Mashpee Breaker 354

[Chariots of Fire]

I've moved the other posts on this subject here so that you can see them all together.

This is the start of the construction of Mashpee 354, a 1967 IH R190 brush truck that was built by the Thibeault Company in Canada.  It was used on Cape Cod for many years and has since been put out to pasture.  I work as a consultant to Mashpee so there is a bit of a connection there.  This build started out with constructing a frame that needed lengthening and casting a full set of tires.  Several items have come from the Ertl IH kits as you can see.  The frame is from one of the Ford snowplow kits.

Here the frame has been cut so that an extension can be added to the center.  This truck has a 176" wheel base to the center of the tandems so the frame had to be extended.  It also has a frame extension at the rear that is a support for the rear mounted pump.

I made up some movable front hubs using brass channel and brass tubing.  The axle pivots from inside along the vertical pin seen in the photo.  The small screw will hold the tire and wheel in place.  A bushing was inserted in the wheel that is somewhat smaller than the head of the screw.  It allows the wheel to turn but captures in on the axle.

Here's a look at the components of the hub.  The parts were made from much longer pieces of channel and tubing.  Doing so helps keep things at right angles.  After all is said and done, the pieces are carefully cut to length using a cutoff wheel.  Going slow in the cutting process assures that the solder does not melt and things don't begin to fall apart. 

 The first engine I built used a Mack block but it was way too big resulting in the firewall being significantly out of position.  So I opted for a 1950 Chevy engine with the transmission relocated to the other end of the block.  This allowed the manifold to be on the right and the spark plugs to be on the left like the IH Red Diamond 501.  The other two pieces in the photo are the top radiator hose and the air cleaner.

This is how the engine looks in the engine bay.  The firewall is from the Chevy also and fit with very little trimming.  Below is the hood that was cut away from the cab.  It's easy to see how thick the casting is.  To correct that I have made a mold to re-cast the hood much thinner.  Then I can separate the two halves and put in a hinge.

Inside the engine bay I added some malleable aluminum sheet to act as inner fenders.  Holes were drilled at the edge and pins were inserted from underneath.  Since superglue does not adhere well to aluminum I mixed up some two part epoxy and ran some between the resin and aluminum.  It sealed the openings and added strength as well.

The underside the fenders with the pins in place.  This aluminum is so soft it can be easily bent to the contours of the fender.   Once the cab and engine are in place, it won't matter that the inner fenders could be bent out of shape since there will be no real way to get at them.

The IH engine sits in the frame.  I turned three double pulleys for the fan belts from aluminum rod.  The fan belts are black electrical tape cut into thin strips.  Next up are the driveshafts and exhaust.  After that the steering connections to the left wheel hub along with the steering box and rods.

Edited February 4, 2020 by Chariots of Fire

[Oldmopars]

Wow, amazing. I love it

[Chariots of Fire]

After a lot of trial and error in getting a hood for the truck I ended up making one of sheet brass.  It looks much better than thick resin or a casting that is thinner.  Also it is much easier to hinge in the middle.

The hood is made of 4 pieces; two on each side.  They are soldered at the ridge line that runs longitudinally along the hood sides.

The small brass piano hinge is soldered to each hood piece and is joined by a small stainless steel pin.  The pin is long enough so that it can be inserted at each end into a small brass holder; one in the grill shroud and the other in the firewall.

Shaping the hood after the soldering was done required a lot of fitting, sanding of the grill shroud and firewall to square them up and a lot of fine trimming along the way.

Now I have a satisfactory hood that opens into the engine compartment to show off the IH engine and details.

[Vince66]

nice brass work makes a world of difference with the hood thickness

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Wow!! That hood is Amazing!!

[CRUSADER2]

Excellent work all round!!! 

[gotnitro?]

Beautiful hood

[Chariots of Fire]

Tires and wheels have been painted up and have been installed.  The frame has been painted but is in dire need of some weathering.  They don't stay this clean for very long, especially after a couple of trips into the woods.  Some light washes will also bring out some of the highlights.  The cast in place headlight surrounds needed to be changed also.  They were drilled out, sanded and then replaced with chrome bezels from the Ford kit.  They will be permanently mounted after the cab is painted.  The exhaust pipe and muffler were painted aluminum and then were given a wash of Model Master acrylic rust.

[Vince66]

Coming along really nicely .

[Chariots of Fire]

Lots of trimming, scribing and cutting this weekend.  Using a Dremel and small bits an inner cut out was made behind the windshield trim.  This left just enough material that the windshield plastic could fit against.  With that done I used the resin kit template to trace a windshield from clear stock.  With a bit of trimming and fitting it now just pops into place without glue.   There is a bit of reflection to show that the windshield is actually there.

Next the doors were scribed and cut free.  Lots of material had to be cut away as the casting is quite thick.  It took a while but the back edge of the Xacto knife did most of it.  A small razor saw did what the knife could not.  Then it was necessary to clean up the edges of the door openings and the doors themselves.  In the scribing action quite a bit of material is lost so to close up the openings some 0.010" strip stock was glued in and then trimmed.  Some sanding here and there made the doors fit uniformly.  Small brass hinges from Micro Mark were glued and pinned in place.  A temporary stainless steel pin keeps the hinges in alignment for now.  Later on the pins will be cut to length.

 

[Hermann Kersten]

Great work on this one Charles.

The hood and the trim work on the doors and hinges are spot on, really great work what you showing us here.

 

Hermann

[hct728(Bob)]

Neat job on the windshield!  I did that once, made a lip for it to fit into, as I found Jimmy Flintstone bodies don't work well with the kit windshield, but it was real hard not to cut through the flange, man you have a steady hand!  Nice job on the doors too, lot of work there.  The louvers made me think of the AMT/Ertl Paystar, where the box art shows them the wrong way, are you sure they shouldn't be vertical, LOL!

[Chariots of Fire]

Hey, Bob.  Yeah, I'm sure.  Got plenty of photos to use for verification.  The dash board is taking almost as much time as the rest of it.  A very poor resin casting with gage bezels not aligned or straight.  So off they came.  Once the dash is painted I'll add some photoetch bezels and some decal gages.  Lots of fit and sand, fit and sand to get it to line up with the inside of the windshield.  More pix soon.

 

[DRIPTROIT 71]

WOW!! WOW! WOW! This one just keeps getting better!

[Chariots of Fire]

Got just a wee bit more done on this rig with the dash board done and ready for installing, doors painted on the inside and the inside of the cab painted.  I did that part with a brush and some insignia red.  It's flat red but that is ok.  When I paint the outside of the cab It will be covered with some of the Duplicolor red that I picked up at Advanced Auto.  Rather than try and cover the entire inside with the spray and get a lot of extra paint there as well doing a brush paint job inside helps a lot.  Details can be picked up later.  I also did some hood latches with some brass wire and a couple of straight pins.

[Vince66]

Coming along great. 

[gotnitro?]

Impressive build , really like how clean the opened doors look considering how much work it was thinning the resin . The shot of the cab corner w door open really shows how much material you had to deal with 

[Chariots of Fire]

Finally the cab is done and is in paint.  Still some minor details to go but the bulk of the work on it is done.  Next up will be to draw out the body and begin to collect the materials needed for the construction.

[Vince66]

That came out so nice. 

[hct728(Bob)]

Nice job on the interior, too! So much detail on the dash, now I see why the doors have to open, so not to miss a thing!

[delta99]

This is looking great!

[Chariots of Fire]

Got some work done on the body sides.  I had taken a full side view photo of the body years ago and took some basic dimensions.  The photo was transferred into my graphics program where I could draw lines over the body outline.  Once that was done I scaled it down using the dimensions as a guide.  Working in metric 1/25 scale makes it easy.  Wheel base was 176 inches and that translates into 176 mm in 1/25 scale.  So far the measurements and photo are yielding good results.

Here is one side mocked up with the materials for the other side waiting to be put together.  Sheet stock is 0.030" Evergreen.  Diamond plate is from Don Mills Models.  Strip stock is 0.040" x 0.186" Evergreen.

A full side view of where the body will sit on the frame.  The front has to be cut off about 2mm to give some clearance behind the cab.

There is a lot more work to be done to make up the pieces under the cab doors and around the front.  The strip stock will pass just outside the front fender line and will have several side braces that run back to the frame and front bumper.

The tank is from the Ertl ALF kit.  It straddles the frame just right so it made centering the body sides easy.  I had to add some 0.100" strip stock to each side to push the body sides out enough to be over the rear tires and to clear the fenders in front.

[DRIPTROIT 71]

This is my favorite build of yours to date! To say that is looks Excellent is a major understatement!

[Chariots of Fire]

Here are a couple of updates.  The body sides are now glued to the tank bottom and a step has been added to the rear.  The front of the body is also glued in.  It sturdied it up a lot.

[Vince66]

Loving the looks of this Beast