Solving a pet peeve...

[Tom Hall]

I like AMT kits...even with their little, or big, quirks...depending on how you look at it. I drove truck for 43 years and I came to the conclusion early on that there were two kinds of large cars made in the world...Kenworth, and all the rest. That explains my infatuation for the AMT KW W900 kit. I always have three or four in my stash. There is one pet peeve I have with this kit and that is how weak the hood hinge/mount is. Inevitably when I was working on the model, and usually when I was about done, I'd be ham-handedly be handling the frame when I'd break the hood hinges...grrrrrr.  I did come up with a solution. May not be the only one but it's mine and it works for me. 

#1 I converted the stock kit hood into a narrow nose model which meant the stock hood hinges as outlined in the kit would not work. I decided to shorten the space between the hood hinges by adding plastic to the front of the frame on the inside of the stock kit ears. After the glue set, I drilled through the stock ear holes, through the now wide ear area thus not only solving the width problem but also strengthening the stock ears.

#2 Here is all you need to do this. The stock hinge pieces, a piece of rod which started life as kit sprue, two .020 pieces of flat stock. I'll explain in another photo.

#3 install the hinges into the newly strengthened frame ears. Do not cement. Now cut that piece of sprue/rod to fit tightly between the hinges thus ensuring the hinges stay in the frame. Make sure they are parallel. You can see I used one of the myriad pieces of wood/plastic or rubber blocks that I use in my builds.

#4 Now you see how I use the flat .020 stock. Gluing them on the front and backside of the hinges strengthens them and gives you a wider gluing area to attach the backside of the grille to the hinge. You do scrape the chrome before gluing...right?

#5 As you can see this 'fix' is fully functional. Best part is that the only thing visible on the finished project is that piece of sprue showing between the hinges. In some photos of the real thing show similar 'bar'. Either way if your frame is black if it shows it will belnd in anyway.

6. Pardon the blurry shot but as you can see my narrow nose grille will fit perfectly on my new, harder to break, hood hinges.

Edited April 12 by Tom Hall