highway

James, they are out there. I drive for a living and just in the past week or two, I have see an old K123, two or three old Pete cabovers, and an old International Transstar. I also seen an interesting hybrid, a Pete 359 with the older squared off Kenworth Aerodyne sleeper. When I drove heavy wrecker in the early 2000s, I even drove an old Freightliner FLC, Mack R, and a 1974 White Western Star. By the way, just in case you see this post BEFORE the mods move it, instead of the "Off Topic", this should be in the truck section under "The Truck Stop" area. That will probably be where it will get moved to.

I park in as many spaces as possible to protect my ride!

Chuck, I'd say at least with question 1, it would not matter if it was a fleet vehicle or not, all the F150s should be alike and if I remember correctly, my ex's dad's 97 F150 was painted underneath. Easy way to find out for sure, and I'm not trying to sound like a smart BLEEP, is to look under one either at a car lot or in a parking lot. Second, maybe try a dealership and see if they may just have any old brochures. Another option would be a swap meet or car show where vendors are selling. If you need anything on exterior colors, I did find this nice site: http://paintref.com/paintref/index.shtml

Yeah, but even using the 377, unless the conversion includes the larger Ultra Cab, just a hood conversion wouldn't make a 386. The frame, engine, and sleeper would be about all the 377 could correctly donate.

Exactly!! I also see the frame issue (or non issue in my case) like this: after you put everything on it like the cab, sleeper, tanks, steps and other related parts, how much of it do you really see?? Especially if you have a trailer on it, you might see a few feet of it between the back of the sleeper and nose of the trailer, and to me,that area looks the same no matter what the truck!

There is one not on the list I would be on like white on rice, the 386.

Same here. I for one see it this way,that's their choice, but how much of a rivet counter do you have to be to complain about two rails of steel that are mostly hidden anyway! That, in my book, is like saying you wouldn't buy AMT truck kits because the lugnuts are a half a millimeter too small!

Hmmmmmm......maybe that's why I said there was NO OFFICIAL TRADE DRESS!!! I'm not as picky, though. If it looks like a Mack and barks like a Mack, it's a Mack in my book! If I need it to be 100% accurate, I've driven enough of the real things to know what to do to make it that way. Now back to my job of keeping the Walmarts of eastern OH, most of WV, and western PA stocked with groceries so people can eat!

Hmmmmm.....that American Superliner (granted, no official trade dress but STILL a Mack) must be a figment of my imagination when I see it on my shelf!

You do have a point there Anthony, and it seems all the manufacturers do have both Pete and KW kits but them. Brand may have something to do with it, but it may be as simple as Italeri doesn't realize Paccar owns both brands.

While I will not debate you over the quality if a Star, Daimler is also the parent group of both and also of Daimler Trucks North America, which you will see from this link has Freightliner, Western Star, and also Detroit and Thomas buses under "Our Brands". http://www.daimler-trucksnorthamerica.com/ While maybe my statement of Western Star being a Freightliner brand may not be correct, both are brands of Daimler so it would still make sense that if a company already has the license to use the Freightliner name, they should be able to use the Western Star name, and maybe that is a good reason the AMT Western Star was reissued after so many years.

Actually, any company with a Freightliner license would be able to release it, Western Star is afterall a Freightliner brand now.

Well actually it's only blue in certain light! Yes, that is the one I was reffering to, though. The Rustoleum Color shift I used on both the cab and the frame was $20 a can when I started that project, and now nearly $25 a can, and it took one and a half cans for the hood, cab, and sleeper and almost a whole can for the frame, and that doesn't include the price of the black undercoat for the color shifting effect and the primer or clear coat. All total I probably have close to $80 wrapped up in the paints for that paint job.

DING DING DING WE HAVE A WINNER!!!! I did have a two tone blue Classic as well the first time I worked with Werner, but it was the red one I made the truck payment on. Three months of my driving career I really would wish I hadn't done, some of the stupid things we do when we were young!

Built it, I never even heard of it!!!! Me likey more info too!!

The first problem is you used Krylon!! After I had a Krylon paint attack a model probably 20 years ago, I never have used another Krylon product. Seriously though, I would probably say, not knowing the Krylon for plastics paint, it was probably a lacquer based paint and the it attacked the Tamiya base coat. Since it is formulated for plastics, it is probably like hobby grade lacquers and not a "hot" lacquer and why you got bad orange peel and not crazing. Unfortunately, probably the only choice you are going to have is strip the paint (and say bye bye decals ) and redo it. As a rule, I always use (or try to anyway) the same brand clear as the base coat. That way I know that it will be compatible and not ruin the paint job. The only exceptions to that rule is primers, even though I try to use auto grade primers like DupliColor when possible but the cheap dollar store or Walmart primers do just as good, and combinations I know from prior use will work without harming the undercoat. Whenever it does come to a combination I have not tried before, I'll test it on a spare body or a part like the hood before doing the whole body to make sure there will not be a result like your unfortunate problem. A good case in point of where I have never used a certain combination and where I made sure I bought the same brand for the final paint job is a custom Ford big rig I'm still in the process of finishing. The primer coats were whatever I had on hand, because the custom sleeper required much body work, sand, prime, repeat to get the look I wanted, but when it came to the custom Rustoleum Colorshift paint job that also required a black basecoat, everything from the basecoat to the clear had to be Rustoleum. There was no way I was going to have the $60 custom paint job get ruined!

Well, we will just see how closely we pay attention here!!! Of those three, there is one I never worked for and would give up my CDL before I did, one that I did work for and would never go back to again because of the lease, and one that I have worked for twice, the last being in 2012. Obviously if you guess the one I worked for in 2012, they would not be the one I had the lease at.

If I remember correctly, it was one of those cartoonish kits of a semi doing burnouts.

Yeah, Doug, the Millennium would be the best choice then. I had a 2002 Classic back in the day that I leased from a joke of a company (otherwise known as worst mistake ever! ) and that was also when the pre LED Millenniums were just hitting the market and it came with the factory installed Millenniums. One other question, are you doing the lights as a factory installed set or driver installed? If it's driver installed, it may open your options for lighting choices, but factory installed kinda limits you to the Millenniums.

Doug, depending on the truck you are thinking of putting then on, the Millennium style lights may or may not be your best choice. If it is a newer rig like the Lonestar, then yes, because they are more or less factory equipment, but I think for an older truck the "double bubble" lights Cary posted may be a better choice. Don't get me wrong, the Millenniums look nice on older rigs too, but the double bubbles are also offered now in LED for the modern light brightness but the retro look.

Actually, I'm not sure if they are there in the older issues, but I know reissues I had from the late 80s or early 90s and beyond had score marks in the inside of the bed and appeared to me anyway to be an easy way to cut the bed down to mount on a truck frame.

Hopefully a tractor!!!! Seriously though, Jim hit the nail into the drive tire on this one, (ok had to get one more joke in) but everyone has there own tastes and their tastes may or may not match your own.

Honestly Jake, I don't think it has anything to do with it being a "popular" truck to appeal to a wide market, I for one think anything modern would sell like hotcakes! The Mack may have its niche market when it comes to the real trucks and the Pinnacle is mainly geared toward owner operators, but I know I would get one or two (at least) if Moebius (or anyone for that matter) would offer a kit of the Pinnacle and add them to my stable of R model and Superliner bulldogs. I don't really care for the Prostar myself, it is a truck that doesn't appeal to me, but that won't stop me from eventually getting one to build a fleet truck out of. As for licenses, if Moebius would get the license to use the Mack name, that also opens the door for more Mack options as well as Volvo, since Volvo now owns the Mack name.

Another option is Dawn Power Dissolver, actually used for cleaning pots and pans. I have not personally used it for paint stripping yet, but a friend of mine has and said it worked as well as the purple power. I have used it to strip chrome, and it does that very quickly. A plus to, it has not harsh odors or precautions needed.