Mack DM 800

[Brian Conn]

  I was busy for the few days that the site was down....I'm still working away on the Ford/Garwood trash truck, just needed a change of scenery.

  In 1976, the Bi-Centennial year, I was 11 years old.  I was building a variety of kits, thanks in part to subscribing to a model of the month club through the mail.  My skills , if you want to call them that, where typical 11 year old.  I've improved some what in the last 50 years...I think???  I remember seeing the first release of this kit and wanting it, but I knew that I did not posses the skills that it would take to build it...may be when I get older.

  I got this kit earlier this year, thanks to family at Christmas time.  Thought that I would be deeper into the build than I am, but sometimes life gets in the way.

  My goal is to at least have a curbside build by the 4th of July .....I'm not building it as a tractor.....I have other plans for it in mind, so it will be just a truck with no body on it as you might see at a Mack dealership. 

This is what the color will look like for the most part...some of the chrome pieces will be painted as there seemed to be an excessive amount in this kit.

 

Got some of the sub assemblies put together....every thing pictured will be Blue.  Got some more sub assemblies to put together as I am going to airbrush all of the exterior Blue assembled and attached to the frame sub assemblies, then the Red grill, hood and cab areas  

   

Edited May 14 by Brian Conn

[Brian Conn]

  Got everything chassis wise primered.  Had black parts, white parts and an over abundance of chrome parts that all needed to be one color.   Everything pictured will be blue.

    

[Brian Conn]

......Some days its the Gold Mine, some days its the shaft.....today it was the Gold Mine.

  Went to the Heartland Model Car Nationals in Overland Park, Ks. (Kansas City).....the contest itself is a predictable joke, but the vending area is awesome.  My first stop the past few years is the derelict truck area....great for the scratch builder and the prices, they wont hurt.  Picked up this unit for $30.00.  The milk tank portion will be removed and used on the Mack build.  I have scoured the internet looking for a 1:25 milk transport tank with no luck...this is the first one I seen anywhere. 

Forgot to get a better picture...has a complete engine and transmission.

Will have to scratch build the milk pumping portion.

 

Even has the inspection/clean out hatch

 

  Not sure yet what I will end up doing with the I.H   Its too good of a truck to part out.

Got the Blue areas painted...another touch up coat should complete it. 

[Gary Chase]

This is gonna be good, watching. 

[Gary Chase]

Any progress on this build? Just checking in and watching. I have this kit and looking for ideas. 

[Brian Conn]

Thanks for asking ...my first post to the web since Sunday.

                   Unfortunately bad news...This past Monday we here in Topeka were hit with 70+ M.P.H winds.  I now have a tree on my house and power was just restored with in the past hour to my home.  I plan on getting back to it A.S.A.P as I still have the goal of having ,at least, a curbside build by the 4th of July.  I did manage to get the frame/chassis done paint wise..still have some touch up work on the cab and hood to do.      

[Brian Conn]

  I had some one inquire about the International Harvester milk tanker,,,here's what I have been able to find out about it.

It is an ERTL kit from the late 70's    But the kit is of a tractor and not a milk tanker...I still have no clue where the milk tank came from....other than that it is the same truck....a late 70's International Harvester S series 2575

[Brian Conn]

..........DESPITE procrastination, busy season at work, life and recently being a storm refugee I have made some decent progress.

   

As I have stated before my goal is to have this a box art , curbside build (no engine or transmission) by the 4th of July.  I will come back to this one later and assemble the engine and transmission, stretch the frame and add the milk tank and additional decals.  Got some sticky tape residue to deal with on the hood....used scotch clear tape to mask off the area dividing the red and blue, no problem...used Tamiya tape in other places no problem( great stuff!!),,,,used some expensive blue painters tape...leaves a sticky residue ☹️

The white stripe decals just barely wrapped around the backside of the cab..didn't like the way it looked...so I taped off the the backside of the cab since it was molded white to create white stripes.  I do need to go back and do some touch up work with some white paint.

  

Need to put some heat to the smoke stack and straighten it out.

Edited June 28 by Brian Conn

[Brian Conn]

 

  A minor setback.....

  I never was quite happy with the position of the smoke stack, so I removed the smoke stack and the battery box.  While I was at it, I made some cab locating pieces....now the cab sits where it is suppose to.

The cab sits on the four vertical pieces that are part of the frame.

The kit locating bosses leave a lot to be desired..they are pretty small.  I had some Evergreen styrene angle pieces laying around, so I made taller locating bosses...still a small bit of wiggle room left for final cab alignment.

I think what I am going to do, unless someone has a better idea, is to attach the completed interior tub to the frame and then lower the completed cab shell over the tub.

 

 

Edited just now by Brian Conn

Edited June 30 by Brian Conn

[Brian Conn]

Starting to look like a truck...glass and stripe decals are next!!!

Studied some pictures of the 1:1 DM 800's smoke stack location and repositioned the kit offering...in doing that I also had to move the battery box and air tank back on the frame.  Shot a coat of floor wax thru the airbrush....now it shines like a new penny ☺️

Edited July 1 by Brian Conn

[Brian Conn]

  I set a goal of having this a curbside build by the 4th of July and I made it!!!!!

  This is my way of saying Happy 259th Birthday to the United States of America.  This build is far from being done, in fact the cab is not even attached as the interior has been barely started and there still is some body work to be done.

[Brian Conn]

PART 2.....

In this second part, I will be attaching the aforementioned milk transport tank.

  The first order of business was to stretch the frame 40 scale inches (40mm.).  I had a difficult time locating optional wheelbases for the DM 800.  I spent quite a while scouring the Big Mack Trucks forums where I was finally able to locate a wheelbase that ,more than likely, would have been the wheelbase for a 1:1 scale with this type of tank.  The chassis is now at a 203" scale wheelbase.  As a side note, this wheelbase was also used with the Mack coal dump trucks (coal buckets as they are called in Eastern Kentucky) ..using the length of the dump bed as compared the the length of the milk tank is where I came up with the 203" wheelbase.  This wheelbase was referenced a few times in the Big Mack Trucks forums.

                   

  The black pieces are some "C" channel from some unknown large scale car kit that I formed into plausible frame pieces for the Mack...white pieces are cross members made from Evergreen styrene "I" beams and strips.                                   

[Brian Conn]

Progress update.....

This thing pretty much fought me every step of the way...vague instructions along with parts that would not align up ...had to shoe horn the alternator in place, that's a first for me.... 

  This was my first diesel engine and I was not all that familiar with the Mack ENDT 866 , ( I am now after all of the research) with what the kit piece most closely resembles.  Building this engine will test your patience...if it doesn't you have the patience of Jobe. 

 

  Since I stretched the frame I had to add a carrier bearing and second drive shaft.  As it so happens the AMT Ford C 900/Garwood LP 900 kit that I am also working on had a shorter drive shaft (for the tractor version, I presume) on one of the sprews.  I shortened both the Mack and Ford drive shafts to fit properly and scratch built a carrier bearing out of a section of sprew.

OFF TO THE BODY SHOP.....

 

  I got rid of the unsightly , IMHO, gap between the grill and butterfly hood sections (white triangle shaped portions)  the 1:1 scale trucks didn't have the gaping area unlike some DM 800 builds I have seen on the internet....it's more of a MPC quality control thing verses builder error

    

  Did the same thing with the butterfly hood sections.  I added styrene strip to the bottom of the butterfly hood to show only a small gap as seen on the 1:1 scale rigs....again correcting a MPC issue

  Will get the body all cleaned up and get it repainted and re striped next...  

 

  

Edited September 7 by Brian Conn

[Brian Conn]

Completed the interior.  The DM 800's had pretty much a spartan interior, so I went with what I was seeing on various truck forums and other sources.  I will be adding a C.B radio to the dash and an A.M/F.M radio to the area above the windshield and below the interior roof in front of the driver.

  I had to adjust both of the shifters towards the drivers side to properly place the passenger seat......yet again vague instructions.....relied a lot on pictures of 1:1 scale DM 800 interiors to get everything placed right.

 

[Brian Conn]

  This is going to be the last update for a few weeks. 

There are a couple of shows that I want to participate in, Oct. 3rd and Nov. 14th.  I am closer to being done with the Ford C series/Garwood LP900 trash truck than I am with the Mack.  There is a special theme sub category at the Nov. 14th. show  “America 250th Birthday” that I will be entering the Mack in sans any decals.  I procrastinated too long in getting the decals ordered from STS Decals...my fault entirely...I am in the order process right now and will be getting them after the Nov. 14th show.

  My plan right now is to get the trash truck completely done by the Oct. 3rd show and have both the Mack and Ford trash truck at the Nov. 14th show.  I am doing the decals for the trash truck.

UPDATE:

  

I raised the rear fenders.  They just looked too close to the top of the tires for me and from what I found on line, my thoughts where correct.  Not every DM 800 had rear fenders and those that had this style where not that common, but they did show more clearance than what the kit would have you to believe.  I raised them aprox. 3 mm. up which looks a lot better IMHO.

  I received the C.B radio from Iceman Collections ...great looking piece and will look even better sitting on the dash of the Mack   

[Brian Conn]

MYSTERY SOLVED!!!!

  Stumbled across this while looking for something else...as it usually happens.

  This is the milk tank that I have.....turns out it is an aftermarket piece prior to Al Gore discovering the internet as there is NO website address, only a P.O Box....looks like Testors had some involvement in this project.

 

  Looks like I have the #103 as it is not chrome...wish it was.

  Did a deep dive search for THC Worwide and all I kept coming up with was cannabis related material.