1950 Kenworth Needlenose

[doodlebug]

Hey Nathan, I see your point, So make it "POP"!
Cheers, Neil.

[heavy_duty]

Great build you going here. The attention to detail is second to none. The light bars look sweet.

Ed

[bigpipespete]

That visor looks sweeet.

[Espeefan]

Originally Posted by TRUCKMAKER

Trucks looking good Nathan! Keep at it, it'll be done before you know it! (We Hope!?)

Thanks Ken! Yes, we (I) hope!

Originally Posted by doodlebug

Hey Nathan, I see your point, So make it "POP"!
Cheers, Neil.

I'll do my best. Is there a custom painter in the house?

Originally Posted by heavy_duty

Great build you going here. The attention to detail is second to none. The light bars look sweet.

Ed

Thank you for the nice comments, Ed. I appreciate it. Especially after seeing some of your beautiful work.

Originally Posted by bigpipespete

That visor looks sweeet.

Thanks bigpipespete!

[Espeefan]

Happy Memorial Day to everyone, especially all of the veterans and those who are in active duty. My thanks to all of you who have helped maintain our freedoms and way of life!

I figured with a 3 day weekend I would (should) do some more work on my Kenworth. I enlisted the help of a friend of mine from work, who was kind enough to turn down some aluminum stock for me on the lathe. I gave him the material and my drawings, and he gave me back my air cleaners. Special thanks to Ron. They are actually pretty simple parts. I just bought some precision ground .75" round stock, so nothing needed to be turned beyond the relief cuts for the screens. All in all a pretty simple job, but something I couldn't do because I don't have a lathe. Maybe I should get one!

On with the photos!





They still need a final polishing and a bit of clean up, but it shouldn't take much to get them looking flawless. I thought for the old Kenworth strapless air cleaners would look best. Sort of going for a resto-rod project truck here.

For a little extra touch of style, I planned to illuminate the inside of the air cleaner screens with an LED. I've always loved this look on the 1:1 trucks. I have blue LEDs on order for the truck, but just to see how it would look I stuck a red LED inside, temporarily.



And one more in the dark -



Thanks for looking guys. Have a great weekend.

[Supermario]

Very nice work Nathan! and good of you to invest some time of a holiday weekend into Rc.
The air cleaners turned out beautiful. I really like the led inside. ( wish I did that on Sues truck ) . The screen looks nice and straight, fits perfectly.
So hopefully we don't need to wait for another long weekend to get some more progress and pics right

Mario

[TRUCKMAKER]

Happy Memorial Day Nathan, I'm with Mario the cleaners look great especially with the LED inside and more updates please!

[tracksntreadslou]

Its be a while since i have checked out your build so Wow Nathan impressive ..This build is going to definatley be a one of...a show truck for sure ..Do you plan on painting yourself or farming that out ?..wish I had your peicients

[Espeefan]

Originally Posted by tracksntreadslou

Its be a while since i have checked out your build so Wow Nathan impressive ..This build is going to definatley be a one of...a show truck for sure ..Do you plan on painting yourself or farming that out ?..wish I had your peicients

Thank you Lou, I appreciate that. I am not sure about trying to paint this truck myself. Paint and I really don't get along to well. I would like to send the cab out to someone for a really nice finish, but I will probably paint the chassis myself. The only way I would tackle painting the cab is if it's going to be a simple one or two color scheme. Whenever masking is involved, I always get some bleeding.

Originally Posted by TRUCKMAKER

Happy Memorial Day Nathan, I'm with Mario the cleaners look great especially with the LED inside and more updates please!

Thanks Kent! I'll keep at it, and hopefully I'll have some more updates soon!

Originally Posted by Supermario

Very nice work Nathan! and good of you to invest some time of a holiday weekend into Rc.
The air cleaners turned out beautiful. I really like the led inside. ( wish I did that on Sues truck ) . The screen looks nice and straight, fits perfectly.
So hopefully we don't need to wait for another long weekend to get some more progress and pics right

Mario

Thank you Mario! I'm really happy with air cleaners too. You could always go back and add some LEDs to your own trucks. If you have to go back to rework something, it will give me a chance to catch up! We need more 3 day weekends, I think. Ha. Just kidding. I've been feeling pretty good about the way this project is going now, and so I've been more enthused about working on it.

[JAMMER]

Nathan if you want to anodize you could use a aluminum filler that Eastwood Companys has it is like fiberglass filer but is is aluminum and you use it like the fiberglass filler. I have used it on a few things and I like it. Ed

[Espeefan]

Hi Ed, I've heard about Eastwood, but I never knew they had an aluminum filler. Might have to look into it, if I decide to have the cab anodized, but right now I'm leaning more toward a classy paint scheme. We'll see. Thanks for the tip.

[Espeefan]

Okay, so it's a beautiful day outside and thought I would snap some pictures of the Kenworth in some natural sunlight. I spent some time working on the cab. I removed and sanded the original passenger side cast on air cleaner mount to make room for the new ones I machined. Then I drilled new holes and got the air cleaners and light brackets all mounted up. Here are some pictures.













I'm really happy with the look that the look that the Kenworth has now. The cab isn't looking so naked anymore. I still plan to try and build some mirrors and mirror brackets for it too, which I think might be a challenge, but we'll see how that goes. I also need to make some cab glass yet too, but she's looking pretty good right now. It's been a good day!

[Lmackattack]

Looking good. I like how it's coming together... Your attention to detail stands out!

[Supermario]

I love the " look" or " stance" of it! with the visor , bumper and the fender style this thing looks Wicked!
Now get back to work!

Mario

[dabears]

Now that's got some attitude! Looking good

[glorydays24]

You have done some amazing work on the 'ol girl. Aaron said it best, attitude...Should that be the name??? A true piece of art.

Big John

[dirthalr]

As always you amaze me Nathan! Love the breathers with the interior light! Have you figured out what your gonna do for the headlights? I think it looks good in the raw form.

[Espeefan]

Originally Posted by Lmackattack

Looking good. I like how it's coming together... Your attention to detail stands out!

Thank you Lmackattack.

Originally Posted by Supermario

I love the " look" or " stance" of it! with the visor , bumper and the fender style this thing looks Wicked!
Now get back to work!

Mario

Me too, Mario! Ha ha. Alright, I'll get back to the workbench, just as soon as I'm done posting this. Thanks for the comments.

Originally Posted by dabears

Now that's got some attitude! Looking good

Thanks Aaron!

Originally Posted by glorydays24

You have done some amazing work on the 'ol girl. Aaron said it best, attitude...Should that be the name??? A true piece of art.

Big John

Big John, thanks. Maybe 'Attitude' would be a good name for the truck. I kind of do want to name it something, and then have a sticker with the name made for the rear window, once I get it milled out and glass installed.

Originally Posted by dirthalr

As always you amaze me Nathan! Love the breathers with the interior light! Have you figured out what your gonna do for the headlights? I think it looks good in the raw form.

Thank you Jimmy! For the headlights, I have a couple ideas. I like the look of the All American Toys headlights, because they are true Kenworth replicas, but if I can't light them up, I'll have to go with a round single from another source. Maybe PMD or something. But for the All American Toys headlights, I was hoping I could take a ball nose end mill and hollow out the centers, than find a clear lens that would fit over the front. Run the wires for an LED out the bottom or something. We'll see. I don't think it will be very easy! The truck does look good in it's raw form, but I think I'll still paint it!

[JAMMER]

Nathan just grab your mill and mill the centers out and then put some plastic inserts in them and a light. Ed

[Supermario]

Hey Nathan. Have you thought about pico sized led. Don't hog out the original lights just drill a hole to fit the pico led. These things are smaller than nano but seem very bright.

Size specs on this page.


http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/le...ined.html#pico

http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/smd-chip-leds.html