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Rockford

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Everything posted by Rockford

  1. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one finished. I do love exterior post vans.
  2. Thanks lads, very kind comments from you all. Thanks for the offer Jürgen but I think I'll do it the painful way. Cut the front mount off the frame and the cab stayed aligned. First fear unfounded. Then cut the grille mount off the front of the doghouse. Rigged up the grille in position and checked the clearance through the arc of of the tilt, the interior clashed at the driver's footwell. You can see the problem in this picture. Looks like Monogram used a bit of artistic licence on the interior. I had to cut a section out of the driver's footwell, slide it across and piece the gap it created at the top. Altered the floor to suit. Scratch built a radiator and attached the grille mounting plate to it. Put the cab back on and adjusted the fit while the glue was still wet. Perfect fit! Great the way I can see daylight around the doghouse and grille. Can't believe I've managed to pull it off!
  3. I've either had a moment of brilliance or been true to my 'stupid' genes. I was thinking about more underhood stuff when i was overtaken by an incredible desire. Whether it's jealousy over 1/25th AMT kits or just modelling masochism i don't know but I decided that I could 'easily' make the cab tilt. If I eyed it correctly the hinge would slot right into place without disturbing the grille and work perfectly. I could even use the original cab mount to keep it in position while it set. I added two brackets to the cab, drilled as required. Then cut a piece of tube to mount to the chassis. Just a little groove filed into the front crossmember put it in the Goldilocks position. It's even hidden behind the grille! The pivot point is just right, so right that I could leave the grille attached to the cab and just make a mount for the bumper. I could, but that wouldn't be right, the grille should stay on the radiator, so I'll have to cut the mounting plate out and build a radiator, which will create a clearance issue with the interior tub. Then I've got to finagle a shift island. My wooden Caterpillar won't cut the mustard now either so that will need restarting. I now have to decide whether I should cut the whole oil pan and transmission out of the chassis so I can build the engine properly and position it at the right angle, sloping backwards to improve the driveshaft angle. Why did I do it?
  4. The void under the cab just irks me, even though I can't see under there. I decided to add some detail under the cab. I want to leave the doghouse open at the back so decided to build another wooden engine. The sump is a Caterpillar so I built a facsimile of a 3406A with a water pump, fuel pump, compress, exhaust and turbo, intercooler. Looks ok once the cab is in place. Scratch built a luberfiner and mounting bracket. Wired it on and added feed and return lines. Added a fuel filter on the chassis. Built the trunking from the intake stack to the air cleaner. Made a 90° elbow by slicing 6.5mm tube at 45° and rotating one half 180° so it's a right angle. Glued together then rounded off. Looks ok. Did a cab floor assembly too so that there's sides to the doghouse when you look in.
  5. Your bravey has been rewarded. Looking good.
  6. Very nice buzzin dozen. Looking forward to the hood mods. I suppose if you have twin air cleaners you could plumb one into each supercharger.
  7. Good rebuild! That's a no bling truck.
  8. That's a smart little flatbed. Well done.
  9. Great workaday trucks combo. Gasoline engine too!
  10. The kit exhaust stacks are passable when new but these were faded and I wanted to replace them with aloominum. I hollowed out the kit pieces so that I could slot a piece of 3.2OD ali tube into them. Then I took 7mm tube and cut a 4mm slot out of it. This allowed me to sleeve this over the original heat shield mouldings. The air intake is pressed onto two plastic pins on the passenger side heat shield. I removed them and drilled through the new ali shield, the new stack and the old kit pieces, then used 1.5mm brass tube to locate the intake in the old holes. Looks much better. I can polish it all now!
  11. Shorter chassis definitely looks right, especially with an Aerodyne. Looking great so far, you're a braver man than me opening the doors.
  12. Tasty piece of kit! Such tidy work.
  13. Weathering looks very true to life. The 'rust' builds up and blisters like the real thing. I think rust is about 6 times the volume of the original metal. I didn't understand this kit when I was a kid, in the UK we had nothing like this. It was only when I started buying books from the US on trucking that got a grip of doubles and triples.
  14. Returning to the 352, added rear dampers, 2x relay valves, plumbed in the brake chambers, added a levelling valve and piped it to the airbags and added a torque arm to the rear axle case. I added a rudimentary gearbox lid and shift housing too.I've tried to establish a pattern to the introduction of the torque arm on air suspension but I can't get anywhere. There's very little difference between air suspension systems over the years.
  15. What a comprehensive review! Your affinity with this kit shines through in your text. It is a fabulous kit for its age and size. It was this kit that gave me the AMT truck virus. It was mid to late 70s when I got it. I didn't have a clue what the thing was, I just knew it looked absolutely fantastic with the stripe job and the chrome. I didn't know what a conventional was, a luberfiner, or a supercharger; and the box art mentioned something called a "reefer" - what on earth was a reefer!? I had to develop a whole new vocabulary. Our trucks were dismal by comparison. I got it together somehow, painted as per the box art and had for years, but I was smitten with American trucks and it was overshadowed by its bigger brothers. Interesting to see that AMT state it's a downsized version of the California Hauler because they do indeed share a certain amount of box art. I recall seeing the Heller versions in model shops when they were current but never connected them with that original little Peterbilt. Didn't Heller buy Airfix and all their moulds, and Airfix were bought back to GB by Hornby but they only managed to get a percentage of the moulds back off Heller so the 1/43 must have gone astray, such a shame. I recently obtained the K-Mart rig from ebay for a sensible price because the box was dust. That's as far as it's going for me, I'm in enough trouble from 1/32 addiction! Would love to see more on the history of these great little kits. Well done and thanks Lee.
  16. Well done on your find. I know the kit you're talking about. I've bought the trailer separately as a dry van and a reefer. It's the AMT Trailmobile unit. It needs the rear axles respacing as they're too far apart and the track of the axles is way too wide. The actual box and reefer are excellent but I've said in other builds of this trailer, the running gear is made out of cake so it takes a little fettling. If you get it right it looks great though. The wheels on the Volvo are very good, worth using, I know what you mean about the cab though. Hoep to see the build soon.
  17. Be my guest mate! I feel privileged.
  18. I know, someone had a serious issue with it. Just glad they didn't mangle the grille. I think they only read Snap and not Tite.
  19. I suppose one of the sites that supply software files for 3D printing will be able to assist. They can generally go to any scale.
  20. That's really something you can be proud of Jürgen, it's unique. Great work. Each new build just gets better as you build on what you've learnt. It's obviously the future.
  21. Excellent work, I'll head over to UG now.
  22. SQUIRREL!!!! 🐿️ Look what I fell over on eBay! Got it for 12.50 Euros from France. It's as complete as I need, trailer is all there and the essentials of the tractor except someone has done a number on the front bumper, the stacks, headlight units and quarter fenders. They're actually bent and snapped, odd. Nothing that can't be sorted. Someone was asking £99 just for the Pete on its own so I didn't do bad getting both. Just shows you, they're still around.
  23. Unbelievable! Your speed puts me to shame. Fantastic looking trailer, so professionally presented. Excellent stuff.
  24. Very realistic and very credible. Excellent job.
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