Smokey and the Bandit Rig.

[stavanzer]

According to Wikipedia, Bandit drives a 1973 or 74 Kenworth W900 in the Movie.

I'm not up enough on trucks to know much about older trucks.

What kit would be suitable to replicate his rig? And the Gold Trim Decals. Are they in any factory boxing of a kit, or are they strictly aftermarket?

Thanks!

[Force]

Where do I start.
The "Snowman" "Bandit" truck in the movie is in fact two different trucks (some say it was three but I have proof it was only two), one was a 1973 and one was a 1974 and they are painted black and gold to match the Trans Am and are very similar but there are differences and clearly visible if you know what to look for...and they also had two different Hobbs trailers for the shoot.
There are no kits done for this exact truck so the best kit to replicate the trucks are the AMT W925 but it need some modifications to be correct, the cab in the kit is too old as it's a pre 1972 so it has wrong door handles and the vent window is larger, but that's not a big deal and can be changed, otherwise much is right in the kit.
The door handles should be the low mount paddle latch handles used from 1972 forward and not the high mount lever handle that are on the AMT cab, one way to go is to use a cab from the Revell Germany W900 wich is right on the outside, but it's easier to foil copy the door handles from a Revell snap kit or the Revell Germany full detail glue kit and move the vent window post forward slightly on the AMT cab.
The trucks had about 200 inch wheelbase wich is a little shorter than the AMT kit, both trucks also had torsion bar suspension at the rear wich early AMT W925 kits had but was later changed to walking beam, the 1973 truck most likely had a Cat 1693 and the distinct rattle from that over head cam pre combustion engine can be heard in the opening scenes, and the 1974 a Cummins NTC 350.
Both trucks has battery/tool box steps on both sides and the tanks are under the 36 inch sleeper.
And for the trailer I would use the AMT Fruehauf trailer with a dummy reefer unit like the movie trucks had, because the trailers did not have a real reefer unit, they both had a box meant to look like a Thermo King unit, without the grille and other stuff and they had no tanks under the trailers wich a real reefer trailer would have.

Decals are available from modeltruckin.com both for the truck and trailer.
Torsion bar suspension can be found at Auslowe and a couple of other aftermarket companies, STS supply Co sells Auslowe parts.
Cat 1693 engine can be found at KFS, STS sells KFS parts too

Here are some pictures to enlighten the differences between the two trucks.

The 1973 on the left and 1974 on the right, look at the placement of the KENWORTH emblem on the side of the hood wich are different,  the 1973 emblem is gold as it should be on a 1973, due to Kenworth's 50th anniversary that year all US built Kenworths had gold emblems, and the 1974 emblem is chrome.

The easiest way to tell the trucks appart is to look at the air cleaners, the 1973 on the left had Donaldson FWA air cleaners wich are in the AMT kit and the 1974 on the right had Donaldson EBA air cleaners wich can be found in the Revell W900 kits.

Here you see them from the front, look at the stack hight and mirror setups, they are different
You can also see the dummy reefer units.

Sometimes they used both trucks in the same scene obviously shot at different times, note the battery/tool box covers, one has handles and the other don't, and the lock ring on the wheel is rusty on the 1973 truck and painted silver on the 1974.

Note the step under the center of the bumper, it's silver on the 1973 truck on the left and black on the 1974.
One thing, the KW bug emblem on the grille is painted gold and black, gold is correct for the 1973 but it should be reversed with red bottom and gold stripes, rings and KW letters, you can also see the different mirror setups

On this picture you can see both rigs at the same time.

There are much more if you go into details but these are the most noticable differences between the two trucks.
So it depends on how accurate you will be and how much work you are willing to do and wich one you decide to build is up to you.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Force

[spencer1984]

One other thing to add re:door handles. These are available from Don Mills Models, sold through his eBay store. Just look for "Rectangular Slam Locks" and they should come up. I've used them in the past, and they're very sharply done with a nice thin flange so your cutouts can have a little wiggle room.

 

[Force]

They are nice but unfortunately not the correct style I'm affraid, here is the 1973 truck at the Lamar's scene and the 1974 has the same door handles.

Auslowe has the correct style in photo etch, the middle ones in the picture below are right with the triangle shape and lock cylinder on top, can most certainly be found at STS.
The ones on top is the new style used on modern KW's

CMT do also have them but you have to get a complete detail set to get them, STS deals with CTM parts too.

Edited April 9, 2023 by Force

[spencer1984]

You're right on that. Plus, the Auslowe set is better than most I've seen. But this type of latch has always looked a little flat to me when done in PE, and I find adding some thin styrene to correct the flange shape is an easier task for me. I have a feeling it's a YMMV situation, so just throwing out some further options.

Edited April 9, 2023 by spencer1984

[Force]

16 hours ago, spencer1984 said:

You're right on that. Plus, the Auslowe set is better than most I've seen. But this type of latch has always looked a little flat to me when done in PE, and I find adding some thin styrene to correct the flange shape is an easier task for me. I have a feeling it's a YMMV situation, so just throwing out some further options.

That's why I suggested a foil copy to capture the deeper detail, the Revell Germany W900 kit has the handles as separate pieces and the Revell snap kit they are moded to the cab.