Retro-Ram pickup

[Alyn]

my first workbench project. I'm gonna catch you guys up on a build I've been updating on another forum, so some may have seen it, but I wanted to share. (ain't that sweet)

 

This is Revell's 99 Dodge Ram VTS pickup with some serious custom cuts. I've chopped it in all three planes. First down the middle to make it narrower by about a scale foot. Then the top was chopped 5 or 6 scale inches. Rather than hack up the top to line up the pillars, I sliced a section out of the doors. She's skinnier, lower and shorter.

Edited September 12, 2015 by Alyn

[Alyn]

This will give you an idea of how much narrower the truck is after the sectioning.

Edited April 28, 2009 by Alyn

[RodneyBad]

That's one way to fix the pillar issue

Full size compact?

Looks Berry Interesting

[Alyn]

Here's a mock-up of the look I'm after. This pickup bed is from the Revell 29 ford pickup 3-in-1 kit. It's not the one I'll be using. This one is too long, too narrow and the height isn't quite right either.

So, I'll be building one from scratch. Here's the start, plus you can see that I"ve rebuilt the back of the cab with a small, commercial style rear window and added strengthening ribs on the lower portion.

Edited April 28, 2009 by Alyn

[Alyn]

I bought this kit at a discount just to get the Viper V10 and what ever else I could salvage as a parts kit. Now that it's getting built, the V10 was pulled to make room for a Hemi. Much nicer choice for the traditional rod look.

In order to use the interior tub, it had to be narrowed similar to the body. I wanted to retain the tranny hump, so strips were removed from either each side of the hump. The wheel base of the Deuce fenders was a little short so about 5/8" to 3/4" of stryene was added to move to rear fenders back. Now they will line up better with the center of the new pickup bed.

[Alyn]

Here's what I came up with for a grill. I took the Dodge Ram grill and cut it in half, then rotated the halves 90 degrees and glued them back together. The two halves were swept back slightly before the glue set up to give the grill shell a more rounded shape. Once the glue was dry, the small cut up the middle was filled and sanded and the shell was attached to the narrowed hood for further work. I also added a strip of styrene across the top, flat area to help round it off.

Edited April 29, 2009 by Alyn

[plumnuts]

this is a wild build. Im diggin the concept. have fun and post when you can Id like to see more.

[Alyn]

Thanks, here's a bit more. After moving the rear fenders back a bit, I mocked up the axle and tires and found the bed sides to be slightly too wide. A half round section was removed from each side and spaced further inward. The a strip of styrene was used to fill in the gap. Finally some putty and sanding and the bed is pretty much finished and in primer.

[Alyn]

More sheet styrene was used to scratch up a tailgate. I cut out some letters the best I could with an X-acto knife and glued them on. They'll get sanded a bit to knock off the sharp edges, but I still like the way it turned out. The G and the E could use a little help.

[James W]

A nifty idea, love the grill treatment.

Can't wait to see how you resolve the doors/hood sides into the fenders, not an easy task.

Keep it up! Tailgate is superb.

[RodneyBad]

That is looking quite excellent..

You got some mad Skills.

Love the whole Concept.

Nicest SNB I've seen.

what did you use for the Grill filler?

[Alyn]

That is looking quite excellent..

You got some mad Skills.

Love the whole Concept.

Nicest SNB I've seen.

what did you use for the Grill filler?

Thanks. I suppose I should know what SNB stands for, but not much comes up.

Snub nose bomber

Snotty new boy

Short, Nasty & Bad

Short ??? Bed

I use Bondo red glazing and spot putty for filler after filling major gaps with scrap styrene. When I run out, I'll probably switch to something else as the spot putty has shrinkage issue. To overcome this, you have to allow for many days of drying time or it'll come back on you after the paint is applied.

Here's an update on the engine. The chrome was stripped from the valve covers and a blower robbed from the parts box. The covers were sprayed at a distance so the spatter would create a rough surface. Then topped with flat black. Plug boots where scratch built from styrene rod. The shaft was cut off the kit distributor and replaced with aluminum tube. This was then relocated to a more accurate position on the block. I scratch built some wire looms out of .005" aluminum. One 4-positon and two 2-postion to keep the plug wires in check.

[Foxer]

This is awesome!! Love the concept and how it's looking!!! Couldn't figur HOW you were gonna do a grill.. till I got lower in the post.. FANTASTIC!

[Alyn]

The Ram truck frame was too bulky and would take a ton of work to mate up to the Deuce fenders, so a new frame is required. Here's the start. These rails were first laid into the bottom of the fenders to determine the initial spacing and size. The that basic shape was laid out on the paper with the center line drawn to keep things symmetrical.

The wood for the bed is basswood veneer. It was too thin, so two slices were glued together to form each plank. The separator strips are styrene with a "T" cross section. I tried to space the wood such that it would line up with the strengthening ribs on the back of the cab. The wood in the picture has about 5 coats of acrylic clear.

[Alyn]

This is the basis for the blower manifold. The Hemi is from the 71 Cuda convertible kit and is set up for dual 4-barrel carbs. To use the blower, I had to do some more scratch'n.

[Alyn]

One more; manifold painted and installed including some pop-off valves. The blower is painted Model Masters titanium metalizer.

[Jantrix]

Very cool project! Impressive work.

[Alyn]

Thanks, man. I'm working hard to get me a "hell yeah!"

Here's a progress shot of the frame. I added a kick-up where the rear of the cab will be and some cross members. The strut rods are from the Revell 40 Ford. I'll be using the axles from that kit. The brackets on the outside of the rails will be the front mount for the leaf springs.

[Scott Colmer]

Tons of scratchbuilding - Unique design....I'm in! Very cool.

[Scott Colmer]

Tons of scratchbuilding - Unique design....I'm in! Very cool.

[Alyn]

I narrowed the Dodge Ram dashboard, but it looked pretty bad. It pretty much filled half the drivers view through the windshield. Revell's slant nose Porsche donated one that worked out great. It only needed about 1/8" sliced of the passenger side and it fit like a glove.

Well, there's suppose to be a picture of the Porsche dash mounted in the tub, but I'm having a heck of a time getting some of my pictures to show up. I'm using the same procedure consistently, but some work and some don't. Anyway, the Porsche dash is the perfect replacement and I'll get an update showing it later.

[Alyn]

Here's the interior tub with the Porsche dash. The steering wheel is from AMT's Boyd Coddington 32 Ford Coupe. The kit sucks, but this steering wheel will work nicely. I've also narrowed the Dodge Ram bench seat by taking out the center storage portion of the seat. The head rests were removed as well. More retro that way.

[Alyn]

I decided to use brass for the rear springs for strength. Keeping the leafs thin enough to look realistic would make a styrene spring pretty weak at the ends. After the leafs were cut, the ends of each one were slightly tapered and rounded similar to 1:1 leafs. The shackle is made from two short sections of brass tube soldered to some .015" brass sheet (same material used for the leafs. I'll wick some solder between the leafs and paint them a dark metalic color. No one will ever know they're brass.

Edited April 30, 2009 by Alyn

[plumnuts]

man alyn you can build! your scratch building is very impressive and I'll give you that hell yea and a

you da man. keep it up and have fun.

[PlasticWagens]

Extremely nice and exciting build. Bed is impressive!