Wilson Silver Star Bullrack

[Cummins59]

Hello! I am new to this site and haven't built models in a lot of years, so I thought of a little project but need a little help getting rolling. I went through one of my old junk yard boxes and found a donor frame and am attempting to build a '75ish Dodge Bighorn 950 pulling a current model Wilson Silver Star 102" 53' three axle bull rack. If anyone has attempted this build any tips, tricks, ideas, patterns, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and I look forward to being part of this site.

[Cummins59]

I had another thought on this subject. Is anybody on this site good at photoetching or know where they would do this as custom work? I thought that photoetched side would work good then I could scratch build everything else.

[Semi Trailer Mechanic]

What's goin' on...

Recently I found a picture of one of those trailers. Looks like an intersting project. You could use the suspension from either the AMT lowboy or the dump trailer. For the body use .030 styrene. If it was me building this I'd get all the measurements of the holes in the sides and use a T- square to make center lines vertical and horizontal having them all intersecting the center of each hole. Use a cordless drill w/ a bit the diameter of the hole needed and drill a couple holes that is equal to the width of the (oval) holes and then use an exacto knife cutting across the top and bottom between the two hole you drilled to make ovals. Use fine strip styrene and cement that inside those ovals to look like the flanges from being punched. (If that makes sence to ya.)

For the floor use the same thickness styrene and use diamond plate for floor detail. Plastruct 1:100 is perfect and Don Millis offers diamond plate as well. (I haven't used that yet)

For the undercarriage I'm not sure if Wilson uses I-beams, square beams, u-beams, or if the floor is designed to carry the load.

As far as the rest of the trailer goes use various sizes and shapes of styrene as needed. The best way to help (not just me but others in the forum) is to just jump in and get started. When you run into a task you have a question about just post.

Good Luck!!!

[Cummins59]

Thanks a bunch! I will probably give it a shot. My biggest concern was keeping everything in line and trying to figure out how to make an oval hole with a round bit and get it to turn out. I contacted an outfit in Australia about photoetching the sides, but it sounds like for a couple of pieces for a single project the price would be way out there.....

[monkeyclaw]

you might also want to "GOOGLE" tool/die manufacturers; and see if any of them make an oval shape punch tooling (intended for hydraulic press) in the size you need the holes to be....mark the center locations as Scott suggested; then simply punch out all the holes......any effort to have the sides done in P/E or machined will be very expensive, due to the nature and amount of "artwork" and labor that those processes require.......matt