Tim Bongard
Detailed Models
and
Building Projects
Life is a scratchbuilding project
Build On &
Build Boldly!
PART 1 - EARLY ‘60’s SQUAD CONVERSION Introduction and Getting Started
A number of apparatus modelers have recently focused on building models of Squad 10, the Dodge squad that appears in the opening scene of the TV show Emergency! It looks a lot like the later model Squad 51, with the same utility body, 1-ton wheels, running boards, and markings so doing the earlier Squad 10 using the Ranger Detail Technologies Squad 51 conversion kit would be doable once you find a suitable cab. But it also got me wondering: When exactly did the Los Angeles County Fire Department start using Utility bodies on their rescue Squads and were they similar to the ones found on Squad 51 and Squad 10?
I knew that LACoFD used panel trucks for their Rescue Squads for many years dating back to before World War Two. Rescue 8 which aired from 1958-1960, and was the forerunner of Emergency!, followed the exploits of a LACoFD Rescue Squad crew responding to calls in their 1958 GMC Carryall. Rescue 8 like Emergency! had a reputation for working at accurate depictions of the calls and equipment used by Los Angeles County Fire, but even as Rescue 8 was airing, LA County was experimenting with a different truck layout for their Rescue Squads that would enhance the storage and access to the wide variety of tools they carried. With speed and access in mind, the County Fire Department created its own utility body layout and design, which the county shops then built and installed on 1-ton-rated pick-up chassis of various kinds. Vintage photos of Squads 3 and 20, both 1958 Ford F-100s, with these early versions of the Utility Body, and by 1960, the changeover from Panel Trucks to pick-ups with Utility Body backs was in full swing.
With that rolling around in my head, I started thinking about doing one of these early Squads. I found a photo of a 1960 Ford, and with the recent re-issue of the AMT 1960 F-100, I realized I could do Squad 83 as a quick, fun build and end up a dandy replica of this early LA County box body Rescue Squad. The only changes needed would be to modify the AMT kit chassis plate to fit under the RDT Utility body and replace the Utility Body doors with doors that had rectangular slam locks instead of round. The Platter-style light cluster on the roof is something we also offer at Ranger Detail Technologies, but I would need to create a front Grille Guard to finish off the exterior details. Everything else I would need was already in the RDT Squad kit.
The first task was to prep the parts I would need from both the AMT and RDT kits, then dry fit them all to see what chassis modifications would be needed. It turned out that the kit chassis wheelbase needed to be stretched about 13mm. Additionally, fitting the dually rear end required cutting into the molded in chassis rails, so after an hour of cutting, hacking, and rearranging I had a rear clip that worked but that I wasn’t really pleased with. But it DID give me a pattern which I quickly replicated in 3-D by doing a fresh drawing that corrected a good deal of the butchering I did. So now I have a clean rear chassis clip that you can see here in the photos. It fits beautifully under the Squad Utility Box and everything now mates up as it should.
I eliminated the Custom Cab script from the bottom windowsills on either door and sanded the cab, grafted chassis, and Utility Box, re-checked the fit and then gave everything a quick coat of primer with the chassis being finished with a semi-matte black I like. Next, most of the gray primer will be wet sanded off with 600 and 1000 grit wet or dry sandpaper to find and eliminate any remaining flaws or print marks. The photos show the progress to this point and what the original truck looked like. Stay tuned, more to follow!
PART 4 - ADDING SURFACE DOORS
The Ranger Detail Technologies Squad kits come with a pre-embossed, pre-scribed .020 door sheet that have all the correct sized doors with the locations of the slam locks already scribed their proper locations. But because the late '50s and early '60s Squad boxes had rectangular slam locks instead of round, I created a new sheet with scribed rectangular slam locations. The sheet is also embossed with the correct X pillowing, so that the subtle reinforcement creases will show on the door faces once they are installed.
The BEST way to remove the scribed slam lock locations is with the doors still in place on the sheet BEFORE you install the doors. Why? Because with the doors still on the sheet, this will keep you from tearing the plastic near the slam lock location, especially nearest the door edges. I do this by drilling a small hole in the center of each slam lock location and then use a slightly larger drill bit or file to enlarge the hole out to the scribed lines. DO THIS BY HAND, NOT WITH A POWER TOOL! A power tool will rip the thin .020 stock and you are trying to avoid that. Instead, slowly and gently twist the drill bit and you should see the rectangular center twist free - if not all at once, at least most of it - making final clean-up of the hole easy. See the illustrative photos below.
Once the slam lock holes are free and clear, you can wiggle snap the doors from the sheet and use the handy door map included with the kit to keep from mixing up what door goes where. Don't worry that the 3-D print of the box has round locating holes - they will be hidden by the doors that lay over them, and the rectangular slam locks are not deep enough to need the round holes other than to note the location of where the slams go.
Now, since .020 is SO thin, applying the doors with liquid cement or even old-fashioned tube glue is not recommended. Those glues will eventually soften the sheet plastic from behind and mar the surface of the door. Cyanoacrylate, or Super Glue, is an equally poor choice because that kind of glue relies heavily on adhering along a flat plane. The same gluing dynamic that makes it so easy to snap off antennas and similar items glued with CA is what makes doors pop loose after painting or displaying a finished model where temperatures may shift over time. The crystalline bond of CA breaks easily along the sheer plane and doors are nothing more than relatively gigantic sheer planes. (Apologies for the basic science lesson, but "dems da facts"). That means we need an adhesive that won't attack the plastic, but also has some built-in resilience or flexibility once it has dried. Classic 5-Minute epoxy fits the bill perfectly. Here is how to use it when applying doors.
First, prep each door by scuff sanding the BACK side of each (the side with the X depression) with 150 or 180 sand paper. Next, using the map as a guide, place the doors one at a time on the Uti!ity Box and, using a thin lead mechanical pencil, outline where the door will go. Then CAREFULLY scuff sand or scratch the final door locations so that both the door and target areas have been scuffed. (See the illustrative photos below). Then mix up small batches of 5-Minute epoxy - just enough for one of two doors - and smear the glue on the back of the door and set it in the correct location. I use a pad of Post-Its to mix my small batches to give me easy to dispose of mixing surfaces for each batch. (See photo...)
If (when) you get some epoxy schmutzing up from the edges of the door as it's drying, simply wipe away the excess using a damp cotton swab.
Work at setting the doors one at a time and work SLOWLY, allowing the epoxy to set on a door before moving to the next one. Watch them carefully as they dry - doors can and will creep away from their assigned location as the 5-Minute Epoxy dries if you aren't attentive. Allow all the doors to dry completely before moving on to the next step.
Now, a quick word about WHEN to put door layers in place. The question is whether to glue the doors in place BEFORE you do any painting or AFTER. I’ve done it both ways and I can tell you it’s far more advisable to glue the doors in place AFTER several layers of primer are on the cabinetworks foundation to ensure that there are no scratches that will pop up between the doors when final painting begins. Trying to sand those narrow areas to eliminate scratches after the fact is a bear AND contest crusher. I highly recommend getting your cabinetwork foundation REALLY smooth as in paint layer of primer in place before adding the doors.
In the next installment we will add the slam locks, hinges, turn signal pots, and the treadplate cabinet center floor and share some handy tricks to go along with that. That's all for now. Until next time, keep the glue out from under your fingers! Tim
Building an early Los Angeles County Utility Box Squad Truck
The Build
PART 3 - Utility Box Details
The next step is to add the doors and the details to Utility Box, but before we get to that, let’s take a close look at the details we are going to add and how they may differ from their counterparts on Emergency!’s Squad 51.
The regular Ranger Detail Technologies Squad kit supplies you with separate pre-embossed doors that have the big X creases on the doors. These creases add strength to the doors and keep them from warping. However, the kit doors are also pre-scribed to take round slam locks. As the photo shows, these early Squads had rectangular slam locks, so I created a scribed sheet that has the rectangular cut-outs for the rectangular slam locks in the right places. RDT also has rectangular slam locks, so I’ll be using those in concert with the new vintage doors.
By the time we get to the era when Emergency! aired in the early ‘70s, the hinges and slam locks were both chrome, but as the photo of the 1960 rig shows, these items are painted red like the rest of the box. Likewise, on the front of the truck, the grille and front bumper are also painted red to match the truck body.
At the rear of the truck, there is the rear step and the treadplate floor of the center well between the cabinets. On Squad 51 both were painted aluminum, but I’m guessing that only the rear step was painted this way in 1960 and that the center well floor was painted red like the rest of the utility box. This IS just a guess, but two other early utility trucks that I actually had some experience on had painted floors with colors other than aluminum. I plan on adding the treadplate floor from the kit and paint it body color red lie the rest of the box, unless I find some information that shows or says otherwise.
This means we’ll add all these parts to the Utility box and the cab and paint both sub-assemblies red, but in the next installment I’ll provide some tips and hints on how to make these installations go smoothly. Until then, keep the glue out from under your fingers! Tim
Both the Squad Kit and a new 1960 Ford Squad accessories kit that provides what has been discussed here can be found at rangerdetailtechnologies.com .
1960 Ford LA County FD Rescue Squad
PART 2 - ADZ and 0000 in addition to Sanding
On our 1960 Ford Squad project, once I had the initial primer on the box and cab pieces, I gave everything a real good look under a bright light and found a few flaws that I needed to correct, On the cab, I had overlooked several faint seam lines that needed to be removed. The newer kits are getting better and better at hiding these lines created by where the mold sections come together, so once I found them, I marked them with a fine Sharpie to make sure I didn’t forget to remove them. And here is my point for today: Adzing is often better than sanding. In case you don’t know, Adzing is a way of removing a seam line or other detail by dragging the edge of a blade over the seam or detail. It may sound like scraping like this is a pretty crude way of doing things, but exactly the opposite is true. If you lay a hobby knife edge or the edge of a single-edged razor blade on a seamline, the point of contact with the plastic is actually pretty miniscule. Think of it like an inverted capital T. Whereas if you sanded the same area, you are likely sanding a lot of area around the seam line in addition to the seamline itself and probably adding a few scratches to the surface of the plastic to boot. Lightly adzing the seamline can remove the bulk if not all of the seam and minimize any fine sanding follow-up as well.
Another alternative is to use 0000 steel wool to do any heavy seam removal and this is handy when you have large areas to address and want to do it quickly. Now I’m NOT talking about using even a fine Scotch-Brite pad or similar – the result is NOT the same. Use what I’m recommending before rendering judgement. Four 0 “cuts” styrene without leaving behind awful scratches. In fact, if in the process of building, especially scratch building or doing a conversion, if you have left behind some serious scratches, try rubbing them out with 0000 Steel Wool. You may think I’m nuts, but it’s better than sandpaper and more efficient.
After using the Adzing technique and some Four 0 steel wool, I had only a few tiny spots that needed a few swipes of very fine sandpaper before applying the initial coat of undercoat primer. And for that, since the model will be red and I plan on using Tamiya rattle cans to apply my color coats, I opted to use Tamiya’s Pink Primer. Reds are notoriously translucent and Tamiya reds are no exception. When applied over white or gray primers, the shade shifts a bit, either darker or lighter. But with the pink primer, I’ve found that the color actually “pops” in a very positive way and having done a number of Squads, this has become my favorite approach. And this initial layer of primer is to make sure I haven’t left behind any scratches that need to be addressed. If I did, it’s easier to rub them out now before the doors are installed. Few things are more frustrating than trying to sand in between doors and if you’ve had to do it, you know what I’m talking about.
In the next installment we will install the doors and talk about some of the detail differences found on these early boxes when compared with Squad 51 and later Rescue utility boxes. ‘Till then, keep the glue out from under your fingers!
PART 5 - ADDING THE SURFACE DETAILS TO OUR 1960 FORD SQUAD
In this installment of our 1960 Los Angeles County Squad build, we’re going to add the surface details to the box and doors we worked on in the last article and share some handy tricks that should make adding these parts a bit easier. Once again, on the 1960 version of the box, the slam locks were rectangular, not round, and details like the hinges, slam locks, and taillight pods were not chrome, but painted red. (Even later, the pods were still painted, but I’ve seen some modelers assume they were chrome.) That makes the installation of these parts a little easier since they can be added at this stage of the build instead of later after the box has been painted red.
To start, we needed to add the door seal flanges where there are double doors on certain cabinets. It’s simply a matter of cutting short strips of .015 x .040 plastic strip (included in the Squad Box kit) and gluing them in place along these door joints. Be sure that when you do, you leave room for the outer edges of the rectangular slam locks. Very small amounts of liquid cement can be used for this, but still be careful not to use too much glue.
With the door seals in place, you can then add the rectangular slam locks included in the 1960 Hop-up kit. Note, the slam locks are 3-D printed resin and WILL NOT bond to the doors with liquid cement. Be careful with you glue choice here: too much CA will make a mess and fill the surface detail of the slam lock. Likewise, 5-Minute Epoxy in this case would be overkill, so that leaves Canopy Glue as your logical choice. The final coats of paint will seal them anyway, so don’t worry about if the bond will be secure enough.
Also, note the shape of the rectangular slam locks. If you’ve never noticed how they are oriented, the latch handle opening – where you reach in to grab the release handle – is on the FAR side, away from the door edge, so that when you pull up on the latch, you are also pulling the door open without it slipping off your fingers. Mounted the opposite way, the slam will tend to slip off your fingers as you try to open the door. So keep a careful eye on the direction of the slam lock when you are installing them on the doors. Dry fit each to be sure nothing prevents the slam lock from seating properly in the hold and adjust as necessary.
With the slam locks in place, you can move to the back of the box and add the turn signal fixtures. Again, dry fit the pod fixtures and if necessary, file the holes as needed to get a good fit. Again, these should be glued in place with Canopy Glue – and leave the lenses out of them for now for installation later on.
Next, using the .035 plastic rod included in the 1960 Hop-up kit, cut pieces to fit the various doors on the cabinets. The hinges go on the door edge opposite the slam locks, but you can consult the door map if you are not sure. You can glue the rods in place with Canopy Glue OR with liquid cement if you use a fine applicator brush or pin – you will need to be careful here if using liquid cement. Like with the installation of the door seals, only the tiniest amount of cement is needed. The rod makes the hinge installation easy and bare plastic can be used because they will be painted red like the rest of the cabinet. Usually I use .032 solder for my hinges because of the chrome appearance of the solder and how it closely matches the chrome appearance of the hinges on the cabinets from about 1965 on.
As noted an earlier installment in this series, I THINK that the tread plate floor at the back of the box and between cabinet sides on the early boxes from1958 through about 1964 were painted red, not aluminum as in the 1970s and later. I worked on several pieces of ‘50s and ‘60s apparatus and often times treadplate floors on those rigs were painted black or the body color, and they too had their slam locks and hinges painted as well. This is really just a hunch on my part given that both the slam locks and hinges were also painted on this 1960 Squad - it's a 50/50 call really - so I am going to paint the floor red and tack it in place with a spot of Canopy Glue. Since Canopy Glue is water soluble, if I discover later that I guessed wrong, I can soften the glue, remove the floor, and repaint it aluminum and the reinstall it.
Once all these additions have dried, check for and correct any minor schmutz events or similar faults, and then re-prime the box assembly to get it ready for the red color coats.
Next, we’ll touch on the cab modifications including the grill guard and set up the wheels. That's all for now. Until next time, keep the glue out from under your fingers! Tim
The Squad Utility Box and parts presented here can be obtained at rangerdetailtechnologies.com or contact Tim at tim@tsbongard.com for more information.
Most people are familiar with Los Angeles County Fire Department's utility box-style Rescue & Paramedic trucks from seeing Squad 51 on reruns of the '70s TV Show Emergency! But many readers would be surprised to find out that Squad 51 wasn't the first Rescue Truck in the LA County fleet to use the utility box design or layout that we now all take for granted. Utility Boxes were first experimented with in the late 1950s as a more practical alternative to the then-in-use panel trucks and Suburbans as the amount of gear Rescues carried and frequency of calls expanded in the growing Los Angeles County area. The 1960 version of the truck was when LA County Fire converted their fleet of Rescues to the Utility Box design and it's easy to see the roots of Squad 51 in these older trucks.
With the re-release of the AMT 1/25th scale 1960 Ford F-100 Pick-up by Round 2 and the Los Angeles County Paramedic Wagon Squad conversion kit in the same scale by Ranger Detail Technologies, building a detailed model of this forerunner of Squad 51 is now in easy reach. This series will lay out what you need to do and what details are different on the earlier trucks.