Project true scale - Aluminum Toyota body!

[Frozenroses]

This is one sick build man! I've seen an UAZ build on youtube too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oBPyYz2-LM
But I got to admit, I love your Hilux a lot better!

[Metal Masher]

Originally Posted by irishgunslinger1

its freaking amazing to see the amount of effort a person will put into a project.. i bitch after spending an hour or so installing a dig or rebuilding a trans. i can just imagine how much time you've got wrapped up in this project so far....

amazing work...

Well I'm at a point where i can't quit now and no matter how i try i can't make myself cut corners.

Originally Posted by Big Mike

I must have missed the home made transfer case, this is the first time I've seen it. That looks good.

The grill looks great as well. Only one place that looks like there was a bubble or something. Excellent...

The T-case was actually robbed from my Willy's build. Joe's flatty The revival!

Half way down on page 3. I didn't have time to make another one.

Yah, the grill did turn out well. I'm hoping the next cast will be without bubbles

Originally Posted by REVCO

You, Sir, are a true artisan and make me want to throw my trucks in the trash. Also, I really like your idea for a color, the damage will show up really well against it. Looking forward to the next bit of progress as always!

Don't say that! us it as motivation to do something different. I'm anxious to get the color on myself. I might even do some ghost flames just for fun

Originally Posted by madhatter

I can not wait to see this rig done and running around.

As for the shocks, you can throw touring car shafts in them and cut the body down to match.
Heres mine on my yj

I like that idea for shortening the shocks and might try that later

Originally Posted by Peter of A.

Damn, this rig keep improving every time I check your thread ! That's insane !
btw, nice rounded Flatiron

Thanks! that Flatiron is Peter of A's, not mine. but it does look neat doesn't it?

Originally Posted by blukon98

Wow you've made some good progress over the last few days! What's left? Lights, electronics, mirrors, interior, tailgate and paint? Lol, id say your almost done! Ive been making a floor pan for my blazer out of a for sale sign that I found at walmart. It's nowhere near the same as this but it took a few days to get it all together. It'd take me years to make something like this...

Well a little more than that. I have to make molds for the top of the rad support, door window channels, inner shin to the tailgate, under hood supports and one more inner support for the back of the cab, then it's hood and tailgate hinges and latches, rear bumper, dashboard, interior components, fake 22r motor, lights, and all the under hood details. so yah there is a bunch more to do.

Good idea on the floor pan and it did take me years to do this, 2 to be precise

Originally Posted by Crawln Coles

Man I always thought that you were crazy for making these bodies, and this one is even more insane! I just hope that I'm around when it gets beat on.

You gonna be at Sam Lewis this weekend? I might be there.

Sorry i didn't see this sooner. I was at the scale comp this past weekend but didn't run the truck. Our last scale comp is the 7th of November. It WILL be in that one so you should try and make it down.

Originally Posted by Jslick

Hope you bring it to the comp on sunday, would love to see it in person.

It was pretty neat huh?

Originally Posted by bent

Man Ive seen this every step of the way and I still get blown away with what you can do. We need to wart the magazine company and make them print a full article on this when its done. Simply amazing.

I guess you mean WARN the magaine? LOL! seriously, let me get it done first, then I'll worry about getting into a mag

Originally Posted by Frozenroses

This is one sick build man! I've seen an UAZ build on youtube too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oBPyYz2-LM
But I got to admit, I love your Hilux a lot better!

That guy is amazing! I saw his stuff a while ago. He does his differently though. Each panel is hand formed out of steel and soldered or brazed together. he uses no molds like i do. He is a true craftsman!


I have some more progress

The next thing i wanted to finish was the anti-wrap bar for the rear. Looking at real trucks i decided to make an A style bar and shackle set-up. So i started by cutting down an old TLT mount for the shackle



Then i made a mount to go to the axle



next was the rod. I only had the steel tubing to work with but the inside diameter was to large to tap for 4-40 so i pimprivised and placed a nut in the end



and welded it in place



Just like a bung on real tie rods

Next it was just a matter of cutting and welding the rod in place



Later it will get brazed for a cleaner look

Then i assembled it all to the axle mount



then mounted it to the chassis with the shackle hanging down attached to the crossmember with some scrap pieces of tubing. (yes i know the shackle should be up but it fit better this way and seems to work fine)





then i needed a battery mount so i took the top of an old VCR case and bent up a "gas tank" skid plate and screwed it to the frame rails after drilling and tapping some holes





Hides the LiPo pretty well

and one last thing i did was to glue the nuts to the inner fender and put on the new button head screws



including one on the bottom



and just for fun i snapped some pics of the mostly complete cab off the chassis ENJOY!

[team3six]

|The great thing about this is I have said many times to you. Is your amazing detail is superb. But the bad thing is there is no freaking way i would ever drive this as it will be done in a second and a waste of your time and talent.

Have you ever considered maybe throwing injected mold plastic within the body panels to give it more strength?

[shadowrejects]

Nice work so far~!

[skinner]

this build is freaking awesome

[bent]

I never said right now. Just we need to get this published, when it is done of course. Hell they may do it right now like the hot rod mags do, a 2 part story you know.

[Code454]

Originally Posted by team3six

|The great thing about this is I have said many times to you. Is your amazing detail is superb. But the bad thing is there is no freaking way i would ever drive this as it will be done in a second and a waste of your time and talent.

Have you ever considered maybe throwing injected mold plastic within the body panels to give it more strength?

thats actually a great idea Norm, i would never wheel this thing unless iu had two and the other one wasnt so perfect

[cbr6fs]

Absolutely fantastic build, i've never seen anything like it.

I wish i had half your skills and patience





Cheers
Mark

[rockpayne]

Amazing, I just sat down and read through all 23 pages and all I can say is wow. I have one of the aluminum bodies a friend got for me and the detail is so impressive I have been staring at it for months now waiting and gathering ideas for a build. I have now seen the master at work and I am ready to build, but I am still wanting a sturdy and stylish exo-cage around it because I drive my scalers hard and leave em wet Awesome build, I am going to watch this build till the end for sure, love the bumper too, simple and cool looking.

[rockhopperz]

simply stunning....AND it gives me motivation, ambition and makes me cry

Im confused

[T I N Y]

Hey masher..Not to say your shocks don't look good because they do but if you would like a more realistic look other then the big black ends and the tiny shaft. Check out these shocks I made for one of my builds.

My take on a scale shock..And how to build them.

[runout_mick]

Originally Posted by rerock

I wish I hadn't found this thread until after the truck was finished. Now I'm gonna have to anxiously await every post...

UPDATES???

Agreed. When I saw the date the thread was started, I figured it would have been driven and trashed by now. I had no idea the level of detail he was going to put into this thing.

If you'd put the same focus and drive towards curing world hunger, everyone on the planet would be fat by now.

I read the thread from start to finish, and was mesmerized the whole time.

Awesome.

[jaydubya2003]

So I am brand new here...I've owned a few RC vehicles but never got into the scale thing until recently seeing a few at my local hobby shop and got hooked.

I have to say I just spent the last 2 hours going through your build thread from start to it's current post...amazing work sir. I mean just unbelievable!!!

I have never seen anything like this before...and I can not wait to see the next part of detail you add to this already incredible build, your level of craftsmanship is unmatched. (went and checked out another build of yours as well...lol)

[grant00]

WOW is all I can say....

I just read this from beginning to end. just AWESOME.

Keep up the spectacular work. this thing is awesome :superbigdoublethumb:

[Metal Masher]

Originally Posted by team3six

|The great thing about this is I have said many times to you. Is your amazing detail is superb. But the bad thing is there is no freaking way i would ever drive this as it will be done in a second and a waste of your time and talent.

Have you ever considered maybe throwing injected mold plastic within the body panels to give it more strength?

Thanks for the kind words but i need to disagree with you. the truck would not get trashed in a second. in fact I would bet that i'll get many months out of this body even if driven hard but sensible. additionally NOT using the truck would be a waste of my time and talent. It's the whole purpose for making it.

And no offense but I'm tired of people telling me i need to reinforce the body. you will see that not only will it detract severely from the scale realism I'm trying to achieve but it will also not be necessary.

Originally Posted by bent

I never said right now. Just we need to get this published, when it is done of course. Hell they may do it right now like the hot rod mags do, a 2 part story you know.

Now that would be neat. although at this rate the second part would be months away from the first LOL!

Originally Posted by Code454

thats actually a great idea Norm, i would never wheel this thing unless iu had two and the other one wasnt so perfect

Well this one is far from perfect and is really my test mule. I've been tweaking things such as the molds and my forming processes as i go so the next couple should be really nice. I need to wheel it to find it's faults and correct them.

Originally Posted by rockpayne

Amazing, I just sat down and read through all 23 pages and all I can say is wow. I have one of the aluminum bodies a friend got for me and the detail is so impressive I have been staring at it for months now waiting and gathering ideas for a build. I have now seen the master at work and I am ready to build, but I am still wanting a sturdy and stylish exo-cage around it because I drive my scalers hard and leave em wet Awesome build, I am going to watch this build till the end for sure, love the bumper too, simple and cool looking.

I commend you for reading the whole thing! and thanks for the bumper comment. I wanted it to be simple and clean.

Unfortunately the body you have is not one of mine but it is nice to see someone else interested in them. If you are worried about trashing the one you have since it has no support to it, i would defiantly put an exo cage around it.

Originally Posted by rockhopperz

simply stunning....AND it gives me motivation, ambition and makes me cry

Im confused

LOL! I'm glad to inflect so many emotions all at once! Use the motivation and make one yourself. I want to see more people making metal bodies.

Originally Posted by T I N Y

Hey masher..Not to say your shocks don't look good because they do but if you would like a more realistic look other then the big black ends and the tiny shaft. Check out these shocks I made for one of my builds.

My take on a scale shock..And how to build them.

Nice idea. I may try that on another build

Originally Posted by runout_mick

Agreed. When I saw the date the thread was started, I figured it would have been driven and trashed by now. I had no idea the level of detail he was going to put into this thing.

If you'd put the same focus and drive towards curing world hunger, everyone on the planet would be fat by now.

I read the thread from start to finish, and was mesmerized the whole time.

Awesome.

Well with raising a family and working full time it's hard to keep progress up. It doesn't help that I'm anal retentive and OCD!

If i was smart enough to do that i probably would but it seems I'm stuck with making crazy detailed RC cars LOL!!!

Originally Posted by jaydubya2003

So I am brand new here...I've owned a few RC vehicles but never got into the scale thing until recently seeing a few at my local hobby shop and got hooked.

I have to say I just spent the last 2 hours going through your build thread from start to it's current post...amazing work sir. I mean just unbelievable!!!

I have never seen anything like this before...and I can not wait to see the next part of detail you add to this already incredible build, your level of craftsmanship is unmatched. (went and checked out another build of yours as well...lol)

Thanks for dedicating the time to read the whole thread! I hope it inspires you to create something different.

Well it's been a long time but i do have progress to show for it.

After thinking about it for a while i decided it needed a rear bumper, and in the spirit of the budget build I wanted to make it look as if someone cut some simple steel plates and ran a piece of pipe through them



Then i stripped the whole truck down, brazed all the joints, blasted it then painted it, then painted the axles and the loose parts and re-assembled it









If you notice i added U bolts to the front axle. To do this i had to make them and after searching off and on for years finally found the right size rod to tap for 4-40, and completely by accident none the less. It happens to be coat hanger wire

First i cut it to size



tapped it



then bent it around a socket the same size as the axle tube





Worked really good





The next project was the support for under the hood

I started with the original plaster mold and using clay, made the shapes of the front and rear supports



then cast them in latex and resin



and ran some test parts



seem to fit pretty good



then i placed the test pieces over the clay on the first mold and using more clay shaped the cross supports



made the molds



More test pieces



and the final test fit in the hood



Worked out much better then expected.

Next i'll add threaded inserts for the hinges and the bar in the front for the hood latch.

It may not seem like much but the supports alone took almost 11 hours to make.

[BigBaller]

...all I got.

[bent]

I just dont know what to say this time!?



Keep up the great work man!

[jaymann]

I need duct tape my head is leaking.....BUT it's so worth it unbelievable It's a masterpiece of craftmanship.To anyone who says it's just a toyyou have no clue

[team3six]

Originally Posted by Metal Masher

Thanks for the kind words but i need to disagree with you. the truck would not get trashed in a second. in fact I would bet that i'll get many months out of this body even if driven hard but sensible. additionally NOT using the truck would be a waste of my time and talent. It's the whole purpose for making it.

And no offense but I'm tired of people telling me i need to reinforce the body. you will see that not only will it detract severely from the scale realism I'm trying to achieve but it will also not be necessary.

Well sorry metal masher if I offended you. I didn't mean to get under your skin with my comments. I was just simply stating that with the work you have involved in it, Maybe using injected molded plastic within the body shell or even a foam substitute may help in causing less damage and give it more realistic dents since the material is so thin. Just like real trucks also have other means of support besides bracing.

For now on I will just watch and enjoy the craftsmanship and keep my comments to myself.

[Metal Masher]

Originally Posted by team3six

Well sorry metal masher if I offended you. I didn't mean to get under your skin with my comments. I was just simply stating that with the work you have involved in it, Maybe using injected molded plastic within the body shell or even a foam substitute may help in causing less damage and give it more realistic dents since the material is so thin. Just like real trucks also have other means of support besides bracing.

For now on I will just watch and enjoy the craftsmanship and keep my comments to myself.

Oh, i took no offense and you're not getting under my skin, i was just giving my opinion on the comment. Please comment all you want, i appreciate all off it even if i may not agree with it. It's all constructive discussion.

Now my opinion on you're last comment, I feel that i will achieve the most realistic dents the way it is. You say real trucks have more then the supports i have in mine? I've never seen a 79 Toyota with hard plastic or foam inside the doors and B pillars.

And the material is not as thin as you think. It's not household aluminum foil. it's much thicker than that and every bend adds strength.

Be patient and see how it holds up to abuse when i'm done. I believe you will be surprised.