked to. The only thing it didn't pull that I ever had it hooked to was a garbage truck that went over a hillside and had to be pulled out of the creek it landed in with a dozer and excavator. After the equipment got it to where what was left of the truck could be loaded on a lowboy, the owner of the towing company told me to hook the drag winch up to the wreck and drag it on the lowboy. I hooked up, got in the wrecker and started pulling in 1st gear. The wreck didn't budge, thanks to all but one or two tires being flat, but did pick the front of the wrecker about 8 feet of the ground! Thankfully, I let off the fuel slow enough and put my foot on the brake fast enough to just easily set it back on the ground. It took me pulling and the excavator pushing the packer body to finally get the wreck on the lowboy.

Actually, and don't hold me to this because I'm not completely 100% sure, it's not a separate line going to the trailer for ABS, but why on modern trucks like this 2012 Peterbilt 386 I drove have green electrical lines instead of the black lines that were more common when I first started driving 18 years ago. The green line, and as I said I'm not 100% certain on this, indicates that the line is wired to operate the ABS brake circuit on the trailer, where the older black cords were not. There is a decal on the front of all trailers that calls out what each pin powers that is similar to this: I know there is one that states constant power must be supplied to the certain pin for the ABS circuit, but not sure exactly which one. I'll click a pic of the decal at work tomorrow.

Ok, so I'm not accused of lacking reading comprehension, tooling I would fund would be for more modern truck and trailer kits, especially from my favorite make, Frieghtliner. 1. Freightliner Classic XL (with both 70" and 84" sleeper options 2, Freightliner Cascadia Evolution (so I could build the truck I currently drive) 3. Modern flatbed trailer 4. Modern Nascar style hauler with option to make it a regular exotic/classic hauler like this: and maybe even a couple of custom combo kits to build fancy rides like this: 5. Modern Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks. There is tons of other trucks and heavy equipment that I'm sure I'd love to fund, but those are some of my tops. Now of the rest of life out of the hobby, other than the obvious of paying off not only all my debts, but all of my family and friends debts as well, I would buy a new daily driver and build a new house along with a huge garage for my new classic car collection and probably a couple hobby buildings, one for models and one for a huge building size train layout. If I'd win tonight, I wouldn't just be winning, all my close friends would be too!

X3!

Yep, he is!

I do have to say my jaw dropped when I was walking around the truck show and seen it, I made an immediate turn in it's direction so fast that my girlfriend at the time didn't even realize I left her side! I've had a few poorly done rebuilders of the race trucks throughout the years I never did do anything with and got lost in a divorce move, but I do have the original issue of the Papa Truck. It was almost as big of a jaw dropping experience getting that as it was seeing the real Bandag Bandit, because a close friend said he had a "surprise" for me one time a few years ago when he stopped by my house. He was coming over for us to work on a few models together, and he came in carrying the Papa Truck. I asked him "Oh, finally going to start working on that thing, huh?" and his reply was "No, this is your surprise, it's yours now"!

You are quite right Force, it is in the Iowa 80 Museum. I had the pleasure of seeing it when I attended the 2012 Walcott Truckers Jamboree.

I do like that idea Aaron, because I haven't nailed a sure choice down yet. The original idea was the Buzzen Dozen Detroit 12V71, but haven't gotten one yet. Then I was just going to use the Detroit Series 60 from Italeri's Pete kits and even through the idea around of the Cat 3406 from the Revell Snap Pete and KW or a 3408 from the Revell AG KWs, but a little too "ordinary" for the rest of the truck. I even tried to make a Detroit 16V71 from two spare 8V71s, but that turned out much like the Allison. Life and a couple of moves got in the way a lot, but as I have been settling into my new apartment, I did find I have an extra floor for the Italeri Fords and finally found the box with my scratchbuilding supplies, so that extra floor might just get modified so the 16V71 will fit.

I'm pretty sure he is (or at least was) a member here, but I forget what his screenname was.

I was actually going to try this idea as a part of a CBP on another forum thanks to a couple crazy friends that were also working on trucks for the CBP and we were going to form our own little company in the process. The "boss" was actually going to mount two of the Allisons in his custom sleeper, and me and the other friend were going to have ours under the hood of our customs. The two biggest bits of advice I can offer is 1: with a custom, anything is possible and 2: make sure you design the truck around the engine! I had to drop the Allison idea from mine because by the time the three of us came up with the idea, I already had my frame and cab bits in (very expensive) paint and the Allison wouldn't fit without modifications that I was wasn't willing to destroy the work already done. The rest of the build was already to this stage when I tried to fit the Allison.

Thanks

Same here, just hope they accidentally put the 12V71 in the kit instead LOL!! Hopefully with the Papa Truck coming out, maybe the race truck to go on it might be in the reissue works! I'm pretty sure that Mike meant the CABOVER! Yep, look what it did to this train!

Not much lately, other than the landing gear and suspension are now painted to match the tractor frame. May spend a little time with her tonight if my back would stop throwing a fit!

Other than the hundreds of cars, pickups, big rigs, planes, ships, etc, this is been on the unfinished list for way too many years, and hopefully will hit the finish line in 2016. It's also the first (and hopefully last ) time I have EVER matched a trailer to the tractor, the walls and reefer are the same color as the body on the cab and the landing gear and rear suspension (minus air bags, maxi chambers, and shocks) are matched to the tractor frame.

Where is the "LIKE" button!?!?!?!

You used the correct term too Dennis, DRIVERS!! They are a part of a dying breed that know a GPS is a tool only, not an autopilot like the newer "Steering wheel holder" believes GPS is. I have GPS built directly into the Qualcomm in my work truck, and just have it on to have something on the screen other than the blank screen when the truck is in motion and to see how close I am to the store I'm delivering to. I do use it as a tool when I might have two stores on a route I have not gone to back to back before, but if the routes don't match truck routes in the atlas, I'd rather drive a few extra miles than follow it into trouble. Yes, the Qualcomm based GPS is supposed to be truck specific, but I have to laugh when it might say in the route preview "unpaved road". Yep, not going to follow that, I'll go my way!