TAT 2017: 1987 Freightliner FLC

[steel_tiger1]

Lets get this started.

First I haven't built a car model or Semi Tractor since I was a kid in the 70's. That was until 3 yrs. ago, then I built a 1974 Roadrunner for my mother in law as a Christmas present. I have to admit it was fun, but I went back to armor and aircraft. In that time I had thought it would be fun to build one of the trucks I used to drive. So I picked up this Italeri Freightliner FLC kit. The Inspiration come from the first trucking company that I liked driving for. The name of the company was Rose Way Inc. based out of Des Moines Iowa. The photo is of a mid 80's Freightliner with the stem headlights. It was what my first truck with them was. After a few weeks I got a newer version with the heavy fiberglass hood it was around a 1987 model. I have searched and searched for additional pictures of these trucks but I don't have any, they got lost in a divorce. So the only picture I have is this one from Hanks Trucks Pics. I do remember my truck number was 1536. So I will build it to the best of my memory. I haven't built a semi since I was 10 or so. Hopefully my skills have improved a little. I remember what hey looked like they weren't pretty.

Courtesy of Hanks truck Pics:

 

Obligatory box shot:

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Edited January 2, 2017 by steel_tiger1
Content

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Great project!! I hope to build one like the picture with stem headlights one day.

[Jim B]

Nice looking Freightliner. 

[gatorincebu]

 

Cool truck. I like the headlights.Will be following this one for sure.

 

 

 

  Be Well

   Gator

[jacobus]

like this one

good choice , can look how this one go,s [ than i can build mine ]

jacobus

 

[steel_tiger1]

I need a better image hosting site Photobucket is soooooooo slow. And might i add highly irritating. What does anyone recommend?

Thanks

Tom

 

 

[Canso65]

I'm looking forward to seeing your build Tom.

I hear you on photobucket.

Rob

[tbill]

this should be a cool build

[cowboy rich]

I'm no help with the image host as I currently don't use one, but this should be a cool build can't wait to see more

[steel_tiger1]

Frame rails have a lot of holes to fill and useless details to sand off.

Holes filled rails sanded if I was to do over I would have used .005 styrene on the inside rail to cover holes less sanding. Most of it won't be seen anyway, but hard to get it smooth enough to suit me.

Installed front axle. I don't like the molded on attempt at U-bolts so I rolled my own. Drilled through the flange and ran them all the way through. I used the smallest brass nuts I could find. It looked ok at the time.

I used some magnet wire I have for projects as the U-bolts.

Then I remembered I had the Meng nuts & bolts sets. Off came the brass nuts and on went the Meng ones. I like them muuucch better.

I need to take picture of lousy fitting parts before instead of just after. The rear suspension parts didn't fit well to the frame at all. I had to do surgery to them to get them to fit against the frame rails. Also had to work the airbags to get them to fit as well. They were molded with really thick attachment points to the frame. I guess to compensate for the crappy fitting suspension arms.

Shocks have been dry fit here had to use some styrene to fill the gap in the axle. Also molded on u-bolts are gone. rescribed the spring leaves to give them definition after removing the molded on ones. Filled the notch where the axle is supposed to go. Added more meng bolt heads. More to add yet, there are 8 per hangar.

 

Thanks for looking

 

 

 

 

[kilrathy10]

Looking good, already.....I'm digging those little details you're adding.....Nice touch.....This is going to be cool....

[DRIPTROIT 71]

I need a better image hosting site Photobucket is soooooooo slow. And might i add highly irritating. What does anyone recommend?

Thanks

Tom

 

 

I switched to Flickr and now I don't have all the problems that I had with Photobucket.

Looking great by the way!!

[landman]

I switched to Flickr and now I don't have all the problems that I had with Photobucket.

Looking great by the way!!

Did you tranfer everything to Flickr?

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Did you tranfer everything to Flickr?

Most of my H model Mack pictures were transferred, but not everything. I still have an open Photobucket account, but Flickr just seems to work much better for me. I will say that adding Ad Block helped with Photobucket's performance a lot.

[DRIPTROIT 71]

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by DRIPTROIT 71

[Superpeterbilt]

Wow, your off to a great start. The frame details look great. The removal of the unnecessary details is an often overlooked step. 

[gatorincebu]

 

    Nice work thus far. I like your u-bolts on the front axle.  Filling in the chassis holes is a good idea. One that I need to start doing.

 

 

   Be Well

     Gator

[Tesla]

 

    Nice work thus far. I like your u-bolts on the front axle.  Filling in the chassis holes is a good idea. One that I need to start doing.

 

 

   Be Well

     Gator

I agree!

[Mopar - D]

First welcome back to the truck building and nothing like building one that has some history for you. Great detailing on your frame so far looking forward to seeing more. 

[steel_tiger1]

Work continues on the frame rails & rear suspension. I have downloaded and looked at so many photos, I am sure I could build a real one by now.

Here I have mounted the rear differential to the suspension arms. I made my own u-bolts again with Meng NBW casting and styrene hold down plates.

 

 

This picture with flash to highlight the weld lines I made. The kit gives you a square rib so I just used that. I didn't really like the way it turned out as it made it so wide and tall. Next time I will sand it off and use thinner strip styrene to get it closer to the right size. Did I mention this is my first semi in decades? Live and learn.

 

Here I have installed more Meng bolt for the airbags. I will be building the leveling valve and hardware for this as well.

 

I also drilled out all the yokes on the driveshaft. Not overly happy with it but won't much be seen when the fifth wheel plate goes on so I wasn't going to rebuild it. The main driveshaft will be another story but I am quite aways from that.

 

Well that's all for now I need to build a few thing to continue on here. I will be building the brake valves, the suspension leveling valve, brake slack adjusters. Then I need to start plumbing the rear suspension.

Thanks for checking in.

Tom

 

 

[kilrathy10]

Seriously amazing detail, Man.....Looking good....

[Superpeterbilt]

Excellent work and attention to detail. 

[Tesla]

This is a lesson in detailing that I'm enjoying...keep up the great work!

[steel_tiger1]

So yesterday was spent trying to make the slack adjuster problem go away. First I cut 4 pieces of styrene and laminated them together with canopy cement. This stuff is great if you haven't used it. It provides a strong bond yet is water soluable when you want to remove it. It is made by Pacer Technologies it's called Formula 560. Anyway I carved and sanded away on the block until I got something that looked like what I wanted.

.

So I then tried to size it to the brake assembly and wouldn't you know.......

 

 

To short. So start process all over again. This time I used longer pieces as my idea showed potential, I was headed in the right direction anyway.

 

This time I am more successful. I have found some left over etched pieces to use as the connectors to the brake rods. I have sanded the tops down to try to get the taper to a thinner at the top look too.

 

 

 

Here everything is mounted up on the front set of brakes. I set the brake rods to appear in a non-applied position. A piece of styrene from my punch set to look like the actual actuator arm sticking in the slack adjuster.

 

 

Also shim of styrene to raise it to clear the bracket and the rod bracket.

 

 

These picture show the finished assemblies. The rear brakes are made to look like they are in an applied position with the parking brake engaged and the spring brake active. Safety First! I am not 100% happy with them but they are far and away better than what the kit gives you. The molded on detail isn't even close to the real deal. And the brackets were about twice as long as they should be. Again I really need to learn to take before pictures so you could see before and after. I hope that some day a 3d cad guy will have them up on Shapeways so I can just buy them, as I am not a sculptor. So an ideal set up would be a set of slack adjusters, brake cans, brackets to hold the cans to the differential (could be printed on the cans), and the and the actual actuator arms that go to brakes themselves.Just in case any of you 3D guys are reading this.

Oh and if the DOT guys stop by I did not check the travel to make sure they were adjusted properly. LOL

 

Again thanks for dropping by next time I will have coffee on.

Tom

 

 

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Wow!! Excellent work!