Rockford

Some incredible fabrication on this build. Can't believe how you get everything so square and clean looking. Just great.

It's looking good, very nice colour combination.

Your reasoning is sound. Yes the chassis could probably stand being shorter to make the most effective use of space, the whole reason for building cabovers in the first place, but some cabovers did indeed have longer chassis for various reasons. In other words, it's up to you. I suppose you could look at examples on here and see what floats your boat. Personally, that kit looks great built either way and no one would criticise your choice.

Nice looking truck. I do like a Ford.

You're very brave taking a good model like that to pieces. I'd be terrified of doing some irreparable damage and ruining it. It was a great looking rig to begin with.

That looks great! Shame there wasn't a WIP on it, we could have learned so much from you. Any details on the chrome vinyl?

It's sitting low because it's still loose.

One thing that was missing was the cab tilt pump. I cut a bracket and then fabbed the pump body from square rod, rounding out the fluid reservoir, then added a wire pump handle. The cabs on these models are really just shells. Opening the rear of the doghouse makes this all too obvious so I fabricated a basic doghouse out of card. I had to file away the base of the footwells to get the right height. While I was feeling adventurous I made an auxiliary air tank from plastic tube. Should look ok once hidden under the cab.

Thanks for your kind comments and endurance gents. My builds always seem to turn into sagas!

I could sell my builds if I can find people who own cars where one of the wheels doesn't touch the floor!

That was not only beautiful but very advanced too, memory seats, air suspension, polished stainless roof.

Correct! I'll never be able to own the real thing so own them in a smaller size. I very much intend to.

1957 Chevy Bel Air, pillarless, hardtop, sports coupe. I'd like Rochester Ramjet Fuel Injection on it too so it was one of the "One horsepower per cubic inch!" cars. Mind you then there's the 59 Cadillac, the 455SD Firebird, the 59 Impala, the split window Corvette...... D'oh! It's never going to happen. The 57 Chevy was my first love though. I saw it in a book years ago and couldn't take my eyes off it. How could a mass producer of cars make something so beautiful? This little lad in Liverpool in the 70s was converted to American metal immediately.

Looks great, suppose some weathering on the tire sidewalls would be right. Nice Consolidated Freightways livery too. So is it going to be a barebones job with a cut-off front bumper?

It's on the list Jim. A rather long list at the moment but it's all interesting stuff. I had to remove the exhaust support and rework it so that it will fit inside the tank bracket. I'll get there.

I intended to work on my fuel tanks today but when I looked at the brackets I'd drawn up out of plastic card I thought they'd be very fragile once I'd cut them out. I needed a sturdier solution. Then I had a moment of brilliance! I carefully cut out slots in the tank where the brackets would meet the tank. Then I fashioned tank straps out of plastic card. I glued a bracket each side of some 2.5mm square rod to form a hollow bracket, then slid the brackets into the slots either side of the installed straps. I think they look great. Need to fill the ends and tidy up, then fashion some tank caps. I mocked them up and they look right. I also wanted to use the Holland fifth wheel from an AMT kit. It's very bland and too thick so I filed it down and added some of the bracing underneath for a better appearance.

I didn't know it was that late but I remember it was to make oil leaks obvious, ie: they didn't expect any, which my experience with Cummins is a fair expectation, they were very oil tight.

Thanks mate, I think it will look good with a coat of Cummins beige. I've not done the front end details because you're never going to see them. Just the back end.

As you'll see in other pictures the cab of this kit has a solid "mesh" in the doghouse opening to hide the empty engine bay. I wanted this gone to give a more realistic appearance but this left me with a dilemma. How to solve the problem of the empty "powerbarn". So, I made my own Cummins. Two plastic card boxes on top of each other to imitate the block, heads and narrower rocker boxes. Then I made an aftercooler from square rod and sprue. Rocker covers and timing cover from card. Then assorted sprue and rod to make the oil cooler, compressor, fuel pump, exhaust manifold, turbo, charge air cross over pipe, thermostat housing, breather and added some plumbing for coolant, fuel and air and it looks great. I'll use my old friend Chubby Sprue to make some trunking from the airfilter and to the exhaust. I know some of the scratch building on here would put me to shame but I don't think this is too bad for a few hours' work.

Gorgeous Mk1 Ezzy!

Excellent looking build, very clean and tidy.

Lovely job, proper workhorse.

Two nice rigs!

When I built it some time ago this was an ERTL kit, something I'd never heard of in GB. I then got the Transtar conventional and about three of the Great Dane reefers with the chrome bulkhead. They were beautiful kits too!

I can only say I agree with all the compliments that have been said. Fantastic work Sergey. A masterpiece.