KJ790

In the 80's there was a brief period where 8-lug wheels gained popularity on trucks. They were available in 22.5" and 24.5" diameters.

Thanks guys! I made the meat out of clay and painted it. I had tried a few different things first, but none of them worked out the way that I had hoped.

Personally, I fall under the "it has to be just right" group, so admittedly I do not purchase a ton of aftermarket parts. From the few vintage parts I have made, it does seem like they do not sell well. I think they appeal mostly to the builders that want something specific. It seems counter intuitive because so many kits are 70's era, but that seems to be how it goes.

Matt hit it on the head. I have found that many model truck builders often fall into a few categories. One group builds for fun and does not fuss too much over details. These builders will typically build box stock or find some donated parts here and there to switch things up. This type of builder is not looking to spend $60 on a set of rims and tires because kit wheels work just fine for them. Other builders fall into the "it has to be exactly what I am looking for" category. These builders will not buy a part unless it has every exact detail that they want. I had a builder tell me that a tire I cast is perfect, except that it didn't have the brand name that he wanted on the sidewall so he could not use them. Getting one of these builders to buy an aftermarket part is very few and far between because you have to get lucky enough to have made the exact part with every detail that they want for a specific build. Typically they will not use the same part on multiple builds, so sales are even limited there. Most aftermarket sales seem to go to the in-between crowd, which is a niche of a niche. Now return on investment is tough. Take a tire for example, I may spend 10 hours drawing a tire in CAD, then spend $45 to have a master 3D printed. Then I have to spend another 3 hours making a mold (which uses $30 worth of silicone). Now I have spent $75 and 13 hours before the first tire is made. At $10 per hour, that would be $205 that would need to be recouped. When all is said and done I have to sell around 150 tires to break even at $3 per tire. I have tires that have been very poor sellers, I even had one tire that I was never able to sell a single one. It seems that it is a gamble as to whether it will be popular or not.

I did the text myself, but I tried to replicate old magazine ads that I had. I tried to use similar fonts and I used some of the same wording as the real ads that I had for inspiration.

Thanks! I wish I had real photoshop. I actually made these with Microsoft Word.

I decided to have a little fun with some recent model builds. I always loved the old advertisements in Overdrive magazine, and I thought "what if I made my own?". Here is my take on some late 70's style ads featuring some of my models.

Nope, the chassis is all stock.

Yeah, I kept the kit engine. This truck is the closest to box stock I have ever built. I changed the bumper to the California Hauler one, made some grille shutters, added a steerable front axle, and changed the rims and tires.

I used Spaz-Styx chrome sprayed over white primer. I have found that it makes a nice aluminum look.

Thanks! I made the grille out of styrene half-round strips. If you but them up against each other then it looks like shutters.

I added drops of Tamiya clear-blue with Tamiya white until I had a color that I thought looked about right. Sorry I can't give you a mix ratio or anything.

Thanks! I wound up using clay that I painted.

I do not think that I have posted this one here yet. This is an AMT Pete 352 that I made a few modifications to. I think it goes well with my recently finished reefer trailer.

Managed to get some outdoor shots today.

Took a swing at making an old school meat railer from the new issue of the AMT Fruehauf van. I detailed the interior, added a side door, reefer unit, roof rails, and finally a load of beef sides.

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures while building this one, but I think it is close enough to finished to post here. I used a Revell snap kit W900 and made a few modifications. I cut the Aerodyne sleeper down and made a new roof for the cab and sleeper to be a 36" flat top. I added a steerable front axle with aluminum machined rims along with some resin 2-hole wheels on the drives. A 3D printed grille was added as well as a torsion bar suspension. The front bumper is from an AMT W925 kit. The exhaust, quarter fenders, battery box, and fuel tanks were scratch built.

Nice find, with a lot of rare features! That looks to be the old KW 4-bag air ride suspension that came before the AG100 8-bag air ride. This suspension was available through the 70's, but it was not very common. This is also an early VIT 108" cab with a narrow grille (and oil dipstick door on the front next to the grille rather than on the passenger's side). Also note that it has the old style stamped grille and a roof mounted AC unit rather than the "grilledenser" that Kenworth has been known for. Kenworth came out with the "grilledenser" as an option for their 86" cabs in 1972, but for some reason they did not make it available for the 108" cabs until 1975. So if you wanted an early 108" cab and air conditioning, a roof mounted unit was your only choice. Very cool truck!

Those are resin rims that I made.

Not that I am aware of. There was an extra wide grille with a very large radiator as an option for the T800, but that wasn't available until the late 80's or early 90's.

Thanks! I cut the sleeper off from the cab, and filled in the "V" shaped notch that is left in the roof of the cab. Then I cut the top off of the sleeper and cut the sides down to the right length, then I used the top cap of a 36" sleeper from a 359 Peterbilt snap kit for the roof of the coffin sleeper. I am actually building another like this right now, but I am scratch building the roof of the sleeper instead of stealing one from a Peterbilt kit.

Every extended cowl KW I have ever seen had the wide nose. As mentioned above, the extended cowl was used for high horsepower engines that were always paired with a wide radiator. I believe the narrow nose was available as an option up until 1982, but they are pretty rare much beyond the mid-70's.

Now I am curious, I have never heard of this guy. Is he still around or is the site old?

Thanks! For the reefer I just mixed a few drops of Tamiya clear-blue with some white and just eyeballed it. Most of those reefers faded a lot, so I figured any shade of light blue would look realistic with a little weathering.

Thanks guys! I almost smashed this thing near the end. I was putting the final details on the rear doors and I banged the front top corner against my table and broke it off. I then tried to peel the roof off to make a new one, but it was glued on so well I started to destroy more and more in the process. I may have said a few bad words, but I eventually got it straightened out.