This is another view of Ralf Grote's extraordinary Peterbilt 379 extended hood truck tractor. This view shows some of the details Ralf added more clearly than the photo in Photo Gallery 45. Ralf lengthened the hood of the Wiking 359 to match the prototype's 127" BBC  (Bumper-to-Back-of-Cab). The cab, hood and grill are from the Wiking model; the rest is from different manufacturers. For example, the air filters and battery/steps are from Dennis Aust, tanks and curved exhaust stacks are from AWM, diamond plates out of brass are from a Polish manufacturer called ABER. The sleeper is a conversion of the Herpa/Promotex 'Peterbilt sleeper'. Ralf added the high rise air fairing of the 'KW T-600 sleeper' from the same source. One of the very remarkable details is tiny visors added onto each of the headlights plus a huge California style bumper. Ralf says he likes to mix the styles of new and old, so he prefers the position of the turn signal indicators on the fenders and not at the margins of the headlights as you can see on more or less all modern Pete's 379. The indicators are replacements of the very small ones from Wiking.

Posted January 6, 2002