Aaronw

1938 was the first year for a factory Ford COE, but there were conversions done of earlier trucks. RMR offers many COEs from that period including Ford. Most include a cab interior. http://www.rmrmodels.com/ Mill City covers '38 to '47. Contact and other information is in this thread. Large portions of the sheet metal are shared between conventional and COE cabs of this time so it is possible to convert existing plastic kits into a COE. Revell's '41 Chevy and '50 ford with their separate fenders work fairly well for this. The '37 Ford is also made this way, but the conversion would be a little more difficult. I'm not going to say it is an easy conversion, but well within the abilities of someone who is willing to chop, channel and make other alterations to custom cars and hotrods. I started this '41 Chevy in 2008, it sits in more or less the same state now due to a a failure of time and motivation coming together at the same time... To my knowledge nobody does a '41-46 Chevy COE so this is the only way I will have one. There are more options for Ford.

I was doing public information for a fire in the area last year and the museum was one of the stops where I dropped off information packets each day. I was going to try and stop in on my way back home, but ended up going directly to another fire near Prescott. I did get a chance to take a quick peak around the place though. It is on the small side, but a nice collection. They said most of the planes are flyable or close to flyable condition. They have a Bf-109G, I don't think there are many of those around. The airport offices next door have a nice collection of around a dozen old cars on display in the lobby, mostly 1920s through 1940.

Thanks, I know it isn't too painful to upgrade. This is just one of these kits that a fairly small investment could make a large improvement in quality.

Those should be welcome, I know I'll grab a couple to restock my dwindling supply. If they include the tow truck and mini pumper options I'd really be happy as I've never had those. Probably too much to ask that they update the running gear. I think a better detailed chassis and a 4x4 option would go over very well. The promo style chassis is the major complaint with the kit.

Sorry wasn't dismissing your answer, I think you are correct that they are at least mostly the same, if not the same. Bill just tends to know the minor details that often get overlooked. The Ford pickup bed is a good example of the small things. We frequently see people say that Ford used the same stepside bed for more that 20 years. However a few have pointed out they are only mostly identical. If you look at an older truck the top rail of the bed was bent at a 45 degree (ish) angle. At some point in the 70s Ford changed this to a 90 degree bend. It is a small thing that most wouldn't even notice, I never did until it was pointed out to me. Many aftermarket manufacturers probably don't bother to offer both, and I'm sure there are more than a few late 70s trucks with the earlier style bed due to replacement from an older truck at some point. I've also seen people putting modern step sides on older trucks. Personally not a fan, but then I think most of the modern step side beds are unattractive.

I know for the '99 Chevy the Cadillac Escalade suspension has been mentioned before. I'm not sure what year that kit represents but it should be the same underneath as a Tahoe. I don't know how much these trucks changed underneath between the late 80s and early 2000s as far as 4x4 parts.

This would be a good question for Bill "Longbox55". I was wanting to put a step side on the AMT '60 Chevy and I think I was told the '55 was an acceptable swap for that, although there might have been some minor adjustments needed. It was about the time that Revell reissued the '65 Stepside so I went that way instead.

I can't seem to find the photos I have, they are here somewhere among the hundreds on the hard drive. I'm pretty sure they were fabricated by somebody local if not by park employees. The body appeared to be standard culvert pipe which they would have a lot of for road work, the trailer was basic maybe converted from another use or just built from scratch. The gate on the one I looked at was a little different than in the photo, but imagine a similar system. Basically just a dead fall that shuts the door when the bear grabs the bait. The enclosure is long enough to ensure the bear doesn't get caught in the gate when it drops. There was a cable mechanism at the far end (closest to the vehicle) that allowed a person to raise the gate to release the bear. Black bears are not terribly aggressive, so I'm sure 99% run as fast as they can away from the loon that locked them in the tube. Brown bears / Grizzlies might be another story, but we don't have them in California. Yellowstone does, which may be why that one looks a fair bit larger and stouter than the ones I saw. An exceptionally large black bear might weigh 400lbs, Brown bears can double that and have bad attitudes to match. The little guy in the photo is pretty typical of a black bear, probably 150lbs or so. Those look good, but as Jim says, they are for a modern vehicle. The license plates don't work though, the are agency specific the A plate is for the Dept of Agriculture and would be for the US Forest Service pre-2000 or so. The other is a modern plate, looks like DHS? So is for the Border Patrol which is under the of Dept Homeland Security. I guess the others don't get plates. Park Service is under the Dept of Interior so would have an I plate. Odd that they didn't do a GSA plate, that would probably be wrong as they vary by vehicle class but would at least cover more ground. GSA is the General Services Agency, an agency that provides services to other agencies. One of those services is leasing vehicles when an agency doesn't want to buy its own.

My Land Cruiser's 3.9 liter I-6 takes 9 quarts of oil. First time I changed the oil, I double checked the book, and checked the dip stick multiple times as I added oil to make sure that wasn't a misprint. The first car I bought, the CV joint pulled out of the transaxle within hours of buying the car. I ended up with the front wheel coming through the floor on the passenger side. Luckily no passenger. As I wasn't seriously injured no attorneys were interested, and due to the damage the police report was inconclusive, although did suggest it was mechanical, not driver error. Insurance paid off the car. Bought a second car from the same dealer as they said they would count my down payment from the first car towards a new car (while suggesting it was driver error that caused the wreck and they were just being nice guys). That was an almost new Toyota, after two days of ownership it developed a sag on the drivers rear wheel. Turns out the prior owner lowered the car by cutting the tapered coil springs. The base of the cut spring was larger than the spring perch, but was set on it just so to make it ride at the right height. Go over a big bump and it would slip off. Well the dealer agreed to replace the springs for me. It happened again so I took it to a mechanic my family had used for years, he puts it up on the lift and yep, same cut springs on the car. I went back to the dealer who now denied saying they had replaced the springs, just "fixed" them. After a number of threats they finally relented and agreed to pay to have another shop put new springs on the car. Heck of an inspection process their used cars went through before sale... I was quite happy when that dealer went out of business a couple years later.

Gyros Tools makes decent HSS drill bits http://www.gyrostools.com/Drill-Bits---Wire-Gauge-Wire-Gauge-Drill-Bit-Sets---High-Speed-Steel/c19_78/index.html They also offer taps and dies as small as OO-90.

I think this would be a potential market for several trucks, Kaiser Jeep M715 (Honcho), Dodge M880 (Dodge W200), Chevy M1008 (K30) and M1009 (K5 Blazer). Revell already has the foundations for most of these in their line up, and the 1-1s have grown a fairly large following. I'm sure there are plenty of casual modelers who were in the military 1968-2000 that might not normally build a car or truck, but would grab one of these to build a model of something they drove while serving. There would probably be some crossover from military modelers, not all are committed to one scale.

My dad had one as a used car long before I was around. He says it wasn't a bad car, but if felt kind of confused and cheap, like they couldn't decide if it was an affordable car or a luxury car. One example of the cheapness, his had an optional gauge which wasn't installed in his car. It was just blanked out with a piece of cardboard... On the plus side it was a large gauge so he could pop the cardboard out and hide his lunch behind it.

Also the AMT Freightliner SD is a day cab right out of the box.

The Park Service still uses similar bear traps. I took measurements off of one used by Yosemite National Park when I worked there. The light green used by the National Park Service is different from the US Forest Service green used today. The green went away in the 70s but Yosemite still had a few pieces of heavy equipment in that color. I found Krylon Celery to be a decent match for it.

Will this work for an S1600-1800 or just the 2100-2500? I'm not sure what if any difference there was in the hood / grill between the class 6 and heavier class 7 and 8 trucks.

Yes many do, but what truck do you want a day cab for?

My plan has always been to swap headlights with the Freightliner Cabover. I want to do one of those with single lights, leaving the twin units for a 58-62 Ford. I've always been curious why Ford did so much better with their C series, than GM did with their similar Chevrolet / GMC tilt cab. Those lasted 20+ years themselves (early 60s to early 80s), so not a failure except by comparison. I still see C cabs around today, but it is rare to see the GM trucks.

It is also the region of Germany where those campers are made.

I'm happy to see the dozer listed, I built one about 10 years ago and would like to do another or two. The dozer is a D8H introduced in the late 1950s and produced into the 1970s. For a good part of that time Caterpillar used very simple block lettering easily done with DIY decals. The Cat logo shown on the box would have only been used near the end of production. While the simple flat grill and decal is kind of lame, I noticed just today at the hardware store there is aluminum and steel screens with round holes that look to be an easy solution to the grill. The other thing is it isn't unusual to see those old dozers with damaged grills that have been replaced with slats, expanded metal or whatever they had handy. I got lucky when I built mine and found that the county had a dozer exactly like the one in the kit, but with a fabricated ROPS (cab). The grill had been fairly heavily modified and included a Cadillac ornament in the middle of the new grill. As these carried over into the OSHA era (established 1971), you can find a variety of fabricated ROPS (Roll Over Protection System) used to bring them into compliance. If someone wanted something unique Cat offered some twin D8s, both side by side and inline articulated units.

Yes no connection between Pierce Arrow and Pierce Manufacturing. Pierce has been around since 1913, but they didn't start using the Pierce name until 1960. I was going to ask if there was any chance it says Peerless, but I see there is an arrow on the grill, so I think probably safe that it is Pierce Arrow. Here is a Pierce Arrow truck from a 1922 movie at IMCDb. It looks very similar to the photo in the first post. http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_145604-Pierce-Arrow-Truck.html

Well that would be silly, why deal with the added expense of installing and removing seats if you were going to pay the tax anyway?

Coincidentally the Nov/Dec 2017 issue of Vintage Fire Truck & Equipment has an article on a Stroppe built Baja Bronco ambulance ordered by Ford in 1977 for a PR event. The Stroppe family bought it from Ford after the event, and maintained it in original condition until 1995, when they sold it to James Duff (Baja racer and owner of JDI an aftermarket Bronco parts company). It was later sold to a friend of Duff's who is the current owner. Although an unusual use, they made all of the same modifications and it has been kept original by all of the owners. 8 or 9 pages with some good detail photos, as well as being an something a little different to make from this kit. It shows quite clearly the front fenders are not bolted on flares. This issue also has an article about the 1938 Ford fire engine used in A Christmas Story. https://vintagefiretruck.com/ Not available as a back issue yet, possibly still on the shelf at Barnes and Noble.

and rivers without water, that took me a little time to wrap my head around.

The resin and photo are different years of Wagoneer. The resin body has side marker lights making the body 1968 or newer, the photo does not have marker lights so is 1967 or older. I don't know these Jeeps that well, but a quick search looks like the narrow grill ended 1965-66 so the body and grill don't match regardless of the number of slats. Is the Honcho kit known to have shape issues? I know the grill is quite simple as is the kit, but it seems like they mostly got the look right. Another option for the Honcho kit would be a Kaiser M-715, popular for a time with fire departments for use as brush trucks. I have plans to go that route with a couple.

Ford had to stop doing that, it was ruled removing the seats before offering the vehicles for sale wasn't enough to reclassify them as passenger vehicles. Ford stopped importing them, until they could figure out another way to get around "importing" them. I think they found a way to do final assembly in the US, probably something silly like bolting on the bumpers in a US factory. If a certain number of vehicles are manufactured in the US or a certain percentage of each vehicle is built in the US they count as built in the US and not subject to the tax. Nissan and Toyota get around it by building some of their trucks in the US. Those Mercedes / Dodge Sprinter vans got around it by building them outside the US, then they are disassembled, shipped and reassembled in the US. I'm guessing the chicken tax is also one of the reasons we have so few 2 door wagons after the 1980s. VW traditionally offered a 2 door wagon in the US, first the Squareback and then the Fox, but I don't think they have had one since 1991 when they stopped importing the Fox. Of course station wagons started to go out of favor around that time anyway, so maybe just coincidental timing. I forgot about the Baja, yep, it was basically just a 4 door Brat. Like the Ford Explorer pickup a bed so small I'm not really sure that it offers any value as a pickup. The Brat was small but it had a longer bed making it a little more useful. My wife had one for a short time and I could at least sit in the back legs fully extended. I'd think I would have a hard time in the back of the Baja. I'd buy a couple of Brats if they reissued the kits, they are neat little trucks and I'm sure people would find all kinds of interesting things to do with them.