KJ790

I found this old picture of the real truck: This picture was taken in the mid 1980's after the exhaust and intake had been converted from cab mounted to frame mounted. When they did this they turned the intake around so it zig-zagged outward instead of inward. This truck currently resides in a field with a few other classic KW cabovers. It has been repainted solid blue and has had a few parts stolen from it. It is the one on the left in this picture: After scaling off the picture I realized that I had made my air shield too large. So I cut it down a little shorter and repainted it. I also had to cut down the exhaust pipe, and then added a rain cap to the pipe.

Got the air shield done today. Almost completely done with this one!

Looking good! I love that reefer, is that scratch built?

The wheels are from the AMT Diamond Reo kit. I took strips of styrene, bent them into a cirlcle, and glued them into the rear rims to creat the drop center of the tubless style rims. Then cut pieces off of a paper clip and glued them in place for the valve stems.

Looks great so far! Where did you find the photo-etched grille?

Thanks! Those pictures are from my family's small trucking company. The pics in this thread are actually from 5 years before I was born. My family sold the company about 12 years ago. The new owner has downsized it a bit and gone more towards being an owner-operator fleet now, but they still have 40-50 trucks running around these days.

Had to take a little break from building, but I got a lot done last night and tonight. I just have to finish the air shield on the roof, add the pogo stick and air hoses, and a few other small details.

After doing some research, it looks like the reefer unit on the old Ertl Great Dane trailers may be a Thermo King SNWD model. I for one would love to see these in resin. I have 2 on built models, and would love to have some more. I am thinking about scratch building one, but a resin piece would be much better.

Haha, I just grabbed the pic off google for an example.

Sorry, I meant the Ertl Great Dane. This one: Looks similar to the Crown 500 model without the badging, though Thermo King had a few models that all looked similar around that time.

One of the thermo king models was the Crown 500. This looks very similar to the one that AMT sold with the Great Dane reefer.

Let me know if you do, I would definitely buy a few sets.

Hey Jerry, do you offer just the permit numbers for the side of a cab, like the ones on the top rear of the Kingsway truck on your website? I would print my own, but I cannot print white on clear decal paper.

One reason why they became popular in the western part of the United States was that some of the states in that area had what was called a "bridge law". This allowed an axle to hold more weight if it was spaced out from the next closest axle. Basically the longer the truck, the more weight you were allowed to carry in certain areas. This was to help distribute the weight over a greater length of a bridge. These laws have mostly gone away now, but people liked the look, and most roads are open and straight in the western US, so some people still like to have long trucks. It is pretty rare to see them in the eastern US, as most of the roads are tighter.

Test fitting the cab:

Looks great! Where did you get the headlights?

They would wobble if you didn't know what you were doing, and they were dangerous if you didn't know how to remove them properly. The rim itself was held on with wedges on the end of each spoke, which was tightened into the rim with the nut. To take them off you had to loosen the nuts, then pop the wedges loose with a hammer. If you took the nut completely off and the wedges were not loose then they could pop out at you with a bit of force. You could also get your finger caught in there if your had was in the wrong place when the wedges popped loose. The other downsize is that you can't change rim size without changing the whole wheel. 20" spokes could only take 20" rims and 22" spokes could only take 22" rims. With disk wheels, the hubs are universal, so if you want to switch rim sizes you can just swap them.

I have 3 photo albums of old pictures, but I have only scanned a few onto a computer as of now. I need to find some time to scan them into my computer.

Thanks Justin! That's 45 in that pic. I only know because of this closer pic from that day:

Detroit 8V92T. I hope to work on the engine a bit tonight or tomorrow.

This one is going to be old #26. We bought two of these in 1980 that were identical. This one is going to get some of your step ladders and one of your wide grilles Rick. You can see the two of them in the foreground of this old pic. I will have to come up with a better pic to post later.

Thanks guys. I got a bunch of work done on it tonight, but then it slipped out of my hands, caught the edge of the table, and hit the floor... A few curse words later and I'm almost back to where I was before the accident:

I started on a new cabover KW build recently. I started with an AMT Kenworth K123 kit, then added 8 bag air-ride suspension from a KW snap kit. Here is where I am so far:

Another site that I have gotten aftermarket parts from is http://www.aitruckmodels.com/pages/kitsparts.html You can also get ahold of Rick Mark, he is a member here and does great work as well.

Looks good! Where did you get the pinstripe decals? Those look great!