How-To Showing Conversion of A WBB Sedan to A Diecast Body

Awesome Lee

Question Where are you getting these Diecast cars and what scale are you using

They are 1:43.  I both prefer the look of slightly larger cars against the backdrop of scale locos, etc., and the slight different from 1:48 - about 10%, makes all the difference in the world when trying to fit diecast bodies on 'Streets chassis.  I've converted about two dozen cars and six or seven Corgi (1:50) buses.  

Whenever I want any type of car I first try Amazon - they have a selection of about ten thousand and usually good prices.  If not there, next I search diecastdirect, then if not there mintmodels, 3000toys, buffaloroad construction models, modeltrainstuff, etc.   You can also try e-bay - it has almost anything but I never e-bay.

WOW Lee, That was a great write-up. As a retired Industrial / Manufacturing Engineer I really appreciate such concise writing. In my time study and methods work I got to see the challenges of being so exact and clear. Many of the engineers I worked with really lacked writing skills, their talents were more mechanical. Developing such efficient methods is also a skill many engineers lack. 

Thank you for taking the time and effort to prepare and share your hard earned knowledge relating to the Super Streets vehicle modifications. 

Paul Goodness

Lee Thank you

Lee:

Once again an excellent write up.

Have you considered publishing an eBook or protected PDF in the vein of "The DCS Companion"?  

A little additional effort and you could be a 'best selling author'! This could provide an additional 'funding stream' for future projects or a nice contribution for your favorite charity.

This 'one stop' documentation would be valuable to newbies and veterans alike. 

Love your how to posts as the techniques posted apply to the presented project as well expanding everyone's modeling repertoire. 

Thanks Lee.

Thank you, everyone, for the comments!

Spence, it is a lot of fun and rewarding.  Looking through my descriptive slides this morning, and counting the tools needed the way I do it (bench sander, band saw, drill press, Dremel) and steps involved, I realize this probably really does not fall into the category of "easy."  Just be sure to cover the body with towels of plastic well to avoid scratching it as you work on it and avoid those epoxy fingerprints.  

Like with so many things, "it's easy to do the second time you do it." Case in point is the two cars in the photo below.  The first conversion I ever did is the blue '57 Chevy in front, about four years ago, on a K-Line vintage truck chassis shortened.  It has an epoxy fringerprint on the siude, and I ended up epoxying the front axle solid, so the wheels would not roll.  It still ran (and still runs fine). While it won't run slow - none of them do) at 45 and above its as smooth as stock, pushing its stationary wheels along the rails with a slightly louder noise than most.  I did the Chevy behind it a day after, though, and its wheels do roll.   

I'd recommend starting like I did, with something like these Yat Ming Chevies as job one: inexpensive, and no attached plastic trim and all like the Pontiac to complicate matters.  That Pontiac I did yesterday costs north of $65 I think, making it an expensive learning experience, but Amazon has a couple of these Yat Ming Chevies on its website this morning at around $9.  I've looked at they two I have just now from the perspective of fitting the WBB body instead of the K-Line what was all I had back then.  I would be easier than with the K-Line chassis and in fact it looks like very little modification of the chassis would be needed

Lee do you know of a source of the old K-line Vintage Truck Chassis

I have several of the Die cast Vintage Coca-Cola Trucks that I need to motorize to run on streets.

I sent you an e-mail a while ago to your addy but never got a response.

Thank you

I sent him an email the other day and didn't get an answer.

Bob

http://www.westerndepot.com/pr...11/products_id/10888

Some old K-Line vehicles here you could perhaps use the handcars as well?? what is the wheel base difference?

http://www.westerndepot.com/pr.../11/products_id/7894

For  a huge collection of 1/43 diecast in all price ranges check out;

http://www.eautomobilia.com/

They sometimes discount to train clubs ask! Some from the local train club get discounts. 

 tell them you saw the link on the OGR forum!

To use the search function pick Canada or US for pricing then model and type of vehicle then hit scale and pick most in 1/43

Then click on availability the bottom tab to get the in stock list.

Love your updates on the converisons Lee doing a great job and always great instructions.

I just wish we had the same road system that they do in HO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew7tznlpseA

Just look at this Peterbilt climbing and dropping up and down the hills and curves with turning front wheels holding the speed up and down a dream for us in 1/43.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkxKI80HDmI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVylxuVgepA

Problem we have with the K-line conversions is that over time they can catch up to each other.

http://www.faller.de/App/WebOb...g.en/Car-System.html

Seems like it would be relatively simple to make this work in O.  

Lee,

Thanks for the great tutorial! You make it look so easy, and your cautions are very helpful to a novice.

Following up on an early post here, I didn't convert the Brooklin Roadmaster - for issues discussed in the currently 1:43 Motor Chronicle thread.  But the Mercury is converted and with an electronic flywheel just an absolutely delightful conversion in every way.  One of my favorites. 

Great job Lee, as usual.

...did I miss the pontiac body/trim conversion?

It's a good system - a very good system, but I thought I'd have trouble retorfitting it to my roads and cars.  I used the infrared beam I explained about in another recent thread, along with the "fine tuning" that makes all of them run about the same speed (blocking helps but it works best if the cars run pretty close to the same speeds anyway, so I focused on that).

Either way, you need some sort of blocking to make sure it works.  

Lee my email has nothing to do with how to do a conversion.

Bob

Not sure what you are talking about then.  I checked you e-mail as listed on this forum and the only e-mail I received from you was back on June 9 of last year about land speed record car models.  I appreciated the info you sent and answered back on June 10.  I received five e-mails over the weekend from forum members about this topic and have answered them all now. If you sent one recently I did not get it.

Lee check your email now.

Bob

Lee

These are the Original Mates to the First K-Line superstreets Vintage Trucks

I matched them up to the vintage trucks and all i needed to do was to take the two screws out of the bottom of the motorized chassis take off the shell and put the coca Cola shell back on and screw it down tight

I also have the larger Trucks as well

will send pictures as soon as I can get them done

Thanks for the responses Lee

here is what I am looking for Lee

These are the Die Cast Trucks I have

I have several different Types of these all the same size a perfect match to the one on the Super Streets layout above.

I also have a few of these that are at 1/48th scale or what ever they used.

These are larger than the ones above. All of these are in the Coke Livery and I was a hoping to get some of them to run on streets.

Lee I have been holding off on getting the streets because I wanted to get these to move to go around my wife's Coca Cola Village for next Christmas.

Hope you can help

I have never seen the Coca-Cola logo trucks in Superstreets.  The vitage Coca-Cola truck you have is a diecast model using almost the same body as the 'streets version.  I have one of these, although it is not a Coke version but Heinz ketchup. The doors on that open and close.  Otherwise, it and the chassis too look to be identical.  I would think it likely you could buy one of the 'Streets vintage trucks and just switch your body on to it.  I will take apart mine tomorrow and see if it works.

The other, newer models you might be able to convert, but short pickups are tough: the motor and the pickup bed vie for space.  You could cut away the inside of the pickup bed, put a cover onit, and probably get it converted with difficulty.  It would be a hard conversion.  

I converted a '68 Mustang GT today, by far the smallest car I have been able to convert to 'Streets.  It is sooo cool.  I never owned one, but wish I had: they were great cars.  

Here it is running through downtown at a scale 40 or so mph - as slow as it will run without a flywheel and a tiny stutter here and there at that speed.  The driver did not get a ticket even though the speed limit is 25 mph, not that he need worry, the town's '50 Nash police car and the highway patrols '50 Ford coupe with the police interceptor engine really don't have much of a chance against the 390 in the Mustang.  Putting an electronic flywheel in this little puppy will be a real challenge, but I'm going to try.

Lee have you seen the larger diecast trucks in o scale like the ones on the flatcar in the picture.

These are larger

On the smaller Trucks along the under carriage where the wheels are attached is a stamping of SS-4625-30

Bobbie21921 - I do not know exactly what trucks these toy bigger ones are.  I am not familiar with the actual model.  You say they are larger but I don't know how much larger.   I am sure they could be converted but not sure the conversion would be easy, or satisfactory.   If those truck are much larger, they may be so wide that the track (width side to side) of the wheels is not wide enough to properly fill the fenders.  Also keep in mind that anything that requires a wheelbase longer than the vintage truck (SS-4625) will not get along on 'Streets D-16 curves, but tend to stall or slow dramatically and spin its wheels (or de-rail) on them. So if conversion meant lengthening the wheelbase you might have an unsatisfactory runner.  

With regard to the vintage truck you have, conversion to 'Streets would be fairly straightforward. It would involve more than just switching the bodies, but it is a very simple operation.  Here are some slides.

What we're talking about.  On the left, a K-Line Superstreets vintage truck.  On the left, a diecast toy vintage truck - mine is a Heinz ketchup one, not a Coca-Cola like yours, but otherwise they are the same.  Other than the streets features the only other difference is that the non-running toy truck has opening doors.  

You dis-assemble them both in identical manner: remove one screw and only one screw in the center of the chassis underneath, about 1/2 - 3/4 inch back from the front axl.  DO NOT loosen the two screws on the 'Streets vehicle's chassis that are side-by-side, further back.  They hold the motor in (actually easy to remount) and by virtue of that also keep the axle bearings in place (nearly impossible to put back in). With the one screw removed, the chassis "hinges" out , basically pivoting at the back as one piece you can remove.  You are left with the two diecast bodies, below.  Now, these each come apart into two sections, not shown here.  The upper section consisting of the hood , the cab, and the platform under the truck box with the plastic truck box attached, comes loose from the part that is just the four fenders (one piece).  There are no screws.  But I have left the pieces together in this photo.  

To convert the your Coca-Cola truck body to fit the streets chassis you will have to cut away metal from the fenders piece of the toy diecast body along the red dotted lines.  This makes room for the motor.  You will also have to remove (cut away) the small screw post (into which nothing was screwed by the way) at the red (red arrow).  Again, it is in the way of the motor/gearbox.  The diecast body will now fit.  However, see next photo . . . 

You will either have to trim the plastic part that forms the seat inside the cab or switch out the plastic seat and driver piece for the one from the 'Streets vehicle.  I found this fascincating: cutting away the toy plastic piece is how the K-Line 'Streets truck was made.  You can clearly see the skip marks where someone at the factory just took the plastic piece, unmodified, and cut away the two areas (red arrows) so it would fit.  If I were doing it I wouldn't even remove the seat from the cab, just use a Dremel (same tool) to cut the plastic.  Probably 30 seconds of work.

There is one more, tiny detail.  On the toy (non- 'Streets truck) the chrome running boards and the chrome radiator headlights are one piece of plastic.  On the "Streets vehicle they are two.  It looks as if, again, someone took the single plastic piece from the toy and just snip-snip-snip trimmed it into two pieces to fit the 'Streets vehicle. When you take them apart you will see the difference and where to cut - very easy.  When these cuts are done the vintage coca-cola truck will reassemble and you should mount on the 'Streets chassis.

I re-assemble mine as is.  I have only the one non-Streets vintage truck and want to keep it stock.  The vintage 'Streets truck is one of only four I have left and I want to save it for  conversion with a diecast car.  

And finally, although you will not need to use epoxy or modify the chassis in any way, before doing anything I would wrap the coca cola truck as I did in my conversion, earlier.  Things tend to get scratched and such when cutting, etc.  

Good luck

Very nice job Lee.

Lee:

Very informative, I bookmarked this post so I can find it later

okay Lee I got the Conversion information and Thank you. I will add it to the PDF you did a while ago about the tractor trailers you modified.

But I am still confused as to which chassis I am supposed to use and I have been looking for the vintage Trucks and I can not locate any to be had.

Do you know where I can find the streets chassis or Which of the newer streets Chassis I can use.