T&J 1929 Stakebed Truck

I have been a fan of Kenny from ACUTABOVE WOODWORKING for a while now and so I spend a lot of time watching some of his older shows.  I especially like the shows where he builds either Toys & Joys (T&J) models or Dutchy's models.  Recently, I spent some time watching a video he made 3 years ago,  fabricating the T&J 1929 Ford Stakebed Truck.  I thought it looked interesting and so ordered the plans.  What I did not expect was that the plan has been updated by T&J and so some of the features and processes used by Kenny, while workable with some additional re-swizzling of the updated plan, would add more tedious complexity to the work.  Soooooo, I decided that I would make the plan as printed (well, almost) and add a few of my own upgrades (as usual).   I started this project a few weeks ago and then got side tracked with the wall unit that I posted on Craftisian  a few days ago.  The bulk of the build was complete before I took the detour and so I have finished up the upgrades I planned.

The materials used are Cherry, Walnut, Peruvian Walnut, Poplar, Purpleheart, Sepella, and common birch dowels and some bass wood for the license plate and the Ford emblem on the radiator.

The plan is really a good intro to model building but study of the plans is essential, since not all measurements are where you might think they would be.  I varied from the plan in the tire and wheel construction.  There is a template printed in the plans and if you watch Kenny's Part 7 of the series, you will see how it was used then.  The updated plan indicates that the Five 3/8" holes are actually drilled into the back of the tire parts and then into the hub assembly, so there is a through view all the way  to the axel housing.  I didn't like that idea of the tire drilling so I just made the hub assemblies.  

Some other detail adds from me are the ah-ugga horn on the Driver side front, the 1929 Ford oval logo on the radiator, the license plate and the tail lights.  The tail lights are .svg files i created from of an image of 1929 Ford tail lights I found on line.   I was kind of surprised that tail lights were not part of the plan  nor was a license plate.  The Ford logo, the license plate, and the tail lights are all made using the laser, as is the Firestone logo on the tires.  Firestone was the tire brand of choice on the '29, so that is what I went with.     My other small change is the contrasting roof on the cab.  Most of the images of a '29 stakebed I found all had that contrasting roof so it became a walnut fabrication.  

The final finish is Watco Natural Danish Oil.  I like it since it brings out the wood species colors and it gives a durable finish.

I really enjoyed the time I spent on this build and how have to decide what will be next.  I have Dutchy's VW Bus and the TukTuk.   We'll see.