Fat Brian

Well, I finally have something finished to contribute. The inspiration for this truck was a vehicle owned by a local logging company I see running around from time to time. The actual truck is a square headlight 359 that is quite broken in and war weary. I decided to use the California Hauler to give the truck more age and I wanted to build one to kind of get a feel for some future projects. I shortened the chassis about four inches and swapped in the engine, transmission, rear suspension, wheels, and tires from the Diamond Reo kit. I had wanted to use the square air box from that kit as well but it interfered with the hood flipping so I had to build my own unit that resembles a round Diamond Reo piece. I had to move the firewall back about a quarter inch to fit the big Cummins in which necessitated changing the interior as well. I also hinged the hood, replaced the grill with screen, made the stack from aluminum tubing, and built the headache rack. Critiques and criticisms are welcome and appreciated.

Thank you, this great information.

I used GIMP briefly several years ago but abandoned it when it couldn't make a file compatible with the game I was working with. It seemed like a well made program, it just didn't work for what I needed. I also have a cracked version of Photoshop 7, it's great but very complex for a new user. My favorite freeware image program is Paint.net, it is powerful but doesn't feel nearly as intimidating as Photoshop when you're not quite sure what you're doing. Really, I need a vector graphics program like Corel for a lot of the decals I need.

Yes, it exists and that's it's name. It comes in spray cans so you don't need and air brush to use it like you do with Alclad.

Those are hydraulic quick connect fittings rigged together with some rubber hose pieces and hose clamps. I can't speak to whether this is a temporary or permanent setup but it would allow an external water source to be quickly installed and removed with a minimum of mess, it's actually a pretty ingenious idea.

Thank you, I can work with that.

Is there any standard for what color the air hoses to the trailer should be? I have black, white, red, and green wire so I have some options there.

I got it at Michael's but I think it's on Amazon too. The results are definitely worth it when you need something truly rusty.

The early Broncos had Dana 30s but by 71 they had switched to 44s.

That's what we're saying, this is just a reissue of the Lindberg kit. The same company owns the names Lindberg and AMT and all their respective molds and they have decided to reissue the few really good new tool Lindberg kits under the AMT name since the Lindberg name is synonymous with unbuildable BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH to a decent percentage of the modeling public.

I got all the brightwork on the cab and got it attached to the floorpan for the final time. I just need to scratch up some hood hinges and bumper mounts and make some chains and goodies for the headache rack and she'll be done.

Wow, I didn't know it had already happened.

It's not uncommon with electronic equipment for the manufacturers to make more of a given item and sell those extras under a different name. I have a guitar amp that is internally a Laney Cub but the factory put a different color pleather on this version and sold it through a company called Monoprice for about half what the name brand unit goes for. I'm surprised a Chinese company hasn't started doing this with models yet.

Yep, I gave up on the Walmart sticks when they went to a plastic backing material. Sally's has a great selection of shapes and grits, I go buy $20 or $30 worth a couple times a year.

It's an antiquing set from Sophisticated Finishes. The two part process starts with a paint that is basically iron powder in some kind of liquid which you paint onto the part. Next is a solution of water, copper sulphate and something else which you wash over the iron paint to rust it. The kit is about $20 at craft stores but comes with several years worth of stuff.

That sounds like a great idea, thank you.

I'm getting into the home stretch now. I got the seats and gear shift glued to the interior floor, I also did some dry brushing on the frame and headache rack in anticipation of adding some chain and binders there. Finally, I built a bracket to hold the tail lights and license plate. Does anyone know where I could find a current style North Carolina truck plate?

To answer your question about construction this is a modern kit tooled in the 90's with separate frame and floor pan, clear head and tail lights, and other goodies typical of a new kit.

I don't normally spot these things right away but the first time someone posted a picture of the body I was like "ugh oh, that body side looks mighty flat". At least this should be fairly easy to fix.

I'm not Andy but I do see what he's talking about with the rockers, the whole thing is just too flat. The body on the real things curves under a couple inches but the kit is just absolutely flat. Compare the pic of the kit below from Chuck Kourouklis with the picture of the real thing. Fortunately, it's something that can be fixed to a large degree with a bit of sanding and maybe rescribing the bottom door line.

The axle in the Bronco kit is a Dana 44 which is the same type of axle used in 78 F-150s but the configuration is wrong. The F series trucks have their axles mounted with the differential on the drivers side with the pinion on the top of the axle so it's called a Dana 44 High Pinion. The gears in these axles are also reverse cut because the axle is technically mounted upside down. The Bronco has the standard mount Dana 44 with the differential on the passenger side and the regular low pinion. Since the Firestones truck is badged as an F-350 the correct axle for it is a Dana 60 with the same high pinion, reverse rotation configuration.

These Corvettes still aren't popular with collectors or restorers so there are a lot of them in exactly this condition around me.

It does look a lot like liquid nails.

I honestly can't tell if these things are the work of a genius or a slight case of severe brain damage. There is an old guy near me that turns junk and scrap metal into yard art and what he does is incredibly creative but the execution is also much better. As many of these builds as there are you would think the skill of the builder would have improved at some point.

Just for informational purposes the original donor cab was about a '62 model Ford cab.