One Ten Defender
 

Hello!

I've been lurking for years on rc forums reading and nerding on many great build threads but now its time to step up and share from this fun/adictive hobby. I'v got a TF2, a Wraith and some onroad cars in boxes but the offroad trailing part is the one I like best. In my area there is several good crawling locations so I have had some good miles on the TF2. The Wraith is "too good" for the ordinary trail, you need heavy mountain bike trails to keep it happy.

Anyway winter is coming(boooo) and I felt the need to have a "winter project" staring right now with a Gelande II Defender 110:). I find the very first defenders 1983/84 apealing. The One Ten. To achieve this I need to modify the body to a point where hopefully my skills can stand up to the task. I am by no means av Land Rover expert, I have never sat in one, so any feedback is welcome.

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pspolbmzfj.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pss0eabfc4.jpg

I built it up bone stock but wanted to drop the frame on the axles, make links from there and keep everything as light and low as possible. Rc4wd has made a brilliant job with the Gelande II platform. Its flexible and you can tinker alot with different setups. I borrow parts form the TF2 kit. I wanted a light and low setup so I had to lower the suspension and make new mounts for the transfercase and the gearbox.

Its the first time I am trying anything with metal so there is a lot to learn. Its fun beating to shape the metal. And I dont have too much metal stock But I'll use what I have or what I could find.

Reshufling the stock links I manages to make a setup that seems ok.

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pswvoyfsjw.jpg
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psfzznibur.jpg
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pskod90jj8.jpg
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psatgmj9cd.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psp6krizl2.jpg

The links are moving freely and the flex are good. Im gonna try make spring setup that looks like the real car. I have some proline springs I would like to try.

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psuioduwtl.jpg
After doing the front I did the driveline.
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psewpq2cqe.jpg
I had to modify the bearing holder cross member to rotate it 180 deg to raise the driveshafts. The screw holes did not aligne turned upside down.

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psorvigj0f.jpg

Now it fits.
Next up was the transferbox. Dont think this will stand much abuse but ok for mock up.

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psqtgocbws.jpg

From a flimsy sheet of steel I made a new mount that lines up well with the cross member. At some point I will make a better one
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pssewxjntj.jpg

From the Axial Wraith spare parts I found not used drive shafts. They are threaded so you can use a 10mm set screw to attach the two ends together to make a short universal driveshaft. Red threadlock I hope I never have to open it again. Need to watch those pins falling out.


http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pszyto9xkz.jpg
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psf6eklj9x.jpg
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psyjg89y9k.jpg

There is not much room in the front but I managed to eyeball the gearbox and motor at a slight angle.
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1exmchrw.jpg

The mounts were made from 2mm aluinium plate. You can see them on the righthand(Edit leftha d.oops)side of the picture.
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps11luf78m.jpg
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psq70e8kay.jpg


This is where Im at now. I'm pleased with how it is. It rolls freely and the flex is ok. Looking forward to play around with springs and see how it bounces.
Springs, spring mounts, fine tune links, a few mm her and there, attach servo and electronics. I have a long list of small thinks to do on this projekt, but Im I'm not gonna rush. Cutting that nice 110 body is scary so have to build ,courage for that. This is it for now.

Thanks for looking."thumbsup"

Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

looks good man! I love the d110's cant wait to see how you finish this one.

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Thanks! I hope I finish some day, Its not a strong side of mine. But its certainly fun to tinker with this rig.

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Today I tried to make a siutable servomount. Because the frame rest on the axle truss the original servomount wont fit. I had to make a mounting plate and build the servo up with spacers, with rod end balls the servo cleared the truss. There is a few mm room under the servo.

Here is the og mount hanging on the truss
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psbc0qec4t.jpg

One axial servo mount, spacer and screw
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psskxx98oa.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psngxfbi8x.jpg

Handmade parts.
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psbttgco4l.jpg

Depending on the springs I might lower the servo a few mm.
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pswu1jeges.jpg

Next up is steering drag link and panhard setup. The frame panhard mount is too low and the axle mount is too high, there is no way to attach the seering link. Have to make some more mounts then.

Thanks for looking.

Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

The panhard bar was an easy solution. Made a bracket with tree holes, two corrensponding with the og axle panhard mount and one lower to the link. With a spacer the rod is now almost parallell with the axle when I lift the frame to ca ride hight. Is that a good thing? I dont know.

Need some metal stock to make the spring hangers dont know where to find it but something will show up. With springs and hangers its better to see if the panhard fiix did the trick. Also need a steering link.

Anyways here is the panhard fix
The angle is horrible
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psmwvah4b2.jpg

Fix to link
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psllhp5u3y.jpg

Atach to panhard mount
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psntkdc3kq.jpg

Its better maybe not perfect
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psqpkioupx.jpg




Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Update.

Well the mounting of the springs was a problem. The panhard mount screw holes was in the way for the spring holder.

I hate destroy perfectly good parts but they had to go.

The cut was straight(enough) and there is now room for the spring cup and hopefully a damper. I had to make a new bracket(?) for the panhard bar, I have not forseen the amount of bracket making in this build, and the fix looks not to be a temporary one. Making brakets is fun and booring.

The metal is Iron/Steel, but quite thin. Im no expert but you can bend it with your hands but not break it. Seems to be tough. I use the same for the transfer case and hope it will hold up. What do You think?

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psd4jhlqus.jpg

Had to make exrta spacer and also cut of ca 2 mm of the truss. Every mm counts it seems.

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9mtapx7c.jpg

Now theres room for springs and less binding while flexing.

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pslaip7wq5.jpg

The "spring cup holders" is from the proline scaler shocks, the collar between the small and large spring, and is grounded to fit the axle and attached with a screw, in witch I also will put the damper bracket mount. Hopefully.

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psgptoayrk.jpg

The build is a bit slow at the moment. Waiting for parts, spring chassis mounts form S.D.I. and driveline upgrades, and Im looking forward to that. Once I get the suspension, stance, ride height sorted, I can slowly start thinking about the body, what to do and how, and hopefully try only do it once.

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pswlbrxn7r.jpg


Thanks for looking!

Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Very great ideas so far! I really like what you've accomplished with the link geometry and getting rid of that horrible stock skid plate. I've been wanting to do the same for a while on my D90 and you've given me the courage to do so!

Can't wait to see what you're able to do with the body changes. "thumbsup"

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Thanks! That skid plate is horrible. Glad its gone, hope theres no hidden issues, it has not been driven yet, but it looks ok.


Not much has been done to the truck apart from puting it in a box. Did not take picture. Im moving to a new house and had to take "the shop" down.
This was the last thing I did. Trying to mount the nice spring hangers(?) from S.D.I. They look to be nice 3D-printed parts, but to mount them I have to drill holes in the frame, and for that I have to be focused and concentrated, not running aimlessly around moving boxes.
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psqya5nnx7.jpg


And of course the panhard bar mount got in the way. I should not be a problem fixing this. If I find the "right" type of metal I will make my own.
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psf78ezkxp.jpg


Its booring with only picktures of the chassis work.
Here are some pics of One Ten-ish Land Rovers which is my inpiration for this build. It can still swing different ways though.

The colour on this is nice.
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psjswkowtj.jpg


Nice stance
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psjonjoqd1.jpg


And then its the outragous one.
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pstuhmwqk0.jpg

I am not a fan of too big wheels on scale cars although bigger wheels, better off road. My first plan was to put some 1.55 desert kings under it and it looked the way it should.
Then I borrowed 1.55 growlers from the TF2 and the beefed up the aperance of the truck by miles. I almost like it.

Have a look. This i before I removed the skid plate. The truck has more clarence now.
http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psg44cuox5.jpg

Not sure what to do. Maybe make the truck to suit both setups.

Anyways thats it for now. Thanks for looking.

Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

I had saved that same brown and white defender to the computer for inspiration when I was building my 110. Yours looks very col and I cant wait to see whats next

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Thanks

You have a nice defender. I saw your 110 when I was doing reseach. I love how you did the paint/weathering if mine turns out half as good as yours Id bee a happy man.

I am hopefully gonna square up the windows and leave them white/beige as the roof. Im thinking light goldish brown metallic paint under.


Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Sooo. Moving to a new house disrupts everything. But now I have had a good long think about what to do to the body. I started cutting a hole for the gas cap just to get at feel for cutting with thread. My spirit rose and went on to cut the hood/bonnet and the grill. I wanted to be able to access the motor and electronics without taking the body off. The cuts were really bad and I had to file and glue styrene strips to the cuts to make them look nice. I put styrene in a half empty bottle of plastic weld to make a putty. Its called SameStuff from and I think its the same stuff as tenax of plastruct weld. It works really well although i can be at bit agressive on the plastic. I have read that other people do this and wanted to try. When you are as sloppy as me its a good way to cover up bad cutting. Has anyone got some tips regarding this putty. How thick should it be?

I also used tamiya putty to smoothe out som minor cracks.

Here are some pictures.

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4c7wap8e.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psf0o3t5p6.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2nd9qtqc.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psatvy2pry.jpg

Thanks for looking

Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

The bonnet had to go through the same process with styrene strips and putty to cover up the reckless cutting. From pictures I have seen it looks a bit "fat" so I started to slim it with a dremel.

Taped up the line where I had to remove stuff.

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3lrue6qm.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pstb2q56o9.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pskrq8zkcv.jpg

Now the bonnet is a few mm to long, but im sick and tierd of filing and have to wait to the "urge" hits me again. It will be fine

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pszqyaty6f.jpg

I put an 2mm styrene strip at the back of the bonnet to make it sit flush with the fire wall.
I also removed the fake hinges. I have found other more scale hinges but i have a feeling they might be a bit small. Time will tell.

.

Thanks for looking

Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Another "problem" with the body is a sublte one. I had a feeling the roof was sitting lower at the back than the front so I had to measure and found I was right. It was of by ca 3mm. Tried to ignore this at first but when i started squaring up the windows and gluing in the side rails the problem could not be ignored any more. The side rail at the back did not line up with the side rails under the fron and rear door. They start at the top of the door hinges, but the most rear is fixed a few mm to low. It had to go.

I dreaded the task of thread cutting and the tedious cleanup process after, but the I stumbled over a youtube vid with someone cuttung the roof off a d90 with a hobby knife, and the cuts were straight and clean. I decided to try. It was quite easy. A few cuts with a fresh blade and I was trough. Best of all the cuts were clean and almost ready for some styre strips to level the roof.

Heres the pictures

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pspzd7ab0n.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7ygeudjq.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5zirlp5q.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psbysmbsa0.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...pseywwmu42.jpg

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psqg4exkom.jpg

So here I am with an expensive body cut to pieces for a few mm sake. Now I will try to level the roof by adding styrene strips in the appropriate places. I also cut the rear door. I think it will be easier to glue the two pieces together without the door. Any comments, thoughts, tips and tricks on how to joint the roof with the body are very velcome. I have a plan but its a messy one. Im in deep water here.

Thanks for looking.

Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Just from looking at it I think you might do well to add styrene in a few different places. If my two cents are worth anything you could add some height to the rear passenger doors to bring them up to the same "spec" as the front doors. Then add the styrene strips under the rear windows to raise the body there. In my experience I have had good luck with adding a strip of styrene inside the body to create a sort of channel or back rest. the strip would be a few mm taller than your cut and run the length of the cuts themselves. (hope that makes sense) The patch would be on the inside of the body. you would glue styrene to the lower portion leaving a lip and then glue the upper part to that new lip and patch the small gap that results from raising the body.

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Great work so far!

Nice use of the axial drive youkes. I did the same thing on my Unimog except I made a steel sleeve to hold it all together. Very sturdy and hasn't failed yet.

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Thanks for the input!

Cutting shallow angle styrene styrene strips is hard so i layered 0.5 mm styrene strips to the body so it accends to a level surface. Sorry for my english hope it makes sense. I was thinking as you suggested adding a channel inside but the inside of the body is not even so doing this would have taken alot of work leveling things out. Since Im in a patient mood today I am gluing the roof and the body together in small section ca 5cm at the time .The plastic is flexible so its accually quite easy to make the bonds straight. But it takes time and patience. If the bonds are ok we will see. Sometimes making a short cut makes more work at the end. I hope not.

Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Thanks!

I have made sleeves of electrical tape.:noob: Hope that will hold up.

Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psfwvjgarb.jpg

So is it straight?

Its impossible to see in the picture and to be honest I can barley see the difference on the body infront of me. Because the modifications I made before I cut the roof the windows are not straight anymore and therfore it looks wierd now. When I sand and clean this up it will look better.:hope:

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psi5y0gorr.jpg

I added 3mm of styrene at the back. Now I have to clean this mess up. Im glad this is done:banana:

Happy days

Terje

Re: One Ten Defender
 

Here is the before

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5zirlp5q.jpg

And after

http://i1308.photobucket.com/albums/...psvaiyojlt.jpg

Thanks for looking

Terje