I seem to have developed a bit of a thing for recreating the classic four stud wide City vehicles of the 1980's!!

It all started off a couple of weeks ago when I discovered the 6390 'Main Street' set of 1980, I never recall seeing it available in the UK when I was a child but I was immediately taken by the classicness of the maintenance truck in the set so I downloaded the instructions, went raking around for the parts and got to work and here is the result:

So here we have Eddie and his truck. He picked it at the dealers as his missus liked those classic lattice side panels I think!!

I decided to set a couple of rules, firstly I had to use only parts I had in my collection and they had to be as near as possible of appropriate vintage if possible, also the correct configuration minifig must also be supplied.

In the creating of the truck one compromise had to be made. The original front end had a sticker for the radiator grille that I of course did not have so I substituted a somewhat more modern black profile brick instead which definitely looks the part.

During the raking through the very large bin of very old grubby Lego I discovered a loader buckets, red lifting frame and the correct brick into which it would be mounted, another search on Brickfactory duly found the instructions for 6630, the Bucket Loader from 1982:

So Fred here duly got his excavator back, I know for a fact I did have this set so the loader and lifting arm almost certainly came from this very set, just a pity I didn't clean the bucket interior though, it is in a right state!!

With a pile of yellow bricks sitting in a tray in front of me, next to be recreated was from 1983, 6607 'Service Truck':

Al here has the correct blue flat cap as well for the occasion of taken delivery of his lovely little runabout complete with recessed tool clips. That was the thing about many early City vehicle sets, small, affordable and well thought out whilst using the minimum of special bricks.

Then I got ambitions and decided to create a modernised version of 6607:

For my most recent project however it was time to attempt something even older and so after an entertaining evening looking through the years of instructions (and recoiling in horror at some of the dreadful rubbish Lego was issuing during my dark ages in the early 2000's!!!) I decided to recreate the classic 646, the Auto Service Truck:

I never had this set although I do recall seeing a brick with 'AUTO' on it many years ago that came from a second hand bag of bricks my Dad bought me. The trickiest bit was recreating the stickers for the AUTO SERVICE signs and the front radiator grille and headlights. Fortunately the Brickfactory instructions site included a decent scan of the original sticker sheet and so after some experimentation with scaling, I printed it in colour onto self adhesive sticker paper and Barry here has got his truck to drive around in.

Coming up in the next few weeks, firstly I need to amass some more classic car parts, some of the ones I have are in a pretty dire state, I have a few downloaded instructions for some vehicles that appear as part of larger sets which I fancy having a go at so more to come!!

Edited September 8, 201113 yr by jmupton2000

Ah, there is nothing like some classic town vehicles to add to one's collection eh ?

Any more on the drawing board to be reborn 'jmupton2000' ?

Brick On !

I love it. I still have my 6630 built from the 80s. Did you replace the modern heads with classic standard grin ones?

Nice look ank nice vehicles

I love the modern version of 6607 ...great touch!

That is simply great. I love those classic 80s LEGO. And I like your version of 6607.

I just recently rebuild my 646 myself. Lovely car. Just can't get enough of those classic sets.

LOVE Em' The basic colors these are in make them look so cheerful! and they just scream "nostalgia".

These are very nice. I don't own any classic vehicles except for 6600, just some early 90s ones, but I probably should It gives you nostalgia. Lego won't be as simple ever again.

Did you replace the modern heads with classic standard grin ones?

The majority of my minifigs I am assembling these days are using the more modern version of the standard grin as most of my older 1980's vintage standard grin heads are pretty badly worn.

I was lucky to get a good stock of them from Lego PAB before they were pulled from the list last year. I do prefer the traditional looking face although I am not adverse to using some of the more recent designs from time to time.

I am tonight looking at the 1978 issued 643 Flatbed Truck and thinking of adapting the design to be able to accommodate a minifig inside as per later vehicles.

One vehicle I have that I have not shown yet is my 6627 Convertible from 1980:

This one isn't technically a recreation. I managed to pick up this off of Ebay for about a pound or two, needed a couple of bricks replacing and a bit of reassembly but it is 90% original. I had this one new and was always fascinated by the opening bonnet feature whilst the minifig got called J.R. after the character in Dallas who of course wore that kind of hat!!

Various versions of basically the same car design seem to turn up in various sets in the early to mid 1980's.

Technically instructions didn't exist for this one but it was produced by Lego, sort of, so I will see if anyone can guess from where this car comes from:

It should really have another minifig with it as well but I haven't been able to locate him just yet.

Page ten of 1980 Legoland ideas book #6000.....it's the rear of the car, but the headlight/grill sticker is on the sticker sheet in the back of the book.

Brick On !

Quick edit - front of car on page 35 of said ideas books......along with something rare - a Lego Hardware and Electrical store....no joke !

Edited September 10, 201113 yr by lightningtiger

Spot on, it's the two main characters car from the 1979 6000 Lego Ideas Book. The car whose windscreen moves backwards and forwards at various points for no readily apparent reason!!

Well I had this book back then, yes I'm old and I built the supermarket in it....ah, the good old days !

Building more are we ?

First adaptation of an old design here. Started off with the instructions for the 1978 Flatbed Truck, ref number 643:

In those days despite the arrival of minifigs, in fact this set had a generous two of them, there was no way they could get into their truck! So I took the basic instructions, built it and then adapted the design of the front end to mid 1980's standard minifig compatible design:

A couple of other modifications were the addition of basic red tail lights and a squared off old grey rear wheel arch as I could not find one of the chamfered ones anywhere.

Of course there is still one slight problem, now we have gone from room for none to room for one, still leaves Steve walking whilst Dave gets to drive the motor!!!

Edited September 15, 201113 yr by jmupton2000

This brings back so much memories

I see you also have two modified classic bus in the background... let's see some bus photos!

OP, great vehicles. Thanks for the pics.

Latest recreation:

The Taxi (almost a minivan in my opinion) from the 1985 Lego Ideas Book (Ref No. 200)

Seems to bare a resemblance to the taxi that appeared in the railway station set last year.

Someone asked about the buses, well we all know Genesis as far as Lego buses was concerned was the classic 379 Bus Station from 1979 and fortunately I had most of the original parts (the stickered pieces) to put it back together:

Over the years the design was developed by myself and I have had numerous buses of varying designs. Many have been derived or based on the chassis design of Ambulance models, notably 6680 and 6688 as well as that from 379 above.

To go through the generations of Lego City buses I have built over the years could take time so instead for now I shall leap to the present day and present the most recent one I assembled using 1980's City vehicle principles, an adaptation of the chassis from the 1982 6680 Ambulance and all new parts from PAB, seen here alongside its predecessor some thirty five years older!!!

Great vehicles.

I rather enjoy looking at that scoop being dirty...it makes it look real ;)

Nice job on modernizing that Maintenance Vehicle (6607). In our city, the city maintenance

workers would be driving around in John Deere Gators.

Thanks for posting your bus photos

The 379 Bus Station was my first LEGO set. Sometimes I really miss the simplicity of these early Town era vehicles.