Aaronw

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.

Another victim of the chicken tax. The seats in the back were added to classify it as a passenger vehicle to get around this tax. In the late 80s the interpretation was changed and any 2 door sport utility was reclassified as a light truck and subject to the tax, seats in the back or not, so good bye Brat.

Italeri hasn't done many new tools in at least the past 5 years. They scaled up a couple of helicopters from 1/72 to 1/48, and modified some tooling to offer additional options, but I'm coming up blank on other new kits. It's mostly been re-issues or bringing back Esci kits. They did do a Short Sterling and Short Sunderland which were pretty major 1/72 aircraft kits, but I'm thinking those are pushing 7 or 8 years at this point. I'm not seeing any new tools in the posted catalog. I don't know their Euro trucks that well, so maybe something there, but I recognize many as re-issues. Italeri used to be one of the leaders in helicopter kits but they haven't done much there either. I know many requested a Sikorsky HH-3 "Jolly Green Giant" when they put out those polls. It is one of the iconic helicopters of the Vietnam war and is badly in need of a modern kit since the only existing kits were tooled up during the Vietnam war. A variant was also used by the Italian military and Italeri is known to favor Italian subjects, so that would be another plus in its favor. No movement there either and that would seem to have more going for it, smaller investment and larger market. It's not just trucks being neglected, I think Italeri is just on a couple of years new kit pause. Hopefully they are regrouping getting ready for some really exciting new subjects.

That is good, but shouldn't that be the view from North Dakota? Maybe Canadian's have really good vision.

I really don't think California has any kind of monopoly on social media twits. We have the "most" in several categories of tree, the biggest (Giant Sequoia), the tallest (Coastal Redwood) and the oldest (Bristlecone pines). The north state is well known for beer, wine and marijuana, the south for surfers and Hollywood. I don't think that is a very good map, everybody knows Ohio is the state most famous for turkeys.

This is looking really nice. I'm just getting back to this kit myself. I started it a couple of years ago and then life had other plans. I cobbled the kit boom into something resembling the light duty boom you posted above, but I'm just doing it as a light duty wrecker with (most likely) the kit wheels, and definitely not duals in the back. The heavier boom you are doing looks more appropriate with the wheels you are using.

The picture in the catalog isn't very good. I just assumed 4 doors. The toy Land Rover fire apparatus I have are a Short 80 or 88" WB with a fire trailer, and a 109" cab and chassis with a custom fire body. New tool would be nice, but I will take what I can, not a lot readily available for Land Rovers bigger than 1/35.

That one has my attention, curious to see where they go with it. I have a couple of old Corgi and Dinky Land Rover fire trucks from when I was a kid, but none are made from a 4 door wagon. I'm not too big on European semis, but I like the look of that black Volvo cabover. It looks kind of evil, and would fit in well in a Death Race style movie.

There have been some 4900 cabs, both standard and crew cab, but not sure who is doing one currently. They do turn up on ebay from time to time. I don't believe anyone has done a 7400, but there is a diecast (I think from Jada?) and some plastic toys that are 1/24-ish. Might be of the lighter 4300-4400 but the cab should be the same for both.

Jaws is a great movie, particularly the second half. It just goes to show the value of a good cast and production staff. It could easily have been a terrible movie. I saw Dead Calm years ago late at night on HBO because nothing else was on. It actually is a pretty good movie, just a boring name. It probably doesn't help that Dead Bang, a Don Johnson police movie came out the same year, I know I used to mix the two up. When Dead Calm was in the theaters, the multiplex down the street from my college messed up their sign and listed it as Dead Clam. It was up like that about a week before somebody noticed and changed it. See kids spelling does matter. It still amuses me anytime Dead Calm is brought up, I picture Joe Pesci as the theater manager out there pointing up at the sign asking some young employee if he sees the problem. When I was a teenager we had a local theater that played older movies, usually double or triple features with a theme. They would do a bad movie weekend at least once a year featuring Humanoids from the Deep, Plan 9 from Outer Space and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Killer Tomatoes is supposed to be dumb so I give it a pass, but Humanoids makes Plan 9 look like Oscar's material. Humanoids from the Deep was actually filmed near me in and around Fort Bragg, CA. Quite a few movies have been filmed in the area, thankfully most have been better.

Those of you with first hand experience with Dodge thank you for sharing your experiences. I got my drivers license in the mid 1980s and the craptastical products the US auto industry turned out in the mid 70s through the early 80s were prime fodder for new drivers at that time and has forever tainted my car buying tastes. The US has always done pretty well with big cars and full size trucks, but lagged pretty badly on smaller cars until the 90s. The fact I'm even considering a smaller car from the big three is only because I know they have improved considerably, so the reassurance is nice. Gerald, I have seen some vague information that the 4 cyl may not have the best reliability. Again that feeds right into my gripe, if you report on cars the fact the motor / transmission typically grenades before 100,000 miles is a lot more important than, it won't win any trophies on the quarter mile. Instead they just make some vague references to JD Power reports (rates about a 3 on a scale of 1-5) and we had another post here recently discussing the relative usefulness of those reports. It looks like the fuel economy between the 4 and 6 is minimal 19/25 vs 17/24 so one more point in favor of going that way. We are still looking at others, but based on those we have looked at this one is high on her list. At least it has a center mounted shifter, I can't stand the new trend of putting a little knob on the dash. Most of this stuff is just infotainment, a witty jibe at a car is apparently more important than actually discussing the substance of a car that might help someone buy a car that meets their needs. It is amazing to me how lightly car buying is taken by many considering the prices these days.

Yeah having photos in a custom car magazine does seem kind of important. Its not like a stock car that you could quickly google up a photo of.

I get pretty annoyed reading car stuff from the alleged car experts. It seems like they compare every car they review against high performance cars most of us will never own or even have the chance to drive. They seem to evaluate all the same whether a super car, a sports sedan or toddler toter. Most recent example being, we are shopping for a car for my wife as her car of 17 years is done, literally falling to pieces. It just makes no sense to keep throwing money at it. She looked at a Dodge Journey, a mini-van kind of thing and likes it. I'm not familiar with these so I get online to get more info. First thing I find is complaints about its "stale" styling because OMG they haven't made a significant cosmetic update to it since 2011 (um, it is a mini van guys...) When did "car guys" turn into women's fashion reporters. The Porsche 911 is an icon, and it changed little over 25 years I've never heard it called stale. But hey I drive a Volvo 240 a car that took its styling cues from a refrigerator box and made few changes over a 19 year production run so maybe I'm off base here. Maybe like women's shoes cars do need updates every 30 minutes (I have nothing to wear ). Ok, styling is subjective, next they describe it as grossly underpowered with the standard "weak" 4 cyl. I do take some exception to that. The standard engine is a 173 hp 2.4 liter inline 4. 173 hp, from a 4 cyl engine, that is only 12 hp less than a 1977 Transam with a 6.6 liter V8. The two cars have a similar curb weight, so this "gutless" wonder has a similar power to weight as the Bandit's ride.... I think some perspective is due here guys. I grew up in a family that owned VWs and Toyotas. I learned to drive in a 1976 VW Rabbit with a raging 74hp, so my first car, a Toyota Tercel with its rip snorting 89 hp was like a rocket ship. I've already mentioned my daily driver is a Volvo 240, 114hp pushing 2800lbs, somehow I still manage to get to work on time. I'm not here to defend a mini-van against the mean spirited alleged "gear heads" but I do wonder what value they think they are providing when is seems they can't figure out that maybe it is not appropriate to judge a $20,000 MINI-VAN against the $65,000 Dodge Hellcat they drove last week. I'd also like to see them put a car seat in and out of the back seat of that Hellcat... My wife has been driving a Suzuki Sidekick since 2000, so this thing was like driving a Corvette in her mind. Perhaps instead of thinking in 0-60 times they should evaluate practical cars on boring things like service records, ease of putting kids in the back, safety, fuel economy, cost to own. Many do at least pay some lip service to these things, but they tend to be an afterthought and often downright dismissive about their importance. Many also don't seem to recognize that yes there is indeed a difference for more than a few people between spending $19,000 and $29,000 or more on a car. This is not based on just one article, it seems to be the state of automotive writing in general.

Casey, have you looked at the Stovebolt page? That is a huge reference for old GM trucks, I would be surprised if there isn't something showing the chassis details you are looking for. There are a pile of technical discussions and documents, and a members gallery showing their trucks. There is a "Big Bolts" section specifically for the 1 1/2 ton and larger trucks. https://www.stovebolt.com/

No, I have a document saved that I found somewhere that gives the cab dimensions for light and medium duty GM trucks 1941-55. The 41-46 Art Deco style truck cabs did not change between the 1/2 ton and larger models except for opening the wheel arches to allow the use of larger wheels. The 1947-55 Advanced Design trucks did change on the 1 1/2 ton and larger trucks. The fenders were a couple of inches longer, wider, and taller. The hood was also longer to match the fenders. From the firewall back the cab remained the same as on the smaller trucks.

I just mean their refusal to sell, not buying it and driving it. It says they bought it for $6000 which would put it in the price range of a new Corvette or base model Cadillac in 1977, so it would have been well within the means for a movie star with a known fancy car habit to make them a more than fair offer if they bought it as investment, or to buy them an even faster car if they wanted performance. Doubling their purchase price to $12,000 would be nothing compared to the Porsches, Jaguars, and Ferraris he owned, but $8-12,000 could easily put them in another '68 Mustang, probably even a Shelby. It would definitely cover the cost of pretty much any 10 year old muscle car (not many desirable ones on the new car market in 1977), a new Corvette or Trans Am, Cadillac or Lincoln. Based on how they took care of it, and how they hid it from the public it just doesn't seem like they bought it to own a piece of movie history or as an investment. Just seems weird, or maybe McQueen just pissed them off and they kept it for spite.

Tamiya does an Alpine 110, not a 210.

Like a lot of companies that have been around forever, they can be hit or miss depending on the age of the kit. They have a few duds but for the most part they are competitive and compare well to Revell, Airfix or AMT of the same age. I have built more of their aircraft than anything, but I do have the Bentley blower and it is an impressive kit. I also have the recent Citroen Van and at least based on looking at it in the box it could be from Tamiya. The thing that really stands out with Heller though is what they kit. They do a lot of French and European subjects rarely seen by other kit makers, so it is good that they tend to make good kits.

How bizarre that they would keep it as a daily driver. I'm sure Steve McQueen had the means to put them in a Bentley if they wanted. I could understand them not selling if they were like super fans or something, but it doesn't seem like they took very good care of it and to use it as their only daily driver?

It is nice to see Heller getting back on their feet, looks like quite a few new tools as well as many reissues. The Renault R8 rally car is neat. The 4CV police car and weird Renault police van will provide some odd options for police and fire models. It says the 4CV is new, but I thought that was an existing kit, maybe it was in 1/43. I keep hoping the C4 fire engine will make a comeback, seems like they are doing everything else based on the chassis. The bus and hotel shuttle are kind of neat though.