Rockford

Wow. It's such a brilliant design it's not going away soon. Ed Cole used his experience from Cadillac to improve the design of the Chevy V8 and look what happened! It's a beautiful piece of engineering. I am fortunate here in the UK to own one and I often look at it and in awe, what a design.

Good idea.

Brilliant paint finish. Are you making it a daycab tractor?

Nice shovel. Are you going to weather it?

This video has some pictures of the steering box at about 23 minutes. It looks like a non-power steering box on the kit so it doesn't look exactly like the one in the video because it has power assistance. It's added to the top of the box where the yoke from the column enter the box.

You are charging along with this one mate, excellent job.

Stacks will look great, should really enhance the looks.

Must be strange attacking something you've had all those years. Seems like it came apart ok. This is your penance then.... Cab looks great. Did you strip it back to bare plastic, polish what was already there or overcoat it?

That's a proper factory paint scheme isn't it! USA trucks looked great then. Excellent job.

You're welcome. I've since found out that it's a 1954 Lorain MC540 so it is 40 ton, as I thought. How it ended up in Douglas IOM I really can't imagine. There's some close up photos on Flicker from 2011 so it's been there for some time and still appears to be mobile, they move it around the island for boat lifts. I've added a few more photos of Douglas for you. The prom and the harbour. We go every year for a meeting so I don't take many photos. We had blistering sunshine Friday and Saturday then on Sunday our plane couldn't take off because of the severe gales across the runway at Ronaldsway airport.

I was in the Isle of Man this weekend, it was fantastic weather for the first time in ages, but walking along the harbour in Douglas, the capital I spied this on the quayside. Couldn't really get any closer as the dear wife wasn't cooperative. I know it's a Lorain of about 35-40 ton capacity by the number of axles, but other than that, I'm an ignoramus. It's one of the many old cranes left on a quayside for lifting boats about. A company called Woolfendens in Liverpool had a few Lorains in the 60s and 70s, I can only imagine they were ex US military based in the UK.

I haven't got a kit to compare but I agree you need to clock it to the left a little until the lower steering column aligns with the piece in the cab. What about one of Mike the Truck Nut's YT videos when he was working on his K100? I think he had to renew the treadle valve for the brakes and they puts you right in the area you need.

I worked for a Mercedes dealer in UK for 27 years. The 814 was the benchmark for that class of truck. Full air brakes, indestructible drivetrain, just fantastic stuff. The 1617 was the same in the 16 tonne category. After the 1626 disappeared though, their heavy chassis lost ground to Scania and Volvo. The EPS gearbox was too much too early for the industry, especially in UK.

These are looking great! You're very ingenious how you go about things. I feel your pain on the paint front, been a nightmare summer here in the UK. These tractors would look good with the AMT van or reefer trailers.

Quite a task ahead of you there but will look great when it's done. There's no end of detail you can add to something that size.

Looking good. Be good to see another "Movin'On" based vehicle being produced. I remember seeing this film when I was a kid, I was utterly mesmerised by it. My mum let me stay up to watch it. No videos in them days!

I can just imagine the fear in your printer when it heard the key in the door "Oh no he's back!" I think it's very practical of you to use the parts you've already drawn and that you know work in the process, it helps you focus on the other parts that make the truck individual. We do slave over the details, which no one really ever sees, especially once the model is assembled and sits on the shelf so you're making efficient use of your time I think. Keep up the good work and give the printer an affectionate pat from me.

We'll have to rename you The Janitor because you're always cleaning up! These old kits come with a cost. I'm sure you'll make a great job of it.

Hank's Truck Pictures is long gone, I know, and sorely missed. Is there a good site that you go to for pictures of trucks working in the 70s and 80s? I tend to search by make and model nowadays but I find I get mostly show trucks that are beautifully done, but not what I want, also a lot of useless garbage because the interwebs like to do that. I sometimes add "for sale" because you get some survivors on Truck Paper, Big Iron, and the other auction sites. If I search "Class 8 trucks" you get a few but then millions of pick ups because you used the word "truck", it's so frustrating. Pinterest is like a pinball machine bouncing around from one thing to another, you can't follow a subject in it. Some of the collections on Flickr are useful, I know the Dutch Model Truck Club have decades of Overdrive magazine on Fotki, that's a great resource. Let's know if you have landed on a good source.

Turned my attention to the interior. Because I added the steps in full depth I can't get the interior back in as one piece, so I cut the bed off which allows me to get the seats and the doghouse in. Then I built a pair of curtains and a roof crossmember, also a rudimentary cab floor. Hopefully I can fit the interior tub, secure it with the curtain assembly, then add the bed before fitting the floor pieces. Usually these kit interiors are simple but dimensionally ok but this is utter garbage! Doghouse is half the size it needs to be, half of the dashboard is missing. I fitted a new doghouse (for a bigger dog), scored a quick diamond pattern on it. Added a glovebox on the dashboard. Made a shift lever from a big paperclip. Used insulation from copper wire for a gearknob. Cut out the sight window in the passenger door.

Always a nervous moment, finding the hood-to-cab fit, can really spoil a lot of hard work. Glad it turned out for you. Looking good.

Very novel approach! Looks great. Weathering is excellent.

Despite the wrangling it took you seem to have subdued it very well. Looks great in that livery. You have to admit that it does build into a great looking trailer. I have one in the stash which I'm hoping to build when we move somewhere bigger. I've opened the box but gone no further so far, not even took the parts out of the bags yet, maybe I'm scared to see how warped they are!

No need to apologize, I know exactly what you mean. I detail something and am really pleased with it, then photograph it and it looks like I used a 1-inch brush with my eyes closed. The difference between what the eye sees and what the camera sees is unbelievable. That looks great. I noticed the hoseclips on the after cooler pipes, they really enhance the appearance.

It does look the business. Very impressive.