1967 International Loadstar 1600

[mikemodeler]

I was hoping for some updates on this Charles and you have delivered! Nice work on this, impressive engineering on the tailgate.

 

Looks like it is ready for winter, are you?

[Chariots of Fire]

Hey, Mike!  No I am definitely not ready for winter!  It has been such great weather up our way this fall I just don't want it to end!  But Alas! Rain and in the 40's and 50's now so it looks like the good stuff has just about gone.  I guess I better get the plow done if the IH is going to move any snow!

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Excellent work all around!! The gate latch assembly is amazing!! You are truly a craftsman!!

[Chariots of Fire]

Got the latch areas put back together and covered.  Body was re-painted and weathered a bit.  Now I'm working on the lift mechanism for the body and the hydraulic piston that pushes it up.  Will post some pix as soon as I have all of the parts together.

[Chariots of Fire]

The last couple of days were spent making up the lift mechanism for the body and the hydraulic cylinder to raise it.  After much trial and fit the lift mechanism was finished up.  It took some adjusting to get the body to raise all the way and at the same time have the lift settle in between the frame rails without cramping. I ended up having to cut away some of the differential to allow one side to drop down.  Guess I won't be driving it too far!

The cylinder and piston are brass tubing and aluminum tubing.  There is a stop on the low end of the piston and one on the upper end of the cylinder that keeps the piston in place.  The hydraulic line fittings are bead details from a craft store.  

The two circles on the ends of the body are for reflectors.  They will be painted silver and then topped with clear amber on the front and clear red on the rear.

The body has now been painted and the cuts that had to be made for the tailgate locks have been filled in with sheet plastic and sanded smooth.  The only thing that shows now are the ends of the locks that keep the tailgate closed.  With the body up the tailgate lever can be pulled, the locks raise up and the tailgate opens.

 

[GLMFAA1]

I am always amazed at your work,  Not sad because it's not red but it does have a gumball. Just one question, Where'd you get them mirrors?

greg

[mikemodeler]

Very nice engineering there Charles, like it very much! If I were to build one I would probably not go to the lengths that you have but then again you have a way of making these look easy and very realistic!

[Rick315-8]

Beautiful scratchbuild work with your tailgate linkage and hoist assembly of the dump body.........it really is nice to add some working parts to a build....this Loadstar is simply superb !

[towman1271]

 So impressive.. Your details are amazing

[Chariots of Fire]

I am always amazed at your work,  Not sad because it's not red but it does have a gumball. Just one question, Where'd you get them mirrors?

greg

Found one at a show and it was a mate to one I have in the parts box.  The brackets are soldered wire.  PS.  The next one will be red!

[Chariots of Fire]

Ok, We're done.  I think this rig is ready to do some road work.  Just have to go and get a little cold patch to put in the back and pick up a small roller!  The body and its details are now done.  Some mud flaps were added to the rear, some license plates and a short square shovel hangs from the front of the body.  And we added some traffic cones so that when they actually do some patching, traffic will keep clear!

[mikemodeler]

That looks great Charles, can't wait to see the next version of this truck you build, I think you mentioned either a brush truck or tow truck.

[Chariots of Fire]

Hi, Mike.  Thanks, the next one will be a brush rig.  Next town over has one and that will make the building much easier.  I will be able to get all of the photos and measurements I need to do a good build.

[Chariots of Fire]

And another build begins.  I don't have any specific information yet on the truck itself.  That will be forthcoming.  However, I do have a photo of the rig to be built.  Originally built by the Maxim Motor Company of Middleboro, MA, it was recently upgraded with new body and bar work as well as a new paint job.  The upgrade is more in line with current practices of shortening up the rear of the body and making it higher.  The reason is to allow the truck to transition from dirt roads to the adjacent woodlands without bottoming out.  Gone is the concept of a low rear step where the crew would ride.  As with the Loadstar dump I will be posting in progress photos and some how to's along the way.  

On this model the doors are going to be opened as well as the butterfly hood.  In the photo below you will see the right side door has already been separated from the cab and the hood sides have been cut free of the center section.  It was a pretty easy thing to do albeit a rather tedious one.  The resin casting scribes well with the back of a sharp Xacto knife and a razor saw.  Real care had to be taken around the corners of the door and where the door line is rounded near the bottom of the windshield.  With the doors free, they will be sanded smooth inside and made more adaptable to the inner door panels.  

There was a bit of a learning curve with the vacu-form machine to get a nice clear windshield.  I found a source for good clear plastic that is pre-cut to fit the machine and the results have been pretty nice.  Once trimmed to fit the windshield just pops into place and no gluing is necessary.  Dave Natale did a great job of casting the windshield trim without any flaws and that made the fitting of the windshield real easy.  The benefit of the vacu-formed windshield is that there is no stress on the plastic and with a good fitting buck for the plastic to form against in the machine, all it needs is trimming around the edges.

In the photo below you can also see that the grill was opened up as well.  Again Dave Natale did a great job with the casting by leaving just a thin skim coat of resin on the back of the grill.  It is easily removed with an Xacto knife and then the opening can be cleaned up with a small flat file.  I also set the floorboard/firewall in place as it comes as a separate piece in Dave's kit.  The opening between the cab rocker panel and the floorboard will be filled in with plastic stock to stiffen the cab and make for a clean fit for the separate door.

Six spoke wheels are used on this truck.  The fronts are covered with a full hub that covers the inner workings of the all wheel drive feature of the front axle. 

Edited November 17, 2017 by Chariots of Fire
added information

[mikemodeler]

This is going to be another work of art, I can tell! Nice job on opening the doors and hood and I am anxiously awaiting the WIP pictures!

[Chariots of Fire]

After cutting out the doors and separating the hood sides from the center section it was time to figure out how to best make up the hood hinges.  On the real truck they are not very sophisticated and just some curved flat stock that is made to move with the hood when it is opened.  At first I tried bending some brass strip stock to make the curve but that meant making four hinges with identical curves.  Not easy in this scale.  So I sliced some brass tubing and soldered the pieces to some brass flat stock.  On the opposite end I soldered some 0.018" dia. brass tubing.  Inside the tubing I can insert a piece of stainless steel wire that just fits the tubing and is very stiff.  So it is relatively easy to get things to line up properly.

If you look close in the photo above of the real truck you can see the hinges that attach to the hood and the center piece.  Now comes the fun part; getting the three pieces to fit together and at the same time allow the sides to open.  Some thinning of edges and tapering them was necessary to get them to operate but they will open.

Here is the hood upside down with the four hinges in place.  On each hood side I added a small strip of plastic stock to mount the flat part of the hinge on.  I drilled two small holes through the flat hinge part and into the plastic stock and then through the resin casting of the hood.  Small pins were inserted in the holes and were superglued in place.  The ends of the pins were cut off top and bottom and the ends on the top of the hood were filed smooth.  On the center section of the hood I glued pieces of 0.030" x 0.040" strip stock.  Against the outer one I laid the middle portion of the brass tubing that just fits between the two hinges.  It was superglued in place and another similar strip was laid up against the tubing on the other side.  This secured the tubing in place and gave a permanent location for each of the hood sides.  The stainless wire slides through the two hinges and the center tubing to hold every thing in alignment.

In order to set the hood in place to check the fit I drilled a hole on each end of the center section.  On the end next to the windshield I continued the drill down into the cowl and further into a small piece of plastic strip stock below.  A pin is temporarily inserted in this hole to hold the back of the center piece in place.  At the front I glued a similar piece of strip stock under the center section next to the grill.  I drilled another hole up through the strip and into the center section of the hood.  A pin was inserted there also.  Now I have a stable arrangement for checking to see if the hood side close smoothly and that the bottom of the hood edges fit against the top of each fender.  On the driver side I had to adjust the bottom of the hood with some strip stock to get a good fit.  Unlike the hood when it is one piece, cutting it apart requires some refitting due to the hinges and the separation of the three sections.  Some details will be added to the underside of the hood pieces similar to the actual hood.

[Chariots of Fire]

Note:  This is now a new topic in the "On the Workbench".  The build of the brush truck will continue there.

[mc2]

Hey…I am not a model maker but own a green ‘67 International 1600 like the one you built. Mine has a yellow grill, steps and mirrors but otherwise looks real close to what you built. Impressive!  If I can figure a plqce to post a pic for a URL, I’ll post some.

 

[purplebatman]

My grandpa drove a fuel truck like this and I was wanting to make a model one like the one he drove for him. Is this kit available to purchase? 

[Chariots of Fire]

I'm sorry that it is not.  AITM was doing resin castings but the master is no longer available for casting and AITM is out of business.