Clod FLatty/Truggy build

[Prime]

This is my first post on this forum in over a year, circumstances beyond my control kept me away and I doubt anyone remembers me, but I am back. ;) In the time I was gone I never picked up a controller but when I went to get my old 2.2 rig out of storage I found that both front leafs had snapped while it set on the shelf in the storage room. They were plastic Diaz leafs and the truck was to heavy for them anyways so I am not surprised. I never was happy with the truck, it ran and drove good, but the look of the rig was off. So instead of replacing the leafs I decided to strip it and build a new rig from the parts.

Here is my old 2.2 that donated the tlt axles, R2 tranny, shocks, and electronics.



For this one I am going with a Clod body for two reasons. Reason one is because I have a soft spot for square body Chevys and reason two is because I already have the body. lol I bought this one years ago and used it as a shelf body for my Ripper clod. I stripped the old paint off of it and now it will leave it's easy life behind and live a new life on the rugged trail. Body mods will be cutting the cab from the bed, cut down doors, full interior, and a cowl hood to cover up the hole where the Parma hemi used to poke through.



The chaisse is home made from brake line. Plans are for a wheel base to represent a lwb Chevy, full interior cage, flatbed with a tool box/battery box. It will have a three link front and rear with tlt shocks. It has been quite some time since I have done any brazing, but it is coming back to me. Here is what I have done so far.




I have my rims and the rest of my tires ordered and they should be here by the middle of the week. Hopefully I'll get the chaisse finished up today, then start on mounting the axles and tranny. Thanks for looking, I will be updating this thread regularly.

[crunky]

welcome back, im a noob so you dont know me.

i know what you mean about the old shoe box body lines.
great choice, and cant wait to see more pics.

[Prime]

Thanks Crunky.

More work done.

I got the clod body cut in half and put the tailgate up for my wifes upcoming square body blazer project. The cab cage is finished, I added the door bars and some windshield braces, as well as some braces that run under the front fenders that will house the front hidden body mounts. I also got the basic shape of the flat bed laid out. Hopefully tomorrow I will get the bed finished out and get the tranny mounts built.

Enough of my rambling, here are the pics of todays progress.

The cage work so far.




The body sitting on the cage.



Thanks for looking.
Prime

[justinart24]

Looking good, keep it up!

[andrwplsn]

looks way sweet.

[Crawln Coles]

Looks good so far. Do you know what wheel/tire combo you're gonna run?

[Prime]

Thanks guys

Crawln Coles: The wheel/tire combo will be pretty mild, I am going to run HPI black stock car wheels with Hummer tires. The reason being I can only spend up to $65 dollars on this build and I already had four of the hummer tires. Why only $65 dollars? I have a gentlemen's bet going on that I could build a detailed and capable trail rig for $65 or less. I am aloud to use anything I already have, trade for stuff, or even have stuff given to me, but I can not spend more than $65 out of my own pocket. After I win (or lose) the bet I may buy some better tires and a set of bead locks. Unless I end up really liking these ones, I do like the way the hummers look though.

For progress I got the bed braces added, also added a rail around the top of it, and got the tranny mount/skid plate mounted up. On the bed I was going to make some down tubes to go from the roll bar down to the back of the flat bed, but I am not sure if I will or not. I do still need to add the "x" brace to the roll bar behind the cab as well.




The tranny mount was a pain. I tried to make it too fancy out of some crazy tube work and it just was not working out for me. So went with the old reliable flat tranny mount/skid plate. It is made from a Dell server rack mount. I think it'll work pretty well, it is stiff and the ends are rolled so it should slide easily if need be.




Well that's it for now. Next up will be to attach some link mounts and make up my links.
Thanks for looking. Any feed back is appreciated.

[Prime]

Well there has been a change. I messed around with the three link set up and got the back finished and then I took it all out and started over. I decided to go ahead and make it a leafer like I started to. Problem is that I only have two leafs and they are plastic. I started to order a set from RC4WD but the $30 for them would have put me over my limit so I started thinking. I remembered reading once about some one making their own springs and decided to give it a go.

Turns out it is easier than I thought it would be. It took me about 15 minutes to turn out a prototype and the two rear springs. I am rather happy with them and I think they will be stiff enough, if not I will just make and add another leaf.


For the shackles in the rear, they are made from chain links. Here they are loosely mocked up.


And my rims came in. HPI Stock Car Rims with Tamiya Hummer tires.


Thanks for looking and stay tuned, more to come.

[GH Racing]

looking good
can't wait to see it finished

[Prime]

An update, it is now sitting on all four wheels!!!
I got all four leafs finished and mounted up. The fronts are shorter than the rears and as a result stiffer, but seem like they maybe about perfect. The rears will probably turn out to be too soft once the whole truck is assembled so I will go ahead and make a extra leaf for them, just in case I need it.

Here are some pics of the current progress.




The mandatory flexing shot. Not great, but not too bad considering there is still a lot of weight to be added and the leafs are not broke in yet.



Now for an opinion question. I plan to cut down the doors, but I am not sure how far I am going to go with it. These are the three styles I am considering, which do you all think will look the best, the red, blue, or pink line?



Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more.

[dmercier82]

i wouldnt cut the doors at all, but thats just my opinion. the rest of it is lookin good.

[Code454]

if you are gonig to cut them down to half size doors go with the pink

[disturbed n wv]

Truggys are the stuff! You gotta cut the doors to match the rest of the truck. I would go with the red line, the angle isn't as steep and it's deeper down on the door. Just my 2 cents I threw in. :-P

[Prime]

Thank you for the feedback guys. The main reason I want to cut down the doors is that I have just always liked that look on the 1:1 rigs I have seen it on. If I do cut the doors I will more than likely go with the pink line. If I cut them down they will be finished out and not just left chopped.

I got a sweet gift yesterday. I came home from work and my wife said that she had got me a present. She handed me a box from the crawler store, this was inside,


I had said I would like to have one, but to keep the cost of this build down I was going to build a styrene winch and feed my winch servo through it. I also got a driver for the truck and he came with a daughter so I have decided to use them both (I forgot to get picture of the driver and his co pilot though).

I was going to start on the shock mounts last night, but since I now had a winch I decided to build the front bumper instead. I just went with a twin tube bumper with a small stinger that has a winch hook loop in it. I will put the filler plate under the grill, it is just not on the truck in these pics because I need to trim it a bit to clear the bumper mounts.
The winch is not mounted in any of these pics, it is just sitting on the mounting plate.







Thanks for looking.
-PRIME-

[LIKES2CRAWL]

If your gonna cut the doors I say go as deep as the pink, follow the blue in the backside of the door and the red in the front side.

[bigdodge88]

Looking good so far. The only thing I would change would be the tires though.

[aftershock1]

Looks good keep it up but please don't cut the doors i know thats how truggys are but i think you should leave it

[j_dub]

man you got some time put in on all that tube work, good job.

[Prime]

Hmmmm seems to be quite a few against the cutting of the doors. It will be one of the last things I do to the body prior to paint, so I will consider not cutting them down, but I am not sure if I will leave them or not.

Originally Posted by bigdodge88

Looking good so far. The only thing I would change would be the tires though.

I would love to have some better tires, but if I bought them it would put me over my limit and make me lose my bet.:-( Now if some one has some tires they want to donate......jk lol

Originally Posted by j_dub

man you got some time put in on all that tube work, good job.

Thanks. I do have some time in it but sadly the time I have to work on it is always late in the night after my little girl goes to sleep for the night.


Update: I got some more done last night. I got the roof rack/light bar finished. I still need to make some mounting studs for it, but that it. I made it with a light bar that will let me mount the stock clod buster lights to it. This is the first roof rack I have ever made and I really need to tip my hat to you guys that make these regularly, these things are a pain to make. In the pics the bar in the back corner is a little tweaked but I have fixed that now. At the time I took the pics I didn't realize it was tweaked. Enough rambling, now on to the pics.






Thanks for looking.
Prime

[andrwplsn]

i think its sweet you have a bet going. quite funny.