Fabrux

Okay, I took some pictures of current progress with my proper camera rather than my phone. Since the last update I've smoothed out the new rear cab wall and scribed the panel lines. I tried to take a close-up of what I did to the portion of the seat backs that can be seen from the back window, but it turned out a little fuzzy: And, again, a little fuzzy but shows the back of the cab: And here's the back half of the frame with new crossmembers and bed mounts. Don't have anything done for the fuel tank yet. I guess I really need to take some good pictures in the sunlight, but it was -16°C today so no outside pictures!

For the purposes of this project, I will be proceeding with the bed as depicted. I do have a number of these 1/4-ton sized beds, however. At some point I will attempt putting the Datsun wheel arches on one and painting the bed to match.

I am another one that keeps all of my boxes. The boxes for the models I have built and on display are in plastic totes under my basement stairs. My living arrangements are seemingly never permanent, so I need the boxes for moving the built models to the new place. When the time comes to finally buy a house, I may consider tossing them in the recycling, maybe saving a few of the more interesting ones for wall art.

I don't know how yours is going, Steve, but I have one that is about 85% complete. I just can't get that last 15% done!

I must admit, with the re-issue of this kit I'm surprised there haven't been more of these on the go. A search for Datsun yields few results; I guess this little guy isn't that popular! This current project has its beginnings about seven years ago when I built it up as so: It was pretty good for my skills at the time. After I built this, I moved a few times and with all the packing and un-packing of my built models, I noticed something on this build each time that I wish I had done differently. Last year, a friend of mine gave me another one of these kits boxed as a snap version. I got to looking and reckoned I could build a longbed version out of the two kits. Let me tell you, it ended rather disastrously. So now I had two kits, without beds, and a bit mangled. In my searches, I only found reference to one other builder that separated the cab from the bed and now I know why: it creates a lot of issues! My club's annual New Year's Challenge is on the go; I already finished the Scout II and with a few weeks to go before the judging, I thought maybe I could squeeze in another build. This simple kit fit the bill and I dug around in my stash to figure out my options and came up with this. California Step Side! I figured if the conversion bed was good enough for a 620, it was good enough for a 720. The above pictures were taken last night as I was getting things sorted out to make sure it would work. Today was a productive day, although the end shots of the mock up don't look too different from the above pictures, even though there was a lot of work to get to that point! I drilled out the wheels and grabbed another one to turn into a spare. The pictures turned out kinda fuzzy, so I will take better ones in the morning. To get to this point, I cut everything out between the frame rails from the cab back and rebuilt it all. I also built the rear cab wall and for the first time tried using the sprue + glue mixture for filling in gaps. Going to let it sit overnight and try sanding and see how it turned out.

Thanks! This is neat stuff. Not too sure about the using cloth part, though...!

Man, that's a lot of axles! Certainly don't see that around here.

The Bricklin always has a special place around these parts. My father-in-law actually worked in the assembly plant. Funny thing is, even though they were built here in New Brunswick, they were not sold in Canada.

Thanks for the comments! The 6 is an AMC 258 out of the AMT Pacer kit.

Is there only the one page, Gerald?

You would think that DeLorean would've learned from Malcolm Bricklin's failed experiment.

Just finished this one up. Build thread is here. Thanks for looking!

Final shot of the interior: Added the turn signal lever to the steering column, used the gearshift from the Jeep and shortened the 4x4 lever as it seemed way too long to me. Final shot of the chassis: I added the feature long missing from this kit: shocks! And I'm calling this one done. Under Glass thread is here.

The body is just about done, getting in the home stretch. I tried applying a wash to the back gate on the roof, it didn't turn out so well. Gotta figure out how to clean it up.

Love it!

The AMT 69 442 has a pretty good set of Olds rallye wheels.

Sadly, no. I've thought about starting with a Chevrolet W engine but beyond chopping two cylinders off the piston angle would need to be changed from 90° to 60°...beyond my current skill set.

I just checked my own kits, a hardtop with the black car on the box and the pace car convertible, and they both have the V8 emblem molded on the fenders. Neither has the crest on the hood, however.

That's why I'm a civil engineer! I always tell people I play with dirt, never grew up!

What was the deciding factor in which colour the engine was painted? My dad is building a 53 Victoria as well and wondering which colour to go with.

That's some big toys, for sure. What was the tractor? Looks too big for a 777, maybe a 787 or 797?

And now we are back in colour again. I have learned something from the previous paint job: although Krylon paints claim to be dry in 10-25 minutes, this time is greatly increased by using a dehydrator. This time I painted the white roof first, then masked it off to paint the body. No dehydrator, and I didn't get any tape residue on the paint! I ended up with some slight orange peel on the blue, but I'm okay with that as my theme for this build has kinda been a backyard restoration a fellow did on his own and he probably painted it outside so it fits! I want to let the body gas out at least a day or two before I start handling it heavily for foil, so I started with the grille which had been painted the last go-around. I used a different primer on the body this time than last time, so it is actually a touch lighter than the grille and interior; I'm hoping once the grille is detailed it won't be noticeable.

I post here so infrequently I often forget to show what I've picked up. My purchases tend to be pretty sporadic, as well. But, within the past three weeks I brought it a large bunch so I figured I'd show them here. The Mustang and Rat Roaster were purchased new from my LHS; the Revell Peterbilt was with a 50% off coupon from Michaels; the rest I picked up at the local thrift shop for cheap.

What in the world would you haul on such a huge lowboy?

I agree wholeheartedly with Casey's compiled recommendations. Pickups are trucks too, no need to get so snobby about it.