Last Saturday I bought in a Contest-Swap meet, this truck…AMT Peterbilt in 1/25, the box is open, but it is complete and has some spare extra parts like sleeper… all for $20… For me a good price… 
Soon the building progress…
Ya done real good Brizio.Can’t wait to see what ya do to her.These old trucks can open up a vast world of detailing.Got a couple of classics I picked up for junk on evilbay.One was the RubberDuck convoy truck,a mack that was painted black with I believe was a gold duck giving the old thumb to nose sign as a hood ornament.Classic model that you cant touch for less than 150.00 big ones.Keep the pics comin.
I slowly start it, I hope to have more time for it next week, and for sure I’ll post some pics.
My idea its to build it little different than teh one on the box, I’ll add the sleeper and some other thikgs… Will see, its a long time that I don’t build a truck… Actualy one of the first plastic kit I ever build it was a truck… I probably was 10 or 12, build it straight from the box… Without paint nothing… I feel so bad now… And actually, I remember the kit, it was an Iveco “Cowboy”, with a lot of chrome parts… And of course, a that time who knews that the super glue ruin all the chrome parts make them white… 
But I had a lot of fun build it… I hope to have fun also with this one!
I built one of these a long time ago. Mine was the wrecker version, but still had the extras like the sleeper. I cut and stretched the frame and added the sleeper in with the wrecker bed. Came out pretty good, for being done 5 years ago, before I learned to airbrush.
WOW!!! Looks very nice!
I streched the chassis too, around 4in… Do you thin its too much? I hope to have done the chassis for this week. And after start to do some works on the body.
I wanted to keep the wrecker portion, so I only stretched it enough to add the sleeper cab. any more, and the wrecker body wouldn’t have fit properly. In scale though, 4 inches would be a really big stretch. I dont know if you would have to stretch it for a standard tractor. It depends on the clearance from the sleeper to the 5th wheel hookup.
You are right probably its too much… Will see when it is done how looks…
I built the Revell kit of the Peterbilt 359 a couple of years ago. It was a very fun build and one of my favorite projects to date. Hope you enjoy the AMT kit. I haven’t seen that one.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blankenshipimages/sets/72157620742070457/
Your Pete looks beautiful! Mine kit its about the basic one, but it has spare parts like the sleeper, and all the stuff for attach the trailer, as a option.
I got a chanche to finish the seats. Soon I hope to play with the rest… But I need to find time for it…
Too many project, an little little time…
Those seats look nice. I think the 359 was AMT’s first big truck kit, so it has a few issues being a fairly old kit.
I started the same kit earlier this year, but have only managed to paint the cab. My brother owns a 281 (basically the same as the 359 but only a single rear axle) and I was going to build it as his truck for Christmas, but at this rate, I’m thinking more likely his birthday and the bottom dump gravel trailers are on an indefinate hold.
Thank you!
I think those seat are from a car… Probably a Plymout… I couldn’t remember… As you can see from the color, the truck will be painted in black and orange. But this is a future work… Now I starrted the dash.
I didn’t know that the 359 was one of the firstbig truck kit from AMT. I saw the plastic its very rigid.And I didn’t check very well when I bought, some parts are yes from a 359, but other kit, probably older, because the plastic its not whithe but yellowish and too rigid, you can broke easily… The tires also some have the same design, but made little different… This gave more work to me, try to correct/ix it.
You had a nice idea and it will be aprecitate from you brother!!! I do the same with my brother and his car and motorbikes… I think it is cool have a model of your car or motorbike or truck…
You can put anything you want for seats in a Peterbilt, almost everybody puts in an aftermarket seat at some point. Trucks last several million miles but seats under your average truck stop fed driver do not! They are air suspension seats mostly and the bases you have under them are a bit big for the pedestal under an air seat.
You were talking about frame lengthening. Wreckers are often very long chassis to use the heavy front end as a counterweight when lifting and towing other heavy vehicles. About 300 inches from the center of the front axle to the center of the two drive axles is what I remember, which is about as long as you will see a tractor. The wrecker body is usually very short behind the last axle. In California 40 feet is the maximum length overall front bumper to back bumper for a single vehicle, with a few exemptions for special purpose vehicles, but that length can vary from state to state, it is not a federal rule. I use to have a Kenworth W900A that had a 256 inch wheelbase and it took some room to turn.
The seat cushions and armrests look really nice.
Ok thank you for the explanation! Really interesting about the max lenght!
Mine will be a “normal” truck, not a wrecker. I don’t know if start to looking for a trailer too… Will see…
Some pics about the interior, that it is almost done. Need some other stuff in the sleeper.
I kept the old style steering wheels, because I like it better.
Here inside the sleeper, with the little bed. I think to made some kind of fornitureon the side. But I need to wait until the sleeper frame its done.
Well now is a good time to be looking for a trailer, AMT and Lindberg have recently reissued several trailers, two flatbeds, a box trailer, a log trailer and a tanker. They are running about $25 each which is quite a bit less than previous re-issues. There are more planned for re-issue in 2010.
Good to know! I will certainly look a the LHS if they have some trailers. The price also sounds good!!!
Thanks for the info!
AMT once did a kit of a “Lowboy Trailer” that had two or three big power station transformers for cargo. I have one in my closet. I don’t know if I’ll ever build it but it makes a nice “go with” for my collection of glass telephone pole insulators.
ome more and slow progress…
The engine its done, finally… 
I though this color (Dupli-Color Orange Mist) was more brilliant, but its darker… The primer on the engine was grey, so probably it made the difference…
What do you think?
A cat engine should only be one color and that is cat yellow
I know, that it should be in yellow… But this is a custom truck, and I hate yellow…