I recently purchased several old Ulrich truck kits. One of them is a 1953 American La France firetruck pumper unit. There are no assembly instructions with any of the kits. Can anyone tell me where I might be able to get instructions for Ulrich trucks. Also when assembling them, does solder work better than Epoxy. Thanks for any information.
Well, HOSeeker has instructions for several of the truck kits, but not the Fire Engine I’m afraid.
As for assembly, the usual adhesive nowadays for metal models is CA (I prefer gap-filling except in a few cases).
I like the suggestion to “Clean Up castings with file or pen-knife before assembly”
The wonderful HO Seeker website has catalog and instructional information for a lot of old model lines, including Ulrich.
http://www.hoseeker.com/Ulrich.html
They do not seem to have instructions for the fire truck but it might be that the dump truck instructions, which they do have, might be at least somewhat useful. They might have instructions for some of the other trucks you own.
I would use CA (and probably the gap filling kind) although I am sure two part Epoxy would also work just fine. I am not neat enough with my soldering iron to attempt it with these kits, so I have no experience there to share. The Ulrich kits I have are white metal or zinc alloy (which typically does not solder well if it all). Whether older Ulrich kits were cast in lead I do not know.
Dave Nelson
Missabemodeler,
I find it hard to believe that the firetruck is a Ulrich Truck kit…maybe a Lee Town. To My knowledge…Ulrich never made any other truck kits other than a H-model COE single axle/tandem Mack and Kenworth tandem axle tractor/dump truck version with Tanker Trailer, van trailer and flat-bed with sides…All of which DID NOT need any glue to put them together. They were screwed with self tap screws, wire and press metal fit parts…holes predrilled. Screw-driver, files, Xacto knife was all that was needed to assemble. They were a Zinc alloy casting, which is much harder than white metal, which the Lee Towns were made out of and now Alloy forms makes and are controlled by SS Ltd. All white metal, Polyurthane resin, Pewter kits are best assembled with a Medium viscousity CA. I have great results with ZAP-A-GAP Medium CA+. I have been building the Ulrich trucks since 1952, when they came out.
Here is a link to every truck/auto Mfg’er in 1/87 that was ever and still out there:
http://www.87thscale.info/manufacturers_list_part-1.htm
Should You require further assistance…feel free to contact Me by PM and I’ll do My best to help.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Member Northeast IL. chapter ATHS…(American Truck Historical Society)
That’s good advice and info from Frank. It is ironic that Ulrich trucks are not available because there are now plenty of after market truck detail parts out there that can make the admittedly plain Ulrich castings look darn good.
Just to close a loop, HO Seeker does have some Lee Town instructions but again I cannot find a fire truck. But it may be that the instructions for another kit would at least be helpful absent better information, so take a look at what they have. Lee Town is not separately shown on HO Seeker - it is under miscellaneous
http://hoseeker.net/miscdiagrams.html
Lee Town made interesting stuff for the adventurous modeler willing to do kitbashing in materials other than styrene, as did a firm called Mellor. Both long gone. I myself am not entirely comfortable working with metal kits so I am part of the problem.
Dave Nelson
Here is a 1947-56 American LaFrance pumper, with closed cab, made by Sylvan…which is a Polyurethane resin kit, not metal, which is assembled with CA, for best results. Sylvan makes many other vehicles, all kits if interested.
http://www.amerproto.com/images/sylvan/V072.jpg
I have quite a few Sylvan models and when I purchase them, I use this distributor, for they give a discount on a lot of their kits:
http://www.amerproto.com/sylvan.htm
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
I have 3 or 4 cast firetruck kits at home i will check and see if any of the mach yours i have all the instructions stached in a shoe box