RCCrawler Forums

Tommy R · 10-26-2009, 09:42 PM

Hey y'all,

Well, I've had a lot of fun with my F-350 build, but I think I always knew I'd have to eventually build a Jeep to mimic my 1:1 (in my avatar). Well, that day came sooner than I thought and I recently picked up a Tamiya YJ body.

The plan is to build what I will eventually build my 1:1 into.... It'll be a "one ton" TJ on full width axles, 105" wheelbase, ~40" tires, tube fenders, comp cut rear, but also street driven. This will be based on the same SCX10 chassis my F-350 is currently using. It'll no doubt need to be shortened and altered, but that's okay.

Here's my rig as it sits now.

And what I eventually will have it look like after it gets the next round of mods.

First I mocked up some Losi MRC axles. Too narrow, but would be great for a stock style build!

Now the bodywork starts. First I cleaned up the grill (it was my first time using string to cut styrene).

Then I cut the fenders and comp cut the rear.

A mock up of the wheelbase. The ride height will be higher, but hopefully not by too much.

Added some rockers back after I cut off the running boards and flares.

The start of the front tube fenders.

Rear fenders taking shape, too.

It was then I decided to go ahead and convert the headlights so it'll look more like a TJ. This is just the beginning. I'm still waiting on the headlight buckets to arrive to finish them.

Now time to start some sliders.

I'm not going to convert every little YJ item to make it a TJ, but there are a couple that I just couldn't live with. The hood latches had to go.

Time to lay some color. Not too bad of a match. It'd be closer if I washed my 1:1!

And then I finished up the sliders.

So that's where I am as of this evening. I hope to have more updates this week...

team_guahan · 10-26-2009, 09:53 PM

nice start. looking foward to seeing the finished product.

nice jeep by the way.

Going Up! · 10-26-2009, 09:56 PM

nice start!!

Tommy R · 10-26-2009, 10:32 PM

Thanks for the kind words, y'all!

Got the sliders painted. Need to get some more 2mm panhead screws, though...

jeeper_05 · 10-27-2009, 12:21 AM

I will be paying lots of attention to this build, just picked up a YJ body as well, looking to do the TJ conversion,,,subscribed, by the waym GREAT JOB so far...

pantablo · 10-27-2009, 01:21 AM

Really nice work. Going to look good.
I have to warn you though, those tube fenders are going to take a beating and you'll be repairing it often. I had similar rolled edge on my blackfoot ford drop bed and was constantly re-adhering it and repainting it, lol. Hopefully you'll also run it hard enough so thats an issue for you too, lol.

Rckcrwlr · 10-27-2009, 06:20 AM

Sweet...I'm with Jeeper...was planning on the same thing...

Tommy R · 10-27-2009, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pantablo

Really nice work. Going to look good.
I have to warn you though, those tube fenders are going to take a beating and you'll be repairing it often. I had similar rolled edge on my blackfoot ford drop bed and was constantly re-adhering it and repainting it, lol. Hopefully you'll also run it hard enough so thats an issue for you too, lol.

Thanks for the compliments, everyone!

Pablo, I used quite a bit of glue (Tenax/ProWeld) in hopes of getting the tubes to bond well to the body. I hope they do! I definitely plan to wheel this thing pretty hard, but maybe not as hard as my F-350 which I've totally abused like a mad man.

So yeah, there may be more bodywork in my future. I guess time will tell, huh?

romulus22 · 10-27-2009, 05:29 PM

pretty sweet so far

Tupers · 10-27-2009, 07:40 PM

Wow you've put some really nice work into that. (of course you already know that)

I really like how you made the tube fenders a part of the body and the slider just look great. It'd look insane if you cut the hard top off.

Tommy R · 10-27-2009, 08:18 PM

So I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that the bodywork around the headlights was significantly damaged while I was reaming the holes out. I patched it the best I could, but it doesn't look half as good as it did beforehand. The good news is that the holes did eventually get made and the headlights fit. I still have to hot glue them in place, but I'll get to get after I'm done with all the painting.

Anyway, here's some pics. After I install the winch and then build a radiator protector and stinger (from brakelines), most of the nasty part of the bodywork will be hidden.

A few things to point out...

- I'm not sure what I'll do about the blinkers yet. I may just drill the existing "lights" and install some 3mm LEDs or I may cut out the existing "lights" and install some clear ABS with the LED behind it. The rear will likely just be an LED protruding from the body so I'm leaning toward the same thing up front.

- In hindsight, I think it would've been better (and maybe faster!) to just cut out the existing grill and install a new one from thick styrene. Then I could've avoided the body filler altogether.

This is my first attempt at working with styrene so I had fairly low expectations. And I met them! ;) Seriously, it's okay. This body is no shelf queen so if it's not perfect, I'm okay with it!

And FYI, here's the type of stinger/radiator hoop I'm planning:

Tommy R · 10-28-2009, 03:44 PM

Boy, do I suck at paint and bodywork! I guess that's why I became a mechanical engineer instead of an artist!! Anyway, here it is with all the paint work done, except for the door handles. It'll be okay for a basher, but definitely won't win any beauty contests... :(

Oh, and a bit more bad news about the bodywork. The tube on the "phantom" fenders is already popping off with a little force. I thought the styrene bond with the ProWeld and Tenax bond would be stronger. Sadly, it's been rather disappointing. Not sure what I did wrong, but it's simply not strong enough, despite repeating applciations of the bonding agent. Oh well, all I can do is put some more glue on there, hope it doesn't damage the paint, and hope for the best.

Tommy R · 10-30-2009, 10:30 AM

Here's where I am today... Trying to determine exactly how I want to tackle modifying the chassis to fit the body. I want to shorten the overall wheelbase by 1", from 11.5" to 10.5". But I can't simply shorten the front and rear links because the body would sit way too far forward. Here I'll try to show what I mean. In the pics below, the body is sitting just in front of the steering servo and you can see how far forward the body is. There's a reason the steering servo location is important. Read on....

Note the front of the frame will remain uncut. The rear of the frame will be lopped off to allow the body to sit lower and parallel with the frame rails. The goal is to have the body sit just barely higher than the frame rails, just like a 1:1 with a slight body lift.

Looking closer, this is what I'm dealing with. I'm running the Hand Brothers 3 link/track bar setup and I don't want to hack it up. Nor do I want to lift or hack up the body!

So all this means that because the body and servo interfere, that will drive the fore/aft location of the body on the chassis. The body must go in front of the servo. Okay, no problem.

The front axle placement is pretty good relative to the body. It's very close. I could just remove 1" from the rear links and call it done, but I don't want to. I want the front and rear symmetric. I'll remove approx. 1/2" from the front links, move the trans/skidplate forward 1/2", and then move the rear axle forward a total of 1". I think this will net the look I'm after. It will get my desired wheelbase of 10.5". It will allow the body and servo to live in harmony. And the rear of the frame is nice and straight so it'll be easy to cut shorter and not look awkward. I will also keep the shock mounts where they are because I think it looks more scale for a Jeep with coilovers.

As always, I'm open to suggestions! If you see an issue I may be missing, feel free to point it out!

Tommy R · 10-30-2009, 05:50 PM

The chassis has now been modified. Basically, all I did was move the trans/skidplate forward about 1/2" utilizing some holes already in the chassis and just drilled the rest (maybe 6 or 7). Then I found some shorter links and using different length endlinks I got the front and rear arms ~1/2" shorter than the stock ones. This wasn't very exact because I used material I already had in lengths that were close to what I need, but not exactly. Based on that, I can eventually cut links exactly like I want. I then had to shorten the front and rear driveshafts because they were binding.

Here it is with the body simply sitting on the chassis.

This is fairly close to the ride height I eventually want to run.

The wheelbase is on the short side right now at ~10-1/8" (at ride height). The rear axle is right where I want it so I'll likely leave it as is, maybe stretching it back about 1/8" max. The front will likely get slightly longer links to stretch the wheelbase out ~1/4" from where it is. That should get me pretty close to my target WB of 10.5" or so.

At the front, the grill will rest on top of the frame rails. The body will then be leveled which means that the rear will have to come down quite a bit. The rear of the body will likely be notched a bit to allow the frame rails to stick through the very bottom. This will allow me to make a rear bumper easily.

Tommy R · 11-01-2009, 12:22 PM

So I decided to "sink" the body onto the framerails in the rear in order to get it level and it will also provide a good mounting point for the bumper/tire carrier I plan to build. The ride height is still too high in the rear (easily fixed), but I think the body height relative to the framerails is pretty much spot on. Well, I'm happy with it and that's all that matters, right??

I also painted the wheels. Looking much more like my 1:1 now. I also moved the rear shock towers forward 1/2".

How I sunk the body onto the frame to level it out.

Detail of the body and frame rail relationship.

Some angle shots.

The plan now is to maybe lenthen the front links another 1/8" or so. The rear is fine where it is. Wheelbase is exactly 265 mm right now (10.43") so it's almost exactly where I want it! The overall ride height will come down about 1/4" in the rear, maybe 1/8" in the front. I'll also cut the rear framerails and leave approximately 1/4" sticking out so I can easily mount a bumper to it. I also need to get the LED kit ordered, make some fender wells, and do some more fine tuning. Oh, and I need to decide how to mount the body, too!

I'll also need to build a new front bumper/stinger soon....

Jester666 · 11-01-2009, 03:20 PM

Awesome looking jeep

I really like how the fenders turned out, keep up the good work.

nics1152 · 11-01-2009, 07:31 PM

Great looking build in here. Glad to see the time is being taken to work out such nice details. Keep it up, I'm subscribed!

ttown180 · 11-01-2009, 08:29 PM

man, you think just like me, i couldnt decide between the f350 scx10 or the tamiya wrangler with cut fenders on an scx, i went with the f350 now i cant wait to order the tamiya kit! this thing is looking sick!

Tommy R · 11-01-2009, 08:57 PM

Thanks for all the kind words, y'all! Got another update for ya...

Here's the way the suspension worked out. I've got link lengths if anyone wants them. The front axle will get stretched out just a couple millimeters. I replaced all the stock plastic endlink balls with metal from a Traxxas kit. This required some shims because they were quite a bit narrower than the plastic ones.

Rear body mount.

Front body mount (same as on the F-350).

Electronics/battery mounting plate trimmed to clear the larger motor and relocated trans.

Mounted up and sitting almost on the bumpstops. I may shorten the shock shafts to reduce the ride height some. I like this height, but don't want a full droop setup, either. The problem is in the front. The drag link contacts the axle housing!

Approach angle.

Departure angle.

This thing flexes like mad....probably too much. It's got shorter links than the F-350, but flexes way better. I guess freeing up the suspension with the metal balls made a big difference! I may need to address this....

Electronics will be going in soon (after I waterproof them) and then it'll be time to work on bumpers and fender liners.

happyelk · 11-02-2009, 09:55 AM

Hey, that´s a good looking TJ (the little one

)
Nice work on the details - I´m only a bit concerned about your side guards "just" connected to the body and not to the frame - hopefully it works!
Keep up the good work!

10-26-2009, 09:42 PM	#1
Tommy R I wanna be Dave Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Austin, TX, USA Posts: 4,273	One Ton Jeep TJ Hardtop Hey y'all, Well, I've had a lot of fun with my F-350 build, but I think I always knew I'd have to eventually build a Jeep to mimic my 1:1 (in my avatar). Well, that day came sooner than I thought and I recently picked up a Tamiya YJ body. The plan is to build what I will eventually build my 1:1 into.... It'll be a "one ton" TJ on full width axles, 105" wheelbase, ~40" tires, tube fenders, comp cut rear, but also street driven. This will be based on the same SCX10 chassis my F-350 is currently using. It'll no doubt need to be shortened and altered, but that's okay. Here's my rig as it sits now. And what I eventually will have it look like after it gets the next round of mods. First I mocked up some Losi MRC axles. Too narrow, but would be great for a stock style build! Now the bodywork starts. First I cleaned up the grill (it was my first time using string to cut styrene). Then I cut the fenders and comp cut the rear. A mock up of the wheelbase. The ride height will be higher, but hopefully not by too much. Added some rockers back after I cut off the running boards and flares. The start of the front tube fenders. Rear fenders taking shape, too. It was then I decided to go ahead and convert the headlights so it'll look more like a TJ. This is just the beginning. I'm still waiting on the headlight buckets to arrive to finish them. Now time to start some sliders. I'm not going to convert every little YJ item to make it a TJ, but there are a couple that I just couldn't live with. The hood latches had to go. Time to lay some color. Not too bad of a match. It'd be closer if I washed my 1:1! And then I finished up the sliders. So that's where I am as of this evening. I hope to have more updates this week...

11-01-2009, 12:22 PM	#15
Tommy R I wanna be Dave Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Austin, TX, USA Posts: 4,273	So I decided to "sink" the body onto the framerails in the rear in order to get it level and it will also provide a good mounting point for the bumper/tire carrier I plan to build. The ride height is still too high in the rear (easily fixed), but I think the body height relative to the framerails is pretty much spot on. Well, I'm happy with it and that's all that matters, right?? I also painted the wheels. Looking much more like my 1:1 now. I also moved the rear shock towers forward 1/2". How I sunk the body onto the frame to level it out. Detail of the body and frame rail relationship. Some angle shots. The plan now is to maybe lenthen the front links another 1/8" or so. The rear is fine where it is. Wheelbase is exactly 265 mm right now (10.43") so it's almost exactly where I want it! The overall ride height will come down about 1/4" in the rear, maybe 1/8" in the front. I'll also cut the rear framerails and leave approximately 1/4" sticking out so I can easily mount a bumper to it. I also need to get the LED kit ordered, make some fender wells, and do some more fine tuning. Oh, and I need to decide how to mount the body, too! I'll also need to build a new front bumper/stinger soon.... Last edited by Tommy R; 11-01-2009 at 12:26 PM.

10-26-2009, 09:53 PM	#2
team_guahan Pebble Pounder Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: guahan Posts: 175	nice start. looking foward to seeing the finished product. nice jeep by the way.

10-26-2009, 09:56 PM	#3
Going Up! RCC Addict Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Lehi Posts: 1,284	nice start!!

10-26-2009, 10:32 PM	#4
Tommy R I wanna be Dave Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Austin, TX, USA Posts: 4,273	Thanks for the kind words, y'all! Got the sliders painted. Need to get some more 2mm panhead screws, though...

10-27-2009, 12:21 AM	#5
jeeper_05 RCC Addict Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Prosser Posts: 1,278	I will be paying lots of attention to this build, just picked up a YJ body as well, looking to do the TJ conversion,,,subscribed, by the waym GREAT JOB so far...

10-27-2009, 01:21 AM	#6
pantablo I wanna be Dave Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: santa monica Posts: 3,687	Really nice work. Going to look good. I have to warn you though, those tube fenders are going to take a beating and you'll be repairing it often. I had similar rolled edge on my blackfoot ford drop bed and was constantly re-adhering it and repainting it, lol. Hopefully you'll also run it hard enough so thats an issue for you too, lol.

10-27-2009, 06:20 AM	#7
Rckcrwlr I wanna be Dave Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Here Posts: 7,317	Sweet...I'm with Jeeper...was planning on the same thing...

10-27-2009, 05:29 PM	#9
romulus22 0 0 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: FT. Thomas Posts: 1,830	pretty sweet so far

10-27-2009, 07:40 PM	#10
Tupers Rock Crawler Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Great Britain Posts: 935	Wow you've put some really nice work into that. (of course you already know that) I really like how you made the tube fenders a part of the body and the slider just look great. It'd look insane if you cut the hard top off.

10-27-2009, 08:18 PM	#11
Tommy R I wanna be Dave Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Austin, TX, USA Posts: 4,273	So I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that the bodywork around the headlights was significantly damaged while I was reaming the holes out. I patched it the best I could, but it doesn't look half as good as it did beforehand. The good news is that the holes did eventually get made and the headlights fit. I still have to hot glue them in place, but I'll get to get after I'm done with all the painting. Anyway, here's some pics. After I install the winch and then build a radiator protector and stinger (from brakelines), most of the nasty part of the bodywork will be hidden. A few things to point out... - I'm not sure what I'll do about the blinkers yet. I may just drill the existing "lights" and install some 3mm LEDs or I may cut out the existing "lights" and install some clear ABS with the LED behind it. The rear will likely just be an LED protruding from the body so I'm leaning toward the same thing up front. - In hindsight, I think it would've been better (and maybe faster!) to just cut out the existing grill and install a new one from thick styrene. Then I could've avoided the body filler altogether. This is my first attempt at working with styrene so I had fairly low expectations. And I met them! ;) Seriously, it's okay. This body is no shelf queen so if it's not perfect, I'm okay with it! And FYI, here's the type of stinger/radiator hoop I'm planning:

10-28-2009, 03:44 PM	#12
Tommy R I wanna be Dave Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Austin, TX, USA Posts: 4,273	Boy, do I suck at paint and bodywork! I guess that's why I became a mechanical engineer instead of an artist!! Anyway, here it is with all the paint work done, except for the door handles. It'll be okay for a basher, but definitely won't win any beauty contests... :( Oh, and a bit more bad news about the bodywork. The tube on the "phantom" fenders is already popping off with a little force. I thought the styrene bond with the ProWeld and Tenax bond would be stronger. Sadly, it's been rather disappointing. Not sure what I did wrong, but it's simply not strong enough, despite repeating applciations of the bonding agent. Oh well, all I can do is put some more glue on there, hope it doesn't damage the paint, and hope for the best.

Sponsored Links

10-30-2009, 10:30 AM	#13
Tommy R I wanna be Dave Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Austin, TX, USA Posts: 4,273	Here's where I am today... Trying to determine exactly how I want to tackle modifying the chassis to fit the body. I want to shorten the overall wheelbase by 1", from 11.5" to 10.5". But I can't simply shorten the front and rear links because the body would sit way too far forward. Here I'll try to show what I mean. In the pics below, the body is sitting just in front of the steering servo and you can see how far forward the body is. There's a reason the steering servo location is important. Read on.... Note the front of the frame will remain uncut. The rear of the frame will be lopped off to allow the body to sit lower and parallel with the frame rails. The goal is to have the body sit just barely higher than the frame rails, just like a 1:1 with a slight body lift. Looking closer, this is what I'm dealing with. I'm running the Hand Brothers 3 link/track bar setup and I don't want to hack it up. Nor do I want to lift or hack up the body! So all this means that because the body and servo interfere, that will drive the fore/aft location of the body on the chassis. The body must go in front of the servo. Okay, no problem. The front axle placement is pretty good relative to the body. It's very close. I could just remove 1" from the rear links and call it done, but I don't want to. I want the front and rear symmetric. I'll remove approx. 1/2" from the front links, move the trans/skidplate forward 1/2", and then move the rear axle forward a total of 1". I think this will net the look I'm after. It will get my desired wheelbase of 10.5". It will allow the body and servo to live in harmony. And the rear of the frame is nice and straight so it'll be easy to cut shorter and not look awkward. I will also keep the shock mounts where they are because I think it looks more scale for a Jeep with coilovers. As always, I'm open to suggestions! If you see an issue I may be missing, feel free to point it out!

10-30-2009, 05:50 PM	#14
Tommy R I wanna be Dave Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Austin, TX, USA Posts: 4,273	The chassis has now been modified. Basically, all I did was move the trans/skidplate forward about 1/2" utilizing some holes already in the chassis and just drilled the rest (maybe 6 or 7). Then I found some shorter links and using different length endlinks I got the front and rear arms ~1/2" shorter than the stock ones. This wasn't very exact because I used material I already had in lengths that were close to what I need, but not exactly. Based on that, I can eventually cut links exactly like I want. I then had to shorten the front and rear driveshafts because they were binding. Here it is with the body simply sitting on the chassis. This is fairly close to the ride height I eventually want to run. The wheelbase is on the short side right now at ~10-1/8" (at ride height). The rear axle is right where I want it so I'll likely leave it as is, maybe stretching it back about 1/8" max. The front will likely get slightly longer links to stretch the wheelbase out ~1/4" from where it is. That should get me pretty close to my target WB of 10.5" or so. At the front, the grill will rest on top of the frame rails. The body will then be leveled which means that the rear will have to come down quite a bit. The rear of the body will likely be notched a bit to allow the frame rails to stick through the very bottom. This will allow me to make a rear bumper easily.

11-01-2009, 03:20 PM	#16
Jester666 RCC Addict Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Calgary Posts: 1,575	Awesome looking jeep I really like how the fenders turned out, keep up the good work.

11-01-2009, 07:31 PM	#17
nics1152 Rock Stacker Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Hopkins Posts: 85	Great looking build in here. Glad to see the time is being taken to work out such nice details. Keep it up, I'm subscribed!

11-01-2009, 08:29 PM	#18
ttown180 Pebble Pounder Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Tulsa Posts: 154	man, you think just like me, i couldnt decide between the f350 scx10 or the tamiya wrangler with cut fenders on an scx, i went with the f350 now i cant wait to order the tamiya kit! this thing is looking sick!

11-01-2009, 08:57 PM	#19
Tommy R I wanna be Dave Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Austin, TX, USA Posts: 4,273	Thanks for all the kind words, y'all! Got another update for ya... Here's the way the suspension worked out. I've got link lengths if anyone wants them. The front axle will get stretched out just a couple millimeters. I replaced all the stock plastic endlink balls with metal from a Traxxas kit. This required some shims because they were quite a bit narrower than the plastic ones. Rear body mount. Front body mount (same as on the F-350). Electronics/battery mounting plate trimmed to clear the larger motor and relocated trans. Mounted up and sitting almost on the bumpstops. I may shorten the shock shafts to reduce the ride height some. I like this height, but don't want a full droop setup, either. The problem is in the front. The drag link contacts the axle housing! Approach angle. Departure angle. This thing flexes like mad....probably too much. It's got shorter links than the F-350, but flexes way better. I guess freeing up the suspension with the metal balls made a big difference! I may need to address this.... Electronics will be going in soon (after I waterproof them) and then it'll be time to work on bumpers and fender liners.

11-02-2009, 09:55 AM	#20
happyelk Rock Stacker Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Germany Posts: 99	Hey, that´s a good looking TJ (the little one ) Nice work on the details - I´m only a bit concerned about your side guards "just" connected to the body and not to the frame - hopefully it works! Keep up the good work!

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Thread: One Ton Jeep TJ Hardtop