Recycled Rubicon

[makaveliks]

Things are coming together! I painted the body lines with flat black, and then with satin black painted the door handles, hood latches, wipers, tailgate hinges, window seals, and mirror bases. I also glued in the windows. The front and rear original windows had a bunch of scratches, so I polished them up. There still not perfect, but close enough for a tiny truck! I'm diggin the tinted windows. Nice and realistic, but not too dark to keep you from seeing inside.

[makaveliks]

Heat extraction vents done! NOW it's a 10A hood!

The blueish areas on the drivers side vent are the satin varnish. It's clear when it's dry, but looks this blueish color when it's still wet...

[rdearolf]

This is turning out as a great looking rig

[makaveliks]

Originally Posted by rdearolf

This is turning out as a great looking rig

Thanks! I enjoy looking at it. If you guys do as much you will like this very tiny update. LOL


I got the mirrors made. I made them out of 5 layers of .080" styrene stacked together, then cut and sanded to shape. I then drilled a 1/8 hole in the mirror, and the base on the door. I used 1/8" styrene rod to hold the mirrors. It's glued into the solid styrene mirrors, and just pressed into the nice rather tight mirror base. No glue on the base. I'm hoping that if they hit something, they just fold in and not break. And if they, they'll be easy to remove and replace the 1/8" rod!

I also began closing up the interior around the shock mounts. I'm going to crazy with the interior so it will just be boxed in. I may or not make stuff to put in the back seat and cover this up. I have not yet decided. To ensure I'm making the wells large enough I put the body back onto the frame. In these pics it's sitting as it should when completed! I will finish closing the interior, get it painted, make a driver, then make some inner wheel wells. These will likely be Velcro'ed in. I plan to do this to keep everything easily accesible, and the battery will be installed under the interior behind the back seat so to get it in and out without unscrewing the body, the wheel well will need to come off.

[makaveliks]

I had some more time so I finished closing up the interior and painted it satin black. I'll be doing some flat black here and there, painting details, and then do a flat wash over it to kinda tone down the gloss some more for more of a leather look. It's now a 3 seater! LOL

[clarketian]

I guess you spent most of the money buying handy tools than fancy op parts......fully respect to you for those scratch built parts!!!!!

[makaveliks]

Today I painted the interior and put some flat black stuff here and there. I also drilled the lights buckets, polished the lenses, and stuck them in. I found that even though both my taillights were opposite sides, the chrome inner pieces were both the same! I had to modify one to be opposite. I hope it lines up good and doesn't look funny with the lights on. I still need to make a driver, radiator and inner fenders, but I couldn't resist taking the truck out into some better light!

[Bananaclip]

Pretty amazing transformation. You did a fantastic job

[makaveliks]

Thanks Bannaclip! It's still going though! got a little bit left. After today need driver and inner fenders.

I'm switching work shifts for a couple days so I had some extra time. I was pretty tired so I took it slow, but I still managed to make some progress.

First I made the radiator. I don't have much room so I kept it thin. I used .020" styrene for the backing. Then for the fins I alternated strips of .015" thick styrene cut in widths of .080" and about 3/16" and glued them in. There are 180 strips glued on there... Then I painted it flat black, cut some grooves for the body posts to fit, then glued it in with shoe goo.

Here's the back:




And the front:




And glued in:





After that I didn't feel like casting the driver yet, so I did some wiring. I got all electronics in and tested except for the lights/switch. I'm not putting the lights in till the guy is in the interior because the interior might be a pain in the butt to remove one the lights are wired in. Everything works well. There is about 1/16" between the top of electronics and the hood.

[SteaminPete]

Fantastic. Awesome build. Congratulations on a job very well done

[DrewHammer]

Look terrible as usual.

Please send to Drew's RC Recycling for proper disposal.

DRCR
1000 Crawlin Way
Portland, OR, 97217

I need to muster up the courage to build something that's not square out of styrene.

[makaveliks]

Anyone remember the driver I cast for my FJ with a v-8?




Well he happened again for this Jeep!

[makaveliks]

I got the driver painted and glued in today. 2 more things on my checklist... Inner fenders, wire up the lights.

[makaveliks]

I got all my lights wired up today, made a power extension to get my battery in, and gave it a quick little test run in the living room.





So I still need inner fenders.




And my wall found a weak spot on the front bumper... So I broke down and ordered the RC4WD version that'll require a little modification for my servo winch.

[Mike Flea]

Mak, is your driver made from Sculpey?

[littletoyboy]

Body looks killer man. I love the detail work on the hood. You should be very proud of how this jeep is turning out.

[Jeepfixer1]

Sweet, turned out great and dig the thinking outside the box.

[makaveliks]

Originally Posted by Mike Flea

Mak, is your driver made from Sculpey?

No, I did sculp the original from scultpey, then I made a mold of it, and cast it using 30 min epoxy and chopped fiberglass fibers so it's really light and hollow. I had done this for my FJ with a v-8 and still have the mold so I just cast another hollow fiberglass one for this.

The link below should take you to the page in that thread where I made the original and describe the process a bit better. Post #132 specifically.
FJ with a V8!

[Mike Flea]

Thanks mak, it's all real informative, and helps a lot. I have a large scale railroad layout that I'm building in my back yard, and will need people for it eventually. Buying the figures will be extremely expensive, but if I can sculp a few or make a mold from the ones I already have, I'll save tons of cash using your method.

[makaveliks]

My RC4WD bumper came in the mail. To fit it I had to bend out the mount brackets to fit my wider frame. I also had to cut the slit and drill 2 mount holes for my fairlead. I put some Yeah Racing Tow Shackles on it, because they were cheaper than the RC4WD ones. LOL Bumper is better and looks more like the real one than the one I made. Next I need to put some tow shackles on the rear bumper, then inner fenders.