Dodge L700 assembly part I

Progress is being made. The doors have been hung and are not too bad in terms of fit. I built this kit as a teenager and remember fighting with the fit of the doors.



It was still not easy 45+ years later. There is a lot of trial and error required because nothing is pinned or doweled, and because the instruction sheet is a paragon of obfuscation. Rear view mirrors are a case in point. Glue it in wrong and you are in trouble. (Same goes for the A100 pickup).



At this point, however, the doors seem to fit, and the cab slides over the interior OK, so maybe all is well.

The chassis is essentially complete. One major challenge was that the rear axle, which is one of the few items pinned to its mating part (the springs), sits much too far forward, and the driveshaft is too short. Either I put the axle in backwards (not possible, really) or I put the springs on backwards (unlikely, given the picture, which admittedly is pretty poor). We'll see how it all fits once the rest of it goes together.




It certainly deserves the 'cab-forward' moniker -- perhaps the stance is a little too aggressive, but it looks good. (The forward positioning of the rear axle isn't helping the stance any.)



Final assembly will be tomorrow once the coat of clear sets, but I can tell you right away that this is not really a kit for beginners -- the amount of fiddling about which is required is well beyond the usual AMT or Revell kit. This applies to the A100 pickup truck as well. Still, it provides a model of an iconic '60s cab-forward design, and so is worth it if this sort of thing is of interest. And once the doors are on, it is nice to be able to show off the interior.