The Night Train Expedition: My Cannonball 2024 Entry

[oldcarfan]

I haven't been building much in the last few years due to work, health and the needs of rehabbing an old house. Who would have thought that buying a 110 year old stone house would be so time consuming? LOL. At the start of the year, my resolutions were to lose weight and to spend more time in the shop. I managed one of my resolutions and it wasn't losing weight. As for the health, it's holding steady, but I did take early retirement as I just can't handle the high inside temperatures like I used to.

I haven't figured out how to put my pictures into the text so they're all at the bottom. Sorry. But enough of that, here is my entry for this year's Cannonball, the Night Train Expedition. If you don't care for back stories, skip the red part.

'If I win the lottery, I won't tell anybody, but there will be signs.' You've probably heard that. Well, the story for my entry starts with two talented gear heads raised on Cannonball Run and Fast and Furious who are stuck in a dead end small Texas town. The gear heads are Bob and Doug, best friends for life, not long out of High School and wondering what life holds for them. One fateful Saturday night they ran into Gas N Go to get party supplies and on a whim bought a couple of Lottery tickets. After that they headed to the bonfire down at old man Johnson's farm, (Don't mess with the bull he can get pretty mean, don't forget to shut the gate and stay out of the beans.) then slept it off all day Sunday.

Monday morning they were on the way to work at the Buy4Less and heard the DJ at KBUB give out the big winning lottery numbers. The numbers sounded familiar so the boys stopped and did a panic search for their tickets. Sure enough they won. Being smart and conscientious, the boys first called in sick and then called one of their moms who is an accountant. Soon enough they collected their winnings and had more than enough to live the rest of their lives.

To save on taxes, they bought an abandoned warehouse and some old store fronts on the main drag and started some businesses. This gave them some write offs. They named the named the warehouse Garage 62, and turned it into their dream shop. The warehouse was soon filled with tools, toys, and dream cars but still the boys wanted something more. Someone mentioned the Cannonball was still around so Bob and Doug decided to give it a try. The boys bought a non-running 97 Expedition off the old lady down the street and a wrecked Coyote Mustang from CoPart up in Dallas for the engine. They then set about building a stealth rocket. Using all the skills they learned from YouTube the engine was soon twin turbo'd and the suspension was lowered with an airbag system. They redid the whoa power with brakes and wheels from a wrecked CoPart Porsche GT2 RS. They also pirated the seats and steering wheel from the Porsche.

They got the the cop seat console, some trim parts, and the rear passenger divider, off a totaled State Trooper Expedition down at Clem's U-Pull. The divider would keep all the stuff in the back from coming to the front in case of emergency. They added a 44 and a 17 gallon fuel cell in the rear to supplement the stock 17 gallon tank which is where the airbag suspension comes in handy.

Doug, being a gamer, went crazy in the electronic department ePay, adding a night vision camera, CB, scanner, radios, and four different kinds of radar detectors/jammers. Everything was handily designed to operate off his iPad. In the front bumper the boys added an intercooler and a set each of 9 inch Night Piercer 5000 driving lights and fog lights from Joe Don's Auto Parts over on Main, just past the Dairy Queen on your right. To keep as low a profile as possible, they painted the truck a nice Audi Nardo Gray.

They then set about testing the truck's speed and endurance in west Texas. There are hundreds of miles of straight empty roads with very little official presence to cover them. To assist in this part of the build they added a Mustang pre-runner to their fleet.

And there you have their story.

Now to the build.

The base kit is an original issue Revell Rolling Wheels 1997 Expedition curbside kit. You can tell how old it is by the Hobby Lobby price tag of $8.88. When's the last time you saw that price? The original plan was to keep it simple and use only this kit, but then I found some parts in the junk box from a Lindberg F-150 so I added the hood and frame from that kit. (I hear Round 2 may be reissuing the Lindberg F-150 and I may just have to get one. It builds up well until you drop it like I did with mine years ago.) The hood was a pretty close match to the one I cut out of the Expedition, being just a little narrower. The Coyote twin turbo engine came from Texas 3D and it was great! The parts were clean, exactly to scale, and ready to assemble. The engine arrived quickly and the service was great. The only problem I had was making the engine bay a bit too narrow, but that's on me. Should've built that after getting the engine.

The interior base was box stock except I added the seats and steering wheel from a Maisto or Welly Porsche GT2RS. I got a good deal on a bunch of damaged diecasts from the pharmacy in town for cheap for parts. I also had interior parts from a Lindberg police Crown Vic and the Revell police Expedition so they got tossed in along with parts box fuel tanks and such. Don't know where I got the dash mounted iPad, but it worked for the project. The Porsche seats were boring so I printed some Mexican style blankets and used those to reupholster the seats. There are two fuel cells in back, giving the truck a total of 78 gallons of fuel. To the right is a tool box and wedged alongside is a fire suppression system. I tried to give it a little sag to simulate the weight.

The brakes and wheels came from that same GT2RS, but I eventually swapped out the front wheels for some smaller ones because the Maisto front wheels and tires were too big.

The paint is Rustoleum Gloss Dark Gray which turned out to be a close match for Audi's Nardo Gray. I was hesitant to use Rustoleum because I don't always have luck with the brand, but it came out well sprayed over Duplicolor primer. It helped that I painted it early in the summer and then it sat in the 110 degree shop for a couple months to dry.

The kit headlights were modified to a projector style with integrated turn signals. The front bumper was from the Lindberg kit. I split it horizontally, adding an 1/8th of an inch, then cut openings for the lights and intercooler. The driving and fog lights are scratch built. Medicine blister packs provided the lens covers and the lights themselves were from various home cast parts. 

To support the electronics, the roof has a night vision camera on the left front modeled after one I saw on a Border patrol truck. The ground radar dome is modeled after one from a tornado chasing truck and the other antennas loosely match the ones from the Florida trooper car we were stuck behind for 30 miles on the Everglades highway. The antenna with the big ball on it is supposed to be a cell phone booster. My neighbor works part time out in Big Bend and has one on his truck for where the cell towers don't reach. Just realized I left off the CB whip antenna, it's still on the table. To keep the top as clean as possible, the roof rails were removed and a wing was added at the back to smooth air flow. The wing came from a cheap Walmart 1/43rd Toyota Supra racing diecast.

The rest of the pictures are various views of the truck the boys took before before they leave for the Red Ball Garage and a couple of the Mustang they built to pre-run the route.

I guess that's all I have to say for the moment. Here's to all those contenders, hope to see you at the finish line. May your highways be clear and may the traffic always be in your favor!

Edited October 14, 2024 by oldcarfan
Forgot some stuff

[BK9300]

Great back story and a well made project vehicle (vehicles) - lots of detail keeps me going back over each pic, looking closer to see it all!

[ChrisR]

COOL!!!

[ncbuckeye67]

Awesome back story with two excellent builds! That Expedition is a very well thought out and highly detailed racing rig.