highway

Rangers are even a tough find, I think the only ones were the early to mid 90s Splash and regular bed Rangers were the only small Ford trucks made other than the old 70s Courier. The only other closest thing I could think of to get you close to a Bronco II is the Lindberg 1/20 Explorer Sport, it appears to me as the front end might not need much or any modification, just the back half. Here's a link to the ebay listing I got the pic of the kit from: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lindberg-Ford-Explorer-Sport-1-20-model-Kit-NEW-UNASSEMBLED-/360890422495?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item5406bed4df

Oh, and you shouldn't have to cut the frame either, since it would already be a suitable length for a tractor.

It should be Sean, it is the same cab and frame as the Louisville box truck. If you REALLY want to go that route and make a tractor from a Louisville truck, I would suggest getting a snow plow version. If I remember correctly, it comes with both the single and dual axles, and it also has the fifth wheel and plate included in the sprues.

A Mac??? Now I'm starting to get hungry!! Can I get that supersized??

Heck, at first with the lack of comments, I thought maybe the Eagles Harry was talking about was that hockey team or something!

Hmmm.....I'm in the Pittsburgh area regularly with my job delivering groceries to Walmart stores, what section of town are they in? Sorry, didn't bother looking at the camera feed!

I wouldn't run 8 if it was the ONLY operating system around, I'd go back to the stone ages BC (before computers)!

Here, Aaron, read through these, they may help. http://www.dodgeconnection.com/LilRedInfo.html http://www.dodgeconnection.com/NALRETO_Rules.html The rules you have to download, but there are a couple of sections that explain differences between the 78 that the kit represents and the 79 that could probably be built with a donor and/or modified grille out of the Revell Ramcharger from the "Gone Fishing" set. It does appear to me, without digging out the kit, at least one main issue between the kit and the 1:1 is that it appears the 1:1 only came with an automatic, and I'm pretty sure the kit has a manual.

I don't know if it was the same mixer, but the International mixer should still be on the shelves somewhere, it shouldn't be far out for reissue, either. I think the last it was out was the early 2000s. As for the destroyed molds of the Kenworth to make that horrible T600, (granted looked nice on the outside, with 70s tech underneath) would it be out of the realm of possibility for the destroyed molds to be reverse engineered from a good W925 kit? There always seems to be one of the variants on ebay, and I'm sure all the molds for the frame and running gear have to be hiding somewhere, since those were unchanged from the W925 to the T600.

Congrats and sorry to hear that at the same time Austin, sometimes it can be harder competing in the younger categories than one may think. I had a similar experience at a show once long time ago when I was your age, but it was actually started by the younger builder's mom and her trying ti tell the judges that her son's model shouldn't have been beat by mine because I was older and in the wrong age group. The judge then tried to explain that since there were a very limited number of entries in both the Junior (under 13) and Senior (13 to 17) age groups, all under 18 entries were combined by the judges into one Junior group. Then she started arguing that her son's model was just better than mine, and that she still felt his model should have gotten 1st place, not mine, and then the judge finally got so fed up with this mom he looked at her and said "You want to know why we picked that one over your son's? He had his displayed on a mirror and we could see underneath details as well and it simply was just the better of the two!" Then she started that her son's was just as detailed and the judge said "If we could have seen that like we could on the other, maybe it would be a different story, but our decision stands!" and walked off. My mom and I were standing nearby the entire time and both of us couldn't help but looking at each other and sharing a secret laugh! I just have to wonder if that boy ever learned to display his models on mirrors!?!? Sometimes the well fought wins or the controversial wins are the sweetest and the ones you'll remember for life!

Actually, if I remember from earlier today, it is just over 8100 on the odometer. It had been sitting for a little while and not garage kept though before I bought it, but at $750 it was in my "NEED A CAR NOW" price range!

Close Casey, right area, wrong side, but I haven't been brave enough to look at the rest of the frame yet though. I figure since the mechanic that told me about that was also the one that was going to do the front end alignment until he also found I needed to replace the idler arm before it can be aligned, I guess mine wanted to be the opposite of the common place.

Don't hold me to it, but I think I read here once before the W925 was issued 1 time with the torsion bars too. Maybe the Watkins issue?

HOLY COW BATMAN!! Maybe this is not a good time then to say that one of the possible surprises just might be a change in trailers!?!?

Well Chuck, it did get a little attention! This is by far not a major update, but an update and hopefully the first of many to come! As I was looking through some of my supplies and paints that have been in storage at a friend's house for nearly two years while life was getting the better of me, I stumbled across some flocking powders I had bought long ago at Michael's (Martha Stewart Powders IIRC) and found a nice Chestnut Brown powder. Then it hit me, that would be a perfect match for the interior colors I have already used in the truck! So now Thunderstuck has a nice carpet floor up front! i'm still trying to get life back to normal and get my new model room set up between work and the two days a week I get home out of the truck now, but at least I'm getting life back to normal. I have some BIG plans in the ole noggin floating around, and now that I'm getting a little extra cash to play with, I'll be getting some of those plans in the mail. I'm going to keep you all in suspense what those plans are, but I will give a little teaser, I have a HUGE plan for under the hood!

Keone, sorry I didn't answer this much sooner, but the 1:1s and life have sort of kept me away from building and the forum for a while. If you notice in the post you quoted, I used regular Bondo for the big work and the touch up I used Bondo Spot and Glaze putty. The light colored is the regular Bondo and the dark red is the Bondo S&G putty.

Yeah, because it is found in the 1:1 F250 and F350 SRW models as well as the Monogram F250 and F350 kits.

Yeah, they tried to give me one when I worked there back then too, but in 99 the cab on the Pete was much smaller than the Ultra Cab version they make now and that my 386 had. My trucker belly wouldn't fit behind the wheel back then!! I'm not sure about the roof (I know they make the new ultra cab roof, but not sure about the older one), but P&P Resin makes the sleeper and the hood for the 379. Of course, the 377 would also give you a correct cab, you'd just need the hood and move the SBA forward, and of course the Cat.

The rear end in the F350 and the F250 kits from Monogram are NOT Dana 70s, but a Ford 10.25 corporate rear end. How do I know this to be sure?? I own a 90 F350 with that rear end and compared it to the kit piece. Dana 70s were offered in some, and the front drives in 4x4s like mine are Dana 60s, but the rear ends in those kits are definitely the Ford 10.25 unit, NOT Danas.

I noticed watching "Son in Law" on CMT (it was the only thing half way interesting on) a few weeks ago that in one scene in the boy's bedroom when they go home for Thanksgiving, there are some Revell plane kits sitting on one of the shelves.

Man, I just have to vent before I rip someone's head off!! Today just hasn't been a good day all around, and partly because it started yesterday! I didn't get any sleep last night because my back decided to rear it's ugly head last night and I just couldn't get comfortable and was up all night. At least one good thing out of that, the better half didn't have to fight me to wake up at 8:00 AM to take her to a doctor's appointment she's already missed three times because she either couldn't get a ride, the weather was too bad to go, or she rescheduled it for a day that was not one of my scheduled days off. Yesterday, me and my "brother" JR (which just also happens to be my better half's ex and father to her daughter [LONG STORY!!] but also the son of long time friends that I consider family that I met dating his sister in high school) were trying to figure out what the shaking was in my 1983 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue. Well, other than badly worn shocks I already knew were getting changed, we thought we tracked it down to a badly worn tire. After throwing the full size spare on from the trunk, it seemed to calm the shake down and figured the shocks that I had to order yesterday and he installed for me today would do the trick, along with a front end alignment. WELLLLLLLLLLL, that wasn't it, but the other front tire we discovered today had a broken belt. So, after JR fought the old shocks off the front with a grinder, I went to the closest tire shop and got two new tires and alignment done, and figured that would be it until next week to fix some rust and exhaust work and see what a new windshield would be so it would pass WV state inspection. YEAH, RIGHT! I find out that they couldn't do the alignment today because I need a new idler arm in the steering before it can be aligned, and of course, I had to go back to Advance Auto and order that to pick up on my way to work tomorrow! On top of it all, I asked the mechanic that was under the car for the alignment, other than the obvious I already knew, did he see anything else that would not let it pass inspection. That's when he told me I had a rust hole in the frame! He didn't notice anything else, but he said when I bring it back for the alignment, he'd check it closer, and if there are more than two rust holes in the frame to fix, I can't even have them repaired because with more than two, it will not pass WV inspection with more than two frame repairs! I might have just dumped over $200 into a car I can't even make legal here!

My 83 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue is just getting ready to turn 8000 miles!

It looks like "Christine" after sitting on the couch watching Dr Phil eating too many bon bons!!

Actually Mike, if I remember correctly from owning two Ford cars and a 79 Bronco with the 351M (Bronco and 1976 Mercury Cougar) and the 400 (77 Ford LTD), those engines are in the same engine family as the 390, the FE family and the related FT (Ford Truck) family. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_FE_engine Correct Kent, I'm not sure of the month either, but the kit is only a late 78 or 79 truck, just as the related Model King Bronco released in the early 2000s was. I made sure I picked that up to build a replica of my long gone 79 Bronco. I sure miss that truck!

Honestly Brian, Tripac's and other APU's are not that popular anymore, especially with fleet trucks. Bunk heaters are being installed more than APUs now because of cheaper cost and less weight than having essentially a reefer engine hanging from the frame rails, and a truck with a bunk heater would not be that hard to replicate in scale. They have just a small exhaust tube sticking out from behind the sleeper. If you look closely in this pic, you can see the exhaust for the bunk heater sticking out from under the sleeper just past the 90 degree bend where the main exhaust is coming from under the truck and over to the stack. I'll look through my pics on my other computer to see if I have another better pic, but that is all I have in my Photobucket right now. Also, depending on the brand of heater, the controls in the bunk are nothing more than a dial that looks like a regular heater knob or a small control box with a digital readout to set the temperature. The one I had in that Pete was the second, and it didn't matter if I set the temp for 50 degrees, it would still roast you out by morning!