Smokey & the Bandit Kenworth Rig by Egilman - AMT - 1/25th scale - East Bound & Down

[Egilman]

Hi, my first build log, actually this has been in progress for a couple of months now but I figured for a first log I will do what I'm familiar with.

 

Plastic..... Styrene to be exact, it brings us tangible proof that the imagination really exists....

The Iconic Kenworth Truck, pulling a 48' Hobbs Reefer van. The Tractor is a '73 and the Trailer is a '77. There are a lot of people who have built a model of this combination using the available kits in the marketplace. there are aftermarket companies that make the mural decal for the current available kits. But unfortunately there is no dedicated model of this subject, '77 Trans-Am's no sweat, there are a plethora of them from many many companies. I think all of them made a model of the darned car and said to heck with the star of the show..... And that truck is definitely the star of the show. The Model companies tried to correct their error and made a model of the GMC General and it's Fruehauf trailer from Smokey & the Bandit II but it's pretty much forgotten in the model world except in the most avid truck modeling forums, and it's hardly iconic.....

 

I say Iconic because there are over a thousand replica rigs roaming america's highways today with some form of the mural gracing their huge billboard sides... This truck sticks in the american conscience, that makes it iconic.

 

Well to the initial details... They used three trucks in making the movie that appear on screen, A 1973 Kenworth W900A and two 1974's. Also they used two 1977 48' Hobbs anti-sail dry goods vans for the trailer. The first truck appearing in the movie, (the opening scene where the truck starts and proceeds to the Truck Rodeo at the fairgrounds) is the '73. It was a line truck hauling the I-40 corridor for three years when it was bought for the movie.

Black in color with gold trim it is also a 50 year anniversary tractor celebrating Kenworths 50 years in business. This is designated on the truck by the gold hood ornament and side lettering. Other than that it is a pretty typical american over-the-road truck. The two '74's were bought from a dealer, they were purchased cause they needed a backup to the '73 and a film rig to be towed behind the film truck for the interior shots of Jerry hacksawing the steering wheel. They were Coffee Brown in color. Well there were no black trucks available with the gold trim package. Pantone color reference to "Coffee Brown"  lists Model Masters Gloss and Flat Black as the closest representation to coffee brown in the MM lineup... As close as your going to get to black without actually being black. 

 

1973, Truck #1 below....

1974, Truck #2 below....

 

Casually watching the movie you cannot tell the difference. (but there are differences)

 

As research I have gone thru the movie taking screen caps frame by frame and identifying the differences. Truck #1 is seen in 75% of the driving road shots and Truck #2 makes up the rest of the road shots. Truck #3 was used for the interior shots.

 

So how does one go about telling the differences? (the trailers were different also not observable casually, but under detailed inspection they were different enough to tell which is which)

 

So the first tractor appearing on film is tractor #1, the second, tractor #2 and so on and so forth, the Trailers I did the same with for Trailer #1 and #2......

 

Predominantly, in the movie it is Tractor #1 hauling Trailer #2. 75% of the time this is the combination seen on film..... Tractor #2 only appears in three scenes, Picking up the beer, Motorcycle Cop sneaking in the backdoor, and Crashing the gate at the fairgrounds. Tractor #1 does all the rest..... Below is a composite pic of the tractors where many of the differences can be readily seen..... Tractor #1 on the left, #2 on the right...

 

First thing that sticks out like a sore thumb? the exhaust stacks. They are not the same length on either truck. but more important, the short stack is on the opposite sides from each other, #1's short stack is on the curb side and #2's is on the road side.... You can spot that difference a mile away... Take a look at the mirrors, curbside #1 is a mack style oval replacement, #2 is a stock Kenworth rectangle. .... Take a look at the blind spot mirrors, #1's are painted white on the back, #2's are bare aluminium..... Bumper #1's has a center step bracket, #2's does not...... There is more but if in any doubt, try to find the lettering on the side of the hood, Gold for truck #1, Chrome for truck #2 & 3. 

 

The two Trailers.....

#1 on the left #2 on the right

The quickest way to tell the differences is that they had different murals on their sides... same subject, but painted different. #1 no cactus behind the Bandit's horse #2 it's readily seeable. #1 no cactus between the last horse and stage, #2 it's there plain as day, #1 cactus behind the stage in the distance, #2 no cactus behind the stage at any distance....

 

Tractor #1 and Trailer #2, that is the iconic Bandit Rig as it appeared in the movie.... and that is what I intend to model.....

 

Next installment will be what I'm going to use to model this for kits since there is no ready made kit.... It is going to be a kit conversion of the tractor and a kitbash of two trailer kits...

 

Stay Tuned....

 

[Old Collingwood]

Smart  - different subject but reminds me of the  tv shows   Ice Road Truckers.

 

OC.

[Egilman]

33 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

Smart  - different subject but reminds me of the  tv shows   Ice Road Truckers.

 

Oh Yeah, The TV show "Movin' On" used the same model tractor a Kenworth W900A VIT during it's run also....

[Egilman]

Ok so what am I going to be using to build this flight of phantasy?

 

The Tractor, AMT 1021-1 Kenworth Conventional W925...

This is a 2019 reissue of a kit originally released way beck in the late '60's. It represents a 1970 Kenworth W925 which by 1977 would be called a W900A. It has to be updated to represent a '73 which has some detail differences. But it is the correct short wheelbase conventional. A note about the W25 designation, when the kit was originally released it had a torsion bar suspension on the duals. it was a difficult suspension to assemble being very fiddly with many small parts. About 7 years after initial release AMT re-designed the kit with a Hendrickson walking beam suspension for the tandem unit. (and released it as the "Alaskan Hauler" kit. In real world terms this makes the kit represent a W923 model kenworth truck. But alas they didn't change the artwork on the box. So we will have to replace the rear suspension to match the movie truck. Fortunately, there is aftermarket to do this conversion.

 

The Trailer, the trailer in the movie is a 1977 48 foot Hobbs bead sided dry goods van with a dummy non-functional Thermo King reefer unit. It will take two trailer kits kitbashed together to built a movie correct trailer.

Believe it or not, these kits are identical except the holiday trailer (released in 2018) does not have the reefer unit that the Watkins trailer has. the Watkins reefer is an original release from 1968. It represents a Fruehauf 40 foot bead sided reefer trailer model FB. We are in luck, Hobbs trailers back in the day was a division of Fruehauf trailers and their trailers were built to Fruehauf designs. So as far as details we are good to go. (but we will have to bash the two together to arrive at the correct scale length and height) The details on this kit are outstanding for the most part, even the interior is detailed, and it's equipment matches the movie trailer perfectly, the only thing missing is the spare tire carrier.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Egilman

[Egilman]

Before I start building, just a note..... I'm building a movie accurate replica, the sole source of information is the movie. (I also use pics from the making of for some details) if it isn't on the movie rig it isn't on the model.

 

All vehicle kits for some reason start with the engine....

31 parts not counting halves..... The kit engine represents an NTA 855 cubic inch Cummins big cam engine, I do not know the HP rating. now one of the constant debates on this truck is what engine/tranny combination it had. We know from the opening sequence that it had a Fuller 13 speed Road Ranger transmission. but there is no information on what engine it had..... There are many people who have spent a lot of time around diesel engines who listening to the sound of the opening sequence of the movie have described it as either a Caterpillar, Cummins or Detroit Diesel engine, I have it from the people who did the sound track for the movie that the sounds for the entire movie were dubbed in the editing portion of the production.  The hood was never opened during the production of the movie and it doesn't appear on screen anywhere.

 

Why can't we go back to the trucks and take a look see? certainly they still exist????? 

 

In fact, no they don't. The '73 was sold by Universal Studios at auction in 1980 back onto the road, by tracking registrations, it is known to have been converted into a day cab tractor, (removed the sleeper) some time around '95-'96, after that there is no further registration info and it has disappeared into the ether. Some people claim that it is in an Illinois field with brush growing up all over it, but no one has been able to confirm this over the last 15 years since the claim was made. The two '74's (and trailers) were held at Universal's vehicle lot in southern california and in the early '80's fell victim to a warehouse fire, both of them. Total Losses.

 

So no, we can't just go back and take a peek under the hood. (and amazing that the model companies, with the known popularity of this movie, second highest grossing film of 1977 only behind Star Wars, did not make a model kit of this truck/trailer. It boggles the mind. They definitely had their heads up a dark place on this one)

 

Well onwards. I'm building the kit engine out of the box, since there is no other info, that will have to suffice.... The color will be Cummins Beige and the rest of the trucks chassis will be black as that is what the movie shows for the chassis. The engine color is what a cummins engine would have been painted back then based upon cummins records but I really do not know for sure.

 

This is an idea of what I'm aiming at.....

 

That is pretty much representative of a line truck, built on an assembly line and shipped to a dealer, a base model, the only thing not black on the chassis is the engine....

 

I'm using/converting to True North's line of enamel paints and the one I chose for the engine is called USMC Sand it's not exact but close enough, it is a bit darker in real life than the pics, the camera flash really lightend the paint..... the Transmission is the kits Spicer 5 speed, it was connected to a 4 speed auxiliary transmission giving the truck 16 forward speeds and putting two sticks in the cab. I'm leaving this alone, there is no aftermarket Fuller Road Ranger and besides it would be painted black and you really won't see it....

 

And yes real engines from the factory were overall beige, everything including the hoses....

 

Next Step, assembling the Frame.....

 

[popeye the sailor]

for colors,  you'd need to look at what the manufacturer's specs were at the time.  in automotive,  it's the same......I have charts on Ford and Chevy.   it's also the same as the specs in general......research on the particular model will give you the info you need.  I work for Wal Mart Logistic......I've worked on trucks a little,  but my main job is maintenance on trailers.  in the early days of my employment,  I worked on quite a few different makes......trailermobile,  wabash,  Utility.......but now we have narrowed the makes down to Great Dane and Hyundai.   I've been looking for a Freightliner w/sleeper tractor,  to do a copy of a Wal Mart tractor,  but all I've found so far are the day cabs {they are the older ones though}.   Revell,  AMT,  and ERTL has done the firebird........but they were late with the trailer....they did one for the sequel

don't recall the movie....not sure if it's accurate.    sheriff Justice's car can also be found,  if your going to go that far     gonna prove to be a fun project  

[Egilman]

That's the trailer from SATB II, they used a GMC General SWB to haul it around. It's a 40 footer also and it's the right height, but it has more problems than it's worth to convert it to the first movies trailer. #1 is the curbside door in the side. All of that door detail would have to be eliminated and then the beading/rivet detail replicated over the repair.... I'm sure it can be done, just more work than needed to replicate the trailer from the first movie... The 4 Trans-Am's used in the original movie were '76's with a '77 nose bolted onto it for the movie. It had a Rocket 455 (7.5L) with dual quads for an engine and not the 6.6 litre. When they finally brought the '77 to the dealers and people bought it expecting the performance the car in the movie gave, they were real disappointed. 400 cu in small block does not make the performance of a 455 cu in big block. and Pontiac dropped the 455 rocket for the '77 model year.... People still bought the car in massive quantities though if only for the look. Sheriff Justice's car in the original movie was a '76 Pontiac Commander a police version of the Lemans 4 door sedan. It had a police version of the 455 ci in it but only a single quad carb. Sheriff Justice in SATB II drove a pretty generic chevy caprice sedan that was pretty much a standard sedan, nothing special.... Of course when making SATB II they had the full cooperation of GM which gave them their pick of anything they wanted for the brand placement as long as the principle vehicles were GMC made.... (GM wanted to blatantly cash in on the Smokey & the Bandit craze)

 

I'm not going to build any of the cars, the Trans Am, although an icon also, has been way overdone.  And in all my research, no one has done a movie accurate Bandit rig......

 

Why am I doing this?

 

"It's never been done before" (at least not that I can find)

 

As far as Freightliner models? AMT does the FLC sleeper model in 1/25th, and Italeri does the Superliner in 1/24th both widely available, I haven't checked recently, but there could also be aftermarket conversion kits out there as well....

 

ERTL also did a 40' Great Dane dry goods van and a reefer version. but to make todays trailers you will need to kitbash two together to get the 53' length....

Moebius Models does a Great Dane 53' van trailer which is a 2-n-1  can be made as a dry goods van or a reefer. (but it has reefer doors so they would have to be corrected) That's your trailer.....

 

EG

 

Update:

 

Popeye....

The Moebius - 1302 Trailer kit, (53' Great Dane smooth side with roll-up door) is perfect for current Walmart Fleet application. (around $60.00 amazon) Asking around if they do a Freightliner Cascadia aftermarket set.... (they do make an International Pro Star Tractor that will also work for a Wal Mart Rig, around $68.00 at amazon)

Edited March 18, 2020 by Egilman

[Egilman]

Step 2, The Frame...

 

13 parts, fairly well detailed. one of the things I've noticed about these early AMT kits is the level of accurate detail. It is right up there with many of today's models in the accuracy department. There are other issues with this late '60's injection molding tech, but they didn't short the details.

 

First step checking for rail straightness....

As we can easily see the left hand rail is not straight, (they are upside down in the pic) but I can work with it. (this was after several hours of hot water bath and gentle persuasion to bring it back straighter than it was out of the box)

 

The cross members are in two halves believe it or not, this makes it easier to assemble. I've painted them black on the interior sides cause you will never get spray into all the nooks once it is assembled.... Note you can still see the curve to the left side rail laying flat on the table....

 

Now the instructions say to mount all the cross members to the left side frame first and then cap it with the right side, But doing that with a bent frame rail with result in a bent frame. We of course need this frame to be as straight as possible.... So what I'm doing here is taking the strongest cross members and mounting them first..... (you can still see the curve to the frame)

Glued together and left to fully cure. the tail is square and the long sides of the crossmembers give a large contact area to pull the two sides straight..... 

I mounted the four remaining cross members one at a time, using the rule to set a straight edge while the glue set. this allows the curved left rail to be drawn into alignment with the right side and hold there... the end result? straight as an arrow with no warps.....

At this point, I check scale, and it's right on the nose! at 1/25th scale it should be just under 12" long

Next step is adding the suspension parts Standard leaf spring straight axle front end and Hendrickson Walking Beam rear end. Now I'm not mounting the rear suspension cause I will be changing it to the required Torsion Bar suspension... I'm using it to support the frame while assembling the front end.....

Front suspension completed except for painting, I took the pic here so you can see the detail. once it is painted black it will disappear....

Aftermarket Torsion bar suspension, comes out of Australia.... on the right there is a second Battery box step from Round 2 models for the curbside of the truck.

Laid out you get a general idea of what the torsion bar suspension actually is, they ride outside the frame rails and connect to the axles by way of linkages that twist the bar when one side or other need to travel up or down... a very smooth riding system I'm told but many truckers especially heavy haulers say it doesn't have the load carrying capacity of the walking beams. Hence they don't like it....

 

But this also reveals my first hitch/hickup on this build, the linkages to attach the axles to the bars are not in the package everything else if there but the four parts needed to make it work. The gentleman from australia tells me that he will make them up and get them out to me. but it may be a while. The guys who do the aftermarket in the truck modeling world manufacture to order. Which means that when you order you go on the production list behind those that ordered before you... The suspension kit took a full month to get to me... and now I have to wait another month for the linkages.... so to save the gent the shipping, I ordered a few more parts I would eventually need. another month later, they arrive in good shape. I'm sure you guessed it, no linkages... Turns out he got his orders mixed up and sent the replacement linkages to another modeler. I'm now waiting on the linkages... but I figured that I would go ahead and assemble the Walking Beam suspension so I can at least continue the build.....

 

Thank you for looking in and following along....

 

Next up Wheels and Tires.......

[CDW]

How did you know what to do to correct the suspension? Would have never guessed it was that far off from AMT.

[Egilman]

The reason they changed from the Torsion Bar to Walking Beam was the problems people were having assembling it. unlike the resin aftermarket, the kits torsion bars were separated from it anchors. which meant alignment problems and small gluing areas for attachment... It was very fiddly to get correct and then if built correctly very fragile......

 

In researching the truck, I had an email exchange with one of the property masters that worked the film and he told me what the trucks were model wise and when I asked him if they were true W925's he said yes..... I later confirmed this with a couple of shots from the making of forum... (no longer online unfortunately) Prior to 1970 heavy trucks were designated by their axle weights and suspension types. W925 stoof for "9" series truck, "2" for tandem axel, and "5" for type of suspension... and the "5" was torsion bar...

 

The breakdown runs like this....

 

K121/W921 (4x2) Single rear axle. Spring, air, or torsion bar suspension.

K122/W922 (6x2) Tandem rear axles(one is a drive axle, and one is a pusher/tag axle) spring(not sure about air)

K123/W923 (6x4) Tandem drive axles 45,000# GVW spring(Hendrickson Walking Beam or similar) or air

K124/W924 (6x4) Tandem drive axles 55,000# GVW spring or air

K125/W925 (6x4) Tandem drive axles 46,000# with torsion bar suspension

 

A note on the K & W designations.... "K" stands for Kent, "W" for Worthington. those were the last names of the partners that created Kenworth Trucks a contraction of their two names. in the model designations the Kent Series were the cabovers the Worthington series were the conventionals.... The first number was the model number so the 9 represents the 9th design for a conventional truck the two stands for the number of axles and the last number for the type of suspension....

 

since the '73 in the movie was registered as a W925, it tells you everything you need to know to put the correct suspension on the truck...

Edited March 18, 2020 by Egilman

[CDW]

Nice! Great info.

[CDW]

8 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

fI've been looking for a Freightliner w/sleeper tractor,  to do a copy of a Wal Mart tractor,  but all I've found so far are the day cabs {they are the older ones though}.  

Hey Denis

 

Is this what you are looking for? It's available online right there in New Hampshire from scalehobbyist.com

 

https://www.scalehobbyist.com/catagories/Model_Cars/freightliner-flc-semi-tractor/AMT00001195/product.php?pr=1

[Egilman]

Next up, Wheels and Tires.....

The Truck had ten hole Alcoa aluminum wheels..... In the kit they are chromed which had to be stripped off before assembly.  Chrome is applied to plastic parts the same way it is applied to car parts, Electroplating. What they do is spray the rack of parts with a conductive lacquer which allows the electrolysis process to take place. So when stripping you need to remove both the plating and the lacquer. This is not an easy proposition. back in the day the usual product used for stripping chrome was concentrated Chlorine Bleach. Good old Clorox. Pour some into an open container and allow the parts to soak til the chrome was gone, a process that usually took a couple of hours. Except this is 40 years later and the concentrated bleach isn't as concentrated as it once was. After three days, there were still large patches of chrome remaining and it wasn't touching the lacquer.  Time to find a new stripping medium. I knew of all the other suggested mediums which work to some extent, (oven cleaner, brake fluid, windex and a brush, etc. etc.) I discovered a relatively new product for completely stripping chrome off plastic parts. It is called "Super Clean" I use it in a closeable jar, (1pt mason jar) and just drop the parts in. Within three hours soak, the chrome is gone, overnight the lacquer is gone. No scrubbing, no unpleasant smells, simple and easy, a clear water rinse afterwards and your good to go. And the mason jar of super clean is good for several kits before it needs changing and another plus it is biodegradable and non toxic, I mean, I wouldn't drink it after all it is a powerful oxidant chemical but it will not hurt the septic system or anything in nature... Modern chemical technology.....

 

The stock AMT wheels consist of 20 parts. A rim and a seperate front bead. Ten vinyl soft tires mount to the rims much like the real thing. The first step is to clean the flash from all the parts. that is what I'm doing with the pin vise, drilling out all the holes.....

Then we glue the individual front beads to the rims.....

In the back of the pic above the frame you can see the two front wheels already done with their tires mounted. (test fit)...

 

Wheels all glued up and cured overnight, one of the problems with AMT split rims is they do not stand up to mounting and remounting the tires, the separate front rim will split off, so this is a tricky part. and they are ready for initial painting....

 

Painted and Tires mounted, actually beginning to look like something here. The fronts are slipped onto the front axle temporarily and I'm getting ready to assemble the duals. and, I run into another major problem.... (two problems in fact) First, the drums mounting flat does not match the flats inside the rims they are a full eighth of an inch too large! The rims do not fit the drums out of the BOX!!! Looking inside the drums, there isn't enough material to simply turn the mating surface down to fit the rims. Major surgery here to fix this...... The second problem is with the vinyl tires, they stretch, particularly around the bead area when mounting and unmounting them which means they do not stay where they belong on the rims.... Very poor situation for such an expensive otherwise well made kit. Also no way to correct this easily with the kit parts. Now I'm sure that Round 2 will replace the bad parts, but they will be sending the same parts that do not work now. So that is kinda defeating the purpose.... So I'm stuck now I cannot continue until I resolve the Wheel/Tire issue. Probably go aftermarket and replace the entire set of rubber.... Besides the vinyl tires in these kits have a habit of not ageing well. remember the old vinyl car seats and what happened to them after a few years? all cracked and split? well the same thing happens to these vinyl tires over time, they dry out, split and fall apart..... Yeah, Aftermarket is the way to go.... Resin wheels and true rubber tires....

 

So the tractor build is now on hold..... awaiting suspension parts and replacement wheels and tires...... Don't know what else to do at this point......

 

But then again, I have an entire 48' trailer to kitbash......

 

Next up, kitbashing a 48' Hobbs reefer van trailer......

[Egilman]

Tractor build is unfortunately on hiatus waiting for parts......

 

So we continue by starting the second half of this build, the trailer.......

First off the kits.....

 

The kit at the top is a 2019 AMT holiday Coca-Cola van, a 40' Fruehauf model FB. The kit at the bottom is a 1970 AMT Watkins reefer trailer model FB. believe it or not, except for the reefer unit in the '70 kit, they are identical.

The instructions....

As the base model I'm using the newer kit and the older kit for the parts to enlarge the trailer to the proper scale size. (the older kit is a builder and not a collector grade kit)

 

The parts.....

The trailer measures 19 1/16th inches long not counting the reefer unit, this is a hair short for a 40' trailer in 1/25th scale.

And I need to lengthen it to a scale 48' which should be 23 1/16th inches long so it's four inches I need to add to get to the correct scale length. Well let's examine the parts....

The parts are highly detailed, actually amazingly detailed....

Side beading and rivet details......

Looks just like the beading details on the side of the movie trailers.....

The inner roof panel....

Shows the cross ribbing to support the roof.... (very glad this detail is there makes the decision on where and how to cut easy)

 

Why does this aid the rescaling of the trailer length? Well, on the real world trailer those ribs are on 2' centers so if I need to add 8 scale feet, and the rib distances are in scale, all I have to do is cut and insert 4 sections from one roof into the other.... so are the ribs to scale?

Laying the rule down next to the roof, we see that the ribs start out pretty much on 1" centers, at 1/24th scale, 1" centers are perfect, but we are working in 1/25th scale....  the centers should be gradually falling behind the inch marks on the ruler...

Checking the other end, and yes they do fall a little behind the ruler graduations as they reach the length of the trailer, the ribs are in scale... I need to cut out four bays.....

I don't count the first bay because it carries the door jamb for the rear doors so I take the next four bays off the old trailer roof. Next is taking the first bay off the new trailer roof..... (trusty razor saw works great here)

Then cleaning the edges, mating them, and checking the length......

Ahhh!, 23 1/16th inch long and perfectly straight. but while they were seperated I used both pieces as templates to cut the sides and floor of the trailer.... (you can see the parts under the razor saw in the above picture)

So, how did we do with the bead details on the sides of the trailer following this procedure?

The joint line won't photograph, the older kits plastic is seriously yellowed over time compared to the newers pristine white and that is the only way to tell where the join is....

So what does a 48' trailer side look like compared to a 40' trailer side?

Extending the floor panel.....

And the other side.....

Now, I have a trailer that is the correct length.... Next step, accurizing the trailers bullnose..... and checking for scale height......

Edited March 19, 2020 by Egilman
Added missing image

[yvesvidal]

This is the only type of surgery I enjoy watching.

 

Yves

[popeye the sailor]

our Freightliners differ from year to year....every year we get new tractors.  we have Cascadias ,  but I believe Freightliner also makes a Pro Star model as well......they are newer models 2010 and up.  we used to run Internationals,  but did away with them for a few years.  I hated them,  because they had aluminum clutch pedals.....when we did truck washes they were very slippery.   we used to line them up outside,  and a company would come in to wash them.  one time,  I was parking one........just got her in the slot and my foot slipped off the pedal!  scared the S____ right out of me!  last year,  we started to bring them back into the fleet...think we have around twenty now {our DC has over 200 tractors}.  other DC's run Peterbuilts and Kenworths.......one Dc ran Volvos.   nice model Craig,  but not the tractor we run   I'm in no hurry.....with all the projects I have going,  the admiral would have a full bird Kernel,  if I brought anything else into the nest.

 

both of those trailers are Fruehaufs.......Watkins is just the carrier's name.  insignificant,  but I though to mention it.  elongating a trailer like that is going to change the locator tabs for the tandem rails.  did they make the model so that the tandem slides front and back?  that's a neat feature,  although useless if the model is to be static.  I saw the Coke trailer and wanted to get it {there is a coke collector series...AMT makes a bunch of models in it}....but the admiral shot me down.  as I said......I have too many projects.  there aren't too many trailers with textured roofs........most are smooth.  some even have the clamp style molding around the edges.  back in the day,  Wally's logo was very different than what we see today.  the sides were ribbed.......they were dubbed with the name 'circus trailer'........48' in length and that is how they looked. I knew little about air brakes....just the few questions asked on the ASE tests.  I must have gotten them right,  because I got my brake certification.  the older trailer.....Fruehauf,  trailermobile,  Wabash,..........they were mongrels......you never knew what suspension they had.  some were Dana,  some were Eaton........we were forever mixing and matching parts kits to make 'em work.  the drums were the worst.......whether they were inboard or outboard.

[Egilman]

4 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

This is the only type of surgery I enjoy watching.

 

Yves

I'm very happy you are enjoying it, I keep practicing my plastic hacking and someday, hopefully, I'll get good at it....

 

EG

[Egilman]

2 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

our Freightliners differ from year to year....every year we get new tractors.  we have Cascadias ,  but I believe Freightliner also makes a Pro Star model as well......they are newer models 2010 and up.  we used to run Internationals,  but did away with them for a few years.  I hated them,  because they had aluminum clutch pedals.....when we did truck washes they were very slippery.   we used to line them up outside,  and a company would come in to wash them.  one time,  I was parking one........just got her in the slot and my foot slipped off the pedal!  scared the S____ right out of me!  last year,  we started to bring them back into the fleet...think we have around twenty now {our DC has over 200 tractors}.  other DC's run Peterbuilts and Kenworths.......one Dc ran Volvos.   nice model Craig,  but not the tractor we run   I'm in no hurry.....with all the projects I have going,  the admiral would have a full bird Kernel,  if I brought anything else into the nest.

 

both of those trailers are Fruehaufs.......Watkins is just the carrier's name.  insignificant,  but I though to mention it.  elongating a trailer like that is going to change the locator tabs for the tandem rails.  did they make the model so that the tandem slides front and back?  that's a neat feature,  although useless if the model is to be static.  I saw the Coke trailer and wanted to get it {there is a coke collector series...AMT makes a bunch of models in it}....but the admiral shot me down.  as I said......I have too many projects.  there aren't too many trailers with textured roofs........most are smooth.  some even have the clamp style molding around the edges.  back in the day,  Wally's logo was very different than what we see today.  the sides were ribbed.......they were dubbed with the name 'circus trailer'........48' in length and that is how they looked. I knew little about air brakes....just the few questions asked on the ASE tests.  I must have gotten them right,  because I got my brake certification.  the older trailer.....Fruehauf,  trailermobile,  Wabash,..........they were mongrels......you never knew what suspension they had.  some were Dana,  some were Eaton........we were forever mixing and matching parts kits to make 'em work.  the drums were the worst.......whether they were inboard or outboard.

Popeye, or if I may call you Denis?

 

First, Moebius #1301 is the 2010 International Prostar Tractor, and Moebius #1302 is the 53' Great Dane smoothside trailer to match. It even has the roll-up door on the back..... They go together I suspect. There was an aftermarket resin supplier from Europe that used to do a Cascadia conversion kit, but it is no longer among his website offerings and besides, he is on temporary hiatus due to the CV-19 virus. Hopefully he comes back.

You would be in the $130.00 range for both.

 

I understand SWMBO's and marching orders The last kit combo I bought and she was suggesting that I might take a trip to the moon if I bought another . (1/72 scale Dragon Saturn V and the Apollo 10 setup)

 

I checked the transfer yard they built at the rear of our Wally World yesterday, all Cascadia's except for one Prostar & two Lonestar's, the Cascadia is the better looking truck in my opinion.

 

Yeah they are both Fruehauf FB's AMT has released this kit in many different livery's over the years with and without the reefer unit. It represents the cutting edge of trailer construction long about 1963-66 or so...... but it still sells although it pretty much represents nothing currently on the road. And I'm building a '77 Hobbs dry goods van, which were built by Fruehauf anyways so the details are right on the money. Of course in the train of kitbashing this, most of the locator pins have to come off, they don't line up anymore. So I'm still kind figuring a way to line them up correctly.... (probably install my own locators and reinforcements but haven't yet figured out exactly how yet)

 

Anyway, just having fun here while in self imposed viral lockdown.

 

EG

[popeye the sailor]

bash away my friend.........that's what the hobby is all about    in the early days of modeling,  I think most really didn't take their models as serious as they do now.  the modeling community was pretty isolated,  unless you belonged to a club or group.   as a young lad,  I never did.......I did join the Revell club,  but I wasn't keen on the selections they sent me.  the serious modeler was your scratch builders....they had to research how the part looked and it's function in the model.  now........when the internet came about.......that's when a lot of doors {and eyes} were opened ...wide!  it was a whole new world.......folks could come out of their closets and cubbies,  and share so much more information and techniques.

 

do you have the mural for the trailer?  when I did my looking around,  I came across a fellow who talked about how some were getting it wrong and made up one that was correct.  I downloaded the file,  but of course,  it has to be one that I can't open {or it was erroneous to begin with}.  I've deleted it.......but I'm sure I can find it for you,  if you'd like.   I agree with you on the  cascadia........the rounded body beats the square hood any day!

    yea....I agree......most of the trans ams out there are all hype...heck....I even bought one back in the day     I even bought Daisy Duke's Jeep.........but curses,  she wasn't in the box!~    the admiral loves Amazon.....I'm sure I can sweet talk her.........heck,  I got her to order two ship books from there    I jotted down those two numbers........oldmodelkits.com has been getting a lot of tractor / trailer kits lately....perhaps they might get one in.......I oogle them enough.  but hey.....I'm going crazy here............what am I say'in......I already am!!!  

 

sure.......Denis is fine   I answer to both.

[Egilman]

Yeah I have the artwork.... A composite from several screenshots of trailer #2. I had to recreate the upper right corner myself.......

Still need to scale it a bit and a tad more cleaning up but I'm good here. Not sure if I'm going to print it myself or have a custom printer do it on an Alps printer....

 

Oh and those two Moebius Kits? they are current production, you can get them from amazon..... or your local Hobby Shop if they stock them.... The AMT Coca-cola kits are also current production if you want to duplicate what I'm attempting to do. The Reefer unit is incorrect for this build so I'm probably going to have to scratch build it anyway, so much for needing the old classic Watkins kit.

 

EG

Edited March 19, 2020 by Egilman

[popeye the sailor]

do they have an aftermarket reefer available?  Round 2 models took over quite a few AMT molds,  as well as other defunct companies.  I wonder what they have?

[Egilman]

I can look around in the aftermarket world and see what there is, I know that Moebius puts out a Great Dane Trailer with a more current Thermo King unit as a 2-n-1 kit....

Just checked....

 

Yes they do Moebius #1303 which is the 53' Great Dane smooth side with optional reefer...... also current production. (still has the rear roll up door also)

[popeye the sailor]

my question was not for me.........if it can be ordered separate,  and it looks doable,  then get it for yourself  

[Egilman]

13 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

my question was not for me.........if it can be ordered separate,  and it looks doable,  then get it for yourself  

I thought of that, but unfortunately, this is what I need to build.....

Minus the collector and grille of course, unfortunately there is no aftermarket for such.... Even if there was, it is a simple box, much cheaper to scratch it....

[Egilman]

Next Step, The Trailer Bullnose....

 

The kit part......

Pretty standard for a '60's period Van trailer, The corners are radiused 12" and the structural beading wraps around and crosses the width of it. So what did the Trailer in the movie have?

 

Smooth corners, so the beading detail has to come off....

Both sides... now the question all the way to the top?

Yes all the way to the top.... But, notice another thing, the beading does not go all the way to the top  on the face of the bullnose either... so we count the beads up the front. 46 corrugated beads up the face of the trailer. This is assuming that they are the correct size.  So we need to count the beads on the kit part...

 

50 beads lines, so we eliminate the detail around the corners and four lines from the top......

But wait a sec, the area at the top of the bullnose is flat, for at least a foot and a half above the last bead line..... what's going on here... Obviously the Trailer Height is too short.

 

So I take a shot from the movie showing the height and width of the trailer and calculate the aspect ratio. Guess what? the Trailer is a foot too short. Doing my research, I discover that most trailers from the early '50's to mid '60's were 12'6" tall and measuring the bullnose added to the trailer deck height of four feet comes out to a perfect scale 12'6" where the aspect ratio of the trailer in the movie shows the trailer needs to be 13'6" in height.

 

I need to add a half an inch to the height of the bullnose..... (which means I need to add a half an inch to the height of the sides also)

 

Razor saw to the rescue.....

I cut a half inch off the other kits bullnose and mate it to the standard bullnose after sanding off the bead detail.....

Now it looks the proper aspect ratio......

 

So now I have to raise the trailer panel sides this extra height...... I have enough detailed plastic from the remaining kit sides to do this, but have to figure out how to make that long long straight cut and still be able to match the beading detail. It would look awful funny with the beading only going up the sides part way.....

 

So, the prior step was scaling in the horizontal, the next step, scaling in the vertical.....

 

Beginning to think I would have been better off scratchbuilding the thing.....

 

Onwards, and thank you for reading.......

 

I hope you enjoy...

 

EG

Edited March 20, 2020 by Egilman

[Old Collingwood]

Nice thorough work EG,  reminds me of a job I used to do over here, we used to get Artics 40ft  units  (the type with a side curtain as well  as two rear doors  I use to handball  unload them single handed.

 

OC.

[Egilman]

6 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Nice thorough work EG,  reminds me of a job I used to do over here, we used to get Artics 40ft  units  (the type with a side curtain as well  as two rear doors  I use to handball  unload them single handed.

 

OC.

Thank you, I like researching the details.... (at least try and get it right)

 

Single handed unloading... Wow, now that is what I call work.....

[Egilman]

Scaling in the vertical.....

Well the last time I was dealing with the sides of the trailer I was lengthening them to a scale 48 feet.....

Top, Bottom & Sides at correct scale length.... Unfortunately we also need to increase their height. By 1977 most semi trailers in the country had evolved into a taller profile going from 12'6" in the mid '60's to 13'6" standard height in the '70's to early '80's. (todays trailers can be as much as 14'6" in height) This means I have to add a half an inch to the side panels 23 & 1/16th inch length....

Another issue that has to be dealt with also, the molded in, operable door hinges. Adding a half inch to the height throws off the hinge pattern. Three hinges, equidistant apart, centered on the door jamb.

 

The hinges are molded into the end of the side panel and measure .080 wide and .120 deep with brackets and pins that act as the hinge pin when the door panel is trapped around them. Cutting them off results in shortening the side by .080 so after I've raised the height I will have to glue a piece of stock to the tail end of each side to replace the door jamb. This also means that I will have to scratch build new doors for the rear of the trailer as that is much much easier than trying to adjust the existing doors. Hence, the doors will no longer open. (given the amounts of reinforcement being used to support the long glue joints inside the trailer this in not a loss, in fact it is a good thing) I will wind up using resin aftermarket details to recreate the door hinges and jamb locks.

 

Now on to cutting my extensions...... (or, giving the micro saw a workout)

The remaining sides wound up being 13 9/16ths inch long after the lengthening section was removed. The sections removed to increase the height have to come off the top as it is the only way to add it without destroying the details. (the bottom edge of the sides carried the flat channel details that show the attachment to the floor beams so I cannot add anything there. The pic above shows the razor saw being used to first score along one of the bead channels, and once a groove is started for the saw to track in, using the saw to cut almost through the side panel.

Once  your about 3/4ths of the way through the panel, you snap it along the cut groove. you then take the edge of a #11 blade and scrape the tiny residual edge off being careful not to gouge the cut in any small location...

With a little luck, it leave you with a nice straight edge to join to the top edge of the side panel. in the pic above you can see I've cut the second strip off the old side panel. Two strips are required to span the longer length of the rescaled longer side. Making a total of four long tedious cuts by hand..... 

Once those four strips are cut and cleaned, they need to be indexed to each other to preserve the spacing of the vertical rivet details.

This is done by matching the rivet pattern to the side panels rivet pattern, marking an index mark on the strips, and then cutting them off making sure the resultant full length strip is still longer than the side panel.... 

Once the strips are marked they are cut at the same time so the saw cut has the identical angle of cut on both pieces.....

And the end result is a nice clean joint..... (I put the joint in the middle of the side panels to avoid the issue of multiple joints forming a weak spot in one spot)

Glueing the strips onto the top of the side panels took the same form as the length extensions, a .020 reinforcing strip is glued the length of the side just short of each end on the inside. Then the strips are glued to the the reinforcing strip from the back side to prevent any liquid glue splurge into the bead detail on the front side. The following sequence of shots shows the process.....

once done, a small tab of .020 is glued over the center joint on the strips. it is then allowed to cure overnight....

The final results all glued and solid.... So how did the Bead/Rivet detail on the outside finally wind up?

Looks good from here..... I will know better once there is some primer throw on it... but I've always had pretty good results when the photo doesn't show the joint.... (there will probably be some residuals to this procedure but for now, I just want to set the sides to one side and look at something else for a while, like the freezer unit I've got to scratch build, the doors will have to wait until the van body is assembled) 

 

Anyway, that should conclude our expedition into re-scaling well at least most of it....

 

Thank you for coming along for the trip, and I hope you enjoyed it.... 

 

EG

[popeye the sailor]

your right........it might have been better to build from scratch.......your arms must be wet noodles by now!   we've had a few incidents of low bridge....I think though that most of our trailers are 13.6.   they are posted,  but guys try to go under anyway....one was going fast enough to cleave off over 3 feet of the trailer roof,  before it stopped him!   I brought one in one day because of a roof leak........looking in the trailer at first,  it looked like something was sticking through the tear.  come to find out,  it was a nozzle from a filling station's emergency fire system!  it started to open the roof like a can opener,  before it broke off.  this means you might need to alter the doors too.   you did a super job!  

[Egilman]

Why thank you Denis! It is appreciated That was a lot of sawing....

 

My first driving job was for a carnival show, everything was tagged "Circus Load" cause everytime we went down the road it was the same, but different... never the same from trip to trip... WE were well familiar with where we could drive and had to plan each trip so there were no "incidents" of trying to go under things we shouldn't..... We didn't have any conventional trucks all cabovers mostly CO 70 series international single axles and a couple of K-123 LWB's. Still there were several times where the driver took a shortcut to the repair shop.... (and the unemployment line)

 

Why they do that I've never been able to figure out.... (and there are plenty of videos on the 'net of drivers that insert their heads in dark places when it comes to bridges & tunnels) "Oh I thought I could just sneak under it" or "I got caught in the wrong lane and couldn't get out" Excuse me? Stop the Truck! there will be a officer along shortly to assist you in correcting your inability to heed the warning signs....

 

My biggest worry was something that someone threw on the trailer after I've checked the load and it falling off somewhere in the middle of nowhere...... that was known to happen quite a bit....

 

Only memories now, thing I can chuckle over....

 

Thank you for the complement and words of encouragement....

 

EG