Moebius F-100 issues

[thatz4u]

I have built 2 Moebius F-100 kit, both have had warped hoods. Anyone else have this problem? or other issues with these kits?

[mikemodeler]

Al,

If you go to the truck section, I think some of the early builds of this kit when it first came out a couple of years ago referenced issues with ill fitting hoods. I have not opened newer issues of the kit to see if the problem is still there, but would hope that they had fixed it if they knew about it.

Have you contacted Moebius about the issue? 

I know when the kits were first being brought to market there was a lot of discussion about problems with the kits but I thought much of that had been fixed.

 

 

[DRIPTROIT 71]

I've only built the 71. The hood was very warped. The cab roof was a bird bath. I tried hot water, but couldn't get it out. In a last ditch effort, I turned a stove top burner on high and held the hood over the heat. I was able to get the warp out of the hood, and remove the dish from the top of the cab with no other damage. If you try this, be careful, the plastic will get soft quickly.

[Zoom Zoom]

My first-run Moebius/Model King F100 had terrible warping (hood, body, bed, bed sides, chassis), in addition to a very grainy surface to all the exterior (since fixed by Moebius). I traded my kit to a friend, who obtained a replacement...which was just as warped. The reason it's an issue is the plastic pieces are still warm/pliable when they're packaged (also an issue with other manufacturers). Since Moebius kits tend to be packed pretty tight inside the boxes, it's a common issue. Some kits are fine, others are rendered nearly useless. I would assume at this point that enough complaints and replacement parts requested have forced Moebius to make sure the manufacturer handles the product with more care between molding and packaging. I had no warp issues w/my Ventura or Comet.

In addition to warpage, I never replaced my F100 kit or got any of the other releases because of design issues with the roof and grille. The roof angle is wrong, there's not quite enough crown in the roof itself, it looks slightly squashed and tilted towards the front, and the headlight bezels are so oversize it affects the spacing of the grill openings. At this point if I built one I'd have to fix it, and honestly I've decided it's not worth the hassle for the subject...it's not exactly holy-grail territory and I've got plenty of other models that are. I have seen a bunch of really nice ones built, so the kits are popular. The Ventura was a personal grail, so I dealt with that kit's particular foibles as it was worth it to me, and I'd gladly build another.

[thatz4u]

  On 7/31/2017 at 3:17 PM, mikemodeler said:

Al,

If you go to the truck section, I think some of the early builds of this kit when it first came out a couple of years ago referenced issues with ill fitting hoods. I have not opened newer issues of the kit to see if the problem is still there, but would hope that they had fixed it if they knew about it.

Have you contacted Moebius about the issue? 

I know when the kits were first being brought to market there was a lot of discussion about problems with the kits but I thought much of that had been fixed.

 

 

I contacted Moebius today, waiting for reply

[MrObsessive]

  On 7/31/2017 at 4:31 PM, Zoom Zoom said:

In addition to warpage, I never replaced my F100 kit or got any of the other releases because of design issues with the roof and grille. The roof angle is wrong, there's not quite enough crown in the roof itself, it looks slightly squashed and tilted towards the front, and the headlight bezels are so oversize it affects the spacing of the grill openings. At this point if I built one I'd have to fix it, and honestly I've decided it's not worth the hassle for the subject...it's not exactly holy-grail territory and I've got plenty of other models that are. I have seen a bunch of really nice ones built, so the kits are popular. The Ventura was a personal grail, so I dealt with that kit's particular foibles as it was worth it to me, and I'd gladly build another.

Bob, I have a fix in mind for that roof on the F-100 as I too thought the crown of it wasn't quite right, as well as a wonky header. The door frames bug me too------something about the radii in the corners is off to my eyes.

Alas, too many projects in mind, and not enough hours in the day.

[Jimfromok]

Ive only built the 72 with no problems except the huge headlight trim

[impcon]

  On 7/31/2017 at 7:55 PM, thatz4u said:

I contacted Moebius today, waiting for reply

Please keep us informed as to how Moebius handles this. I have two unopened kits - now I am afraid to look at them.. both were gifts so I do not have a sales receipt .. guess I'll crack the cellophane tomorrow and see what I have. They REALLY need to start manufacturing their kits back on this side of the Pacific..

[dodgefever]

My '69 shortbed has a warped hood, the '71 is not as bad but still doesn't fit properly. Moebius '65 Plymouth has a noticeably warped body, so from my experience some warpage is to be expected with their kits.  As mentioned above, the grilles are all wrong because of the oversized headlight surrounds.

Aside from those problems, the chassis and FE engines appear to be mostly cribbed from the '70s AMT pickups.  The front suspension attachment is completely wrong, having the radius arms mounted outside the frame rather than underneath, and the twin axle beams are far too short - they should also mount under the frame rails, not part way along the cross member.  I reworked mine to look more a bit more prototypical.  I could have done more - that huge kink in the driver's side beam is still wrong, but by that point I was questioning why I was spending so much time on this...

1:1

Moebius OOB

Modified

 

 

Edited October 15, 2017 by dodgefever

[thatz4u]

I have a 71 Ranger, warped hood, & tailgate, why do I keep buying these? Hope the 65-66 Effies are better.........

[mk11]

This afternoon I took a few rough measurements from my 1:1 truck and attempted to attach them to a picture I found. I'm hoping this will be a help to those interested in attempting to correct some of the roof/window shape issues on these scale truck cabs. Unfortunately, some of this involves serious cutting and reshaping skills and may not be for everyone.

 

Correcting the window opening will involve removing the rear half of the rain gutter, tightening the upper radius and adding material to the forward edge of the back of the window opening, rescribing the door opening line and adding new rain gutter- without the curved bottom. The horizontal line at the top of the C pillar measures 9" from rear to door opening.

After doing some measuring on a '78 F100 1:1 that recently followed me home, it's obvious that amt wanted their cab to be right. Aside from the upper windshield trim, the majority of dimensions are spot on. A nice piece of work.

Those familiar with these trucks are aware that differences between the 67-72 and 73-79 cabs are mainly cosmetic; ie  reshaped, simplified back of roof, bigger back window, side sculpting, door shape and two inches added to the cab length below belt line behind doors. The basic superstructure is carried over, including windshield, cowl width, floor pan, roof size and rough crown. I pulled very close to the same general roof area measurements from both my '68 and the '78.

Turns out that the '67-'72 C pillars, behind the door windows, actually slope inward from behind the vertical rain gutters toward the back window. This makes the rear side to side measurement on the back of the moeb cab almost five inches too wide    Now we're entering the realm of back window size issues as well. The rear window area is both too short and too wide. Interestingly, the upper rear of the original amt cab is very close to the correct width but of course lacks the fancy sculpting around the window.

...And we haven't even addressed the lack of roof crown yet 

Intriguing that all this was missed in development. Some serious issues and disappointment with a recent 'new technology' tool, but please note this information is not being shared to elicit negative comments or as an attack on persons or motives. Strictly commentary on how to correct or improve a product if one so desires.

 

More to follow...

 

mike

Edited October 9, 2018 by mk11

[mk11]

Another shape issue obvious on these is the lack of the subtle bodyside curve-under (aka 'tumblehome'). Here's a pic showing a comparison between the AMT F350 and moeb cabs. The 1:1 cabs are fairly close in shape here and in roof crown.

Fortunately, this is a fairly straightforward fix that will help the overall appearance slightly. I've found this styrene very tough to work with and it needs very warm water to reshape it.  A wedge cut partly up the back wall on each side will aid in the process.

Here's a pic showing the moeb and R&R resin cabs contrasted. Though the resin cab is actually only about a 'half-way' conversion from the amt F350 cab (lacking properly shaped wheel and windshield openings and rear cab roof), it does seem to capture a subtle appeal missing from the newly minted styrene cab. Also pictured is a built up R&R example found on the site here.

Funny thing about the r&r kit... I was very disappointed to find it only half-finished but now it's starting to grow on me.

The newer style simplified roof is definitely more appealing than the ungainly earlier one and with corrected wheel/windshield openings, proper dash and grill, it might look pretty good for a hybrid 

 

mike

Edited February 22, 2018 by mk11

[MrObsessive]

Mike, that's an interesting observation about the tumblehome on the lower sides. I hadn't paid attention to that until you pointed it out.

By biggest beef about this truck is the waaaay too flat roof. Almost to the point that I notice a subtle "dip" in the center of the roof when looking at it head on. My fix would be to totally cut the roof top off at the seam starting behind the roof pillar, and then cutting along the drip rails. I'd raise the roof roughly a scale inch or so, and then fill everything back in with plastic and careful sanding. This would leave the windshield intact as that's to mount from the outside, but would give the cab an acceptable roof crown and not so flat looking from all sides. Some "flexing" and "bending" of the cut roof section I'd do also to the cut-away roof to give the peak of the roofline more "crown" to it.

Just my 2¢ worth!

[mk11]

Good thoughts on the roof crown, Bill. I'm coming at it from another angle... 

Turns out the roof on the new kits is not only out of kilter by crown, rear window width and C-pillar shape, it is also too long front to back. The front overhang projects about 2mm too far forward. One other thing to note is that on the 1:1 trucks the cowl accent lines are exactly the same distance apart from '67-'79 but the new cab has them spaced wider (incorrectly). This in turn shows that the new hood body lines are molded wrong. It's far too much trouble to correct the hood so if you use the more correct amt cowl grill area, you'll just want to section it into the area between the new cab's cowl accent lines.

Some rough lines indicating where cuts may take place on mine; changes may happen as project progresses. Vertical lines on back of cab show what actual width of rear roof should be. This window area will be cut out and sectioned to match rear of amt cab roof. Rear of side window opening will be grafted into amt c-pillar with appropriate revisions for accuracy. I've tried to give a general guide for revisions here; you may want to doublecheck measurements on a local truck for your own project. Measure twice, cut once

The windshield is a fine piece of engineering but, because of a subtle flaw in it's designed curvature, the front roof edge projects 1-2 mm too far forward, contributing to the 'off' look.

 Interesting that the tooling mockup pics show the rear of the roof was 'off' from the start, though the C-pillar was actually closer to correct at the back door edge.

My eventual 'fix' may be to use the complete amt roof (and possibly part of the more accurate cowl as well ) with appropriate alteration of the side window frame, back wall angle and the grafting in of the sectioned back window frame.

 

 

mike

 

Edited March 11, 2018 by mk11

[Greg Pugh]

I've got several of those kits but admittedly, I have not broken the plastic on any of them yet. However, I did run into some body warpage issues on their '65 Plymouth Satellite and they were literally NO help when I got a hold of them.

[mk11]

Some more rough measurements here, covering the supplied chrome front plastic piece for the '69 F100 kit...

The red width of grill line measures 76", orange line is 56", yellow and purple on the headlight door are both 9" and the blue signal light width line is 6.5". Height of center section is 13".

So far, the only modified one I've seen that even approaches reality is this one by master craftsman Tom Ellifrit.

 

Let's hope that they'll correct the fundamentals on this design if they're planning more pre-'70 F100 kits.

Interesting to see these kits get a free pass by the commentators that didn't seem to be offered to the lindberg '61 Chev and revell '69 Charger and '90 Mustang kits.

 

mike

 

 

Edited March 8, 2018 by mk11

[mike 51]

It seems like they "rush" these kits into production before they're really "finished"....and it seems like they just don't care about the problems with these F100 kits.

It's a shame....

 

 

[mk11]

'Caring' equals more money spent so the chances would appear to be slim that anything will happen. I don't believe 'rush' is the proper term either... this project was initiated four years before it hit the shelves. When whatever or whomever a company depends on for an accurate product lets them down, both the customers and company suffer

 

mike

Edited February 20, 2018 by mk11

[Ace-Garageguy]

Damm. What a shame that once again, the "professionals" who get paid well to produce "scale" models don't seem to be able to measure accurately.

I owned one of the real trucks back in the early 1980s, and loved it. I've recently found it again, in pretty terrible shape, but restorable.

I'd intended to buy the Moebius kit to do a replica of my old one but hell...suspension's wrong, major parts of the cab shape are wrong, the headlights and grille are wrong, and there's a good possibility the piece of crapp will be warped anyway.

Nope. NO SALE.

Life's too short to waste any more of it re-doing for free work that somebody else got paid to do right in the first place, but just couldn't be bothered.

Edited November 30, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy

[dodgefever]

  On 11/29/2017 at 8:45 PM, mk11 said:

Some more rough measurements here, covering the supplied chrome front plastic piece for the '69 F100 kit...

 

The red width of grill line measures 76", orange line is 56", yellow and purple on the headlight door are both 9" and the blue signal light width line is 6.5". Height of center section is 13".

So far, the only modified one I've seen that even approaches reality is this one by master craftsman Tom Ellifrit.

 

Let's hope that they'll correct the fundamentals on this design if they're planning more pre-'70 F100 kits.

Interesting to see these kits get a pass by the commentaters that didn't seem to be offered to the lindberg '61 Chev and revell '69 Charger and '90 Mustang kits.

 

mike

 

 

Expand  

Thanks for the measurements, very helpful.  I'm still trying to work up the enthusiasm to tackle this...

[mk11]

Turns out the headlight areas on the revell 64-65 chev truck grill look a little closer in size. Lotsa work no matter how you look at it.

This grill, with minor variations in the center bars, was the face of Ford trucks for three years and surely deserved to be more than someone's 'artistic impression' in scale. Might be a good seller for a resin caster

 

mike

Edited March 8, 2018 by mk11

[mk11]

  On 11/23/2017 at 7:39 AM, Greg Pugh said:

I did run into some body warpage issues on their '65 Plymouth Satellite and they were literally NO help when I got a hold of them.

Expand  

I don't remember ever getting a reply when I inquired about a replacement for this one but it didn't matter anyways. Really tough styrene to work with but hot water just off boiling got most of it corrected.

 

mike