First attempt at styrene, tf2 rebuild trekker conversion

[RotnWays]

So I picked up a tf2 with a well done patina body today and decided to start on a camper shell- do note I’ve never done styrene beyond fuel cells, and some other small accessories so here it goes. here’s the start, just a single speed r3 version, was obtained for 275 rtr with axial electronics, tekin motor, garbage 20kg servo. All to be replaced tomorrow. So while I was in sac picking it up, I snagged a hobbywing 1080 and saw a stand of styrene and was inspired to make this my own didn’t exactly know how or where to start, but I figured the sides were a good place got one cut and fit, and just used as a stencil to transfer next was where I needed to figure out window shape and size, and decided trekker proportions is what I’d shoot for I’m not doing this scientifically so a dremel sanding drum seemed close enough for the rounds, and used the mock up as a transfer next I deemed that adding the lower lip would be the logical next step, based on absolutely nothing. next was to figure out how to do the roof, it was decided that I would use uprights glued into the sides, which I measured with one taped in. don’t mind the dip, it’s merely tacked on these uprights in the corners until I could figure out what to do next. What i thought to do is a cross brace on the front to get that initial topper flat on the front.
You may be thinking to yourself “but Rick, doesn’t a Toyota roof have a low crown?” Yes. Yes it does. Now in sheet metal, that’s the hardest shape to make. With polystyrene I decided to lazy, and opposed to buying a pizza oven, and building a vacuum table and a wooden buck, I’d approach it like i was working with wood and start with a square and sand the shit out of it: enter giant piece of styrene wu tang. now with a filled top and some none atrocious tires and rims. Now I decided to start adding inside bracing and rod where i figured it would break through during shaping
Next I drank a few beers and waited for the plastistruct to cure up some. Then attacked it with a da sander, and started shaping. And this brings me to where I am now dollar dollar bills y’all. This brings me to the end of tonight’s work


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[coffeeaddict17]

nice work! Looking forward to the finished product!

[RotnWays]

Alright so I only had about a half day to work on this today. Here’s what went down. Started my morning with starting to form the top I started by making the rear top round and then added the inside lip. And built the top from three small pieces to fill it out for material to shave back off decided to go with bondo brand filler, generally i never use it because of its hardness and sands like concrete, but that might be a benefit in this situation. all seemed well, so into primer it went just rattle can, shot extra thick for some runs to sand down and revel once in paint. Now that that was drying it was time to address the suspension. The previous owner had the full leaf packs in shackles cranked down and it had about 1/2” of travel before lifting a tire. So i stripped them down to the main leaf and added a second leaf with military wrap did once that was done, the standard chino mod was done. Lowered it about 1/4” and now will actually stuff tires and flex. With that complete, I moved onto spraying the top and sanding and here’s how it came out with that done I moved onto making the steering wheel function. Just a y harness and an aircraft servo under the dash also threw in a savox 1270 and hobbywing 1080 but no pics cause who cares. Next was some lights to get it half ready for night crawls (waiting on my boy manny who owns lit led to hook me up with some rock lights for it when we run rubicon tomorrow) dan out of amber so blue in he front blinkers will have to do for now. With that done I added a license plate reppin my crew. The side glass and the classic Toyota tailgate sticker will have some running pics tomorrow after I’m home from con


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[RotnWays]

Well things didn’t go as planned yesterday at rubicon, truck took a 35ft trip down stream, off a 5ft waterfall and then sunk 5ft. Today everything’s seeming to work besides the servo freaking out which I have pulled the cover and letting it dry out. but moving on, I’m starting the tailgate/trekker trunk so will post up once some progress is made

[B-MOW71]

Truck cap turned out great! It matches well aged Yota perfectly!

Glad to see it survived the white water rafting trip down the river!

[RotnWays]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Truck cap turned out great! It matches well aged Yota perfectly!



Glad to see it survived the white water rafting trip down the river!

I’m shocked it all came back to life after some hair dryer love


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[RotnWays]

So got back to work on it. I started out by taping off the bottom line and making the cut into the tailgate once that was removed I just fill the void with some rectangle styrene stock I shaved to fit with that set in and cured good enough, I filed it all nice and square and made the lower tailgate. a little touch up with some close enough paint and primer that matches the top for the tailgate.
a combination of laziness and lack of better ideas, I just glued in some tabs to be able to install screws with all that done and looking at it. I’m kind of disappointed with the outcome. The outside radius is wrong, the inside window radius is too sharp. Everything fits. It’s just the wrong shape. Torn at this point to just say screw it and run it, or back fill the inside corners and contour it too death. But with that all done I decided to add to the interior, so got my driver some classic video games and a go pro to capture the river rafting, or pesky hoodlums cutting him off, for insurance purposes. but that’s it for now. Generally I work until 11-12 on this stuff but my shame of the cab has driven me to find solace in beer. More to come


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[RotnWays]

I couldn’t stand it. Said screw it and took the DA to the cab. Much happier with shape. Will deal with consequences of paper thinning the styrene in the morning. I might just back the inside corner with jb weld. We’ll see tomorrow
that’s with driver side done and passenger still square

It’s not perfect, but it’s a whole hell of a lot better to what I’m going for


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[Natedog]

Cool build, nice thing about styrene, just glue a little inside the thin corners and good to go! That water incident....lol...glad it was recovered and dried out ok.

[RotnWays]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Cool build, nice thing about styrene, just glue a little inside the thin corners and good to go! That water incident....lol...glad it was recovered and dried out ok.

I’m just going to just add some jb kwik to the suspect areas, yea the water was a very panicked 5minutes. I don’t know if you’ve been to the rubicon but it happened about 1/4 mile from loon lake entrance with the spill way all the way open. It was flowing very fast


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[RotnWays]

Ok, worked a bunch in it today and here’s what got done. started off by cleaning out the bed, and cutting the rear of the cab off this seat frame
Ended up not being used after reviewing some photos I decided best to mount the bench directly to the floor. The bench got made out of a couple buckets I had not used in my samurai build cut down to size and jb welded together. With those curing I tackled the carpet I decided to attempt to make this out of one piece instead of flooring then upholstery on inserts, which would be cleaner. But this is a shit box so guess which route I went. I decided to fill a couple bags of water, brush on e6000 and set the bags onto the fabric to conform (or so I thought) to the interior, didn’t account for the lack of stretch and it has folds. No big deal now is where I decided to class this up a bit, couldn’t just paint the bench that’d be too easy and not tacky enough for this so here’s what got done once that was all dried I just jb welded a 3/16 piece of styrene to the bottom center and cut a small piece of carpet off the bed to let the epoxy adhere too and this is what I was left with with that all handled, I resanded down the top after some paint to recreate the patina I had lost in my reshape last night pretty happy with the outcome. Now need to decide what to do next


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[RotnWays]

So got to take it back out on the rocks yesterday, ripped the tailgate off in the first 1/4 mile so made some amends to its previous pressure fit just a little inside lip, and then a tang on the tail gate
With that addressed I decided to make my half doors look right, instead of just a cut door shell roughly fit, made a paper template of the top corner, and then mud

And then to make it seem like an after thought, with rattle can primer, I sprayed some self etching rattle can primer into its lid, and then into my air brush and shot it with all that complete I decided to put in the window dividers for the trekker shell and my correct color leds showed up so I could get rid of that gross blue and besides some wheel weight and better foams I added that’s where it’s at for now all in all having fun with this truck. And have to admit I kind of dug how it looked with no tailgate yesterday but with all the work I have it in, it’ll stay, for now. Next I’ll be looking into the round headlight grille, actual fender wells and possibly a radiator/ support and tube bumper.


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[RotnWays]

My transfercase crossmember has been bugging aswell after yesterday’s run. Instead of losing sleep I made this up just bent up a piece of aluminum I’ve been using as backing during welds for some 1:1 sheet metal stuff I’ve been working on.
Just free handed it over my iron bench with a hammer. nothing scientifical. but a significant gain over what this truck came to me with. Belly pans make me happy. That’s all for tonight. As a side note so far I’ve stolen driveshaft and servo off my comp rig for this thing- kinda pains me to do it but I don’t have a comp til October so that’s tomorrow’s problem, then a few more tomorrows after that


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[RotnWays]

Little update, the night before Last I decided to throw on some exhaust and ran the truck now the truck did ok, though I felt the tires coul really use some cutting to get the most from them, so I went with a sx style cut before I run it on granite tomorrow for Labor Day fun. this and some wd40 outta get these tires working a lot better. We’ll see tomorrow. More parts coming Tuesday I’m excited to get on it!


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[RotnWays]

So it’s Tuesday and my parts showed up!
I was unsure on if I’d want the +4mm style or standard wheelbase, after some questions and showing the project Bert at A&M garage was kind enough to send me both, charge me for one and let me ship back what I didn’t want to use. Now making this isn’t rocket science, but I value the hour it would’ve taken to make them more then the mere 25 bucks he charges. Plus being steel I can make a nice crossmember and make this even more scale. Now I assumed running the +4 would make the shackle angle less than desirable yep. Not great and the driver is we’re I assumed The furthest I could get the shackle and was right and new spot, more gooder. Looks as if it rubs, but I shaved the shackle and it clears by a frog hair. Never seen a frog hair? It’s cause they’re reallll small. here’s before I moved the shackle, notice the 1/4-3/8 inch left in shock compression?
and only 1/8th with out the body and it does full stuff with weight of body. Huzzah. To make it clear just had to clearance the long side motor mount slightly
really dig the added length. Sits just about like rears up front do on a 1:1 (this photos from before I relocated the shackle mounting area that’s all for now, but really excited to see if I’ll gain any performance on top of the better appearance!—- side note those cut tsls did much much better.


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[durok]

It's this kind of build that really impresses me, as much attention paid as one would to a 1:1 truck restoration...

Incredible work!

[RotnWays]

Originally Posted by durok

It's this kind of build that really impresses me, as much attention paid as one would to a 1:1 truck restoration...

Incredible work!

Thanks! But it’s Mediocre compared to some of the real builds being done lol


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[RotnWays]

Well this update was going to be including a custom bumper but I stuck a drill bit almost all the way to the bone of the knuckle on my index finger during part of this update so that’s gonna wait but here’s what I got done. So since the last post i refreshes my enduro, acquired a Baja Rey and have been giving those a lot of time, so decided to tackle a few things on this guy today. Started off with some nice amber rock lights from my boy Manny, check out his lighting company for the best led bars and lights around followed up by the cause of my current finger situation, I have pics of said finger but I’ll withhold the gore. This is stemming from the parts store not having the belt for my drill press. Small townish living. But I got a cross member drilled and tapped for the spring hangar soon I’ll have cut off the molded bumper, and thrown something a little more crawler oriented together. In the meantime, who knows a right sized radiator available before I end up bugging my buddy with a printer for one?


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[RotnWays]

Small update; still need to get done with the bumpers but first was something that would make my trailing a better time then the looks necessary so I decided to do this those are some replacement 4w/4ohm jbl Bluetooth speakers sold as replacements if you blow ones in the bar. this is a 5v, 5w, stereo output combination amplifier and Bluetooth receiver. just did a simple .080 styrene box and packaged the amp inside. and here’s the finished product all bolted up


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[RotnWays]

After a day of utter frustration trying to diagnose my 1:1, I needed a win so here’s the bumper I did for this build wanted it tight width wise, I’ll sacrifice a little approach for looks but can’t deal with the extra width.


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