Do any of you have any photos of the Kenworth K100 Aerodyne? I am particularly interested in interior of the cab and sleeping area as well as the motor. I have searched high and I have searched low but so far all I got are some external shots of the cab.

I bought the Revell 1:25 scale replica and since it comes with opening doors and movable cab, I would like to make it as realistic as possible. That will mean scratching quite a bit of detail, especially around the engine.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Now on the engines they could of come with either a cat or Cummings, or Detroit in it, and who knows what kind of transmission, or what speed they ordered in it, so you could just about take your pick, unless your shifter is like the shifter in my model.

What does the shifter have on it, like the model I have, it has one button that is supposed to slide side ways on the top part, then another one that is supposed to lift up on the shifter arm, which means it has a 13 speed transmission, or does yours have anything on the shifter, or just a stick, sticking out?
Kerry

Most Kenworths had that pull button interior, the flat roof ones will be the same except the aerodyne is higher, because it had bunk beds in the back, instead of just one bed like the flat roofed ones, the upper bed folded up to give more room when you wasn't using it in the aerodyne.

Then the engines. they basically looked the same no matter what truck they were in, so if you got a picture of a cabover with the same engine, it will be plumbed almost the same as your aerodyne, maybe a couple more filters on yours, then say an International maybe.

It all depends on how they were ordered, but at least it will get you closer then no pictures.

Kerry

Hey Kerry,

The shifter in that thing looks quite normal. It is basically just a stick in the floor without any funky switches or swing arms. The motor, according to instructions, is a 400 hp cummins with twin turbo chargers. I am not completely sure how many cylinders it has.

The box art has a couple of decent photos of the interior of the model. I just wish I could find some photos from actual trucks.

Thanks for your help

I'm not positive, but pretty sure, that was that old 475 HP Cummings they had back then, with the twin turbos, and that would be a 6 cylinder, the only other one they had in trucks was that little 903, it sounds big, but it was short on HP, and sounded like a Detroit.

All the Cummings were 6 cylinders except the 903, which was a small 8 cylinder, my brother had one of them 903's in one of his trucks, if you build it to run, then it don't run long, other wise, if you left it castrated, then it ran forever.

Now back to your engine, they didn't have to many of them, it was basically a 400 with another turbo added to build it into 475 HP, of course they changed the injectors and a few other things to give it the extra HP, but I've heard them engines give a lot of problems, but they were one of the power houses in their day, when they were running.

The only other engine that could keep with it, was the 3408 Cat, but they weighed an awful lot, they started at 450 HP, then you could turn them up, and go way past it on HP, I think that was the time the military turned down all them 1693 cat engines, I think that was what them 6 cylinders were called, so they put them in trucks.

I think just about everyone of them 1693's went over a million miles plus without an overhaul, and back then that was great for a truck engine, but now that is almost normal, my Mack has over a million miles, and don't use any more oil then it did the first month.

Now if your shifter is just a straight bar, with no round knob at the top, then it would haft to be either a 10, or 15 speed, cause a 15 would normally have the switch over on the dash somewhere, and just the one button you can make yourself for the splitter to put on the shifter, then have 2 small air lines going to it, then connect to the bottom of it, the button should look like it should pull up, cause that is the way all 10 speed road rangers looked.

Then the 13 would have a round top, with a button in it that slides side ways, with a couple airlines going to it to.

Well to make sure, I'll go out and look at mine, and if it's any different, I'll tell you, cause even though it's a Mack, they still look the same on the shifter, cause I got a 13 in mine, a 13, or 18, can look the same.

Hi Marty

I am interested in that kit as well. I would love to hear your initial opnion on it and would of course like to see/hear of your progress as the kit unfolds.

Regards

Sean

I know they have them in a couple different years, cause I know mine are, even though mine are 1/32, I have see them all in 1/24 also, cause one of mine is the BJ, and the bear model, and the other is a little newer model, they were bought as one complete on E bay by my neighbor, but when I opened them, it was 2 cabs and frames, and partial suspensions with a lot of the key parts missing.

I've already scratched a lot of the parts around on it, and filled in where AMT only made half parts. They were so old, they had hardly none of the bolts molded on the sides of the frames, so I fixed that also. Then took a .020" solder made into a coiled air line to run to the sliding fifth wheel.

Now with 1/24 scale you will need bigger then that to look right, cause mine is 1/32 scale of course.

One of my headache racks that support the air intake tube, and exhaust, they have hook ups for air lines, that you can improve on tremendously by adding airlines to, that also has an extra air tank like CF company trucks had, cause they had air starters on their engines, which needed that real big air tank in the back to hold the air for the starter, so maybe your guys might have that stuff to, that you would run an air line to the engine, if it had an air starter.

Kerry,

Thank you so much for all the info. You are just a walking encyclopedia of truck info. :-) Great stuff!

I was able to find a couple of photos of the cummins motors. They are not exactly what I am looking for but at least will give me an idea of how to wire them.

Now about the shifter, I think it may have a knob at the very top. I am not completely sure though. Will need to check when I get home tonight.

I gotta tell you that this kit kind of scares me. There is so much stuff I want to do to it but I am not sure if I am ready to do it. I guess I am mostly worried about painting it since I have very little experience with gloss/lacquer paints. Also, many parts are already chromed. Unfortunately they look cheesy so I will have to strip them and re-chrome myself. Never done that either.

This one will definitely be a challenge.

Now I know cleaning the chrome off is real simple, cause most of the chrome on my 2 were real bad to, I just took Clorox clean up, that comes in the spray bottle, and put in a little dish, and within a minute, or 2 all the chrome was off.

Now if you have a lot of chrome to take off, you might haft to put new Clorox clean up in, and of course pour out the old, cause after so many pieces, it gets diluted, then it takes longer to do, so the fresher the Clorox, the faster the chrome comes off.

Then if you can't rechrome them yourself, I have seen places advertised, that you can send them to, that promise they can do first rate jobs of chroming for you.

I don't remember who they are just now, but I bet, if we ask, I bet somebody here at Armorama should know their names of who to send these parts to, that you can get it done in a short time, they promise a quick turn around.

Marty, if you have an airbrush look out for "Alclad" paints. They do a chrome 30ml tinlet that is ready for airbrushing.

HTH
Pete

Marty, and Sean, what kind of suspensions do you guys have on you models, is it the old 8 bag Kenworth, or the Kenworth Torsion bar suspension, or does it have a generic brand on it, and does it have all the nuts, and bolts molded pretty good on the frame.

I know mine had next to nothing when it came to bolts molded on it, cause they were so old, one of them has the 8 bag suspension, and I had to put in all the bolts all around the airbag mounts, and for the cross members on the frame.

Now the other one, I haven't figure just what kind of suspension it has yet, cause who ever owned it before, broke all the mounting plugs, plus half the suspension is gone, cause it was one of them snap together, so I got to change all that, I'm not sure, but it kind of looks like a Hendrickson walking beams suspension, to what is left.

I haven't seen to many of these myself, I know my friend had a garbage truck with one of these suspensions, and it was years sense I've seen that one, so either I got to make up a whole new spring system, or try to learn how this one was.

I just thought if you had an air ride, and it didn't have any bolts on it, try to find any air ride saddle, to look how many bolts are holding it on, then that should give you an idea on yours.

See I looked at my air ride saddles on my Mack to get the placement of the bolts on my Kenworth