Classy Shak

[Dreamweaver]

Next I moved on to finally mounting the sleeper. I was struggling with this one because I needed the sleeper to be perfectly centered and could not figure out how to assure that by drilling down through the floor and hitting the legs on the rails.

I solved this problem by making some L-brackets out of some brass angle and then attaching them to the top bolt on the cross members and then centering the sleeper to the frame and drilling up through the floor.

Now keep in mind that I am mocking this up on a stock frame, then after everything fits I will transfer the holes to the new full length rails. So as you can imagine this requires me to assemble and dis-assemble the truck several times. I put it together work on an area and then take it apart and drill the rails on the drill press. After fighting with the rear motor mounts three or four times I finally wised up and soldered the bolts to the mount, now it takes a matter of a minute or so to pull and replace the motor.

Here is the bottom of the sleeper.




Next I was assembling the truck again after drilling some holes for the rear shackles on the front end, when I made the mistake of attaching both the cab floor and the sleeper floor first. Well because I did this, and with the way the pipes are built, I could not get the **** cab back on until I removed the sleeper floor again.

So I figured I am not going to do this again, and I really wanted to get rid of the unsightly screws under the doors that hold the cab to the cab floor, so I redid the underside of the cab floor and made some L-brackets for it as well. I then drilled and tapped some holes on the front firewall and on the back of the cab in order to mount the cab to the floor.. Great idea, it works beautifully, just one thing... I still have to remove the sleeper floor to get the back screws out... Oh well at least you can't see them.







Now on to the front suspension.

After picking Master Builder Brian's brain (wow look at that same letters just different order--no wonder he is so smart) I saw how he moved his front axle forward and thought that would work for me but I could not do it exactly like him because if you remember I have the clearance issue with the oil pan.

Well what Brian did was to rotate the front of the front spring hanger up and then twist the front spring eye. The first moved it up to lower the truck and then the second moved the axle forward as well as up a little.

Now I had to figure out how to move my axle forward and keep it at stock height at the same time. I unfortunately had to accomplish this in an "un-prototypical" way.

What i did was to mount the hanger in the stock position and then I bent the eye of the spring way back and up at the same time. I was able to get the axle right where I wanted it.

Ah but this caused me a couple hours of head scratching and looking over several pictures by a bunch of you to figure out why in the heck I could not get my axle in the right place. Brian told me that he moved his back shackle forward about a half inch and that after doing his mod on the spring he was sitting at one and a half inches from the front of the frame rails to the center of the axle. I noticed that in the pictures he sent me that the rear shackle was almost straight up and down and that it was as he said about a 1/2" forward of where it was. I set my axle the same way and put the hood on and it was still to far back.

Then I noticed in the pictures Rick (Bucshott) sent me of his hood hinges on the Moving on truck, that the end of the hood was flush with the end of the frame. Well I bent the springs some more till I got them about where I needed them and moved on to making my hood hinges like Rick's.

I built the first set of hinges and installed them and WOW I got it bang on the first time. I felt real good about my self till I opened the hood and noticed that the bottom of the grill hit the bumper mount when the hood was at a 90° angle. Well I figured if they hit that that the hood would barely open with the bumper on it.

So I went surfing and found a picture of a Pete hood hinge and made a second set of hinges just like them. I got the same result. Now I'm getting ****ed I sat there for another hour trying to figure out what the crap was going on. Then like as if someone hit me in the back of the head with a baseball bat, I looked at the cab and started cussing up a storm, I found my problem. See the hood sat 1/4" to far forward, because I added a 1/4" to the front of the cab.... DAHHHHH

After some thought I decided that I can easily solve the problem by having a custom front bumper made and then moving the part of the hinge that is mounted to the front spring hanger forward till it is just behind the bumper, just like on the 1:1's.


Hood Hinges:











Front Springs:




As for the oil pan clearance, from the measurements I got from one of you guy's, I figured that the clearance would be about a 16th of an inch, and that is what I turned out to be.







Now for the fenders.

I went to HD as per Brian's direction and got some 4" ABS end caps which measured out to be the same size as the piece of the black pipe street 45 that Brian said to get, but the ABS is a lot thinner than the black pipe and closer to scale. I used the end cap because it already has the end on it that I used to mount the fender so I did not have to glue one on.

I made the fender spacers by holding the hood with the front flush to a straight edge and then measuring the distance at the front and back of the fender, then made them as a box out of styrene. As Brian did with his, my fenders will be held on by three bolts so that they can come off for easier painting and can be fine tuned for placement in final assembly.

All I have to do now is figure out how to cut them down to size for width, and do it straight..







Now keep in mind that the sides of the fenders will come down to the tires like the olden day fenders.

~Mike~

[Dreamweaver]

I started making a list of needed parts and supplies, tools and so on.. Wow I had to stop, my wallet was starting to burn.. The way I figure it by the time it is all said and done the cost of building this model will be 1:14th scale as well. I'll leave it up to you to figure out what this 1:1 truck would cost.

But what the heck, it's only money, I mean after all I do have $18,000 bucks worth of HO stuff in boxes in the basement that have not seen the light of day for two years. Once it's spent ya can't get it back right. As long as they still need new truck drivers, I'll still have a job to pay for my hobby.

All that matters is I am enjoying this, and I'll have something real cool when done.

~Mike~

[Dreamweaver]

Howdy everyone!!

Well in between dinner at my home for my family on Christmas Eve, and then dinner at my brothers house with all my family again along with my sister-in-laws family on Christmas day, I managed to get a lot done. (Since I am such a social person...NOT)


I really did not like the fenders being up so high, don't know why I put them there in the first place, but anyway I lowered them down to where they are supposed to be and then made the outer lip of the fenders and the front fender support.

If you were to look at the drawing of the truck you would see that the front fenders wrap down to the tire line on the sides.









I also made the filler panel for behind the inner fenders.






I rebuilt the hinge for the hood and now the hood opens fully over the bumper as it is supposed to. the only down fall is that there has to be a larger gap between the bottom of the grill and the top of the fender than I wanted, however if I want the hood to open like the 1:1's then that is the price I have to pay.






I also got a BUNCH of holes drilled.

There are the nine on the top of the cab, and the nine on the top of the sleeper. Yes I know the middle and the one to the right are to close together. That is a lesson learned about using worn out drill bits. I had a pilot hole but the point was gone on the bit and it walked on me. I made the holes oblong just a bit and should be able to get them mounted at the right space with out noticing it. Then on the cab I copied the slant of the windshield into the mounting of the lights and got them so that they should follow the windows, all except the last two outside ones of course they came so close to the last outside stock holes that if I tried to drill exactly where they should be it would have wound up in the stock hole anyway so I put it there. I don't think it will be that noticeable when finished.



Ok here is how the lights will be:

48 On top of each side of the sleeper. 96

48 On the light bars under the sleeper. 96

27 Under the doors and on the filler panel. 54

14 On the back of the sleeper. 14

15 On the rear bumper. 15

18 On the top of the cab/sleeper. 18

1 Pervert light on the mirror. 2

1 Bumper light. 2

6 Stop, Tail, Turn lights on the back of the Whale Tail. 6

For a Grand Total of 303 Chicken lights on the outside of the truck alone.

There will also be lights inside the cab. There will be lights in all the gauges on the dash along with a left and right turn signal indicator and a high beam indicator. Then there will be accent lighting under the truck.

Good thing I have room for batteries.







And the 14 on the back of the sleeper.



I also got some better pictures of the mirrors Lynn made for me.






I have changed the plans a little bit and I will not be putting Brian's steps on the truck. I am going to take a styling Cue from my friend Jeff England (Owner of Pride Transport) He had a Pete that he entered in the '03 SLC truck show (The same show I entered my JFI, white and purple truck in)

They are hard to see because I was taking a picture of something else and not focusing on the running boards and steps, plus they are black, but anyway I am going with something like these.







So that's it for this weekend.

Please let me know what you think about what I have done with the fenders.

Or anything else for that matter.

~Mike~

[Dreamweaver]

Well then you have to also take into count the 53' trailer with one every .5". Lets see that's 45" / .5= 90 x 4 = 360 and then 7.25" / .25 = 29 x 2 = 58
that's 58 x 360 = 418 just on the top and bottom rails and the top front and back. Then add the S.T.T. lights = 6 and then the lights on the front of the spread axles so that is 7" / .25 = 28 x 2 = 56 so now you have a grand total of 480 on the trailer and again not including ground effects lights.

So 303 on the tractor and 480 on the trailer... each pulling 20mA.

Someone else will have to do the math on that, I know how to wire them but I suck at math.

Lets just say a few LiPo's needed.

[Dreamweaver]

I am working on the front half (cab section of the running boards now. Pictures to come this weekend I promise.


I have been rethinking some things, and I am thinking of changing some things because of funds.

I was going to buy four steps from Brian, but cash is tight so as mentioned before I have changed the design which after looking at it I think I like it better this way. Everyone has either steps like Brian's or the stock steps, but I have yet to see anything like what I am doing now.

I also have decided to forgo the stainless for the light bars under the cab and sleeper, the fuel tanks made of aluminum or Stainless. One of the main reasons for this is because I can't afford $80 for a 12 x 12 sheet of stainless and risk messing it up trying something I have not done before.

I thought about just making them out of brass and then having them chromed along with all the other stuff, but then I found out that there is no one here that can chrome plastic (Side Boxes) so what the plan is now and I think it will look cool specially with the new running board and steps.

I am going to make the tanks out of styrene and paint them the purple with the Stainless tank straps. and that will make it so that everything below the cab and sleeper will be purple with the exception of the tank straps.

Like this



Also notice on the picture that I decided to keep the full length running boards.

Now here is my next thought. I was planning on getting the full function air ride suspension from Tolke. However since getting him to get me a price is like pulling teeth, I was also looking at the EBH simulated air ride. Well I have come to the conclusion that with the full running boards and the full fenders and the back bumper, the only way you would see the air ride is if I was holding the truck up. Plus PMD now wants $130 per axle for them and I don't have that kind of cash, then I WILL be using the RC controls rear ends which cost $200 as it is. So I am thinking I might just go with the stock rear suspension.. Not 100% on that yet, but if I want to get this thing done before next year I need to cut costs.

SO hold on Paul and everyone else I will get some up by the end of the weekend.

~Mike~

[Dreamweaver]

Hello All,

I got a little work done on the steps tonight and while sitting here watching glue dry I noticed something missing under the hood, so I handled that problem as well..


First the steps









Notice that I also got the pilot holes drilled for the lights. I made the light bars for the sleeper tonight as well. I will get pictures of them later when I get the holes drilled for the led's.

The top of the step is exactly half way between the bottom of the door and the running boards. The steps are 21" scale inches wide by 8.75" deep.


Now on to the under hood problem. Every day at least twice I either have to say, or hear my students say during their pre-trip, "I am going to check my steering column, my steering gear box, my pitman arm, drag link, and tie-rods.

Someone had mentioned earlier in this thread, I believe it was Nate, that he would like to see a bunch of things. One of the things he mentioned was a functioning steering wheel.

Well I will have one for sure now, the hard part is finished.

I made a functional steering gear box. I took some 3/8 styrene tube, then went down to the forgotten RR stuff in the basement and found my spare locomotive worm drives. Now of course if you know how these drives work, you can only turn the worm gear side, so because of this I have the worm gear attaching to the pitman arm so that when I turn the truck the steering wheel will turn a bit.









~Mike~