A quick how-to to make a long hood for the Peterbilt 359. I show an AMT hood here, but this will work for the Revell of Germany and Revell/Monogram 359s as well. You will need two hoods, the main hood and a donor.

On top of modifying the hood length, the chassis length will need to be extended by 7.5 inches just aft of the rear front spring hanger. The lower exhaust piping, air cleaner piping, drive shaft and steering shaft will have to be lengthened also.

The skirt behind the fender will also have to be lengthened on both sides.

Cab mods:
The AMT kit cab and hood have a lot of mold parting seams. While these might look like they are supposed to be there, they are not. The harsh vertical and horizontal lines should be removed on the cab rear, sides of roof and cowl and along the corner of the hood. The cab is also molded narrower at the top than the bottom at the rear - this is not found on the real truck. I slice the cab corners with a razor saw at the vertical mold parting seam, remove a small wedge of plastic and glue the now-narrower cab back together. This also requires a new interior floor as the cab is too narrow for the interior tub. I cut the door panels off the tub and install those to the cab doors (same method Revell of Germany uses for their 359 kits).

5/13/24 update

Built out of the box in 2002. Recent photos from 2024 are added. The model has held up well except for the yellowed clear parts.

This build is a restoration of an original Ertl issue of the kit from the 1970s. This build was obtained in a collection I bought 20 years ago and had quite a bit of glue damage and thick paint. I started to restore it long ago but set it in a bag and forgot about it. I came across the bag of parts recently and set out to restore it.

The finished look is one of "every farm in Wisconsin and Iowa has one of these." The farm name on the door is a nod to my favorite fast-food restaurant. The plate is a Wisconsin Farm plate. It isn't perfect and shows some original builder mistakes (left in on purpose - an upside down shock absorbed for instance) and some too-large-of-mounting-holes some items (that's my mistake).

Hat's off to AMT for the great IH logo decal found in the new reissue of the Paystar dump truck - so much nicer than my attempts at painting the mudflap logo.

Here are a bunch of finished photos of the restoration along with a companion 2002 build of the 1970's kit. The 20+ year old build is holding up well aside from the yellowed clear.
The photos are paired with various farm trailers to look like the truck was photographed on different days with different trailers.

Thanks for looking!

Tim
5/7/24

Projects in various stages of completion - some are current, some projects date back a few years waiting to be built. Check my finished albums - arranged by truck make for finished photos.

The model 389 is Peterbilt's premium traditionally styled conventional. A BBC of 131, the hood is aluminum. Only axle-forward available. In 2012/13 the model 388 was blended into the 389 and the number 388 no longer used. 389 became a 131" and 123" BBC and the "Car Hauler Hood" option.
389 replaced the 379-127" for 2008.
388 replaced the 379-119 for 2008.

Please don't repost photos on websites or post on Facebook without my permission.

This build is inspired by a Peterbilt 300 Low Cab Forward COE stake truck owned by Peterbilt Motors Company in the 70's. I saw this truck in 1975 but my photos are long gone. I "rediscovered" the truck in the Peterbilt archives, hiding the back ground of other photos.

I scatchbuilt the cab in 2016, created metal looking stake racks for the AMT Ford Stake Body and modified an AMT KW W925 chassis. The wheels are resin from DoubleTake.

The story behind this little COE is that it was originally owned by Kenworth and built as a KW. The Peterbilt and Kenworth versions were basically badge engineered trucks built at the former Sicard plant in Quebec. Peterbilt was "gifted" the truck (originally a green, cream and white tractor) from KW and it became a plant owned truck for pickup and delivery.

The finished photos have the 300 paired with a 352 stake truck. I saw this truck in '75 at the plant as well and a few photographs remained with me. I built the 352 factory stake truck in 2004. It's fitting that I built the 352's little brother 20 years later.

Thanks to some former Peterbilt Newark staffers for their memories and tidbits on these old working trucks.


April 7, 2024
Tim

Inspired by several snow plows both in service and units seen at the Peterbilt Denton factory - my build is based on 2008-2010 built units.
I scratchbuilt the spreader body, sander, belly blade, 367 SBFA hood (cast for me by AITM), KFS front wheels, Mo'Luminum rear wheels, Klaus Clever lights and I think the front drive axle was KFS but I can't recall.

The weathering is a combination of several products including Vallejo Pigments and Tamiya Snow (thank's to Brandon for suggesting these).

This build isn't finished yet (3/14/24) but I needed to take some photos to see how the weathering and snow looked so here it is.


3/14/24

The 1970's country and western song "Wolf Creek Pass" by CW McCall sang about "me and Earl" and a load of chickens and a 1948 Peterbilt (with a thousand cubes and a couple of boobs).
Here's Meanearl Trucking's 1948 Peterbilt.

2/2/24

In the mid 1960's through 80's Peterbilt would order engines from the engine builders to be painted white. The engines were painted white by the engine manufacturer, not at Peterbilt. The engines would arrive on a pallet in white. Due to availability, supply-chain issues or other problems there were times when the engine builder would not be able to supply enough engines in white and Peterbilt would take what was available - which meant that some engines were white, some were engine builder color. The rule: If your truck had a white engine when new, if it gets restored the engine should be white. If your truck had an engine builder color when new then when restored it should be engine builder color.

Cummins was the first to stop painting them in white, then Detroit Diesel and finally Caterpillar, but Cat continued to ship white engines up until the end of the 359 family in 1986/87. Cats in the 379 Familar (Successors) were yellow.

Here are various photos of new engines in various colors at the Newark, California factory from back in the day.

Long-time Peterbilt engineer Hap Furiya photos
Please credit Hap Furiya if you post these photos anywhere.

Random photos of the Mid-Michigan Mayhem 2024 show from Saturday February 3rd.

My rendition of the truck from the made for TV movie Duel. I used a resin cast cab and hood from AITM and a modified 3d printed Keystone Aluminum Miniature Models tank body. This model really needs to be photographed on a sunny day with a clear blue sky and brown/tan hills and scrub brush. 4 8 20. ** UPDATE: I replaced the front tires with the soft tread detail with a set of the new-tool AMT no-brand tires and gave the trailer a set of smaller AMT Goodyear tires - the smaller tires bring the trailer down eliminating an odd too-heavy in the front look it had. I also changed the license plates, eliminating the ones I ruined with a weathering wash. The tires also were treated to a coat of a yellow/tan dust-wash rather than the gray wash. 4 17 20

These are projects finished in 2023. Some were started the year before or in some cases several years ago. A few are also refreshes of old builds (trailers).
It was a productive year!

Tim

Long frame, drom deck, under frame exhaust. Inspired by Gordon Trucking Inc/Gordon Fast Freight trucks,
12/29/23

AMT Peterbilt 352 built as a 1970 west coast style long wheelbase drom tractor.
Under frame exhaust.
12/29/23

Inspired by both factory photos and web-photos of Spector Freight System Peterbilt 352 cabovers. My build is represents a 1974 truck.

The resin wheels are from an unknown caster that I have had for years - many years. The Spector logos are from Modeltruckin.com. The fuel tanks and spliced-up Revell snap kit Peterbilt 359 pieces. The air cleaner is scratchbuilt with Micromark resin decal louvers. The exhaust mount is resin from Mo'Luminum. The cab was cut down from the 86" size to the 73" non-sleeper, in this case the real truck had a sleeper-delete option with no bunk, bulkhead or baggage doors. The real truck had a Caterpillar, mine has a Cummins. The small fleet-spec roof lights are from the parts box and modified to make them "cheaper." The kit bumper was cut to a narrow taper.

I started this in late 2022. I had a kit assigned to this build for over 10 years.

Thanks for looking.

12/24/23

Inspired by both factory photos and web-photos of Spector Freight System Peterbilt 352 cabovers. My build is represents a 1974 truck.

The resin wheels are from an unknown caster that I have had for years - many years. The Spector logos are from Modeltruckin.com. The fuel tanks and spliced-up Revell snap kit Peterbilt 359 pieces. The air cleaner is scratchbuilt with Micromark resin decal louvers. The exhaust mount is resin from Mo'Luminum. The cab was cut down from the 86" size to the 73" non-sleeper, in this case the real truck had a sleeper-delete option with no bunk, bulkhead or baggage doors. The real truck had a Caterpillar, mine has a Cummins. The small fleet-spec roof lights are from the parts box and modified to make them "cheaper." The kit bumper was cut to a narrow taper.

Thanks for looking.

12/24/23

This 3d printed GMC tilt cab was modied and adapted to an AMT Ford C600 Stake Truck chassis. The cab is from Robert Burns/Too Many Projects.

The theme for this build is a truck parked at the corner vacant lot selling Christmas Trees.

Bailey Tree Farm from Bedford Falls.. 12/10/23

Another truck I remember seeing around Munising, Michigan in the 70's - Ford Louisville Line fleet tractors for SuperValu Foods. My build uses the AMT Ford LNT-8000 with a resin long hood from Plaskit as well as fuel tanks from Plaskit. The spoke wheels are from an AMT Chevrolet Titan/90 kit. I painted this in the summer of 2011 for winter building - on the bench in January 2012 and finished May 18, 2012. UPDATE 12/15/23: I built a same-fleet International Fleetstar 2100D and decided to update the SuperValu Ford with matching door logos and a little bit of dirt.

New release of the Ertl Paystar 5000 Dump Truck kit by Round2. My version has modified kit front wheels and the dump box sidewall height has been lowered.

July 2023

Started in 2021 as a modified resin International Loadstar crafted by Charles Rowley, I scratchbuilt a new hood to create a 1960's Fleetstar, then had it cast in resin. I made this hood specifically to build this truck that I photographed back in the mid 1970s at Hub's Super Valu in Munising, Michigan.
The trailer here is just a place holder. The companion photos with the matched Ford 9000 are showing the matched livery and some updates to the Ford with matching logos.
The Ford/IH photos are also for comparison as how big the Ford Louisville line was compared to the smaller IH and also shows that I used the Ford chassis for the IH.
Thanks for looking!
Tim

12/15/23

Started in 2021 as a modified resin International Loadstar crafted by Charles Rowley, I scratchbuilt a new hood to create a 1960's Fleetstar, then had it cast in resin. I made this hood specifically to build this truck that I photographed back in the mid 1970s at Hub's Super Valu in Munising, Michigan.
The trailer here is just a place holder. The companion photos with the matched Ford 9000 are showing the matched livery and some updates to the Ford with matching logos.
The Ford/IH photos are also for comparison as how big the Ford Louisville line was compared to the smaller IH and also shows that I used the Ford chassis for the IH.
Thanks for looking!
Tim

12/15/23

Based on photographs of Ed Error hay trucks from the early 70's.

11/19/23

This is the 2023 issue of the AMT Fruehauf Tanker. I bought the kit at the DAAM show on November 12, got it home and started it on the 14th and finished on 11/19/23.

My original plan was to weather the trailer but decided I'd try the Revell Chrome spray paint - so here it is with the Revell Chrome spray paint over Duplicolor primer and silver.

11/19/23

Detroit Area Auto Modelers NNL show Sunday November 12, 2023.
Much to the shock of the southern Michigan guys, I made it out of the upper peninsula TWICE for model shows this fall.

The DAAM guys put on quite the event with a huge vendor hall.

These are quickie phone photos and not clear at all.
I didn't get to photo all the models as more arrived after I did a walk around and the crowd around the display tables was consistently large.

The quality of builds on all the tables was most impressive and the subjects ran across all the genre's of modeling.

I got to meet a lot of folks that I have talked to email/forums/messages - it's always great to put a face to the text and models.


Enjoy!

Tim

With Peterbilt recently debuting their new model 589 which is set to being production in 2024 and no model kit in 1/24-1/25 of this even thought of, I decided to try my hand at scratchbuilding one. I had previously scratchbuilt a 579 back in 2012 as well as modifying NewRay toy 579s. The new 589 has too many changes from the toy to use that as a base.

I scratchbuilt the cab and hood from Evergreen plastic. The sleeper and chassis are AMT/Italeri Peterbilt 378 Long Hauler. The sleeper roof is an old resin piece cast by Eric Jones/P&P. The battery box and exhaust aftertreatment box are scratchbuilt. The DEF tank is from KootenayBay resin, the headlamps are from Jamie at Mo'Luminum.

Measurements were obtained by spending an Sunday afternoon with a 589 - staring at it, sketching shapes, measuring parts and taking various photographs.

My build here isn't meant to be super-detailed or 100% technologically accurate. It is meant as an exercise in creating the shapes and building a "what a nicely spec'd truck might look like" and a test-bed to see if I can create the shapes that look like the real thing.

Started 9/19/23
Finished (for the most part) 10/10/23)

Some photos from the Western Michigan IPMS Great Lakes Challenge 2023 show in Grand Rapids, Michigan held at the West Michigan Aviation Academy.