Dodge SC/Avenger- Tracked Scavenger Vehicle WIP

[Chuck Most]

This is an idea I've had in the back of my head for some time now, and things are finally falling into place and allowing me to go ahead with it. The idea here is a truck that would be used by a kind of post-apoc Sanford and Son. Basically, this truck would prowl the barren cities and suburbs looking for cast-off, overlooked goodies, then go from settlement to settlement trading and bartering. This means that a generous payload capacity would be needed, and you'd need to have something rugged to cope with the crumbling roadways.

So, after a bit of fiddling, I had this...



The cab and forward part of the frame are from Lindberg's Dodge L-700. The frame was cut just behind the rear fuel tank brackets, and an entire undercarriage from a Moebius Lost In Space Chariot (Thiokol Spryte) was spliced in. The frame splice was intentionally less-than-pretty, as who the hell in the dystopian world has time for finesse in their fab work? Not this guy, that's who.



A little bit later, and I was at this point. The front wheels and tires came from an AMT LaFrance fire truck. The front bumper started off as a slab of square plastic- it was adorned with an Italeri light bar, and also a winch and skid plate from a Revell Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. The fiddly vinyl tracks were also permanently installed, once the frame had been sprayed in an overall "rust-like" coating of paint. The flat bed is from AMT's Ford C-600. I moved the front rack forward, so that I could install a flat treadplate floor on the front part of the flat bed. Like so...



Why the flat, open area? The plan is for this truck to either be steam powered, or to have a wood gas setup for the stock Dodge V8. Either way, I'm gonna need a place to put the burner and it's related witchcraft. Even if not, I'm sure I can put this open area to use somehow or another.

More to come.

[bob29579]

Cool ideas so far.

[dogfish7]

Awesome Chuck! Glad you're building one on here.

[Chuck Most]

Work on the wood gasifier has begun. The boiler began as a transformer from the AMT lowboy kit, and the pipe was modified from the transformer piece. The precipitating tank is an old fire truck fuel tank. A cooling unit of some type and more piping will come.

[bob29579]

Ha. Pretty cool.

[dogfish7]

I'm likin it as well.

[Chuck Most]

I know it's been a while, but I did actually make a little progress on this thing. Mainly, a bit of interior work... photoetched pedal pads and racing buckets.

[dogfish7]

Sure would be cool if you put these in a Diorama.

[Chuck Most]

A diorama may be in the works. Some day...
But for now...

To quote Jeremy Clarkson... "Powaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!"

Now, I had planned to keep the Dodge's stock 361 cubic inch V8. But there was a problem. The planned wood-gas fuel setup can sap power by quite a bit... we're talking as much as a 50% possible loss of the engine's original output. So... I thought that maybe a supercharged 392 Hemi would solve part of that problem. Who'd have thought there would need to be some floor surgery required to fit a Roots-blown Elephant motor under the cab of a Dodge L-700? Probably nobody, because I'm pretty sure I'm the first person in the world to ponder such insanity. Anyway... methinks that 31 additional cubes and a big ol' 4-barrel-fed iron lung will offset at least some of the power loss brought on by the fuel source. And if I opt to go with boring old gasoline as power, then I'll have a pretty stout powerplant. In that case the thing might even be able to reach some sphincter-clenching speed, like 60 MPH downhill!

The engine itself came from the old AMT parts pack, while the transmission was cut away from the L'700 kit engine block and spliced onto the AMT block, along with the L-700's factory type starter.





A bit of rusty steel work will cover up the butchery, and we'll seal off the interior from any harmful gasses. Well, from the engine and wood gasifier at least. Deadly gasses emitted from the occupants of the cab will be dealt with via a simple crank of the window.

[dogfish7]

Maybe not.

[Chuck Most]

Yours is slightly less "Hemi" though. How much butchery to the floor did you need to clear it?

[dogfish7]

Yeh, the 440 doesn't have the side clearance of the Hemi, put still had to some major surgery to the cab. I used a Mortin's Salt spout for the blower cowling. Hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread Chuck.

[Chuck Most]

I heartily encourage thread hijacking when it gives me some solid ideas. This would be a pretty good example of that, so it's all good with me.
the only downside to running the blower is it pretty much kills my center bucket seat idea, but I can always try that on some other project.

[dogfish7]

Had thought of running a intake hose to the top of the cab, but the trailer blocked it.

[Chuck Most]

Managed to get quite a bit done today... revised and installed the wood gas unit, fitted the engine for good, made a platform over the cargo deck, and painted/assembled the cab.