Datsun Pickup build - Resurrection of Big Bear

[epic_username]

Bit of background to start, my dad's first hobby grade RC was a Marui Big Bear. He loved that thing. 17 years ago, he stripped out the gears trying to fit in a small space at high speeds. It has been sitting dissassembled in a box ever since, till earlier this week.

Took the body to work, and in my spare time I made up a frame


Cutting in half, used an angle grinder and a nice tapeline


Welded in supports, and threw on some paint. Its not done yet, I still have yet to finish my welds, but I want to wait untill I have suspension parts and weld on the brackets.


This is a mockup, with aproximate ride height and tire size (about 3 in OD)


Thats all I got so far. Tomorrow I am going to add body posts to properly mount the body. I will update as I can afford parts, the big thing right now is axles cause there dont seem to be any used ones on ebay. This by no means will be a full out, hard core crawler, but more of a trail runner that would be used for mild crawling at most.

Cheers guys!

[epic_username]

More done today, made some body posts. In a right pain in the butt to drill a hole in a round rod, but I did it


Po mans body clips


Then I started to make a sheetmetal canopy. Personally I dont like the look, but its a good spot to house my radio and battery and whatnot. I will have the back door on a hinge and magnetic latch thingy. This is my improvised bender, the vice isnt even bolted to the table


And I am this far, the window that is against the cab windo is welded in


Cheers

[epic_username]

Ive been looking at chassis all weekend, and almost none sit like mine do on the truck


And I wasnt happy with it, nowhere to put electrics other than in the bed under the canopy, and that setup would have given me a high CG.
I came up with this, pretty standard shape but I am happy with it. This id just a template, made from a coathanger. My next chassis will most likely be made from solid 1/4 inch round steel stock, Im out of box tube. Due to my lack of knowledge with 4-link geometry I will probably leaf this.


Cheers, gonna see if I can get this new chassis bent and welded tomorrow

[kunas]

what axles are you gonna run MRC, i built a bigbear awhile back i think the bodies are kick ass, i took the easy route and used a l-trail chassis, subscribed to build

[epic_username]

Thanks man, If I can find a set of MRC axles cheap enough I would go that route, otherwise Id be getting the cheapest axles I could find and narrowing them

[kunas]

there was a set of mrc axles in the classifieds a couple of days ago for a decent price

[epic_username]

Ive got 8 posts to go before I can see the classifieds. Kinda sucks, but thems the rules

[bent]

Go with some 1/16th [wheels with cut and shut tires I think everything else will be too large, looking.

[epic_username]

Im visiting my mom untill thursday so Im away from the truck, and bored. So I made a practice leaf spring from a cheap tape measure that decided to crap out.


Its a 3 leaf pack. I like the stifness but these wont be used. I dont know how long the actuals need to be and this recoil stuff is only slightly wider than 1/8th of an inch. But now I know how to make em, kinda.

Also made a bungee cord. My first attempt works but looks a little funny. I will probably add some heat shrink tube on my next ones

[TONKA TOY]

Looks good so far.......... pm sent

[epic_username]

Got it

[2manyprojects]

good start!

[bayareaaxial]

looks pretty slick can't wait to see new chassis.

[ek9808]

cant wait to see this one finished!!

[SwampDawg]

holy crap!
havent seen this rig in many decades when i owned as my 1st RC.

[bayareaaxial]

Any updates?