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“In this next stage, you’ll assemble the electrical cable reel and a storage compartment with opening lid, which are then fixed to the roof of the main body.“
Contents
Parts
Materials: The Compartment Lid hinge is metal, the Cable is yellow electrical wire, and the rest of the parts in this stage are plastic.
NOTE: Save any spare screws left over at the end of each stage of this build. They may be needed in later stages!
Build
Fixing the Electrical Cable Reel and Storage Compartment
Electrical Cable Reel
NOTE: I changed up the order of the steps in this section to make my own installation a bit easier and, to add my own tiny modification.
Step 1
Glue the two square pegs of the Fairlead Rollers into these two matching holes of the Bracket.
These Fairlead Rollers have a specific orientation and should end up being perfectly vertical, as shown:
Step 2
Slide the two Reel End parts together, fitting the thinner post inside the thicker one, as shown:
Step 3
Wrap one end of the Cable around the center ‘shaft’ of the Reel, as shown. You may want to super glue this end in place.
This Cable is a stiff electrical wire, so it may take a good amount of glue to secure the end to the Reel:
Continue coiling the Cable around the Reel until all of the Cable is used.
Typically, there is a plug on the end of this Cable, so I decided to do a small modification to it. First, per the instructions, I coiled the Cable around the Reel in a spiral pattern from one end of the Reel to the other. However, I did not glue the free end of the Cable down:
Instead, I left a short length of the Cable sticking out and moved on to installing the Reel:
Step 4
Slide this Reel assembly down between the tabs of the Bracket.
Here, I passed the free end of my Cable through the opening of the Fairlead Rollers, as shown:
Slide the long pin of the Reel Retraction (motor) through the Bracket and Reel to connect them together, as shown.
Note which side of the Bracket the Reel Retraction (motor) is inserted into here. It needs to pass through the Reel and both tabs of the Bracket. While it can be inserted either way, on the real truck the motor side would typically be closer to the center of the truck for easy maintenance access:
Then, I managed to find a spare part left over from my completed Dodge Charger R/T partwork build that looked very much like an electrical plug (and it even had a hole in the end that fit perfectly over the end of the wire). I cut the end of my Cable short and secured this part in place:
Step 5
Retrieve your Body assembly from the previous stage. Fit the two locating pins on the bottom of the Bracket assembly to this location on the Box Frame Roof Section, aligning the screw hole as shown:
Secure the Bracket to the Box Frame Roof Section with one (1) Type B screw.
You may find that you need to drive this screw in at a slight angle:
Storage Compartment
Step 1
Apply some super glue to this ledge of the Storage Compartment Inner:
Fit the hinge of the Storage Compartment Lid to this ledge, securing it in place as shown. Be sure the Lid can still open and close:
Step 2
Firmly slide this Storage Compartment Inner down into the Storage Compartment Base, aligning the two small holes on top of the Lid to the circular lock recess on the side of the Base, as shown:
Step 3
Apply a drop of super glue to the D-shaped pin of the Lock and fit it into the matching recess of the Storage Compartment Base, as shown:
Step 4
Apply a tiny bit of super glue to the pins of the Handle and fit it into the matching holes of the Storage Compartment Lid, as shown:
Step 5
Press the two pins on the bottom of the Storage Compartment Base into the matching holes at this location on the Box Frame Roof Section.
The pins on this Base are different sizes, so this is designed to only fit correctly one way – with the Handle towards the right side of the truck, as shown. As I was still working on my Custom Lighting mod at this point, I did not push my Compartment completely down just yet (hence the gap underneath):
Thoughts
Just when I thought we were done with Storage Compartments, here we are building another one. However, I did enjoy making the Electrical Cable Reel look a bit more realistic in this stage!
Next Up
Stage 52 – Platform Floor/Ladder/Control Box/Cable Run, Nozzle, Nozzle Swivel Base