Tyson

Yup, that's it. Here's the scratch built stinger. Haven't done anything else to it, since I've been working on other rigs.

Started tossing on some decals.

Thinking about converting. The fenders are an easy convert, but not too sure about the hood and grill. And tips and tricks or other info you guys can give? http://www.bradsclassictrucks.com/WhiteRestorationPage.htm

The Kenny has been neglected for far too long. Took a little break from the Autocar. In the last two days I worked pretty hard, and I'm satisfied with where it is now seeing as how it was sitting as an engine and chassis for months. Worked on it until I hit a wall last night. I need to put a gloss coat on the cab and bonnet before I can do anything else to it. I was going to finish painting up the accent pieces (mirrors, badges etc.) until I could get to the store to get some gloss coat, but I ran out of aluminum plate metalizer last night as well i.e. I spilled a whole brand new bottle. My last bottle. And to get more it's either order online or take a four hour round trip to Newcastle to get more. Anyway, here's where he sits.

The engine is half painted and fitted together. Nothing glued on it yet, because I want to give it a nice coat of Cat yellow.

Worked a bit on the log trailer. Nowhere near done. Painted the caution tape on. Don't care much for the decal it came with. Worked on the rack too. And built a hood thing-a-ma-bob that my brain won't let me remember the name of right now. Also added a bit of plumbing to the engine. Also built a stinger from scratch, but I haven't painted it up yet. I'll try to get to that this weekend and also pull the engine out and get some pics as well.

Did some work on the engine. Painted Cummins beige and dirtied up.

Scratch built some custom exhaust modeled after a Howell and Sons Logging tractor I hopped onto the side of, melting the palm of my left hand in the process, back in the early 2000s. While in the process, a bit of confusion came up. On the non-turbo engines, where does the air cleaner connect? I know on turbos the air cleaner connects directly to the turbo, but on the engine the instruction sheet tells you to build I have no idea where it connects. Looks weird just hanging there on the cab connected to nothing.

Thanks guys. Just thought I'd add that this is my first "real" build/paint. I did some building when I was younger, but never really painted anything. Back in those days I had no idea what I was doing. I painted all of my models with cheap, chunky enamels using an old, plastic watercolour brush. Needless to say, they never turned out well. That is indeed a Winn-Dixie Pez dispenser. There are no Winn-Dixies here though. They're only down south. I lived in Alabama my whole life, and only just recently relocated to Australia a few years ago. I took the Missus to visit some of my family in Alabama, and while we were there she snagged that, since she likes trucks too. Glad you think so, because that's exactly what it's going to be. The Missus bought the Peerless logging trailer for me for my birthday last year (she likes log trucks), and wanted me to build her a truck. I was gonna use a Kenworth for her logger, but after seeing the work I'd done on the Autocar she said she wanted this to be her truck instead.

Still chugging right along when I get the spare time. Here are a few pics of the current state of the build. Still not 100% satisfied with it yet. Some progress on the frame.

Base coated some pieces in black. One thing I've always noticed about this kit was the absence of the cap on the radiator. To remedy that I just took a spare fuel tank cap and a standard cotton bud (q-tip). I put a hole in the top of the radiator, cut the stalk from the cotton bud and glue it into the hole and the fuel cap on the top. Resprayed the stripped parts in base black again, and while I was waiting on them to dry I set forth to rust up a few parts. Mostly engine parts with a few random chassis bits thrown in. Here they are with the base for the rust. And here are the completed pieces. Sorry for the bad lighting, but I'm to lazy at the moment to bother with proper lighting.

Someone saw this over at The Truckstop, and they told me I should post it here. Said someone here would enjoy it. I bought this kit from eBay. It was already built by the seller who stated it was built fifteen years ago. It's missing a few pieces here and there, and wasn't built exceptionally well. Decided to strip and disassemble. Planning to rebuild it as a "well worked" old truck. Here are a few pictures from the auction. I went silly and didn't think to take any "before" pictures of my own before I started. Here are the stripped parts. Can't say this enough: If anyone wants to strip a kit use Dettol Anticeptic Disinfectant (Pinesol in the US). After a 24 hour soak the paint can basically be wiped off as if it's still fresh, wet paint, and leftover paint in the cracks can easily be brushed away with a toothbrush. Unfortunately, one thing the Dettol doesn't do is loosen the glue (of which there was a lot on this kit). The glue also seems to have been dyed by the paint, so I was left with different coloured glue spots that needed to be dremeled and/or sanded. There's no way around it, and I would have expected nothing less, when you're disassembling a near 30 year old kit that was built over a decade ago, no matter how careful you are, there will be breaks. Honestly surprised there weren't more problems, but there were a few things like removing the lights and air-con that left some craters in the cab. Nothing that can't be fixed. One happening that crushed my heart was the left frame rail broke during the clean. I managed, with a bit of plastic and pins, to fix the break and make it look like a patch job of riveted on iron. The good thing about making a run down old truck is breaks, imperfections and other things that would make a regular build look less than attractive actually add some character to the build.