Aaronw

I think you are making work for yourself, unless you have a newer grill. It looks to me like the older E-350 like the vantom kit does not have that lip at the rear, it continues flush. I'm guessing there was a minor change in the early 80s when they went to square headlights. Here is a '76 Ford ambulance for sale, not the biggest pictures, but the back end looks flush with the sides, no raised section. http://www.used-usa-cars.eu/browse/iowa/Us_dubuque/ford//1976-ford-ambulance-4x4-460-33xxx-miles----1800--platteville--l130290.html

That is a nice job, I haven't seen to many built as an open top. I didn't know you built red shiny things I thought you came from the black & white end of things. Some day I want to build the San Francisco Turbo Chief, their open top jet engine (Boeing gas turbine) powered ALF.

You know 2 kits for one extended van isn't too bad, the donor could easily be used for a cab and chassis to build a type 3 (box style) ambulance, uhaul truck etc. That would also provide you with the rear doors you want for the side. I have similar plans but don't even have the Vantom kit yet, so you are a couple of steps ahead of me.

Sounds to me like one of the salesmen, tried to cover up his screwup by calling the cops. I'm guessing that saleman will be joining the unemployed soon. The appropriate response would have been to have their lawyer contact the buyer about the mistake and try to work out a resonable adjustment. Even if the buyer were unwilling to budge, this is a case of a $5000 descrepancy on a $40,000 car which seems well within the dealers negotiation range and hardly worth all this trouble to the dealership, so they didn't make any money on this one, maybe even lost a bit but pretty minor. To the salesman however I'm guessing this was a wash, no profit no commision which explains the hardball tactics and false report.

I'm a fire captain for the US Forest Service, this is my 20th year as a firefighter. I've also worked for the National Park Service, and Department of Defense. This is my engine back in August. . Hey Eric we may have bumped into each other at some point.

Depending on the age of the truck you have a few choices for the engine. The 401/477/534 found in the C series could be used, but is probably not the best choice for a truck without airbrakes, as those were found in the top end (800/900) series trucks which would usually have air brakes. You are probably looking at more of a medium duty 600/700 series truck. A 361 or 390 FE V8 would be standard through the late 70s. I'm sure these engines are fairly easily found in late 60s early 70s Ford car kits, although you might have to make minor modifications for use in a truck. The late 70s through '96 models could be found with a 370, 429 or 460 385-V8 which can be found in the late 80s Ford F250 and F350 kits. In the early 80s the 401/477/534 was killed off leaving the 429 / 460 as the only option for a gas engine in a Ford medium duty truck.

Not Oshkosh specific, but body color, black or a medium dark grey would be my choice based on most trucks I've seen. Body color seems to be more common on higher end stuff where they don't mind paying a little extra to make things prettier.

Supposedly gravity helps with a downdraft so they say you only need a fan 1/2 as strong. I've never used a downdraft booth for comparison, so I can't say iof there is really a difference. I built myself a crossdraft booth mainly because it seemed simpler and closer to what I was already doing before I had a booth, so would take less adjustment. Oh and technically it is a crossdraft booth, not backdraft. In firefighting a backdraft is an explosion caused when fresh air hits a hot smoldering fire. Considering how frequently the issue of fires comes up in these posts, I find the term backdraft booth amusing as a backdraft booth would be very unpopular. Backdraft I know what you meant, it just struck me funny, hope no offense is taken by my amusement.

If the side mount fan gives you any problems, I solved the clearance problem by mounting mine on a 1" piece of pine to get it out far enough to clear the back of the booth. Mine is a cross draft but it would just be a matter of mounting yours on its side below, instead of upright on the back as I did. I've actually considered putting some legs on the back and tipping mine upright to make a downdraft, but it works just fine as is, so I've left well enough alone.

Deron, there just happens to be a spray booth build post right now in the general section that might give you some ideas. If you search in General you will probably find a lot more posts like this one. For some reason they seem to turn up in General instead of the Q&A section or tips & tutorials. The search is kind of spotty though so good luck. http://www.modelcars...showtopic=52266 The fans you posted for $26 and $27 are axial fans which puts the motor right in the air flow which is generally not considered a good idea. As far as the salvaged motor, without any specs on it I have no idea if it is appropriate for a spray booth. However if it is free, and does not appear to have any safety concerns (like it smokes when you turn it on), it can't hurt to give it a whirl to see if it draws enough air to run your booth. The nice thing with a spray booth is you will know pretty quick if it is working, because if it is, you won't get much odor, and if it isn't you are going to be sucking on paint fumes. As far as the downdraft, I think what Pat was getting at it the filter is the bottom of the booth, you don't need pegboard or anything else to work on. I couldn't figure that out when building mine so I went with a cross draft booth which seems to work fine, but requires a bigger motor since gravity isn't helping to draw the paint out. This is my booth if it is any help in designing yours, I used a 6" metal duct (not shown) to exhaust outside. This shows the plenum I made which is supposed to help spread the air flow more evenly across the booth (I read about that, I'm not smart enough to even spell plenum otherwise ). It is just a wall with lots of big holes about 3" infront of the back wall. If you just had an opening for the fan, then supposedly the airflow would be concentrated there, and the edges would have little airflow.

This is the blower I used in my booth. http://www.grainger....TDR7?Pid=search Mine is a cross draft booth a pinch larger than yours so overkill for your needs. Something like this would probably serve you well, assuming a 2x2 foot opening down draft style booth and a fairly short run to the exhaust point. http://www.grainger....FHX9?Pid=search You will probably get lots of suggestions to use a bathroom or range exhaust fan, personally I think that is a bad idea whether or not there is a real safety issue (the oh no not this again pat aludes to). Shaded pole blowers are more expensive, but they are better fans and don't get exposed to the fumes of your paint booth, so should out last your booth. Whatever you do, do not use a shop vac to vent your booth.

The preferred fan is a shaded pole blower (aka squirrel cage). This style of fan has a paddle wheel looking fan in the air stream, and the motor is outside the air flow turning the fan through a shaft drive. You can get one of these blowers relatively cheap ($50-150 depending on size). The fan is the major expense in any spray booth, so in my opinion it is better not to get cheap here. To figure out your CFM needs take the size of the opening and divide by the CFM, ideally you want to have 100 for a cross draft booth (air goes out the back) or 50 for a down draft (air goes out the floor of the booth). It is not the floor of the booth that matters, it is the opening into the booth. If you have a 2 foot x 2 foot opening (4 square feet) then you are looking for a 400 cfm fan for a cross draft or a 200 cfm fan for a down draft. You also need to factor in some extra based on your ducting, use a duct sized for the blower (don't put a 4" duct on a blower with a 6" outlet). Keep it short and straight and you don't have to worry to much about this, but using a smaller duct or having a bunch of turns will make the blower much less efficient. These are ideal cfm specs, lots of people are happy with booths that rate 3/4 or even 1/2 the ideal amount, and many of the commercial booths rate less than the ideal. Still if you are building your own, might as well do the best you can. Personally I find Grainger a good source for these fans. It is kind of a pain setting up an account, but they have a good selection, good prices and great service. I had my blower 24 hours after ordering. You also may need to buy a cord, most of these blowers do not include a power cord or on / off switch. The cord is around $8. I ran mine to an outlet with a light switch, but it is almost as easy just to unplug it when you don't need it on, or run it to a power strip with a switch. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/start.shtml

I'll also suggest the Revell Peterbilt and Kenworth kits, don't let the snap kit label put you off. These kits are cheap, go together well and have a lot more detail than most expect when they see snap kit. The re-issued AMT kits are a good bargain, but as with any older kits there can be fit issues. The Ford C-600 and the Louisville are pretty painless, although you do have to fiddle with the hood on the Louisville to get it to fit right.

I'd be up for those, also waiting on the IH 2476, 2575 and Paystar.

Yep, I'd like to see that

Chuck, please do follow up on this. I have several 50, 53 and 56 Ford truck kits that could benefit from this. Lots of ideas brewing.

Sounds like it would be a good smart phone app. That way you would always have it handy at the hobby shop, vender table etc. I made an Excel spread sheet for my paints after I found myself with 15 bottles of flat black. A little duplication isn't bad, but paint isn't cheap and I thought that was a bit excessive. It works fine shopping on line, but I don't have it when shopping at a hobby shop.

I don't know the mechanism to do it, but on one non-model related forum necro is added to the title to let people know it is an old post raised from tbe dead. (Necro being short for necromancer a wizard that creates zombies and such). Since it appears in the title you know right away it is a very old post.

AITM has a 1960s F series medium / heavy duty truck, similar to the '57 but I don't think it is currently available.

That looks like the one.

I prefer function over form, I'd take the platypus over a swan anyday. I immediately thought of the e type as well.

There is a reason I've put it off for two years, the hood / grill is one of many.

Sterling did use a rebadged Aeromax as well, as the Louisville. Unfortunately the older 1970-96 L series shares none of the sheet metal of the 97-98 Louisville / Sterling and the Aeromax shares little with the medium duty truck.

There was an article in one of the model magazines that walked through converting Revell's 1950 Ford F1 into an F8. I'm assuming the 53 would require similar modifications. Maybe someone can lay their hands on the article. Think it was an older SAE issue.

That's the one. I'm looking at the 41 Chevy or 50 Ford truck as a start, but it's going to be a lot of modification either way. I'm hoping to get started this winter.