Peterbilt 281 questions for Duel truck build (rivets, now rear window)

[robdebie]

Another question for my slow 'Duel' truck build: was the cabin of the Peterbilt 281 riveted like the AMT 359 kit, that I'm using? I guess the 281 had a spot welded steel cabin.

Rob

Edited April 19, 2024 by robdebie

[Force]

No rivets, or huck bolts as they are refered to.

[robdebie]

A belated thanks for the information! Let the sanding begin..

Rob

[robdebie]

Another question about the Duel truck. When the truck is down in the ravine, the back side of the cab can be clearly seen. I've drawn what I see in the righthand picture. It looks like a sliding panel rear window, different from the later window, like in the AMT kit. Some kind of mounting of the swamp cooler is also visible.

I could find only very few Peterbilts with this rear window setup. Here's a screenshot from a YouTube video.

My question: what is the part on the right side? Is it a sliding panel maybe? But why?

Rob

[Force]

The AMT kit is a newer style cab than the Duel truck cab, the Duel truck was a 50's cab as the 281/351 came 1954 and the Duel truck was a 1957 after what I have found out during my research, the AMT small window Unilite cab California Hauler kit is a 60's cab, the 359 came 1967 and the kit is from 1969.
About the rear window, yes it's a sliding panel.

[robdebie]

My research roughly matches yours. I knew from the start it would be a lot of work to backdate the 359 to a 281. I may have showed it before, but here are the windshield gasket that were step one. I made a small mistake: the gaskets should touch in the middle. But they are glued in, too late now.

Regarding the sliding panel in the rear window, do you (or anyone else) have an idea why it was made sliding? I cannot think of a good reason.

Rob

[Force]

I don't know for sure because I'm no Peterbilt expert like Tim Ahlborn, but it could be that it wasn't a window there at all and you could open up and close for ventilation.
I can't access his website any more where he had a spotters guide to the different peterbilt models, I know I have seen something there about this sliding panel on the old Peterbilt cabs.

[robdebie]

Ah! No window at all, that would (could) explain a sliding panel.

'Tim Ahlborn spotters guide' sounded familiar, and indeed I had bookmarked his site: http://www.timstrucks.com/PB1.html But I get a "Not Authorized to View This Page [CFN #0004]" message.

Hurray for the Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20200201070755/http://www.timstrucks.com/PB1.html. This page has a picture of the rear side of the pre-1960 351 cab, with a caption reading "This view shows the pre 1960 cab.  Note the slider rear window, the drip rail that surrounds the roof of the cab."

There's a month-old video of Tim Ahlborn on YouTube, so he's still active.

Rob