Mid 60s Peterbilt Unilite COE

[RoninUtah]

After I touched up both the white and the red paint, I feel a little better. I appreciate the thought, but doing a weathered old truck was never my thing nor was it my vision for this build; I want it to look like a well-taken care of working truck for an owner-operator or small fleet. I think it's actually pretty close now. Maybe another coat of white on the front... you guys tell me what you think!

[Biggu]

GREAT save , Ron!! Looks good from where I’m sitting. Nice job !

[RoninUtah]

4 minutes ago, Biggu said:

GREAT save , Ron!! Looks good from where I’m sitting. Nice job !

Thank you, sir! I'm sure you'll do even better on yours!

[Old Buckaroo]

I think it looks fine , great save. 

 

[Gary Chastain]

Well done sir

[Jürgen M.]

Looks great to me, Ron!

 

[Rockford]

Well sorted mate. Going to be a good looking piece of machinery. 

[RoninUtah]

This build is moving right along! I like to think of a model build as a big circle, with lots of smaller sub-assembly circles inside. There's the cab circle, the chassis circle, the interior circle, and more smaller circles inside each of those.  As the build moves along, the circles get smaller and smaller until they all finally converge and the project is done. I don't know if this makes any sense, maybe it's just an old man's rambling. Pay it no mind. Anyway, the circles are beginning to converge, and the path to completion is gradually beginning to appear!

So, one of those smaller circles, inside the chassis circle, has to do with the bumper. I had set this one aside, a cool old style Peterbilt bumper left over from an old AITM conversion, as it is very period correct and would look awesome with this build:

But then I started to wonder: How am I going to hinge the cab for it to tilt? I definitely want this one to tilt to show the engine and all that piping. I didn't have an answer. But then, I found myself looking at one of the chrome sprues, and an idea hit me: More surgery!

I never had considered using the kit bumper because it is too tall, older bumpers were much smaller. A lot of the reference photos I had seen showed rigs with smaller versions of the iconic Peterbilt tapered bumper. So, I thought, maybe I can do one of those!

I cut the kit bumper straight, just above the fog lights:

And then tapered it, using the cut-off part as a template:

And then smoothed out the bottom and hit it with some Molotow to restore the chrome:

It's a little skinnier than the 1:1 bumpers in the photos, but I think it might work.

But I really like the red bumper too.

Decisions...

[Gary Chastain]

Love the creativity, that will look awesome 

[RoninUtah]

The chassis is coming along, too… almost ready.  I improvised an exhaust setup for a single stack… I have no idea whether it’s even remotely authentic but it seems logical. The stack will be attached to the cab and should line up.

 

Edited November 16, 2024 by RoninUtah

[Biggu]

Looks reasonable to me.....

[RoninUtah]

Hinging the cab for it to tilt is one of the most nerve wracking parts of a COE build! Will the glue hold? Will the cab be crooked? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve given up and just set the cab in place. So, here it is, ready to dry overnight, with my fingers crossed…

 

 

[Biggu]

?

[RoninUtah]

Much to my relief, the cab tilited forward just fine, but it was getting hung up on something going back. In my experience, that's nearly always caused by the shift tower, and this was no exception- the shifter was off center (it seems impossible to get that right) so out it went. Problem solved. Today was forecast to be a bright sunny day all day, but snow is predicted for tomorrow, so I decided I really wanted to wrap all the loose ends and get this in front of my camera. So, it was a frantic morning of attaching cab accessories and detail painting.  But I got it done!

Words cannot express how much I appreciated the advice and encouragement everyone gave me over the course of this journey.  Everybody contributed, but special shout-outs to Jeff, Jurgen, Steve, Tommy, Sean and Gary for their help. This one very much felt like an international group build, with contributions from Canada, England and Germany as well as the U.S. All of you guys have skills and experience that pushed me beyond my comfort zone and helped me build a model that, while far from perfect, is much better than it would have been if I had been left to my own devices. Thank you all.

Here are a couple of photos; I'll post more in "Under Glass."

[Biggu]

The final result is really good, Ron, and a super good save on the paint.... I also like the attention to the details on the front rims, somehow I missed those... perfect period correct ! She's lookin good !

[Rockford]

You've done a brilliant job on this mate, it's a Peterbilt but not as we know it. You've educated us with this build, I only thought of Unilite referring to the  conventional, the cabover was just a 352 or a 352H. Well done, it looks great, a build to be proud of. 

I noticed the three centre clearance lights are green, I've never seen that before. 

[BK9300]

Glad the hinges held up and like Jeff said, good save on the paint.  Looks great in the sun - always liked the backdrop for the pics of your trucks.

[RoninUtah]

Thanks! I’m lucky to live in a photogenic part of the world!

[RoninUtah]

1 hour ago, Rockford said:

I noticed the three centre clearance lights are green, I've never seen that before. 

Yeah, that’s a little detail. I thought I would add. It wasn’t super-common at the time, but quite a few trucks had them. I suspect it would be a OOS violation today!

[RoninUtah]

1 hour ago, Biggu said:

I also like the attention to the details on the front rims, somehow I missed those...

My thanks to Jürgen who designed them!

[Jürgen M.]

Anytime Ron. Glad to have helped! 

(I only recognized them after my third view in the model!) ? 

Did a great job on this Pete! A real eye catcher!

[Gary Chastain]

Well done, really nice looking build

[Randy D]

What a great result Ron!

Congrats.

Randy

[Pete68]

On 11/16/2024 at 1:23 PM, RoninUtah said:

This build is moving right along! I like to think of a model build as a big circle, with lots of smaller sub-assembly circles inside. There's the cab circle, the chassis circle, the interior circle, and more smaller circles inside each of those.  As the build moves along, the circles get smaller and smaller until they all finally converge and the project is done. I don't know if this makes any sense, maybe it's just an old man's rambling. Pay it no mind. Anyway, the circles are beginning to converge, and the path to completion is gradually beginning to appear!

So, one of those smaller circles, inside the chassis circle, has to do with the bumper. I had set this one aside, a cool old style Peterbilt bumper left over from an old AITM conversion, as it is very period correct and would look awesome with this build:

But then I started to wonder: How am I going to hinge the cab for it to tilt? I definitely want this one to tilt to show the engine and all that piping. I didn't have an answer. But then, I found myself looking at one of the chrome sprues, and an idea hit me: More surgery!

I never had considered using the kit bumper because it is too tall, older bumpers were much smaller. A lot of the reference photos I had seen showed rigs with smaller versions of the iconic Peterbilt tapered bumper. So, I thought, maybe I can do one of those!

I cut the kit bumper straight, just above the fog lights:

And then tapered it, using the cut-off part as a template:

And then smoothed out the bottom and hit it with some Molotow to restore the chrome:

It's a little skinnier than the 1:1 bumpers in the photos, but I think it might work.

But I really like the red bumper too.

Decisions...

Very nice job on making that bumper. Thanks for sharing. 

[Pete68]

On 11/17/2024 at 4:05 PM, RoninUtah said:

Much to my relief, the cab tilited forward just fine, but it was getting hung up on something going back. In my experience, that's nearly always caused by the shift tower, and this was no exception- the shifter was off center (it seems impossible to get that right) so out it went. Problem solved. Today was forecast to be a bright sunny day all day, but snow is predicted for tomorrow, so I decided I really wanted to wrap all the loose ends and get this in front of my camera. So, it was a frantic morning of attaching cab accessories and detail painting.  But I got it done!

Words cannot express how much I appreciated the advice and encouragement everyone gave me over the course of this journey.  Everybody contributed, but special shout-outs to Jeff, Jurgen, Steve, Tommy, Sean and Gary for their help. This one very much felt like an international group build, with contributions from Canada, England and Germany as well as the U.S. All of you guys have skills and experience that pushed me beyond my comfort zone and helped me build a model that, while far from perfect, is much better than it would have been if I had been left to my own devices. Thank you all.

Here are a couple of photos; I'll post more in "Under Glass."

That plumbing looks awesome. Great job on the overall truck.