Thanks Bill, I try to be as thorough as I can. Sometimes it's hard to translate what I'm doing to an article. I would like to see more people build again and not be afraid to work with dainty parts like Cannon. So to be as thorough as I can, I do my best not to bore myself and others with an explanation.

Continuing with the body, I’m going to remove the interior of Kato brake wheel housing. It really lacks depth and is crying to be upgraded. So, I’m going to rebuild the brake house area giving it some new life. For the replacement brake housing, I will use PSC 3962. It’s close enough to the prototype housing.
So to start this little adventure, I begin by drilling a bunch of small holes around the inside of the Kato housing. With a sharp knife, I connect the holes and remove the inner housing. I clean up the housing with a file and make it smooth. I then cut 2 pieces of strip styrene .030 x .100 x .635 in length for the side posts. I also cut 2 more pieces to a length of .185 for the top and bottom of the housing. Next, I cut a piece of strip styrene using .010 x .250 x .635 in length for the backing. I use liquid cement to tack in the side posts. Tacking these in will help to get them perpendicular to the housing. Now, I take the top and bottom pieces and test fit them in place. They should be a tad longer, this is ok. Sand one edge until they fit flush into place. I tack that in place. I double check that nothing has moved out of place and then run a light bead of solvent down to glue them in place. Allow drying for at least 10 minutes and then test fit the backing, adjust the size if needed and glue that in place. Next I cut two pieces of .005 styrene to build out the bottom edges of the brake housing. See the pic. I scraped the paint away before gluing these in place. I used CA to bond these to the shell. I cut mine a little wider and then trimmed them flush to the lower and upper edges of the housing.
When the housing has dried thoroughly (overnight), I drilled a hole up through the bottom so I can add brake chain. I’m not sure what type of chain I’m going to use. I've been thinking etched chain from Athabasca or just the regular 40 link chain. Whatever you choose to do, start with a small hole and work drill your way out to the size you need. The PSC housing will be added at the end of the project.

5310...keep moving forward.I really appreciate looking at your work.Don't know if I could do all that cutting,but the extended cab is definately on my to do list.

Thanks Chris, there's allot more coming.

Here’s one more pic showing the caps placed on the brake wheel housing.


Moving back to the dynamic housing, you’ll see the extended range doors on either side of the brake blister. I first shave off the knuckle busters. At the top of the door, there is a lip that needs to be shaved flush also. Now if you look just under where the doors are, you’ll see two molded on hinges that are underneath them. I shave these flush also. Next, I measure the doors and with those dimensions I mark and cut two plugs out of .005 sheet styrene. These will be used to fill in the door area flush to the dynamic. I glue these in place with CA. To blend the edges of the door plugs, I use some putty to fill any gaps and sand them flush when dry. On the opposite side of the blister there are vents on both sides that need to be removed. Shave those away and sand the area smooth. Use putty to smooth out any gouges.


Next, I shave off the tips of the class lights and drill them for lenses. For the sand fillers, I use DA 3001 sand fillers. I use a #52 drill for the holes and attach the sand fillers with liquid cement. Now all major body work is done, I can start adding more parts to the body. First, I glue the exhaust hatch down with liquid cement. There is about a .015 gap between the dust bin and exhaust hatch. You can use .015 brass wire or strip styrene to help gauge the distance. See the pic.


The Canon fans are next. I start with the front of the fan hatch and work my way to the rear. I set each fan base one at a time. I make sure each fan sits flush one more time on the hood before gluing. The cooling fans have a set orientation on the hood as does the prototype. This is based on the fan bracket position. The pic below shows proper fan orientation.


I tack the fan to the shell with CA from inside. I check my fan orientation again to make sure it didn't move out of position. Following my instructions and the pic above, tack the other 2 fans to the hatch. When I’m done, I finish gluing the fans down with CA.
Now using Cannon 1853 dynamic fans, I follow the same procedure as the radiator fans. The pic below shows the fan bracket position for the dynamics.


I let the glue set on the fans for about 15 minutes. I then proceed to drill #77 holes for the brass DA 101101 lift rings. I like these better than the DA wire lift rings. I think they look allot nicer. Using CA, I glue all lift rings on. Next I add DA 2217 curved grab iron for the rear fan. I use the same holes as the Kato grab. For the two lift tabs on the rear top of the hood, I used etched lift rings from Athabasca set 1001. Or use the DA lift rings that are on the hood. You can get those etched rings from Highball graphics website. The web site is www.mgdecals.com.
Next, I’m going to glue the sub base to the body. But first I want to get the A-Line steps cut away from their trees and cleaned up. I use Xuron photo etch cutters to remove the steps. I file all edges of the steps clean from cutting. I then make my bends for the step edges. Next, I place the sub base on the body and test fit the steps. I had to make some minor adjustments to the rear step ledges on the body and the base. I trimmed them back a bit so the steps sit flush on the ledges. I also make sure they are straight and not cocked when looking down on them. When everything fits as planned, I glued the base to the body with CA. I let the base set up for a minute and set the cab on to make sure everything sits normal. I then remove the cab and use CA to glue the steps down. I set the body aside to dry.
The last thing that has to be done is to add the horn and antenna to the cab. I used DA 1803, located the position and drilled a #70 hole. I cemented that in place. For the horn I used DW 373 low profile Leslie. For the horn location, I measure from the front end of the number board to a length of .217. I mark the location with a pencil and drill a #61 hole. I used CA to glue the horn in place. For the body and the cab, all detailing is done. The frame is next up.

5310... nice.Looking forward to your painting process,in particular the masking around the roof and cab extention.My other curiosity will be the front headlights.