Scratch Building a Transition Era Garbage Truck


twforeman

Certified Great Northern Nut
I started a thread the other day about dumpsters in 1958 and the fact that I couldn't find anyone making models of dumpsters or garbage trucks from that time period.

Then I started doing some more searching on the internet and found a great site with lots of photos of front-loading garbage trucks and dumpsters.

So because I'm a crazy person, and I don't have enough projects in the works yet, I decided I needed to scratch build a front-load garbage truck and some dumpsters!

I want to make something close to this.


There are lots of photos on the site linked above that show both sides, the front and the back of various trucks. It was pretty easy to print some photos out and determine scale. I decided to base my truck on the photo above, and deciding that the tallest person in the photo was six feet tall made the numbers seem reasonable.

The main issue I have is that the trucks are all built on an International Harvester or GMC chassis and I was unable to find anything suitable to scavenge. So I grabbed something reasonable from the time period and decided to use that.


Of course the first issue is that since it's a semi-tractor, the wheel base is not nearly long enough. So I cut off the rear frame section. I also carefully removed the leaf springs so that I could re-use them.


After that I removed some of the existing frame rail from the engine section so I would have somewhere to glue a new rear frame on.
 
I bought some C-Channel that is a scale 8" or so (3/32") and made a new rear frame out of it.


I glued the rear frame onto the engine section with epoxy and then use super glue to install the leaf springs and axles.


I decided I'd start with the easy rear box section first because I needed to paint and assemble the cab to figure out the sizing of the front section.

I made a simple box out of .040" styrene as a base, then added strips of .010" styrene to represent the stamped stiffening ribs in the sides.




After I had all the strips installed I added the 3" square tube (.030" x .030" strips) braces.


I've started adding the rear doors but they are not done yet, so no photo.

I did paint the cab, but I messed it up trying to paint the small chrome parts and have to strip and re-paint it.
 
Okay, got some more work done. Finished up the ribs on the doors. They still need some latches made with wire, but so far so good.


Then I started on the front "dump box" section.


It still needs the ribs on the sides and the channel on the front section. I think it's a little wide and not quite as square as I'd like it, but I'm going to run with it.

Here's a shot of the two box sections on the chassis. I painted the cab, then messed up trying to paint the chrome pieces and stripped it with Simple Green. Sadly I left it in the stripper too long and the cab started to deform a bit. I bought a new cab, but with shipping I spent just about as much as if I'd gone to the LHS and bought a whole kit! Oh well.


Looks like I might need to trim back those gussets by the cab doors - I think they will interfere with them.
 
Ran across this front load dumpster. It may not be period correct, but I don't know how much these things change and if it might be a good starting point for your build.
 



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