California Highway Patrol 1990's Dodge Ram

[av405]

Here's my next project - a mid-90's Dodge Ram 2500 commercial enforcement unit of the California Highway Patrol. I will be using the AMT SnapFast Plus kit for the truck.

Edited August 16, 2022 by av405

[av405]

The kit had been unopened and still in the original shrink wrap with no exterior damage. When I opened it up, I found the cab like this:

I suppose I could have tried to fix it with some light heat and bending, but I went to ebay where I found a replacement cab for fairly cheap. Here's the first mockup, with the main body in primer after receiving a Dawn wash and initial sanding:

The primer revealed some fine mold lines, so more sanding will be required. The bed has a bit of warpage, but overall the kit is in good condition and workable. The centerpiece is a custom 3D-printed topper that some members here on the forum designed and printed for me. The results are fantastic, though the topper will need some clean up work just like any other 3D-printed piece.

Edited August 15, 2022 by av405

[av405]

Since the kit is essentially an unbuilt promo, it does not come with side mirrors. Luckily, I have some old Modelhaus mirrors specifically made for this truck. I drilled holes on the truck and mirrors to secure them together with a satin pin.  

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by av405

[slusher]

A really nice project. May I ask sir where did you get the camper??

[stavanzer]

Another Police Rig! I am always interested to see those.

What kind of wheels will it have?

[av405]

10 hours ago, slusher said:

A really nice project. May I ask sir where did you get the camper??

Thank you! I got it from Texas_3D_Customs. He's here on the forum. PM him directly if you're interested in one.

 

1 hour ago, stavanzer said:

Another Police Rig! I am always interested to see those.

What kind of wheels will it have?

Thank you! Yeah I enjoyed working on the D-100 so much that I wanted to do a follow up pickup truck. The 3/4-ton wheels that the CHP used on these are not available in the aftermarket or in any kit so I will just use the kit's wheels. They are still correct for a 2500 3/4-ton truck. I'm planning on stripping the chrome and painting them black. 

Edited August 16, 2022 by av405

[gator52]

Great start on a cool subject Alberto!

 

Chris

[av405]

31 minutes ago, gator52 said:

Great start on a cool subject Alberto!

 

Chris

Thanks Chris!

So I've moved on to the interior for now. Interior references have been hard to come by but I did get this shot of a retired CHP 1995 GMC Sierra truck. The Rams and Sierras would have served at the same time, so it's a great reference. As you can see, the truck has split seats to make room for a rifle/shotgun rack in the middle. The truck also had a black center console between the seats, in front of the rack.

Unfortunately, the AMT Ram kit comes with a bench seat:

This is no challenge for a razor saw though! It helps that the bench seat has well-defined and deep lines, making excellent guides for the saw. Here is one of the seats and some interior pieces that I started to fabricate from evergreen stock. The shotgun is from the Lindberg Crown Victoria kit. I cut down the extended capacity tube on the shotgun to the standard size, as used by the CHP. The white surround on the shotgun is the lock ring for the gun rack: 

More to come later.

[slusher]

Cool gunreck!

[espo]

Great added interior detail. 

[av405]

On 8/17/2022 at 6:06 AM, slusher said:

Cool gunreck!

 

22 hours ago, espo said:

Great added interior detail. 

Thanks guys! Speaking of the interior, I just finished the center console. Looks close enough to the real thing:

I also modified the Vision light bar that I took from a Lindberg Crown Victoria kit with styrene strips. Most of the work was to make the tall light bar mounts that the real trucks had.

I also finished making the front push bar. It was made from pieces of Evergreen, some pieces from the push bar on the CHP Dodge Monaco kit, and a spare speaker.

Up next I will be de-chroming the bumpers and wheels with some Super Clean.

[stavanzer]

Looking good Mike.

Custom Squads by Tony, might have the wheels you want.

Part # CS-DW-3

Page 5 of this PDF.

http://www.customsquads.com/uploads/1/0/3/6/10365684/cs_price_sheet_6-2019_ver_10.pdf

 

[av405]

Alan, thanks for the link. Unfortunately, those aren't the right style. These would be the correct wheels:

[slusher]

Great looking pushbar!   I really your build..

[av405]

12 hours ago, slusher said:

Great looking pushbar!   I really your build..

Thank you, I appreciate all of these comments. I finished the interior:

 

Tamiya's AS-27 Gunship Gray 2 was a pretty good match for a low-trim grey interior and had just the right amount of sheen to it. One of my favorite things about this kit is how the dash comes in 2 pieces, which made masking unnecessary.

The push bar and push bar-mounted forward red light are done. The light bar has been painted. At this point, I just need to paint the individual lenses:

Super Clean took care of the chrome in less than an hour. Now on to cleaning and sanding these pieces up before primer and paint:

 

[av405]

I'm going out of town for a few days so I will update on the latest. The bed and cab have been given the final coats of Mr. Surfacer 1500 Primer:

The bumpers were assembled, primed and then painted with Tamiya AS-10 Ocean Grey:

The wheels were then primed and painted with Tamiya TS-14 Black:

Next week I'm going to start doing prep work on the topper and hopefully getting the white portions of the truck painted.

[vincen47]

Great work so far, it’ll be a unique build. I remember this one has been in the planning stages, or on the project wish list for a while, glad you’ve got it going. Nice that Texas 3D was able to come through on the cap.

Edited August 19, 2022 by vincen47

[av405]

4 minutes ago, vincen47 said:

Great work so far, it’ll be a unique build. I remember this one has been in the planning stages, or on the project wish list for a while, glad you’ve got it going. Nice that Texas 3D was able to come through on the cap.

Thanks! And yes, it's been something I've wanted to build for a long time. Finding someone to do the cap was the hardest part, but the wait was worth it. Luckily the kit is a snap curbside and easy to assemble, so that's making this project go pretty quick. Truth be told, I prefer curbside kits. You can always go a little extra with them to make up for the simplicity. 

[slusher]

Real nice progress and your interior is spot on!  Your doing a terrific job on your build!

[av405]

On 8/20/2022 at 9:11 PM, slusher said:

Real nice progress and your interior is spot on!  Your doing a terrific job on your build!

Thank you!

I'm finally back home so I made some more progress. The bumpers and window trim are done:

[av405]

Next up I worked on the grill. The whole piece was a bit too thick and would not fit correctly. I had to cut way and sand much of the backside to achieve a better fit.

Once that was done, it was time for paint. I went through some trial and error on the grill. There is not enough depth on it to apply a wash, so I used a few different kinds of paints until I achieved a good enough look. In the end, it was cheap acrylic paint from Dollar Tree mixed with water that did it. The paint is thin enough that you can still make out the mesh. As for the headlights, unfortunately they are simple chrome molded pieces. The best solution I've found for this so far is to spray paint them with Tamiya TS-26 Pure white and then lightly sand the raised edges/lines with 1000 grit sanding paper. It's not perfect but it looks better than nothing. The corner lights were painted with Tamiya Clear Orange.

[av405]

I got started on the exterior paint using Tamiya TS-14 Black and TS-26 Pure White. The bed has been clear coated with Tamiya TS-13 as well. The cab will be clear coated as well once the black sections are painted. I got some slight overspray when painting the white, so I will sand those sections down carefully before applying the black coats. 

With BMF added, I'm calling the side mirrors done:

The wheels and tires have been assembled and placed on the chassis. I had to trim the interior circumference of the tires with an Xacto knife as they were extremely thick and I was unable to fit the wheels in. I'm happy with how they turned out:

[stavanzer]

On 8/18/2022 at 5:28 PM, av405 said:

Alan, thanks for the link. Unfortunately, those aren't the right style. These would be the correct wheels:

Drat! Thought those would work.

[av405]

The light bar is done.

Working on this light bar required some real patience and work. In real life the CHP used custom-ordered Vision light bars. Unlike a regular Vision where each pod is its own color, CHP's pods were multi-color. This necessitated some careful taping and painting. Tamiya's clear red and blue were used for this. It's not perfect, but close enough.

And in case anybody is wondering where the rear traffic arrow stick is, the CHP has always mounted those separately at the rear of the topper on their trucks. 

The light bar appears to sit too high compared to the real truck, so I may have to trim the mounts up at a later time.

Edited August 25, 2022 by av405

[Just Jim]

Looks great! Interior turned out fantastic.