white western star ext.hood

[Q tip]

I told myself I was going to build a nice little day cab out of this kit,but that idea lasted about two seconds after opening the box! Opened a port on the drivers side to take a second air cleaner and extended the hood somewhere around one scale foot. The sleeper was a chore, used two and a half standered sleepers to make this box. Filler putty comes next to clean up the gaps. Comments are more than welcome......thanks Q!

[redneckrodder]

you made

that sleeper look nice on the b ox it looks to short for that cab

[Q tip]

the stock sleeper looked as if it needed lifted to match the cab , but that's how they were made.hence the phrase coffin sleeper. wheel base is way to short for my taste.

[BigBad]

That should look pretty good! What's your plan for diesel motivation since you have all that space under the hood to fill? I could easily imagine a nice 12V71... Even with twin turbos!

Edited May 29, 2013 by BigBad

[kilrathy10]

Looks pretty awesome to me....That's some great work on this....And great imagination, too....I can't wait to see more....

[Badluck 13]

John nice stretch on the hood,love the design on the sleeper box,want more!!!!

[Turbo590]

very nice so far.

[Q tip]

well I have a nice v8 cat I have been looking at. im building this truck kind of backwards. I wanted to get the body the way I want it and kind of build around that platform. does that make any sense? one thing I have decided on was the color.

[signguy2108]

Going to be cool with the long hood. Pity the guy who has to drive it, they were hard enough to see over with the regular hood!

[flat-top]

Very nice

[Swamp Dog]

thats looking good..

[Q tip]

using the straight edge and the back side of my xacto knife I scribed panel lines to break up the emptiness of the sleeper sides and then used the pin vise to make rivet dents. since i'm running twin air cleaners I choose to stick with the square ones just because they go along with the boxyness of the truck itself. I had to rework the one for the left side by cutting and regluing the intake on the back side next to the cowling. now the frame. with just the hood and cab setting next to the kit chassis, i can kind of ballpark the stretch i'm looking for. for extra frame rails, I used square stock and cut it in half. find a spot on the stock rails and cut. I try to find a spot that can be consealed if need to be. use angle on the inside for support, and walla! shes straight and square............enjoy Q.

[b_lever1]

Sweet looking build John like the sleeper just looks so much better. Glad it's not a true coffin sleep those where true coofin if you woke up you were very lucky.Just think of sleeping under the front of the trailer in the front on the old trucks behind the drives and before exhausts where raised up.!

[Q tip]

Now with the chassis together,axles and suspension go on. Kit bashing the IH 4300 for the front and axle stubs for the rear, I ended up narrowing the front by an 1/8 inch so it would fit under the fenders. The rears went on as normal.After that was done,its time to start a mock up and figure out where fuel tanks etc, will be placed....thanks ,looking forward to comments.......Q

[Q tip]

Finally played down some paint on hood and cab.duplicolor primer chased with aluminum base coat and followed with purple pearl. Used the kit supplied decal stripes and added extras to the fenders.

[BigBad]

This is looking pretty good, John! You're inspiring me for my own!

[Q tip]

I chose to leave the sleeper in bare metal form just for kind of a wow factor. I've seen pics and I've seen in person these old mercury sleepers left with a shiny finish. First its different then the main stream plus their just neat looking. Q

[redneckrodder]

gunna look good sweet purple plus that bare mercury sleeper

[jekylljr]

Great work!

[Kostas Parchas]

NIce color choise and nice stripes.

This look is a killer combined with the mercury sleeper.

Kostas.

[Q tip]

While the forum was down a lot has changed on this build.first the bare metal sleeper had a book accidently dropped on it, so I went with a smaller box.bad paint reaction. So.....on to a different route. Heavy haul, as normal the razor knife came out and went to work . enjoy...john

[BigBad]

Big hood, big frame, big bumper, big exhausts, big tires... Approved!

[mackinac359]

Yeah- what BigBad said !

Tim

[highway]

x3 what Robert said!

In the last pic, are you building a Zacklift removable tow boom for it?

[Q tip]

since im in the towing industry and we have a full fleet ranging from a 1 ton up to a 50 ton rotator including 3 different quick swaps I figured I would mix match and create my own.