Coca Cola model Mack truck
The history of the truck and the making of the scale model truck.
Hello friends ! In this article i will tell a little history about the real Mack truck and the inspiration of building the scale model truck !
Mack truck
Mack Trucks was founded in 1900 by Jack and Gus Mack in Brooklyn, NY. The company produced its first successful motorized vehicle in 1900. The company's trademark is the Bulldog. Mack trucks earned this nickname in 1917, during World War I, when the British government purchased the Mack AC model to supply its front lines with troops, food and equipment. British soldiers dubbed the truck the Bulldog Mack. Its pugnacious, blunt-nosed hood, coupled with its incredible durability, reminded the soldiers of the tenacious qualities of their country's mascot, the British Bulldog.
Mack " Bulldog " logo
Coca Cola Mack truck
The Mack BJ and BB models, the first of the "B series" were introduced in 1927, representing the company’s first trucks developed in response to the demand for larger capacity, higher speed haulage. The BG model was introduced in 1929 and was powered by a six-cylinder L-head six. The model on the picture is from 1934. In the 1930s Coca Cola was advertising “Every Bottle Sterilized” on the trucks to make the public feel safe about drinking its product.
Coca Cola Mack truck, 1934
Coca Cola Mack truck model
The inspiration of building the Coca Cola Mack truck model came from the christmas commercials of Coca Cola from the 90s. I have always loved the commercial where the convoy of Coca Cola trucks comes from the mountains to the cities and villages delivering the joy of christmas. I wanted to make an authentic design of the scale model truck, so i chose the 1934 model Mack truck. The scale of the scale model truck is 1:24. The design took me one month to make the right measurements, to design the interior, to figure out how to make the rims of the tyres, from what material to make the model truck and tyres and the loads in the back of the truck body. On the pictures below you will see the plans of the scale model truck in profile, from the front, from the back, viewed up and under and the interior and the rims of the tyres.
The material i chose to build the truck is wood. The tyres are from real rubber tyre from an old bicycle tyre. The Coca Cola logo on the back of the future truck is drawn by hand, to train my hand to make it the same as it is on the plans. Made some research to find pictures from the interior of the truck to know what design i can make based on the original one.
The dashboard of the model truck features a steering wheel with levers for right and left turn signals, speedometer, tachometer, fuel indicator, engine temperature indicator, cluch pedal, brake pedal, gas pedal, radio, handbrake, gear shifter and glove compartment. On the picture you will see every detail of the dashboard.
The hardest part of the making of the model truck was how to design the tyre rims from wood and how to make the tyres roll. The first attempt was making the tyres out of styrofoam and paint them with black paint, but the result wasn't that good, the tyres didn't have round shape, it was hard to fix them to the rims. Then i redesigned the rims. The new design was creating the rim from small round wood sticks.That way i can achieve the round shape of the rim, it's thin and at the same time strong enough to carry the weight of the truck. First i draw the circle with the right diameter for the tyre rim. After that i cut from the wood sticks 0.8mm long parts, which i glued together following the line of the circle. Finaly i made four sticks which are glued to the rim at the one end and glued to the axle at the other end, painted the rim in red and fixed the tyre, which is made from two layers of rubber.
To make the tyres centered on the axle that holds the tyres i put a second stick to play the role of limiter keeping the tyre in the front and back centered. To make it more detailed on the back of the truck where the back axle is held, designed it to look like a differential box.
I held on to recreate the original fron of the truck, from which it comes the nickname and logo symbol " The Bulldog ". The headlights are made from three layers of ADAPTA spacer foils, which are used in dental technician laboratories. Why spacer foils, because i am a dentist.
The truck is build and now it has to be painted. Searched in the internet to find with what colores where the trucks painted in that era, because many photos where black and white but not colored. Found a lot of colore combinations like: red, black, yellow; red yellow; black, yellow. Then the idea came to me to make the livery on the scale model truck from the trucks from the 90s, red livery. The door handles are painted white. At the back of the trunk is the Coca Cola logo which i painted it by hand.
The final detail were the crates and vending machines in the trunk. They are made from paper. There are red crates for red coca cola and grey crates for the light coca cola and the classic red coca cola vending machines.
Took the pictures of the model truck in my home bar, in front of the Coca Cola historycal bottles, which shows how the bottles have changed their design throughout the years and next to the 1:87 scale Coca Cola truck.
Interesting facts about Coca Cola and Bulgaria
In 1965, august 1, Coca Cola signs a contract with which production launches in Plovdiv, which makes Bulgaria the first country of the ex-socialist regime to deliver Coca Cola, outpacing countries like former Yugoslavia and Greece. Bulgaria is also the first country, where the logo Coca Cola on the bottles is written in Cyrillic with the bulgarian alphabet Кока Кола.
In 2017 Coca Cola released limited edition set of 6 glass bottle 250ml with plastic sleeve, inspired by bulgarian embroidery used in the decoration of festive clothes, women's blouses and skirts, men's and children's shirts. Each of the 6 bottles represent one region: Pirin, Rhodope Mountains, Thrace, Northern Bulgaria, Dobrudja and Sofia and on the back side of bottle was a Bulgaria map, region name and a little historical story about the local embroidery.
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