peterbilt 359 or 379 hood

[pete3522]

I am redoing a peterbilt can- do wrecker i bought off evilbay that was in terrible condition was painted flat black with the stepps decals which i thought wouldnt look to bad till i recieved the truck besides the paint and decals being backwards it looked like a 2yr old got a hold of 20 tubes of glue and some arcrylic paint and went town but the great thing is i bought this for 50 bucks compared to the 300. they are asking on evil bay So to make along story short one of the issues was the front of the hood was kinda melted from all the glue that was used to put the grill on .So while i started to sand the hood down i decided to remove the grooves on the center of the hood and the sides which i thick would make it close to the 379 hood that is suppose to be on the real truck ??? I hear alot about this cause the chasis is suppose to be a 379 not 359 and its suppose to be a cat not a cummins?? But anyway i smoothed the top of the hood and the sides i heard these decals are a real b*t*h so i figures this would make that easier so anyway just wandering i have a itareli 379 kit which i havent got around to build was going to use that for a refrence but i didnt get that far so you guys tell me? And by the way i will eventually post pics of this build its goin slow lot of paint strippen and redoing parts and fixen stuff all the movable parts were glued got all those freed and working so anyway let me know

[highway]

I don't know whether this will really help or not, but here is a pic of the top of a regular 379 hood.

You are correct though that the correct Can Do is a 379 powered by a (I think) 3406 Cat engine. I also found a few pics of Can Do I hadn't seen before, and according to the caption on the second pic, it appears as if the real one has been restored as well.

Also, if you have a way to either get them printed or print them yourself, let me know and I can scan my decals for you to help in your restoration. I plan on making a 100% correct Can Do and have been gathering the correct parts here and there for years, so my decal sheet is still intact. I guess working the real things made me have to have the little ones be right too!

[mackinac359]

The photos on this link off my website are for the Italeri 378 kit, but will give you and idea of how different the 359 hood is from the 378 and 379 standard hood. the 359 hood is too level, no slope, to be a 379-119. 359-119 and 379-127 share more shape and visual cues than the 379-119 and 359-119 to.

http://public.fotki.com/mackinac359/how-i-did-it/peterbilt-378-hood/

Tim

[pete3522]

Thanx fo yor input and pics Fortunately a person on the other model site i belong to had 2 sets of decals and sent me both yesterday talk about luck Thanx for the offer though! I have tried printing decals can never seem to get the scale and size right. I think there is like 125 decals for this can-do?That should be fun I read from other people they can be a real biotch??

Edited November 13, 2011 by pete3522

[pete3522]

Tim i looked at your pics i see what you mean but i dont have an extra 379 hood around so im just going with what i got! Is the cab much different form a 359 to 379?? I have a 379 itareli kit i havent got around to building i never paid attention to all the differences i know they are close

[mackinac359]

The only parts shared on the 379 and 359 cabs are the doors. Everything else changed, width at the cowl and backwall, roof shape, windshield shape and rake.

Tim

[pete3522]

oh i see I almost was going to use my itareli 379 cab and hood on the wrecker but i never built that kit so i didnt want to part the kit out just for that

[scale trucker]

you can also contact porky for the hood and cab..the can-do grille fits his hood..

[kwtrucker]

pete3522,

You keep calling the Itareli Pete kit a 379. Itareli never made a 379 kit. The only Pete kits they have ever made are the 377 and the 378. The second issue of the 378 is the 378 "Long Hauler". That kit has a photo of a black 379 extended hood on the box cover which is the wrong photo. In the kit box is the 378 short hood, which is 119"BBC. Just wanted to clear up the confusion.

scale trucker,

What Pete conversion are you talking about? If your talking about Bill Drennen's 1/25th scale 379 extended hood cab conversion, it already comes with the correct grill. The grill in the Stepp's wrecker is a 359 grill with "379" headlamps and turn signals. The two grills are shaped alot different.

Doug

[pete3522]

Thanks for the info scale trucker I might do that to give it that 379 look