2009 Chevy Silverado IFS Ext Cab Short Bed

[monkeyracer]

I've been wanting to build this truck for over 2 years now, but it's been hard finding 2 of these bodies in good shape to chop up and glue back together.

Well, now that walmart has these in stock, and I had a little cash burning a hole in my pocket, I bit the bullet and bought 2 of the bigger Silverado bodies. I scoured the local wally worlds, and found only 1 that had any Chevys, so I grabbed both.

The New Bright body is a Regular Cab, short bed, which was only offered by Chevy in the work truck trim with a 119" WB, and is why these things look so funky.
A coworker of mine has been looking at buying a pretty hard to find combo; Extended Cab, Short Bed. This is the extended cab with a 133.9" WB and the 5.75' bed (from the Crew Cab). Chevy offered this from '08 - '10 and only through special order. I wanted to build the truck he wants to buy.

Here's the only pic I could find from a very short google image search of this configuration:



And a photochop of a better res picture:



So, to start off, I took both bodies, marked the cuts, and mocked it up:





So, to compare the 1:10(ish) body with the 1:1 vehicle:



It looks like I've stretched it just a little short, but this was on purpose. The body is pretty close to 1:10 scale, so the wheelbase would have been 13.39" to be exact, but I think that is just way too big for 1.9's, so I only stretched it to 13" (which is still on the long side for 1.9's).

As far as what is going under the body, I am killing my Savvy Avvy build, and using the SCX chassis, IFS set-up from the RS4, flipped solid rear axle and stock trans from the AX10/SCX10 with the WB stretched to 13". Haven't nailed down electronics plans yet though.

Obviously, I have plenty of body work to do, with the hardest part being the roof. Although I may fudge it and make a small roof rack to hide the seam, I will probably use ABS cement, and a little bit of heat gun manipulation. This isn't my first Crew/Ext Cab extension, but these aren't easy either.

I haven't decided on color, but for this one, I am thinking about getting some Chevy "Stealth Grey Metallic" or "Carbon Flash Metallic" from paintscratch.com for an authentic color.

So, then what do I do with the leftover parts from the donor body?



That's a perfectly good front clip and bed... So, how about a more extreme C3 crawler? Tube doors & bed, pinched nose, etc. Stay tuned for that build as well.


As always, questions, comments and suggestions are welcome.

[monkeyracer]

I wanted to know what this body scales out to, so comparing to the 1:1 -

Dimension - 1:1 - Scale Body - Actual Scale
Length - 220.3" - 22" - 1:10
Width - 79.9 - 8.375" - 1:9.54
Wheelbase - 133.9" - 13" - 1:10.3

That makes an average of 1:9.95, so we can just round it up to 1:10 scale.

New Bright lists this body as 1:8 scale, but that would make this way larger than it is. 1:10 makes it nice and easy to figure out the scale of everything.

First thing I have done to the chassis was to start getting the wheelbase worked out. This is what the chassis looked like right after pulling it from the Savvy Avvy:







I flipped the IFS mount so that the RS4 Shock tower is in front of the mount, and moved the front shock towers forward. Next I need to stretch the rear to the final WB, and make new links all around. (Rear upper and lower, front lower, steering and IFS tie rods)

I know the 1:1 uses leaf springs in the rear, but with the long wheelbase and IFS, I figure I'm already at a performance disadvantage, so I'm sticking with coilovers in the rear, but I am going to re-do the shock mounts as you see in the pic above. I am considering lay-down shocks with push rods, or maybe TC shocks.

More to come soon.

[Hoosierdady]

nice start. This should be pretty cool.

[Forresto]

subscribing

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by Hoosierdady

nice start. This should be pretty cool.

Originally Posted by Forresto

subscribing

Thanks! I can't wait to get this thing rolling...


Update:

Got the initial wheelbase mocked up:



Wheelbase is just a little over 13", but will probably be the final WB with a little wheel well trimming to get the tires to tuck better. Width is great too, tires just barely stick out:





Although, I might look into just slightly narrower offset wheels, these (stock axial 1.9 beadlocks with Fubar Crawlers Delrin rings) should work just fine.

So, some people have different methods for joining the pieces of the cab together. Here's how I do it:

Clean-up the cuts and dry fit the pieces together, making sure that you rough up the plastic where you are going to be gluing together.



Then, with everything secured together, dab on some Oatey Brand ABS cement:



Then, using a piece of the door from the donor cab to strengthen the joint, apply some ABS cement to the joint piece and clamp everything together:



Next, add a little ABS cement to the edges of the joint piece and wait for the ABS cement to dry (this can be anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour):



After the cement has dried, you can unclamp it and leave it somewhere overnight to let the cement cure (the MEK in the cement will evaporate and the ABS will harden to it's final state).

Tomorrow, I will finish applying cement to the entire joint on the inside of the body, and finish removing the damn stickers.

On a side note, I am loving all the RC4WD buildoff builds. If I felt I could have finished this by the deadline, and had some cash to get the required 5 pieces of RC4WD gear, I would have loved to enter the buildoff. Alas, I will do my best on this build anyway, and hope to come out with something to be proud of. Stay tuned...

[minisaba]

That looks great, can't wait for future updates.

[indyrado4]

Looks like you're off to a good start! I've been wanting to build this exact truck to replicate my 1:1 2011 z71 ex-cab in victory red... Too bad nobody makes 1.9 general red letters!

[monkeyracer]

Sorry, no real updates, school this week was kicking my butt, and had some other things to take care of.

I did get the stickers and residue off the cab, but haven't finished anything else with the body. The next step is to shave the door handles on the rear door and get the front part of the rear door cemented in. I might have some time tomorrow to work on it, but pictures will definitely be coming.

I have received some PM's about how I did the IFS, and I don't mind sharing the info here as well:

I used the entire front clip from the HPI RS4 Evo 3, with an axial diff and locker from the SCX10. The diff outputs are just sitting in the locker, not secured by anything other than the dog bones.

To add it to the SCX frame, I simply used a short servo mount (one that came with the SCX frame set, see pic below) and screwed it into the SCX frame and the RS4 shock tower. For the lower end of the IFS, I made a skid plate from 1/4" Delrin and made some links to attach to the stock scx skid, but it would be simple enough to just cut the stock RS4 chassis and make some links to secure the lower end. Another method would be to make a skid plate that goes the full length to the SCX skid. This also allows the steering bellcranks to mount securely. (And this counts as a chassis mounted servo for scale points.)

With the shock tower mounted like in the post above, with stock SCX10 rear links, it matches the stock wheelbase pretty closely (11.5" or so I think). So this could be an easy conversion for existing builds.

The short servo mount came from this parts tree (AX80028 ):



The little ones in the top right corner of the picture. You probably already have this part from either an SCX kit/rtr or frame set, if not, the parts tree is pretty cheap, or you can use some other servo mounts or fab a bracket.

Honestly, I don't know why more people don't use the RS4 stuff for IFS conversions with the SCX axles. They end up being exactly the same hex-hex width, and use the same ring and pinion. Only issue is that you have to flip the rear axle to reverse the direction the tires turn (to match the direction the front tires turn.) Although, I am considering a direction reversing transfer case so I can mount the trans further forward above the IFS and to possibly allow an interior later. This would be simply two 32p pinions with the output to the front axle on one pinion, and the input from the trans and output to the rear on the other pinion. This would keep the rear axle in the same orientation as stock.

[Szczerba]

Thanks for the information. What is the hex to hex width on the RS4?

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by Szczerba

Thanks for the information. What is the hex to hex width on the RS4?

I will post pics in a bit of the measurements. At widest point and at ride height vs axial scx10 hex to hex. (Gotta go get the measurements...)

[monkeyracer]

Didn't snap pics, but measurements were the important part:

Hex to Hex:

Rear (stock SCX10) - 7.4375 (7 7/16")
Front at widest - 7.5 (7 1/2")
Front at ride height - 7.375 (7 3/8")

So, plus or minus 1/16" during the suspension cycle.

[XSRCdesign]

Nice! Watching this one, been collecting parts and planning a crew cab version of this for a bit now

Been hunting nitro rs4s for a bit

[benzoel]

Nice like the use of the rs4 for the IFS. Check out frdtrkguy s exo wraiths front outputs could possibly work for you if you have issues with the dog bones and wanna use MIPS. Terra-Wraith now with MIP mod

[ScaleReady]

Originally Posted by monkeyracer

Didn't snap pics, but measurements were the important part:

Hex to Hex:

Rear (stock SCX10) - 7.4375 (7 7/8")(7-7/16")
Front at widest - 7.5 (7 1/2")
Front at ride height - 7.375 (7 3/8")

So, plus or minus 1/16" during the suspension cycle.

This? (red)^^^^^

[jthellfire911]

Can you post more pics of the front end with the ifs setup?

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by monkeyracer

Didn't snap pics, but measurements were the important part:

Hex to Hex:

Rear (stock SCX10) - 7.4375 (7 7/16")
Front at widest - 7.5 (7 1/2")
Front at ride height - 7.375 (7 3/8")

So, plus or minus 1/16" during the suspension cycle.

Originally Posted by ScaleReady

This?

LOL, yup. I got the decimal measurement correct, but not the fractional one. The main point is that the IFS is within 1/16" total width through out the suspension cycle.


As far as the output shafts benzoel linked to: They are definitely beef, but really overkill for this type of build. I highly doubt I will have any issues with the dogbones, but will cross that bridge if I do have any issues.


I will try and post some pics of the IFS from further back in the next update. I want to look at the shocks and mounting position for the front and rear before I post more chassis shots since what is on there is just mock up.

Thanks for the comments guys! Keep them coming. I appreciate the questions and feedback.

[heinie_21]

Going for a stock look or a crawler look?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[heinie_21]

Another question. How do the gear ratios compare between front and rear?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by heinie_21

Going for a stock look or a crawler look?

Another question. How do the gear ratios compare between front and rear?

Going for a slightly modified look. The tires scale up to 42" and there will be a slight lift and a winch, etc. This is probably going to be a Class 1 legal vehicle, but I haven't fully decided on that just yet. As far as tire tuck, I'm good, but when I get to making the front bumper, etc, that will be the deciding point.

The truck I build from the spare body parts will be more of a TTC/G6/Highly Modified look.

The RS4 uses the EXACT same internal gears as the Axial stuff, so in this one, I used the AX10 diff and locker in front and rear. The housing can accommodate any diff you can toss into an Axial housing (Stock 38/13, Overdrive, Underdrive, etc) This is what really initially led me to using the RS4 stuff. Same width, same diff gears. The gears from the RS4 3 Evo+ are actually heavy duty overdrive gears (HPI 86329), and for a LOT less money than Axial's stuff, and in another of my builds, that's what I am using.

[monkeyracer]

I found a post I did in another of my threads (Spare Parts Fun Buggy) that shows the different Ring/Pinion options:

Originally Posted by monkeyracer

I can confirm that all of the following will mount to the same diff:

Stock HPI Pot Metal 38/13 (Wheely King/Nitro RS4 MT) (HPI A855)


Stock HPI Sintered Metal 38/13 (Nitro MT2 3.0/Mini Trophy) (HPI 86324)


Stock HPI Heavy Duty Steel 36/14 (Nitro RS4 Evo 3) (HPI 86329)


Optional HPI Heavy Duty Steel 38/13 (HPI 86336)


Stock Exceed RC/Redcat/HSP/etc 38/13 (02029)


Stock Axial AX10/SCX10/Wraith 38/13 (AX30392)


Optional HD Axial 38/13 (AX30395)


Optional HD Axial Overdrive 36/14 (AX30401)


Optional HD Axial Underdrive 43/13 (AX30402)


The stock axial 38/13 and the wheely king 38/13 are made from pot metal and are the weakest. The HSP/Redcat/Exceed and the MT2 are sintered metal, and are the next weakest, All the rest are Heavy Duty Machined Steel, and the strongest. Depending on what diff case you have, you might need to make modifications. (Example - the AX10 case will not work with the 36/14 HD gear from the Nitro RS4 without grinding the back of the gear for clearance.) You might need a different pinion shaft (example Axial vs HPI; Axial uses a pin while HPI uses flats machined into the shaft) Also, keep the matching pinion with the ring and you should be all set.

I have or had almost all of the above, with the exception of the more expensive optional HD gearsets. Almost all of my go-fast vehicles with this type of diff are running the HPI 86329, with two of them running the Exceed gears (such as this Fun Buggy). My RS4/SCX10 Savvy Avvy (Now the Silverado) and Class 3 Project rampage with GCM Metalhead axles probably use the Axial stock gears, but I've yet to have a problem with them (forgot if I changed those out since it's been so long since putting them together.

Here's a shot of when I was building up my Tommi Makinen Evo IV to show the gears side by side:



On the left is the HPI 86329, and the right is the MT2 gears.

This pic shows the back of the HPI 86329 gear to show what would need to be ground down to fit the AX10 cases.

If you wanted an open diff, the spider gears from any of the above vehicles will work, but any locker made for the axial diff will work as well.