Rockford

Well you're doing something right mate because your paint jobs are excellent. Unfortunately I live in a flat so I can't employ the "kitchen door" method. I have to say Halfords paint is excellent stuff to work with, very forgiving and a durable finish, though lately I've been buying Hycote from The Range because it's where we go for our exercise. I believe they're the same product inside. I've had some good finishes from the too.

Very tidy! Do love a Tri-Chevy and that's a nice job.

Looks brilliant, interior is excellent! Well done. You must have built about 30 cars in the last few months.

I love these 60s behemoths, especially Ponchos. That's a beautiful car and you're making your usual great job of it! Vinyl roof looks great and suits the car so well. I'm just wondering where you're painting because here in Liverpool it's too cold and damp to do anything. I tried painting something in the garage the other week and the condensation on it was unbelievable! Your paint jobs are stil coming out great.

Did some work on the trailer today. Built the wheels up. Decided to just add the white line on the edge of the wheel rims. Painted the mudflaps too. Need to accommodate the rake in the chassis from the fifth wheel. Do I lower the front axle or raise the back axle? I'll have a think. I'm aware of the irony that the trailer has bigger hubs than the drive axles of the tractor!!! Such is SnapTite life.

Great minds think alike! It looks just right really. Worked out well.

I'd be interested to see a picture of that

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I managed to get paint on it yesterday, I shot the primer and I couldn't believe that when I went to pick it up it was soaking wet with condensation! As the solvents evaporated the surface temperature drops and the moisture in the air condensed onto it. I thought it was warm and fairly dry, but obviously not. I dried it off and later got the colour on. It's not the best finish but as I said earlier in the thread these units never got the best of finishes, as long as they were all one colour they were doing well. I'm leaning toward white rims for the wheels, leaving the hubs and spokes blue, but I wonder what just white on the very edge of the rim would look like. I think it's obvious that I should try the minimum first. Painted the box in red oxide primer. Looking at making some ACL decals for it.

Did a bit more on the trailer before it goes for paint. Shaped a trailer relay valve from the old carburettor I found. Drilled holes to fit pigtails in the brake chambers and the valve. Also did the same for the signal and emergency lines to the valve. I know it will all end up painted chassis colour but that's what happened with our trailers, we didn't mask the pipework it all got blasted with colour! I also realized the top of the axles are hollow so I fitted some plastic strip over the hole, that's the white piece in the photos.

Thanks Geoff, looking at the work you do a 1/25 truck could keep you busy fir a while and would turn out quite impressive!

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Finally finished my tanker and put it behind the T600. Looks great! Tried it behind my other tractors and it looks great even though it's a snap kit. I'm happy with it considering I almost binned it. I need to find an easy way of hooking up the airlines and electrical cable. That's being pondered as we speak.

Would you believe today turned out to be beautiful, dry and warm so I bit the bullet and shot the primer on the tank! Came out ok, can't see the glue damage so I'm really relieved. Wednesday will be even better I believe so I'm going to give it a quick run with a scotchbrite pad and make it silver on Wednesday!!!!

Thanks Dutzie. I've been rooting through my odds and ends box for something like a brake relay valve and I found this. A 1/25 carburettor, looks like a Thermoquad that became the Edelbrock carb. The body can form the diaphragm housing and the four corners of the flange can be the four outlets to the chambers.

You can also see the twistlocks I built by drilling through the outrigger and into the container, then I used plastic rod to form a twistlock. I'll put wire through the bottom se tion to make the handle. Now that the ride height is more realistic the chassis angles upward when coupled to the point that the front axle is off the floor, I'll have to adjust the suspension a little so that it accommodates the angle. I also want to fabricate a relay valve at the air reservoir with the hoses going to the brake chambers as it is all so visible when the container is not there. So, it's coming up to paint. Now, these trailers were never very well painted so I'm not too worried about the finish. The only thing is I'm not at all certain about a colour. I'm thinking of a mid blue, but the wheels are important too, do I do the hub chassis colour with full silver rims, or paint them all chassis colour with just the very outer edge of the rim painted white.

The kingpin was too far back and didn't look right at all, but would also cause the landing legs to foul the tractor frame if left. I moved it forward, then covered the work with a piece of plastic card. I also added couplings for air and electrics at the front of the frame and added a couple of airlines snaking off from the couplings and knto the frame. The rear bumper is a European looking thing so I fabricated a new one. Using plastic card, the triangular mounts for the original bumper and some square rod. I cut the rear lights out of the bumper assembly and put them below the outrigger for the container.

The landing gear was too heavy, like something off a bridge structure! I ditched it in favour of the legs off the Revell Snap Tite tanker [the spare ones that are in the extended position] which I cut down and added diagonal braces. Fabbed up a gearbox and used the winding handle fro the kit. Looks a lot better.

Mocking things up I found the ride height was that of a crop sprayer, probably because of the snap fit design. I removed about 6mm by cutting off a needless top crossmember from the suspension subframe. I added the usual tubular crossmember between the front suspension mounts.

Never heard of ESCI until I saw this in Ebay. There used to be thousands of these trailer about in Liverpool because of the container terminal om the docks. They used to clatter and bang because of their short frame. They've all gone now, replaced with the more versatile [and more stable] extendable frames. This kit is very well made, no flash whatsoever and straight as a die, but has issues. From the box art you can see there's a ledge at the back which had to go, also a guardrail along the top between the twistlocks. I decided to cut the frame rather than move the container mounts backwards as the frame co es in two pieces, the top flange of the frame carries the crossmembers for the twistlocks and drops on to the chassis rails. I cut the frame down at a convenient crossmember.

Well work has stopped on the trailer because of the weather. The repair work I had to do on the glue deluge meant that I missed the last spell of warm weather for a while, so no spraying possible in my unheated, brick built garage. However, I do have another trailer to do, the ESCI 20ft container trailer so I'm going to start another thread witb that. This will keep me busy for a little while. However, should we get an "Indian summer" as they call it, I may be brave and get the paint out.

Gareth, this looks really classy, very Lincolnesque! The stance is great. Colour choices are spot on. These cars really benefit from vinyl roofs. I suppose what the promo type kits lack in detail they make up for in accuracy of body lines. ? Very well done sir!

Eric, hello from Liverpool UK, looking forward to seeing some of your builds.

I don't know what to say ? ! Speechless! It's brilliant. I never thought that kit could turn out that right! You've done a grand job on that mate and you've got my juices flowing about mine now. Just spot on mate. The thing is, now you've finished it, what are we all going to talk about? We went all around the houses on this build! (And may I say, you were very gracious about it all) Love it.

That's a very clean build indeed! My love for American trucks began with a Kenworth conventional - no need to guess where, it was green.

If you only managed to make something that even resembled a Galaxie from what you started with it would be a feat but what you've done is staggering! Fantastic work, well done.