How to modify A/C motorblock sideframes to Climax type sideframes

Hello all

This is a quick and dirty (my favorite way) way to turn a Aristo Centercab motorblock into a resonable facsimale of a Climax type truck. These are going to be used on my Class A Climax kitbash I have been planning for a while now and will make two more for my Dunkirk engine. I had a cheapo HLW flatcar/gondola laying around and I got to wondering if I could modify the archbar trucks for use on the Dunkirk engine. Side by side comparision revealed that they both had the same wheelbase and that by adding a styrene L I might be able to reuse the stock mounting.

Here is the basic HLW archbar truck I used..


HLW and A/C sideframes side by side


Aligning mounting holes in 4" long x 1/4" styrene L


L before placement after trimming archbar top flat


Bending the .40 x 3/16 strip styrene end bars


glued end bars in place


adding cut tube and wire to represent nuts and bolts


Completed sideframe mounted to the block.




This takes about 20 minutes from start to finish for each sideframe. Be sure when you drill the mount holes to either drill for the alignment studs or trim them off the block. I kept mine. Now I gotta find another flatcar and do the Dunkirk, cant wait to see how they look on that engine. If you want brake arms can be mounted to the L angles or to the end bars more prototypically. As I said this is a quick and dirty bash, but it beats building it completely from scratch and looks pretty good even if I do say so myself! [8D]