Thanks Ralph, some progress today. The subframe under the load box didnt want to play nicely with the main frame side sections. So…carefully released the subframes and mounted these to the main frame, then load box on top of this. Pic shows the cab sitting out of whack but that’s been fixed since. Onto the tank and pump unit this week.
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Moving on, realised the “b” section brace dimensions didn’t accommodate the tank skids. Trimmed these down to allow a dry to fit as shown. Then I drilled out the spare wheel bracket fittings, and added the spare wheel. Cab still dry-fitted in second pic.
Lesson learned; build braces to fit the kit parts, dont just rely on drawings!
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Looking pretty good. Ouch! Gonna need a bunch of filler to fix that mold seam on the side of the fuel pod.
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Yes indeed. Should be fun………
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When will Mickey update the conversion?
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AFAIK he’s working on it, drawing the battery box and air filter. I think we thought the M54 air filter could be just swapped around but the canister is quite a different unit, with one connecting hose, not 2 like on the M54.
Yup, he’s working on it.
I’m not too sure the air filter is that different. From what I can tell, they are basically the same, just turned around. The M54 only has one hose going into it, and another coming out the front to the intake. The M809 also has only one hose in and none coming out the back and the intake on top. The M54 part can easily be modified by smoothing off the front and adding a smaller disk on a pipe on top to be the M809 filter and intake.
M54
M809
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The M54 unit can be modified, but a dedicated air filter would complete the conversion set nicely. Ive modified the M54 filter housing but its convex profile of the front end of the housing is difficult for my clumsy hands to replicate. And it’s pretty prominent sitting up on the d/s fender like that. Pushes the price up but that’s OK with me.
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When will you bring complete Conversion?
New update to the conversion here:
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Looks excellent Mikey. The battery box looks beautiful, a work of art!
Great to see you’ve added an air filter. Are you printing the air filter separate from the engine side panel? I would love to think the hood, side panels c/w air filter would simply drop in place without too much fettling but……Maybe printing the filter and pipework separately would provide a bit of wiggle room when aligning the filter housing on the fender?
(Just looking at it from an end-user’s perspective 
)
When will it be available?
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Another step forward, filled ? the flaw in the tank. Other one nearly as bad….Contacted PSM re potential replacements last week, no news yet. Separated the TPU parts and a/b Tamiya XF89, laid a coat of same over filled tanks to help with final fill/sanding.
Seems weird to be finishing the back of the truck when it hasn’t got a front end, but all things in time………
Posting some progress pics tomorrow or Thursday.
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Today was spent studying images, detail painting the hose couplings, hose and various attachments. The 600 gallon tanks got a coat of DARK GREEN 2 and the diagonal cracks in both are still visible…….I’m going to give them more Mr Surfacer 500 and one more sand tomorrow and then its over to a wash, decals and weathering to cover the problem.
(It worked
on my M1062).
The kit, as others have said, has its complications and if I can arrange the connecting hoses it’ll be a blerry miracle!
Onward tomorrow.
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I completely forgot that you were working on the fuel tank. I had been looking at making the 600gal fuel tank but thought “bah, who’s gonna make that”…
It’s done and available. I’m going to be making a test print tonight.
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If you made the 600 gallon tanks I guess sooner or later you’d get requests for the pump unit too!
On the M813 hood set, can you ship mine as soon as you can?
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Dang, I wrote to you Michael but used the wrong reply setting.
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I’ll have to find it. All I’m seeing is a dump truck with the same battery box.
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Not sure what you mean by “tractor specific” battery box?
The M52 tractor uses the standard M39 series battery box.
The M818 tractor uses the same battery box as the rest of the M809 series trucks, like Mikey’s part above.
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Whoops, my bad.
It’s the fuel tanks that differ. But theyre included in the HL kit………
Apologies Mikey, thanks Gino!
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